Surfless City, Here We Come! (Revelation 21:1-8)

Some of you ladies may remember playing the board game, Mystery Date.

The object of the game is to be ready for a date by acquiring three matching color-coded cards to assemble an appropriate outfit.

Your outfit must match the outfit of the date at the “mystery door.”  The date is revealed by spinning the door handle and opening the plastic door on the game board.

The five possible dates are: 1) The formal dance date, 2) The bowling date, 3) The beach date, 4) The skiing date, and 5) The dud date.

You lost if you opened the door to the dud, more commonly known as the “bum.”

The Revelation removes all mystery from the “date” Who awaits when the door opens for us to eternity.

The Lord, Jesus Christ, is our heavenly Bridegroom.  He is robed in righteousness and has granted us robes of righteousness which we can further adorn as our wedding gowns as we walk with Him this side of Heaven.

Today we will learn that we are so loved by Him, so precious to Him, that He prepares a city for us, full of fellow saved citizens, but free from any citizens that could in any way detract from our joy.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 A Bride As Precious As You Must Be Showcased In The Appropriate City, and #2 A Bride As Precious As You Must Be Separated From Inappropriate Citizens.

#1    A Bride As Precious As You
    Must Be Showcased In The Appropriate City
    (v1-2)

One list of the top five Most Beautiful Cities in the World has Venice, Paris, Prague, Lisbon, and Rio De Janeiro.

Another lists Cape Town, Rio, Istanbul, Paris and Rome.

Still another lists Dubai, New York, Shanghai, Rome and Paris.

(No cities in Central California made any list of beautiful cities).

The most beautiful city in the universe has not yet been seen.  Well, it has been seen by one person – by the apostle John in the Revelation.

We get a glimpse of it in our text; and we will get a slightly more detailed look next time we are together.

It is the New Jerusalem.  Not the one on earth rebuilt in some manner, but one that is coming down from Heaven to earth.

Revelation 21:1  Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

Let’s start with the passing away of the current heaven and earth.  The apostle Peter tells you how this is going to happen:

2 Peter 3:7  But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

2 Peter 3:10  … the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

2 Peter 3:11  … all these things will be dissolved…

For you who are more scientific, Dr. Henry Morris puts it like this:

After terrestrial matter [is] been converted either into the vapor state or, more probably, into pure energy, God [will] once again exercise His mighty powers of creation and integration, and the new heavens and the new earth [will] appeared out of the ashes, so to speak, of the old.

There’s an on-going argument about whether or not the current creation will be totally replaced or completely restored.

Christians who are somewhat critical of we who emphasize the rapture claim we are escapists who can’t wait for the earth to burn, while all the while God wants it restored.

That’s just not true.  We believe God will restore the earth.  He’ll restore it during the Millennial reign of Jesus.  It is during the thousand years that we read of things like streams breaking out in the desert (Isaiah 43:19).

We will be with the Lord, aiding Him in its restoration.  We are totally on board for a restored earth during the Millennium.

After the Millennium, before eternity begins, the restored earth and the heavens will be replaced.

A restored earth is simply not good enough for eternity.

Calvary Pastor David Guzik said something I thought profound:

Our instinct is to romantically consider innocence as man’s perfect state, and wish Adam would have never done what he did.  But we fail to realize that redeemed man is greater than innocent man; that we gain more in Jesus than we ever lost in Adam.  God’s perfect state is one of redemption, not innocence.

Let’s think of what it means to have a whole new “heaven.”
We’re not talking about Heaven where God dwells – Heaven with a capital “H.”  We mean the heavens above us – the earth’s atmosphere and what we call space.

I love a good sunrise; or sunset.  Meteor showers are cool.  So are blood moons.

But I could live without hurricanes and tornadoes and lightning.  Lots of terror is generated in the heavens.

Beyond that we must remember that currently the heavens above us are the headquarters of Satan and his demons.  He is called “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians.  His presence there has fouled it all up.

We could similarly meditate upon a new earth.  There’s a lot about the earth to fear and loathe.  Those who want to appeal to nature must not understand its cruelty.  Nature is awful in its ravages.  It is amoral, killing at will.

Now for the really big question.  Why is there “no more sea?”

This genuinely seems to bother us.  With all the things going on in the Revelation, people are troubled by the lack of oceans on the new earth.

In the end we’re not told why there is “no more sea.”  Anything we say about why would be a guess we can’t really substantiate.

Instead, let’s try to tap into why it troubles us.

Location is super important to us.  Realtors and developers always say “Location! Location! Location!” to emphasize just how important it is to the value of a property.

Some of the most valuable property in the world is beachfront property.  You will pay a lot more for a home if it gives you even a peek at the ocean.

Some instinct in us causes us to refer to beachfronts, or islands, as Paradise.  Maybe this is why “no more sea” bothers us so much.

Are they Paradise?  Not even close.  Paradise is to be with Jesus.

The words “no more sea” remind me that Paradise is not a place; it is a Person.  In eternity, we won’t be thinking “Location! Location! Location!”  We’ll be thinking “Lord! Lord! Lord!”

And seriously – anyplace in Heaven is better than the best place on earth.

Revelation 21:2  Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The New Jerusalem is, quite literally, the crowning jewel of the new creation.  In subsequent verses we’ll see that it is made mostly of jewels and precious stones.

It will come “down out of Heaven from God.”  It’s being constructed in Heaven and will be moved into place when the time comes.

It’s interesting that in chapters seventeen and eighteen we read about Babylon.  That city, originally, was an attempt to build from the earth upwards, to reach God.

But fallen man cannot pick himself up; God must reach down to him.  He has – in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, as God becoming man, to go to the Cross, and die in our place, for our sins, that we might be saved.

The New Jerusalem is being “prepared” in Heaven “as a bride adorned for her husband.”  The city is not the bride; you are.

The city is an adornment that reveals the wonder of His love for you.  It is the place that Jesus has been away preparing for us collectively, and for each of us individually.  It will be the real estate in which your mansion is being constructed.

We’ll see later in this chapter that we are not the only residents.  Other saints will live there.  For example we’re told in the Book of Hebrews concerning Abraham that he looked for the city whose builder and maker is God.  He, too, looked forward to living in the New Jerusalem.

It takes nothing away from us to have other saints living there; in fact, it emphasizes the Lord’s love for us.

Before we get lost in the beauty of the New Jerusalem, later in the chapter, the Lord establishes that it is merely a showcase for His bride, the church – for you and I and all those saved from the Day of Pentecost right up to the rapture.

It’s the most beautiful showcase possible because we are so very precious to Jesus.
Don’t get me wrong; He is precious to us.  The universe is not about us; it doesn’t revolve around us.

Nevertheless the Lord is all excited to put us on display.  It gives Him pleasure to draw attention to His finished work in us.

He saved us.  He committed Himself to setting us apart, to performing a good work in us every moment of every day.  He is described as washing us by the water of the Word of God.  We will be presented without spot or blemish to our heavenly Father.

When the New Jerusalem comes down out of Heaven, when it’s done – we’re done.

I want to be done; don’t you?  I can’t begin to imagine how beautiful each of you will be in eternity, let alone myself.  It seems too fantastic; but it’s true.

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

#2    A Bride As Precious As You
    Must Be Separated From Inappropriate Citizens
    (v3-8)

A highlight of the New Jerusalem will be that there is no low-life.  All those who rejected God’s grace, and His offer of salvation through faith in Jesus, will be excluded as citizens.

Revelation 21:3  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

God’s original purpose for the human race will be restored – to enjoy a personal, face-to-face relationship with Him.  Everything that occurs between the fall of man in Genesis chapter three until Revelation twenty-one is to redeem and to prepare a people to enjoy fellowship with God.

Charles Spurgeon wrote,

I do not think the glory of Eden lay in its grassy walks, or in the boughs bending with luscious fruit-but its glory lay in this, that the ‘Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day.’  Here was Adam’s highest privilege, that he had companionship with the Most High.

Do you enjoy God?  We talk about serving God… Fearing God… Obeying God… Submitting to God… Praying to God… Giving to God.  Those should all be done in a context of enjoying His presence in our lives.

You say, “It’s hard to enjoy His presence in my suffering, in my struggles.”  Hey – that’s precisely when you can enjoy Him the most.  Imagine going through suffering without God; that’s scary.

