Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the book of Revelation. This will be study #7 of chapter 1, and we are still reading in Revelation 1, verse 1. Let me read this again:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

Now in tonight's study we are going to be looking at the last part of verse 1:

...and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

That is, God "sent and signified it by his angel..." And, we want to look at, to begin with, this word "signified." What does God mean by using this word? What could "signified by his angel" be pointing to or teaching us?

We are helped when we look at the Greek word itself, of course. That is how God designed His word to be studied, in order to come to the knowledge of truth. We are to check out the words and to compare words - the same word - as it is used in other places.

This word "signified," and I will pronounce it as "semaino," and it is Strong's #4592. It is a related word to the Greek word for "sign," or "semeion," which is Strong's #4591, the very next number in the concordance, and the Greek word for "sign," "semeion," is used often in the New Testament. For instance, we read in Matthew, chapter 12 (and this account can be found in at least three of the Gospels, where the Lord Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and scribes), and it says in Matthew 12, verse 38:

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Four times in verses 38 and 39, the Greek word "semeion" was used, and this account is found in Mark and Luke and, again, the word "semeion" is used multiple times in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ's response to the scribes and the Pharisees in answering their desire to see a sign. And what does Jesus say? "And there shall no sign be given to it," that is, to the "evil and adulterous generation," except "the sign of the prophet Jonas," the prophet Jonah.

Now what is God telling us by this? Well, we know one thing for sure, that He is indicating that there will be no sign in the Heavens, no sign in the clouds or in the sky, no outward visible sign will be given to men in order to prove truths of the Bible. But the one "sign" that Jesus allows for is the "sign of the prophet Jonah." We have to think about this and wonder, "Why? Why that particular "sign?" And what is the "sign" of the prophet Jonah?

Well, as Christ says in verse 40, "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." That is the "sign" that Jesus wants the Jews of His day to know, the "sign" of the prophet Jonah in the whale's belly.

Could the Jews have known about Jonah? Could they have known about his ordeal for three days and three nights in the whale's belly, apart from the written word of God? And the answer to that question is, "No!" What happened to Jonah happened hundreds of years earlier. God used it and orchestrated all the events, and He was key in rescuing Jonah by the whale; it was God's plan to have the whale vomit out Jonah at exactly the place he needed to be, Ninevah, to warn the people of an impending destruction.

And all of these things were recorded by God, as He moved some prophet or scribe of old to write these things down in the Bible, so we have a record of them. That means the "sign" of the prophet Jonah is a "sign" that can only be found in the Bible, in the word of God! You cannot find the "sign of Jonah" out in the world anywhere. You are not going to see anything outwardly, outside of the Scriptures, and that is the point that Christ is making, that no "sign" will be given an "evil and adulterous generation" except the "sign of Jonah," which can be found in the Bible.

That is, God allows for "signs" in the word of God ONLY, once the Bible was completed. God permits "signs" to be searched for and discovered in the written word, in the Bible, and nowhere else. Now we can see this, also, when we turn to a couple other passages. Let us go to Mark 16 and we will start reading in verse 14, where it says:

Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

I will stop reading there. Now, once again, we have the word "semeion," or "signs" in verse 17. Jesus is declaring "these signs shall follow them that believe," and then He lists some amazing things, such as casting out devils, speaking with new tongues, taking up serpents, drinking deadly things like poison, and laying hands on the sick and they are recovering. We do know that down through history, and even in our present day, there are people who are looking for these outward "signs" as evidence of true believers, as evidence of those that follow Christ. After all, is that not what Jesus said? "And these signs shall follow them that believe."

So, naturally, we have people who are drawn to the tongues movement; they are speaking in tongues, and that is one of the "signs" of a true believer, is it not? Or, we have people who are drawn to faith healing, because in faith healing they lay hands on the sick and they recover, and is that not one of the "signs" that Christ said would follow them that believe?

And there are even others that take it to a much more dangerous point, and they think you can handle serpents. Every now and then we read of someone who is involved in this kind of a church, and they are killed by a serpent bite because they believed that they could handle serpents, as the Bible says. You know, thankfully, we do not hear of too many people drinking strychnine in order to say that they are following this passage, and may no one ever do such a thing, because you will surely die! And if you pick up a dangerous viper, a serpent, a poisonous snake, and he bites you, you could certainly die! That is NOT what Christ had in mind.

Now the same mistake is being made by people who read this passage, as Jesus was addressing (when He spoke to the scribes and Pharisees), "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign;" that is, something in the physical realm, the physical world: something you can see with your eyes or feel, and something your senses can pick up. No, no such "sign" will be given it. We know for certain that any church or group that follows after these "signs" that Christ mentions in the Gospel of Mark here in chapter 16, they are following another kind of a gospel, because they have fallen into the snare of seeking something outwardly.

Well, what is it then? How can we understand this? Well, exactly as Jesus said, "no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas," the "sign" which only can be found in the Bible.

Likewise, with "these signs shall follow them that believe," it is when we study the Bible, and we compare spiritual things with spiritual, when we do our homework and we look up what it means when God is teaching by 'casting out devils," that we find that this has to with salvation! It is a type and figure of an individual when he becomes saved: it is as though the devil is cast out.

"And they shall speak with new tongues," and that also relates to salvation! We begin to learn the language of the Kingdom of Heaven when we pick up the language of the Bible - we learn God's language, and so on. "When they take up serpents" is a picture that God uses to typify Satan and his kingdom, and God speaks of this when the Gospel went forth, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, the Lord indicates they will "tread upon serpents." It is another figure of speech.