Revelation 21:4  “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Life today is characterized by “death,” “sorrow,” and “pain.”  It produces “tears” and “crying.”  Jesus will “wipe away every tear.”

Have you ever had someone wipe away your tears when you were crying?  It’s a tender gesture that only someone who is very close to you should attempt.  It is symbolic of their desire to alleviate your sorrow.

With Jesus, it’s not symbolic – it’s sincere in the truest sense as all of your pain and suffering come to an abrupt end.

“Every tear” emphasizes each one – not just crying in general.  Just as the hairs of your head are numbered, so your tears are counted.  And they are saved in God’s bottle, we read in the Old Testament.

It is impossible for me to begin to fathom what it means to be without sorrow.  What if, for example, someone I love is not in Heaven but is in the Lake of Fire?  How can I not have sorrow?

It has caused some to speculate that God will alter my memory.  The “former things will pass away” means, they say, we won’t remember them.

That doesn’t seem right.  It’s not truthful.  It’s not the nature of God.

Others, and we’ve discussed this, believe that the unsaved will be annihilated and cease to exist.  That’s not biblical.

We are so fallen that it’s impossible to understand certain things.

We must simply take them as truth because of their source which is God.  You will be without sorrow of any kind over any person or experience or circumstance.

Revelation 21:5  Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

“Behold” is a great word.  I think it should be used only by God to describe things He’s done.  You “behold” and are astonished and amazed.

“All things” will be made “new.”  For “new” we might use the word fresh.  We might use the expression “brand new.”  The sense I get is that all things in the new creation will remain fresh, as if it is always brand new to us.

You know that new car smell?  Whenever you get a new car, people comment about the ‘new car smell.’

BTW – If you really like the smell, you can buy a bottle of New Car Smell fragrance.

I should tell you, however, that there is some evidence that new car smell may be toxic.

The smell results from the release, or “offgassing/outgassing,” of various volatile organic compounds (VOCs)… [and] many man-made VOCs are known to cause various health issues.

Things are great when they are brand new.  Then they immediately start to deteriorate.  Not so in Heaven.  “All things” there, though they will go on eternally, remain fresh.
“And he said to me, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’”  John was called upon to write.  Imagine if he had the attitude that writing wasn’t his ministry; that it wasn’t his gift.

You should have situational awareness and serve – regardless your ministry, or gifting, or calling.

God is “faithful” and will bring each of His saints to this city to live with Him.  We fall; we fail.  He remains faithful.  He Who began this good work in us will see it through to the end.

God is “true.”  There is a use of the word “true” we have lost.  It means (by dictionary definition) to make level, square, balanced, or concentric.  Let me give you an example.  Bicycle wheels have adjustments on each spoke.  A cyclist adjusts them to ‘true’ the rotation of the wheel.  In this sense of the word “true,” everything God has promised and said will not just come to pass but will be true to His nature and character.

I’m getting ahead of myself but let me say this about our mansions in the heavenly city.  They each will be ‘trued’ to your individual personality.  All things they are made from and all things in them will be true to you in giving you the greatest sense of the Lord’s love for you.

Revelation 21:6  And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

Jesus identifies Himself as the “Alpha and the Omega” four times in this book.  They are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet; Jesus is everything there is to say or communicate; He is the fullness of life.

Jesus promises “the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”  He first made that offer in the Gospel of John.  It is the offer of the Spirit to those who receive Him as Savior and Lord.  Eternity will be populated by those who freely received Him.

Drinking and thirst are common pictures of God’s supply and man’s spiritual need.  Drinking is an action, but an action of receiving.  Like faith, it is doing something, but it is not a merit-earning work in itself.

Revelation 21:7  “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

Believers are called “overcomers.”  It’s a word that makes us think of a great struggle.  We think ‘Overcomers Anonymous.’  We think failure.

How do you overcome?  First John 5:4 says it is by “faith” in Jesus Christ.  Since you are a believer in Jesus you can walk by faith through this world and not by sight.

You will “inherit all things” the same way a son would be left with all the possessions of his father.  Only in our case we get to enjoy it all with our heavenly dad.

Significantly absent from eternity will be all those who rejected salvation by grace alone through faith:

Revelation 21:8  “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

This is a brief listing of things characteristic of nonbelievers.  Their mention is intended to encourage us; we will be free from these things in eternity, since no nonbelievers will be around to exhibit them.

“Cowardly,” in the context of this book, refers to people refusing to follow Jesus because they were afraid of persecution and martyrdom.  It is a spiritual cowardice that gives evidence there is no presence of the Holy Spirit, Who grants boldness.

“Unbelieving” indicates there is sufficient evidence to believe but there is a conscious refusal to do so.  It pains us today to see those we love reject the Gospel in the face of overwhelming evidence of the truth.

“Abominable” means to incite disgust.  Sin is bad enough but there are some things people do that are more disgusting.  None of that in eternity.  No waking up to awful atrocities people perpetrate on one another.

“Murderers” reminds us of increasing violence among men and mankind.  New Jerusalem will never devolve into violence.

“Sexually immoral” means there will be no horror stories of child sexual abuse.  You won’t have to check a registry to see if your neighbor is a sex offender.

Let’s go down a short rabbit trail, since we mentioned sex and Heaven.  The Bible is a little fuzzy on sexuality in Heaven but this tells me that whatever God has planned for me is pure.

Jesus said we wouldn’t marry, or be given in marriage; so that seems to teach no sexual activity.
C. S. Lewis’s insight was great, where he talked about the boy who had heard about sex and people having sex and said, “Well, do they eat chocolate while they are having it?”

Because he was told it is this wonderful experience.  And to him it was like nothing could be better than eating chocolate.

Then Lewis makes the argument that perhaps our sense of loss about the idea of not being able to have sexual relationships is like that boy thinking that chocolate is the greatest joy, and that there are greater joys that await us.  Heaven, by definition, is always a greater joy.

“Sorcerers” won’t be there.  There will be no dark side, no sinister forces, no temptations by super-intelligent demonic forces.  You won’t be lured off only to regret having fallen into error.

“Idolaters” would refer to all false religious activity.  You know how we like to say, “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship?”  Well, we will be able to fully experience freedom from religion in the future.  We will do nothing from a sense of obligation or merit – only from love with a pure heart.

“Liars.”  No reason for lying in Heaven.  Your words and everyone else’s will be true.  And there won’t be folks you’d rather avoid or not talk with.

Nonbelievers rejected Jesus as Savior and Lord and, in chapter twenty, were cast into the Lake of Fire.  It wasn’t because of their lying or idolatry or sexual immorality.  It was because of their unbelief.

We talked about the “second death” and the “lake which burns with fire and brimstone” in our last study.  It was created for the devil and his angels, to punish and incarcerate them for all eternity.

Nonbelievers go there by choice, having rejected salvation in Jesus Christ.

If you’ve been with us for our studies in the Revelation, you’ve noted our emphasis on God reaching out to lost sinners, not being willing that any should perish, but rather that they all would come to know Jesus.

We saw the 144,000 Jewish evangelists sharing the Gospel.

We saw the two witnesses sharing the Gospel.

We saw angels flying in the heavens sharing the Gospel.

We saw multitudes martyred, each one exuding a testimony of Jesus Christ as they breathed their last breath.

God’s efforts to save the lost during the Tribulation are, quite simply, extraordinary.

During the Millennium, Jesus will be physically present on the earth; and resurrected saints will rule with Him, in their glorified bodies.  The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and still multitudes will refuse His offer of salvation.

Once we are past the second death, and the earth and the heavens are new, it will be wonderful to be free from the devil, his demons, and all those who opposed Jesus Christ.

Ever had a bad neighbor?  Well, you won’t in eternity.

We’re not to that point, though, and, so, our emphasis should be on enjoying the Lord so much that all ‘bad neighbors’ will develop a thirst for the living waters that flow from Jesus, through us, to parched hearts ravaged by sin and the suffering and sorrow it causes.

Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself, I’m About To Be Thrown Into The Flame

You’re labelled a Millennial if you were born after 1980 and into the early parts of the 21st century because you are the first generation to come of age in the new millennium.

Millennials were initially called Generation Y because of the widespread use of the term Y2K to designate the turn of the century.

I suggest we keep calling them Generation Y because there is a time coming in which the true Millennial generation will be revealed.

Millennial, as you probably know, is from the compound Latin word that means thousand years.  In our text we are going to see the words “thousand years” repeated six separate times in just fifteen verses.  It is the length of time that Jesus will rule over the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth between the end of the Tribulation and the beginning of eternity.