And of "laying hands on the sick and they recover," God has in view a sin-sick soul! When the Gospel would reach the ears of a sin-sick sinner, if they happened to be one of God's Elect, then the hand of God, as He utilized an individual and as He moved within someone to bring that Gospel, would be applied to the soul and they would recover from their sin-sickness, as God granted them a new heart and a new spirit.

All of these things are in evidence, spiritually, in the life of a true child of God, in the life of God's people. But they can only be discerned and understood spiritually, as one turns to the Bible, and, therefore, Jesus is saying the very same thing that we read in Matthew 12, to the scribes and Pharisees. You must turn to the Bible to see the "signs" that He is speaking of here. If you take it literally and look outwardly for some visible, earthly "sign," you will be deceived and you will be led greatly astray! But if you turn to the Bible, you can properly "see" the sign!

Now let us also go to Matthew 24, it says in verse 29 and 30:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Now let us turn over to Luke 21, which is a parallel chapter, and this will be a parallel passage in Luke 21, verse 25:

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

God is indicating there will be "signs" in the sun. Now Matthew 24:29 said, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened," and there God did not mention "signs" until we got to the next verse, and then He did state, "And then shall appear the sign of the Son..." Now what have we been learning? We have been learning that if we are looking outwardly, if we are looking for something with our physical eyes, we can expect to be wrong! We can expect, if anyone follows that idea, they are entering into a spiritually dangerous area.

When Christ speaks of "signs," after the Bible was completed, He only has one place in mind. There is only one place that can be turned to in order to properly find a legitimate "sign" from God, and that is in the word of God, the Bible!

So, as we read this word "semeion" in connection with the days "immediately after the tribulation," "the sign of the Son of man in Heaven," we can be sure that God is directing us to the Bible, that is, in order for us to understand what He is saying, and the events that will take place after the Tribulation. And we are interesting very much in that because that is precisely where we are in time - we are living in "those days after that tribulation." In order for us to properly understand these things, we must turn to the Bible to understand the "sign" of the Son of man, and to understand the "signs" in the sun and the moon and the stars.

When God tells us this, and He states that there will "signs" in the sun, then we can conclude that this means that it cannot be literal in any sense or form. We can absolutely know that, because a "sign" is not the reality of anything, but it is that which points to the reality. And since there are "signs" in the sun, this means we are to turn to the Bible to see what we can learn (following God's methodology of comparing 'spiritual with spiritual,' "here a little, there a little"), in order to discover what a darkened sun might mean, and a darkened moon, and the falling of the stars.

When we do, we see that Psalm 84:11 tells us that "the Lord God is a sun and shield." God identifies with the brilliant, shining light of the sun! And the moon is used in the bible to represent the law of God; it is that which reflects the light of the sun, and the law of God, the word of God the Bible, reflects the glorious light of Eternal God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The moon's light, the sun's light will be darkened, and we get that understanding from the Bible that comes as the "sign" that God would have us to see, that we can rightly look toward. We cannot look at anything physical, but only in the Bible.

Now in our verse in Revelation 1, and let me read the last part of that again:

...and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John...

Let us keep in mind what is being "signified," in the beginning of the verse:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

In other words, God is "signifying" the revelation of Jesus Christ, the "things which must shortly come to pass," to John "by his angel." And this word "signified" is a very closely related word to "sign." That is, that the writing down of the visions that God gave to the Apostle John and that are recorded in the book of Revelation (and this would apply to all Scriptures, the whole Bible), the writings that God moved these holy men to write, to record divine revelation, are "signifying" the reality of what God is declaring.

That is, the Bible is basically a "sign." It is the written word of God, and in this written word God is "signifying" or giving us "signs" to indicate the things which He will bring about, and in the case of of the book of Revelation, that will shortly come to pass, as it is in our expectation. We expect things to quickly and to shortly come to pass.

Let us see this word "signified" as it is used in Acts, chapter 25, and this is Festus who is speaking to King Agrippa, because he has a prisoner named Paul, and Festus, the Governor, does not know exactly what to charge Paul with; all he knows is that he must send Paul to Rome because Paul has pleaded that his case be heard in front of Caesar. So it says in Acts 25, verse 26:

Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to write. For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.

The word "signify" is the same Greek word translated in Revelation 1:1 as "signified." Notice here that Festus wanted something to "write." He wanted to record a written word, the charges against Paul, to send along with him to Rome when he would appear before Caesar, and this is identified as "to signify the crimes laid against him." The written word would be the "sign" or the "signifying" of Paul's (supposed) crimes. That is what God is saying in the way He is using this word in Revelation 1:1, that "he sent and signified it," that is, "the Revelation of Jesus Christ," is being 'signified' "by his angel unto his servant John."

So keep that in mind when you are reading the Bible! You are reading things that are "signifying" absolute truth; they are "signs," really, of the reality behind the "sign." So, as we read Revelation, and we read of a beast that rises up out of the sea, or Satan's loosing, or the Great Multitude standing in white robes, and on and on, these things are the written record of the visions that God gave to His servant John to "signify" the realities that lie behind them.

That is, the beast is not literal, but it teaches us of Satan's assault during the time of Great Tribulation. And the Great Multitude clothed in white robes are not literally clothed in white robes and waving palms, but they represent God's salvation of a great number, tens upon tens, scores of millions, that He did save during the time period of the Great Tribulation, and so on.

So, as we read the Bible, there we look for the "sign" and nowhere else! God does not permit us to look anywhere outside of the Bible in order to find the "sign." So that is where our study and our focus must be, always, upon the written word of God!