This thousand year kingdom is therefore often referred to as THE Millennium.

The true Millennials are those whose futures are discussed in these verses.  We’ll see they fall into two very distinct groups.

I’ll organize my thoughts around the following points: #1 If You’re A First Resurrection Millennial, You’ll Reign With Jesus, Then See Him For All Eternity, but #2 If You’re A Second Death Millennial, You’ll Rebel Against Jesus, Then Be Separated From Him For All Eternity.

#1    If You’re A First Resurrection Millennial,
    You’ll Reign With Jesus, Then See Him For All Eternity
    (v1-6)

Let me get something out of the way.  This is the only chapter in Revelation where a period of a thousand years is mentioned, and the fact that it follows immediately on the heels of the Second Coming in chapter nineteen, and is emphasized six times, and is clearly described as a period of time before which and after which certain historic events take place, strongly lead to the conclusion that it is a literal thousand-year period.

I have to tell you that because there are those who don’t take this to be a literal period of time.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of places in the Old Testament that promise Israel an earthly kingdom at the end of the age.  The early church almost universally believed in an earthly, historical reign of Jesus, initiated at His return.  It’s why the disciples asked Jesus, at His ascension into Heaven, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

Tyconius (in the late 300’s) was among the first to teach a spiritualized interpretation of the Book of the Revelation, denying the idea of a literal kingdom on earth lasting a thousand years after the resurrection.

His view was adopted by Augustine, the Roman Catholic Church and most Reformation theologians.  It’s technical name is amillennialism.  It teaches that from the ascension of Jesus in the first century until His Second Coming, both good and evil will increase in the world as God’s kingdom parallels Satan’s kingdom.  There will be no rapture, but when Jesus Christ returns the end of the world will occur with a general resurrection and general judgment of all people.

Postmillennialism is the belief that Jesus Christ will return after the a golden age or era of Christian prosperity and dominance, ushered in by the church.  This era, they say, is the Millennium, but it may or may not last one thousand years; just a long time.

We are not amillennial.  We take the Millennium to be literal.  After all, everything else in this chapter is certainly literal: Jesus, the devil, the angels, the resurrections.  All of that is literal.

We are not postmillennial.  The thousand year reign of Jesus on the earth clearly follows His Second Coming at the end of the seven year Tribulation.  Things are not going to get better and better but, rather, worse and worse.

We are called premillennialists.  We believe Jesus Christ will return to this earth to establish and govern the Millennium directly; and that it will last exactly one thousand real years.

Revelation 20:1  Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

The “bottomless pit” is the abyss.  It’s a prison for demons.  Some commentators say it may be the chasm in Hades that separates the place of torment from Abraham’s bosom.

The “angel” has an assignment as a jailor.  The “key” and the “chain” are real but also symbols of God’s authority and power over those incarcerated in the pit.

Revelation 20:2  He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;

The four names of Satan describe four aspects of his strategies over the centuries:

As the “dragon” he has sought to interfere with God’s promise to send a Savior into the world.  You see this most vividly in Revelation twelve where the dragon is seen waiting to devour the Savior born from the nation of Israel.

As the “serpent of old” he has sought to tempt mankind with his subtle lies.  Think Eve in the Garden of Eden.

As the “devil” he is a liar and slanderer, accusing God before men.

As “Satan” he is at the throne of God, accusing men before God.  Job one & two.

Satan will be bound for one thousand years and, presumably, so will all his demons.

Rev 20:3  and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

I don’t think we can begin to envision a world in which there is no devil, or demonic influence.  The Rolling Stones capture a sense of Satan’s all-pervasive influence in their song, Sympathy for the Devil.  It’s a terrible title, and filled with bad theology, but they nail the fact he has been at work wreaking havoc and causing chaos throughout human history.

Not so in the Millennium.  At least, not until the end, as is ominously hinted at when it says, “after these things he must be released for a little while.”

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Two distinct groups are being described.  One group is sitting on thrones performing the work of judges.

Jesus promised His disciples that they would sit on thrones as judges in His kingdom (Luke 22:29-30).
Paul told all believers – including you – that they would one day judge the world and even judge angels (First Corinthians 6:2-3).

You will work as a judge in the one thousand year reign of Jesus.

The second group is martyrs from the Tribulation.  They, too, will reign with us, and Jesus, for the thousand years.  Their bodies were slain but their souls lived on immediately in the presence of God in Heaven.  In the Millennium they will “live.”  It means they will be resurrected from the dead, that they will receive new, glorified bodies, as you read in verse five:

Revelation 20:5  But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

The Tribulation martyrs are resurrected as part of the “first resurrection.”  The designation “first” confuses us.  Because it is “first,” we tend to think of it as happening all at once, all at the same time.

The first resurrection is not a single event; it doesn’t happen all at once.  It is the resurrection of believers, as opposed to nonbelievers, and it follows a particular order over a rather long period of time.

Jesus Christ was the first to be resurrected never to die again. Others, both in the Old and New Testaments, were raised from the dead – but not resurrected.  Those who were raised from the dead died again.  Resurrection is the transformation of the body into its final spiritual state.  Jesus was the first to be resurrected, and He is the “firstfruits” of the resurrection (1Corinthians 15:20), meaning there are others who, like Him, will be raised to glory.

Next in order in the first resurrection we find that certain saints were resurrected immediately following the resurrection of Jesus.  In Matthew 27:52 & 53 we read, “and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”  This was a token to show that all the saints of the Old Testament would be resurrected.

Next in order in the first resurrection are the saints of the Church Age.  In First Thessalonians chapter four you’re told that, at the rapture, “the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them.”  Deceased believers will be resurrected, then living believers will be raptured and given their resurrection bodies.

Next in order in the first resurrection are the two witnesses of Revelation chapter eleven.

Next in order in the first resurrection are the Tribulation martyrs we are reading about in Revelation twenty.

Next in order in the first resurrection, according to Daniel 12:2, are the Old Testament saints.

To summarize: The first resurrection is the resurrection, in stages, over time, of all believers.  That includes you.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

We who participate in the first resurrection are blessed because we will not be included in the second death, when all nonbelievers will be cast into the Lake of Fire (v14).  We shall be “priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

There will, in fact, be a Temple in Jerusalem during the Millennium, requiring the service of priests.  No further description or discussion of it is offered here, so we are to take this to mean only that we will have much to do.

If we rule and reign, and are judges and priests, who are the citizens, and who is the congregation?

Well, when Jesus returns in His Second Coming, there are people alive on the earth.  He divides the believers from the nonbelievers.

The nonbelievers are taken away to Hades to await the events we are going to read about in just a moment, which take place after the thousand years are over.

Believers, in their human bodies, enter in to the Millennium and begin to repopulate the planet.

By the end of the thousand years there will be multiplied billions of people on the earth.  They are the citizens we rule over; they are the congregation we will minister to.

When the thousand years end, and eternity begins, we will go forward into that future seeing Jesus forever and ever and ever.  We will be like Him, having been raised from the dead or raptured.  We will know Him fully, and one another, too.

Those who label the generations, like Generation Y, study them, and then list their characteristics.

First Resurrection Millennials ought to display the characteristics appropriate to our calling and destiny.

If we stick to our text, First Resurrection Millennials are characterized, in verse six, as “blessed and holy.”

Do you understand how blessed you are?  To be saved, not fearing death, knowing Jesus is preparing you a custom mansion and will return imminently to take you there?

Are you pursuing holiness?  And by that I mean, Do you cooperate with Him as Jesus is seeking to changed you day-by-day into His image?

If you cannot be described as “blessed and holy,” get with the Lord, and ask Him for a refreshing in the Holy Spirit.

#2    If You’re A Second Death Millennial,
         You’ll Rebel Against Jesus, Then Be Separated From Him         
         For All Eternity
         (v7-15)

You probably have not heard of the group, Christian Exodus.  This is from their website:

Christian Exodus was founded in November of 2003 in response to the moral degeneration of American culture, and the rampant corruption among the powers that be.

The initial goal was to move thousands of Christian constitutionalists to South Carolina to accelerate the return to self-government based upon Christian principles at the local and State level.  This project continues to this day, with the ultimate goal of forming an independent Christian nation that will survive after the decline and fall of the financially and morally bankrupt American empire. We have learned, however, that the chains of our slavery and dependence upon godless government have more of a hold on us than can be broken by simply moving to another State.

That last statement is code for, “We failed.”

You know what?  No society of human beings in their natural state can hope to achieve a utopia.  As we are about to see, incredibly, even with Jesus as Head of State, and billions of glorified Christians on the earth, mankind will rebel.

Revelation 20:7  Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison

In Satan’s absence there will be justice for all, the wicked will be properly and immediately punished, and even the natural ferocity of the animals will be abated.  Righteousness and peace will flourish.  There will be economic prosperity and physical healing.

It’s as perfect an environment as is possible this side of eternity.

Revelation 20:8  and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

The shocking truth you learn is that, even with Jesus ruling the perfect earth as King of kings and Lord of lords, multitudes will reject Him.  You can be forced to obey, but you cannot be forced to be saved; it is a matter of free will.

Who are “Gog” and “Magog”?  We see these terms in Ezekiel 38 & 39 in conjunction with  a coalition of nations who invade Israel in the latter times but are miraculously destroyed by God.  The battle in Ezekiel occurs before the Second Coming of Jesus.  The reference to “Gog” and “Magog” here is not that battle.

“Gog” seems to be a demon king and “Magog” are a people, probably related in history to the ancient Scythians.

Revelation 20:9  They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

We’re still “camp[ing]” in the Millennium.  We’re still awaiting our eternal home.
Once we are gathered together in “the beloved city,” in Jerusalem, “fire [comes] down from God out of Heaven and [devours] them.”

None of these conflicts in the Revelation are very interesting.  They’re like the recent MMA title fight between Ronda Rousey (rou-z) and Cat Zingano, which lasted 14 seconds.  Blink and you missed it.

Revelation 20:10  The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Satan is then cast into “the Lake of Fire,” his final place of torment for all eternity.

Here is something of great importance.  The “beast and the false prophet” were thrown in the Lake of Fire at the very beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ.  These two guys are still there, still alive.

There is no such thing as annihilation after death; you must go either to Heaven or to the Lake of Fire.  Much as I’d like to teach otherwise, the Bible says there will be eternal conscious torment for unrepentant sinners.

At the end of the thousand years comes the second resurrection.  It is the resurrection of all nonbelievers from all of human history.  Unlike the first resurrection, which occurs over a period of time, the second resurrection does occur all at once.
While it is indeed a resurrection in which people receive bodies it is called “the second death.”

The first death is the separation of the soul from the body.
The second death involves a resurrected body, but one that is  separated from God for all eternity.

These next verses are perhaps the most terrifying in all of Scripture:

Revelation 20:11  Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.

This is a time stamp.  Earth and Heaven flee away when God creates all things new, as eternity begins.  These nonbelievers are on the very precipice of eternity.

Revelation 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
Revelation 20:13  The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
Revelation 20:14  Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Revelation 20:15  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Is it Jesus on the throne?  He did indicate in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John it would be Him.

Books are opened.  One is the Bible; Jesus once said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”

Another book is the Lambs “Book of Life.”  It has written in it the names of all those who receive Jesus as their Savior.  We’ve discussed it before.  I believe it is, as an alternate translation renders it, the Book of the Living.  Everyone ever conceived has their name listed in it.  Those who die having rejected Jesus and His offer of eternal life, who have thus blasphemed the Holy Spirit, have their name removed from the Book.  Their names are blotted out.

A third book is a book containing the works of men.  I take this to mean the good works they thought they could perform to work their way into Heaven on their own merit.  God keeps a careful record of your works if you are not a believer.

In the end He will review them.  They will prove woefully insufficient to get you into Heaven.

You can avoid the judgment of your works.  The only “work” that can get you into Heaven is what Jesus described in John 6:29,

John 6:29  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

The “sea,” “death,” and “Hades” all “give up” their dead:

The “sea” and “death” probably refer to the location of the physical bodies of the nonbelieving dead.  The “sea” is mentioned so you will understand that no matter the physical location or disintegration of a body God can raise it up again in the end.
“Hades” is the location of their souls.

“Death” is the result of sin, and it is gone.  “Hades” is the result of death, and it is gone.

The Lake of Fire is the final place of eternal torment for nonbelievers.  God sends no one to the Lake of Fire.  It is their choice to go there.

Jesus is the Savior of all men – especially those who believe (First Timothy 4:10).  Those who refuse His offer of salvation by rejecting His Son will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

We all know Second Death Millennials.  Many of them are folks we love – family, friends, co-workers, fellow students.

Some of them, if we are honest, we tend to despise, on account of what they do to us, or the very heinousness of their sin.

They are all going to get what they deserve based on their decision to reject Jesus Christ.

John Bradford was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged crimes against Mary Tudor.  He was burned at the stake on July 1st, 1555.

During his ministry, on seeing evil-doers taken to the place of execution, he would exclaim, “But for the grace of God there goes John Bradford.”

That is how a First Resurrection Millennial sees a Second Death Millennial.

We deserve to be at the Second Death, but somehow someone got the Gospel to us.

They may have shared it directly… Or given of their time or talent or treasure serving the Lord in prayer, or by giving, or in a ministry, so that someone else could share the Gospel with us.

Whether behind the scenes, or on the front lines, Be someone’s someone.

Back In The Saddle Again (Revelation 19:11-21)

They are the ‘where were you when’ moments in history.

Those who were alive during President John F. Kennedy’s assassination can often recall where they were when the tragic news was announced.

Other memorable where were you when moments are:

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (July 6, 1968).

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial (June 12, 1994).

The Apollo 11 moon landing (July 20, 1969).

As Christians we have a unique view of history.  We have prophecy – which is history written, by God, in advance.

Instead of asking where were you when?, we can ask where will you be when?

There are two dramatic, prophetic events whose certainty demands we ask ourselves, and others, that question.

The first is the resurrection and rapture of the church.  Jesus is coming, in the air, to take the believers of the church age home to the place He has been preparing for them in Heaven.  He will raise the dead in Christ, then living believers will be transformed in a moment of time, faster than the twinkling of an eye.  He’s promised to do it before the seven-year Tribulation on the earth; and He says it is imminent – it could happen at anytime.

Where will you be when that happens?  In Heaven, with the Lord… Or left behind?

The second prophetic event is the one we will read about in our text.  It is the one all history is moving towards.  It is the Second Coming of Jesus to the earth, ending the Tribulation.

Where will you be when Jesus comes to establish His kingdom on the earth?

I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions: #1 Will You Accompany The King When He Comes?, or #2 Will You Be In The Company Of The Kings When They’re Killed?

#1    Will You Accompany The King
    When He Comes?
    (v11-16)

The Green Bay Packers have the most famous waiting list in sports, with more than 100,000 names waiting for season tickets.  The team’s website says the wait is 30 years.

It is a common custom in Green Bay and other Wisconsin cities to put a baby’s name on the list as soon as the birth certificate is obtained.

Your guaranteed access to the greatest future events in all of human history is free; all you need to do is get saved, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Once you’re saved, you’ll be resurrected or raptured when Jesus comes for the church.

Once you’re saved, you’ll accompany the Lord from Heaven to earth in His Second Coming.

Rev 19:11  Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

There’s a scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where Shadowfax appears for the first time.  He is the magnificent lord of all horses.  I crack-up at it; but something like that is going to happen as the Lord returns.

We’re told that Jesus is called “Faithful and True.”  These seem to be shout-outs as the Lord appears.  I mean, He is faithful and true; but those witnessing His return call it out.

“Faithful” captures the fact that His coming has been the unwavering plan of God from eternity past.  Promising in the Garden of Eden to save lost humanity, God the Father has worked providentially throughout history; and Jesus never, ever wavered in His commitment to go to the Cross.

“True” can mean a lot of things, but with regard to Jesus’ Second Coming, it establishes that the plan of God was the only possible way for men to be saved, and for the universe to be restored.  Jesus is not “a” way to forgiveness; He is “the Way,” the only true way, for sin to be atoned for, and for you to be justified, sanctified, and glorified.

It is “right” for Him to “judge” the nations and “make war” with them.  By the end of the Tribulation these men and women have determined their fate by their individual personal decision to reject God’s free offer of salvation.  Besides that, their wickedness is extreme.

This dramatic display of judgment comes only at the end of a long time of grace, patience, and mercy.  There is no rush to judgment.

Rev 19:12  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.

John had undoubtedly looked into Jesus’ eyes many times in the three-and-one-half years he had followed the Lord.  Not once did he describe them as a “flame of fire.”  This is Jesus unveiled.  He is still in a body; it’s a glorified human body.  But it’s infused with His divine power, and John can see it in Jesus’ eyes.

We will each look into those eyes.  At what is called in the Bible “the reward seat of Jesus,” our works on the earth – and especially the motives behind them – will be judged.

They will “be revealed by fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work” (First Corinthians 3).

Could this fire be Jesus’ gaze – His eyes as a flame of fire?

To be “crowned with many crowns” speaks of victory after victory.  Think of all that Jesus has triumphed over: sin and death and the grave and the devil.

Apparently upon him there is writing, a “name.”  We can’t help but be curious about the “name written that no one knew except Himself.”

Maybe it is an endearing name.  Albert Barnes said, “This cannot here mean that no one could read the name, but the idea is, that no one but Himself could fully understand its import.  It involved a depth of meaning, and a degree of sacredness, and a relation to the Father, which He alone could apprehend in its true import.”

Jesus has so, so many names in the Bible.  Commentators generally agree He has more than two hundred names.  One site, christiananswers.net, has an alphabetical list of 900 names, complete with the Scripture references.

It’s a great devotional to discover some of His names.  Each of them describes some aspect of His nature or character or mission or methods.

It seems there must be one name known only to the trinity – an intimate name that only the Father and the Spirit may rightfully use.

Rev 19:13  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

This is not the blood He shed on the Cross at Calvary.  If you were to look at this forensically you see that this is the blood spatter of His enemies.

The first direct reference to this rider is that He is “called the Word of God.”  It’s Jesus.

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Only Jesus can be called “the Word.”  Jesus is God come in human flesh to declare and to reveal the character and nature of God to us.

What if a person has no knowledge of Jesus?

God can be known, to an extent, from creation.  In Romans 1:20 we read, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

The Bible also declares that God has put “eternity in our hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  C.S. Lewis said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

It seems to me to be the testimony of Scripture that God so loved the world that He gave Jesus to be lifted-up on the Cross in order to draw “all men to Himself” (Jesus’ words from John 12:32).

That doesn’t mean all men are universally saved; they are not.  Jesus is the savior of all men, potentially; but only of those who, in fact, believe in Him.

What about those who have never heard of Jesus?  Can they be saved?

We subscribe to a position on salvation that is sometimes called “the wider hope.”

Salvation is by grace, through faith in Jesus.  We affirm that God, in His grace, grants every individual a genuine opportunity to be saved, without excluding anyone.

Within our wider hope camp there are several suggestions as to how this is accomplished for those who have never heard the Gospel.  My current position is one that has a long history in the church – that God will somehow, by His providence, get the message of salvation to any person who responds to creation and/or the eternity stirring the heart, who is seeking Him.

The Holy Spirit is, after all, in the world, and His ministry is to reveal Jesus to every heart.

Let’s not fry our brains trying to figure that out.  Let’s let God be God and do His work.  You and I are not among those who have never heard.  The Gospel is being preached to us, even now.

Revelation 19:14  And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.

You’ve heard the old joke, “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out!”  Well, at the Second Coming of Jesus we are coming back with Him “clothed” in the “fine linen” wedding garments to our marriage supper but a fight breaks out.

Not to worry.  We won’t do any actual fighting.

Revelation 19:15  Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Paul writes that at His return Jesus Christ will destroy the antichrist with the breath of his mouth (Second Thessalonians 2:8).  These, then, are metaphors for the spiritual power wielded by Jesus.  His very words “strike the nations.”

In the Greek of Revelation the verb to rule is poimainein, which signifies “to shepherd.”  The Lord rules the nations as a shepherd-king who with this rod both protects his own people and destroys his enemies.

The rod of the shepherd is an amazing tool.  When the shepherd is afield with his flock in the high country he carries a minimum of equipment.  In the Middle East the shepherd carries only a rod and staff.  As far as I can tell, the rod has three uses:

First, it is used for protection.  The shepherd spends hours practicing with this club leaning how to throw it with amazing speed and accuracy.  It becomes his main weapon of defense for both himself and his sheep.

Second, it is used to discipline the sheep.  If the shepherd saw a sheep wandering away from its own, or approaching poisonous weeds, or getting too close to danger of one sort or another, the club would go whistling through the air to send the wayward animal scurrying back to the bunch.

Third, the rod is used to examine and count the sheep. In the terminology of the Old Testament this was referred to as passing “under the rod:”

Ezekiel 20:37  And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 

This meant not only coming under the owner’s control and authority, but also to be subject to his most careful, intimate and firsthand examination.  A sheep that passed “under the rod” was one which had been counted and looked over with great care to make sure all was well with it.

The “winepress” is a terrifying image of judgment.  It seems to be borrowed from this passage in Isaiah:

Isaiah 63:2  Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?
Isaiah 63:3  “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes.

Like grapes being crushed in a vat, so will the armies of men be defeated by the Lord.

In the mean time the Scripture speaks of our feet this way:

Romans 10:15  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF PEACE, WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!”

Today the Lord has multiplied millions of feet on the earth as believers share their testimony.  In the end His feet will stomp those who fully and finally refuse to believe.

Revelation 19:16  And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Here are just three ways of many suggestions to understand this imagery:

Jewish scholars insist that the word translated “thigh” would in Hebrew be the word banner.  Thus they see Jesus with a long, flowing banner upon which is written “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

It could be that the reference to His “thigh” is a reference to the sword that would be strapped to the soldier’s thigh.  (This seems unlikely, since Jesus doesn’t really need physical weapons.  His sword is the Word).

It might be that Jesus has a tattoo.  Why not?

Jesus doesn’t need a name tag; everyone is going to know it’s Him.  His role is what is being designated.  He’s coming as King of kings and as Lord of lords.  He’s coming to plant the flag.

The believers of the church age – the church – are among those who accompany Jesus.

Where will you be when that happens?  You can accompany Jesus if you get saved before you die, or before the rapture.

Otherwise you will be left behind.

Most of us know we will accompany the Lord.

We have confidence that, should we die, we will be absent from our bodies, and present with the Lord.  Think on that for a moment.  Is it not the most tremendous comfort?

We believe the rapture is imminent.  Remember, the rapture is like a bridegroom fetching his bride at a time unknown to her.  Thus she lives in joyous, romantic anticipation.

We really ought to be happy campers as we are journeying in these temporary tents on our way home.

#2    Will You Be In The Company Of The Kings
    When They’re Killed?
    (v17-21)

Repetition is often instructive when studying a passage of Scripture.

The word “flesh” is repeated six times in these next verses.  It has a very literal meaning.  It refers to the skin and muscles of the Lord’s enemies at His Second Coming.  Their flesh will be eaten by scavenger birds.  It will be a feast for them as they pick away at the carcasses of the fallen.

We also talk about nonbelievers figuratively as bringing forth the works of the flesh.  We mean that they produce awful things from their unredeemed human nature.  In one famous passage the works of the flesh are described like this:

Galatians 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
Galatians 5:20  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
Galatians 5:21  envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Jesus returns to establish the kingdom of God.  These “will not inherit” it.  They are of the flesh having never received the Lord as their Savior.

Revelation 19:17  Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God,

An angel blocks out the sun on account of his own brilliance.  He calls out to birds that have gathered in the Valley of Megiddo.  All of the world’s remaining scavenger birds come and fill the sky.  They literally feast on the flesh of the fallen but we are to see the failure of the flesh from a spiritual standpoint.

The scene is presented with what one commentator called ‘repellant realism.’  It is purposely revolting and nauseating in order to emphasize how revolting and nauseating fallen man is in his natural state.

There must be something that would repel you, or nauseate you, if you came across it.  Well, that is what our reaction ought to be to the things listed in Galatians, and any other work of the flesh.

The chapter opened with an invitation to the marriage supper.  This is not that supper.  This is a different supper.  Nonbelievers are the menu, not the guests.

Revelation 19:18  “that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.”

God is no respecter of persons.  In the end only one thing will matter: Do you know Jesus as your Savior?  If not it makes no difference if you are great or small, free or slave, in the eyes of other nonbelievers.

Revelation 19:19  And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.

In any good action movie there is a final showdown between the hero and the villain.  Somehow they find each other on the field of battle and they go at each other.  In the movies, for dramatic effect, usually the villain almost defeats the hero but, in the end with some amazing maneuver, the hero wins out.

The Second Coming of Jesus is not like that.  The villains are the “beast,” who we call the antichrist, and those with him.  They are easily overcome.

Revelation 19:20  Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

The beast, a.k.a, the antichrist, and his false prophet will be the first two inhabitants of the Lake of Fire.  They are judged and thrown there prior to the final Great White Throne judgment.

We’ll see that the devil will be thrown into the Abyss for one thousand years before he is eternally confined in the Lake of Fire.

The Lake of Fire is the final eternal destination for all those who ultimately reject Jesus Christ.  We normally refer to it as Hell but that is inaccurate.  Let’s look at a few terms to describe the destinations of the dead.

“Sheol” is a Hebrew word that describes the non-permanent place or temporary address of the disembodied souls of the dead.  It is the same as the Greek word “Hades.”

Prior to Jesus Christ’s resurrection, both the souls of the evil and the righteous went there after death.  It is translated “grave” 31 times, “hell” 31 times, and “pit” 3 times in King James Version (KJV) of the Bible.

Sheol (Hades) has two compartments, separated by an impassable gulf.

One side was and is the holding cell of nonbelievers after they die.

The other side, called “Abraham’s Bosom” in Luke 16:22, was for the comfort of the righteous after they died, while awaiting their entrance into Heaven.

I said “was” with regard to believers because the resurrection of Jesus changed their address.

When Christ died He descended into Sheol (Hades).  When He was resurrected He led the righteous out of Sheol to Heaven.  Since then, the souls and spirits of all of the saved people go directly to Heaven when they die.  Abraham’s Bosom is empty.

The lost still go to Sheol and join the lost of the Old Testament in torment on one side of the gulf when they die.

Then there is “Gehenna.”  It is translated “Hell” all 12 times in the KJV.  It is used to refer to the permanent place for torment of the “… soul and body …” (Matthew 10:28).  It is a place of “… fire that never shall be quenched” (Mark 9:45).

In most of the references, it is clear from the context that those who enter Gehenna do so in bodies.  For this to happen, it must occur after the resurrection of the damned at the Great White Throne judgment.

Gehenna is the Lake of Fire described in Revelation 19 and 20.  It is presently uninhabited, but the Beast and the False Prophet will be cast into it at the end of the Tribulation (Revelation 19:20).

One thousand years later Satan will be cast into it (Revelation 20:10) and will be followed shortly by the lost people of all previous time periods (Revelation 20:15).
They will all enter Gehenna together, in their resurrected bodies, where they will remain in torment for all eternity.

To summarize: Sheol (Hades) is the temporary place of torment for the souls and spirits of the nonbelievers who die.  Prior to Christ’s resurrection saints were kept and comforted in the now vacant part known as Abraham’s Bosom.

There are also a few places like the Abyss, which are detention cells – prisons – for demons.

Gehenna is the Lake of Fire for the permanent place of torment of the souls of the wicked dead in their resurrected bodies.

Jesus said in Matthew 25:41 that the Lake of Fire was prepared for the devil and his angels.  That is why we can honestly say that God never sends any man to the Lake of Fire; they go there of their own free will, having rejected Christ.

Revelation 19:21  And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

The “rest” are those on this battlefield.

You do not want to be in the company of these kings when the King of kings returns.

If this all seems fantastic to you, it shouldn’t.  There are something like eight-times as many references in the Bible to Jesus’ Second Coming than there are to His first coming.

When Jesus ascended in to Heaven, and His disciples stood gawking upward, two men appeared to them, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?  This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

If you knew the future, wouldn’t you do something with that knowledge?

Between April 1992 and April 2012, Apple’s stock value increased by over 4000%.  Don’t you wish you had bought a few shares?

Or how about that property on the coast you could have bought years ago?  What would it be worth today?

If you’re not a believer, continuing to put-off coming to Christ is like refusing Apple stock… Or passing on that beach house… When you had perfect knowledge of the future.

Except that the stakes are so much higher.

Don’t be foolish.  Come to the Lord.

Burn Notice (Revelation 18:1-24)

I love those scenes in movies where the hero is surrounded, and hopelessly outnumbered, but nevertheless gives his enemies one last chance to surrender.

The Return of the Jedi has to be in the top ten.  As he is being made to walk the plank, and is about to be tossed into the Sarlacc in the Great Pit of Carkoon, Luke Skywalker confidently exclaims, “Jabba, this is your last chance.  Free us… or die.”

To which Jabba answers, (laughing) “Koh nee tah.  Teedee Jedi!  Sah kootah day.  Koos nooma!”

R2D2 then launches Luke his light-saber and, after a harrowing fracas, Luke and the gang do, indeed, escape to fight another day.

We’re going to see a group of surrounded Christians.  They will be living in Tribulation Babylon.  The final version of that city will be the epitome of the evil world system that Satan has been trying to establish for some six thousand years.

Although surrounded, the believers will not be defeated.  They will come out of Babylon victorious to their heavenly home and inheritance.

If believers can be surrounded but remain victorious in Tribulation Babylon – so can we, today, in the world.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 You’re To Remain Separated To Jesus While You Are Surrounded By The World, and #2 You’re To Remain Surrendered To Jesus While You Are Stressed By The World.

#1    You’re To Remain Separated To Jesus
    While You Are Surrounded By The World
    (v1-19 & 21-24)

Do we really think there is enough time to rebuild Babylon in Iraq?

Yes, we do.  Last week I cited several examples of incredibly quick major construction projects in China and in Dubai.

By “quick,” I mean major hi-rise buildings built, turnkey, in less than three weeks time.

If you’re still not convinced Babylon will be rebuilt, I should point out that both Isaiah and Jeremiah said it would.

Isaiah, in chapters thirteen and fourteen, prophesied that the city of Babylon would be destroyed and then never again be inhabited.  It’s something that hasn’t happened in the past.

Isaiah plainly says it will happen in the future Day of the Lord – which is another name for the Tribulation.

Jeremiah, in chapters fifty and fifty-one, confirms this same scenario for Tribulation Babylon.

We saw it as a religious center in chapter seventeen – the headquarters of a global coexistence of man-made religions that would exert power over the world’s governments for the first three-and-one-half years of the Tribulation.

In chapter eighteen we see the socioeconomic side of Tribulation Babylon.

Revelation 18:1  After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory.

“After these things” means that the city of Babylon will go on into the second half of the Tribulation after the antichrist demands to be worshipped as god and overthrows the religion based in Babylon.

Angels are undoubtedly always busy, but they appear especially busy in the Tribulation, as things come to their conclusion.

“Having great authority” reminds us that God delegates tasks to these trustworthy messengers.  All the times they appear in Scripture they faithfully carry-out their assigned duties.

We, too, have been granted authority to proclaim the Gospel by which we are telling people that their sins can be forgiven at the Cross.  Let’s be busy, and faithful, in our delegated task.

This angel illuminates the earth with his glory.  It reminds us that so much is veiled to our perception now.  We walk by faith and not by sight.

It will be great in the future to behold things as they are, with unveiled senses.  But for now blessed are we who believe without seeing.

Revelation 18:2  And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!

The angel announces what the rest of the chapter will describe – the burning of Babylon by God just before Jesus Christ returns to the earth.

The repetition of “is fallen” may reflect the fact that religious Babylon falls first, mid-Trib, then the city itself falls, as the Tribulation ends.

Apparently Babylon will be used as a prison to incarcerate demons during the one thousand year reign of the Lord.

God has an extensive prison system for demons:

Earlier in the Revelation we read about a place called the Abyss.  Demons were let out from there to plague the earth.

Demons are also incarcerated near the Euphrates River; we saw that in chapter nine.

Both Peter and Jude describe demonic holding areas in their letters.

The reference to “every unclean and hated bird” might be a way of describing demons.  More likely it is describing the reality that, after its destruction, Babylon will be overrun by scavenger birds.

Revelation 18:3  “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”

Merchants, merchandise, and luxury are themes that repeat throughout this chapter.  Babylon will have all that the world can offer in terms of pleasures and possessions.  Babylon will dominate as the go-to location in the Tribulation.

What about this talk of “fornication” with the city?  Let me give you a contemporary example.

Businesses and organizations, even government agencies, plan conferences and retreats.  I’m always a little taken back when the destination is Las Vegas.  Really?  Vegas, baby?

It’s just wrong, I submit, to plan an event in a place proudly called Sin City.

It all reminds me of Pleasure Island in Disney’s version of Pinocchio.  The boys can drink and cuss and smoke and vandalize and fight all they want.

But in the end they are enslaved as beasts of burden.  It’s a great illustration of what sin really leads us into – slavery.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Just before Babylon is destroyed – God still has people there. Right there, in the headquarters of the antichrist, at Satan’s earthly throne, God stations His people.  It’s their spiritual assignment.  Incredible.

While we talk about the nuts-and-bolts of the future, we don’t ever want to lose sight of God’s people in it.  It inspires us, and encourages us, as God’s people in the world today.

They are godly, because they have not “share[d] in her sins.”  Are they about to fall into sin?  Verse four makes it almost sound like the believers have overstayed, and are about to start “shar[ing] in” Babylon’s sins.

I don’t think that is what is being said.  There is an alternate reading that says what is being communicated is that they are to come out before they “share” in the punishments for sin that are about to be meted out.

I like that because it better fits the context.  They are stationed there by God, on assignment from Heaven, but before the city is burned, they are called to come out of it.  Their work is done.

Lot, in the Book of Genesis, would be an example of that.  True, the angels had to drag him out of Sodom; that’s not the example.  The example is God calling His people out prior to destruction.

I think we miss the point when we think that “come out of her” is a command for us, as believers, to have less-and-less contact with the world.  In Tribulation Babylon, the believers stay in her until the final judgment falls.

The doctrine of separation is still best summarized by the old Christian cliché, Be in the world, but not of the world.

Jesus prayed for us, saying to our Father, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15).

Paul said,

1Co 5:9  I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.
1Co 5:10  Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

We are in the world, on assignment from God.  Hanford is my posting as a pastor.  I’m here unless I receive orders somewhere else.

And so are you.  Do you want to get out of Hanford?  Out of California?  I think you need to be able to say, “Jesus is calling me out of here to” wherever.  He sends you; you don’t bring Him along with you.

Do you want to stay in Kings County?  That, too, is really up to the Lord.

Rev 18:6  Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her.

The speaker, whoever it is, announces the nonbelievers getting double what they dealt out to believers.  This lets us know that it will be very difficult for the believers in Tribulation Babylon.

Revelation 18:7  “In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’

We get discouraged in our struggle against the world.

Nonbelievers seem to prosper, having this world’s good and goods.  Just wait.  In this life, but especially in the next, sin pays its awful wages: death and eternal conscious torment.

Revelation 18:8  “Therefore her plagues will come in one day; death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

Sudden destruction is breathtaking.  It is overwhelming.  Think Mount St. Helens.

Here is an interesting geologic note.  The original building site of Babylon is known to be full of bitumen, a substance filled with hydrocarbons and therefore highly flammable.

As God sends fire down from heaven, the very foundations upon which Babylon will be rebuilt will burn.

Rev 18:9  “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’

A persons reaction to something says a lot about them.  Weeping and lamenting Babylon’s destruction says that the world’s final rulers will all be wicked, immoral, malevolent men.

Do you have any reactions that are not quite Christ-like?  Probably do.  Think about it; talk to the Lord about it.

Revelation 18:11  “And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore:

Babylon will be a commercial hub for the rest of the world.  “Merchants” from all over the “earth” will supply her.  Some of Babylon’s commerce is listed:

Revelation 18:12  merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;
Revelation 18:13  and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.

It reads like the various departments of a department store:

Jewelry – “merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls…”

Clothing – “fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet…”

Home Furnishings – “every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble…”

Cosmetics – “cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense…”

Food Court – “wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep…”

Automotive – “horses and chariots…”

What about the phrase, “and bodies and souls of men?”  “Bodies” probably means slave trade, including the sex-slave trade. Already rampant today, in Babylon it will be unchecked.

When we frequented the Philippines in the mid- to late- 1980’s, it was sadly popular in that country for European men to vacation and purchase the companionship of very young boys.

Disgusting.

How, though, do you trade in the “souls of men?”  Well, false religions do this everyday.  Let’s say you go to confession, and say prayers for penance.  You are told your sins are absolved.

Are they?  No, of course not.  Yet you go on your way thinking your soul is safe when it has just been bartered to Satan.

Revelation 18:14  The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all.

The word rendered “fruits” means late summer.  In the East this is the season when the fruits ripen, and hence the word is synonymous with fruit.

The reference is to anything that would be regarded as an article of luxury.

This section reads almost like a eulogy at a funeral.  The merchants are eulogizing the city of Babylon.  They ought to be rejoicing that her evil reign is ended forever.

Revelation 18:15  The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

When I lived in Southern California, my childhood home in the foothills was often threatened by wildfires.  There is a morbid fascination with watching the fire advance and waiting as long as possible to evacuate.

Revelation 18:16  and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!
Revelation 18:17  For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance
Revelation 18:18  and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like this great city?’

A “shipmaster” can be the shipowner or the helmsman.  Next, a literal translation of the Greek is “and every one who sails to a place.”  It means every voyager.  It can be a merchant or a passenger.  Think cruise lines.

Third, the “sailors” are those who make up the crew of a ship, and last, there are the people who gain their living from the sea by fishing, ferrying passengers, or building ships.

Revelation 18:19  “They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’

Babylon may be only one city, but the rest of the world will be impacted by its fall.  But instead of lamenting what they think as an interruption in world commerce, the inhabitants of the earth should realize that their time is short.  The seventh and final bowl has been poured-out.  Jesus is coming.

Skip verse twenty for a moment.

Revelation 18:21  Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.

There is obviously no human way possible to retrieve such a millstone cast into the depth of the ocean.  This, then, is the final destruction of Babylon, predicted by Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Tribulation Babylon will also be a cultural center.  You see that next.

Revelation 18:22  The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore.
Music and art and fine cuisine is being described here.  What we commonly refer to as culture.  Obviously it, too, will cease once Babylon is burned.

Revelation 18:23  The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.

The reference to “the light of a lamp” would, in John’s day, mean a feast or party – like a wedding reception.

Babylon will be a favored vacation destination for honeymooners and vacationers of all sorts.

It will be lights-out for Babylon.

“For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.”  “Sorcery” is pharmakea, or drugs.

I wonder just how medicated people will be in the Tribulation?  We are dangerously overmedicated now; how much more then, as the nonbelievers try to deal with the judgments of the seven seals and then the seven trumpets that precede the seven bowls?

Revelation 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”

As the headquarters of the world-dominating, coexist religious system, Babylon will be involved in ordering the persecution and martyrdom of believers in Jesus Christ.  It will only get worse for believers once the antichrist declares himself god.
There might be something more.  It says “in her was found.”  Could it be that in future Babylon executions will take place for those who refuse the beast’s mark – who refuse to worship him?

Possibly… Probably.

So how do believers stationed in Tribulation Babylon do it?  How do they remain victorious while surrounded by so much evil?

The same way God’s people were victorious over Babylon in the past.  If you missed Geno’s study from the first chapter of Daniel, listen to it online; or download the transcript, and read it.

Back in the sixth century BC, when Babylon was big, Daniel and his three friends – all teenagers – were stationed there by God.

They didn’t just survive; they thrived – spiritually speaking.

It will be like that again in Tribulation Babylon… Except that the antichrist, indwelt and empowered by Satan, will be much more terrible than Nebuchadnezzar.

In-between the Babylon’s of Daniel and the Tribulation, we can survive and thrive in the world.

We do it by maintaining spiritual separation.  By being in the world, but not of it.

We decide, moment-by-moment, to look the Lord, rather than lust for the world.  By the indwelling Spirit, we yield ourselves to God, rather than to the flesh.

#2    You’re To Remain Surrendered To Jesus
    While Stressed By The World
    (v20)

One verse left, verse twenty.  It kind of stands alone, as I hope to show you.

Rev 18:20  “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!”

We mentioned earlier that the nonbelievers in Babylon would receive what they deserved for having mistreated God’s people.

Tribulation Babylon will, in fact, receive the punishment that the spirit of Babylon has always, throughout history, deserved.

The ones told to “rejoice over her” are already in Heaven.  They are labelled the “apostles and prophets.”

“Apostles and prophets” are mentioned together, in the New Testament, as the gifted men God used to begin the church (Ephesian 2:20 & 3:5).  This might, then, be a reference to the church, already safe in Heaven before the destruction of Babylon.

In fact we believe the church will be safe in Heaven before the Tribulation even begins, having been resurrected and raptured.

If verse twenty is talking about us, then it reminds us that we live in a day of grace in which patience is required as we wait for the Lord.  The world around us, influenced by the spirit of Babylon, is an enemy.  We face many stresses, and much suffering, from the world on account of being believers in Jesus Christ.

We are to become, and then remain, surrendered to Jesus despite the stresses of our situation.

If you are not yet a believer, surrender yourself to the Lord.  Agree with Him, at once, that you are a sinner, and that He your only Savior.

If you are a believer, check yourself by this quote from Charles Spurgeon:

Don’t keep back any part of your life. Make a full surrender of every inclination of your heart; work to have but one purpose, and one aim.  And for this purpose give God complete control of your heart.  Cry out for more of the divine control of the Holy Spirit, so that as your soul is preserved and protected by Him, that it may be directed into one river, and one only, that your life may run deep and pure, and clear and peaceful; it’s only banks being God’s will, it’s only river the love of Christ and a desire to please Him.

“Cry out,” Spurgeon suggested.  Here is how Jesus put it:

Luk 11:9  “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Luk 11:10  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Luk 11:13  … how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Let’s cry-out!

Beauty On The Beast (Revelation 17:1-18)

How long – start to finish, groundbreaking to ribbon cutting – do you think it would take to build a 30-story luxury hotel?

If I told you it could be done in fifteen days, would you believe me?

A construction crew in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha built a 183,000 square-foot hotel, with no injuries to any worker, in just fifteen days.  That’s only 360 hours.

The Ark Hotel was built on Dongting Lake, in the Hunan Province. It can withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake, which is five times more quake-resistant than conventional buildings.

Another developer in China built an entire 57-story building in just 19 days.

The Sky City building was put up brick by brick at a rate of three full stories a day in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.

The building has 800 apartments and enough office space for 4000 people.

You’ve heard of Dubai, but have you heard of Dubai Internet City?  It was built as a tech-center just a few miles from Dubai.  Occupying 400 acres, it opened with ten buildings, three hundred companies, and 3500 users.

It was built, start to finish, in just 12 months.

Let me tell you what this has to do with chapters seventeen and eighteen of the Revelation.  We’re going to read about Babylon, and there is lively scholarly debate about whether or not the apostle John meant the city of Babylon rebuilt on its historic site on the Euphrates River in Iraq; or whether he meant Babylon as a spiritual description of some other city, or even something allegorical, like the evil world system.

When I say he meant it as a real city, built on its original site along the Euphrates River in Iraq, the critics say, “It’s not possible for such a city to be built quickly enough to be significant in the seven-year Tribulation.”

O, yes it is; today it is.  And it will be built – just in time to be destroyed by God.

In chapter eighteen, we will be introduced to the political and economic side of Tribulation Babylon.  Here in chapter seventeen we see the spiritual side of that great but terrible city.

Spiritually speaking, Babylon will be described as a harlot; in fact, she is called the “mother of all harlots.”

Since she is the “mother” of all spiritual harlots, her influence has been felt in every generation.  She is active now, seeking to seduce people away from the pure love of God into spiritual fornication.

As we look at Tribulation Babylon, I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 You’re Made Aware Of The Constant Seduction Of The Spiritual Harlot, and #2 You’re Made Aware Of The Coming Destruction Of The Spiritual Harlot.

#1    You’re Made Aware Of The
    Constant Seduction Of The Spiritual Harlot
    (v1-6)

Let’s share a doctrinal moment.  We are what is called ‘futurist’ in our approach to the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  We see most of the book as describing future events – things that have yet to occur.

The other approaches to interpreting the Revelation all allegorize the text to a certain extent.

It is important we be consistent in our futurism.  We can’t accuse others of seeing allegories in the Revelation, then do that ourselves.

Futurists sometimes stumble a little when it comes to Tribulation Babylon.  They suggest it is ‘code’ for another city, like Rome, or New York, or the Vatican.  Or that it is ‘code’ for evil in a general sense.  In other words, we tend to allegorize Babylon.

When we are consistent, then Babylon in the Revelation means the literal city of Babylon, rebuilt on its ancient site in Iraq.

There is absolutely no biblical reason to suppose that all of a sudden, in the future, Babylon means something or somewhere else.

After Jerusalem, Babylon is the most mentioned city in the Bible.  There are some three hundred references to it.

Babylon will be quickly rebuilt, and for the first three-and-one-half years of the Tribulation, it will be the home base for a world-dominating false religion.

In verses one through six, John receives a vision of the religious system of Tribulation Babylon.  The interpretation of what he saw is then given in verses seven through eighteen.

Rev 17:1  Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,

Chapter sixteen ended with the pouring-out upon earth of the seventh, and final, bowl of the wrath of God.  It marked the end of the seven-year Tribulation.  Chronologically, chapter nineteen comes next, with the Second Coming of Jesus to earth.

What we have in chapters seventeen and eighteen is a parenthesis – a pause – to tell us about the rise and fall of Babylon during those seven years.

God considers Babylon “the great harlot.”  He sees her as a spiritual seductress.

In the Old Testament, God describes His relationship to Israel as that of a Husband and wife.

In the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Jesus Christ.

If we are being seduced by a spiritual harlot, and if we succumb to her, then we are committing fornication, and are spiritual adulterers.

It is a powerful illustration, to get us to understand how very serious the love of God for us is.

God’s love is jealous.  Now, we always think of jealousy in a bad light.  We ought to be glad, and rejoice, that God is jealous for us.  It means He knows what is best for us, and works in our lives to keep us from giving our hearts to harlots who will only leave us ruined – spiritually and literally.

Rev 17:2  with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

“Kings of the earth” lets us know that Babylon has exerted its influence throughout history.  We get a lot of that history from the book of beginnings – Genesis.

Babylon was founded by Nimrod.  In Genesis we are told he began to be “a mighty one” – meaning  a tyrant.  We read, “he was a mighty hunter against the Lord.”  Nimrod may have hunted game, but this phrase describes him hunting other men; not for sport, but to subdue them.  He set himself against God by searching out men, subduing them, and bringing them under his own rule.

In Genesis 10:10 we read, “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel…”  Nimrod, then, was the world’s first dictator, and his capital city was Babel, which we know as Babylon.

By the way – Nimrod prefigures the final world dictator, the antichrist, whose capital city will also be Babylon.

Babylon is the location where mankind first began to worship in organized rebellion against God at the Tower of Babel.  The tower was not an attempt to build a stairway to Heaven.  It was what archaeologists call a ziggurat.  These are terraced stepped-pyramids built to worship other gods.

One such excavated ziggurat, called the Burs Nimûd, is described by archaeologists as follows:

“The [tower]… was built of kiln-burnt bricks, and the building rose in seven receding stages, in conformity with the [Babylonian] planetary system… The entire original height…would thus have been 156 feet… the different stages were colored after the hue of the planets to which they were respectively dedicated… On the seventh stage there was probably placed the ark or tabernacle…[which] must have nearly covered the top of the seventh story… The whole [structure] formed a kind of oblique pyramid.”

Extensive historical information exists documenting the Babylonian religion established at the Tower of Babel.  We know that the wife of Nimrod became the head of this religious system. She was known by the name Semiramis.

She gave birth to a son who she claimed was conceived miraculously. This son, Tammuz, was considered a savior.

Both Semiramis and her son were worshipped. She was depicted as the queen of heaven, seen holding her infant son in her
arms.

Tammuz, according to the tradition, was killed by a wild animal and then restored to life.  It seems to be a satanic anticipation and counterfeit of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.

To halt the progress of the Tower of Babel, God confounded human languages, so that folks could not understand one another.   As those who could still communicate went out from Babel, the false religion of Babel went in every direction.

In Assyria, you find Ishtar and her son, Tammuz.

In Phoenicia, you find Astarte and her son, Baal.

In Egypt, Isis and her son, Osiris.

In Greece, Aphrodite and her son, Eros.

In Rome, Venus and her son, Cupid.

It is therefore a fact of recorded history that Babylon has exerted its influence upon kingdoms, including today.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.

Don’t get antsy; the angel showing John these things is going to interpret them.

Rev 17:5  And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

As we have explained before, a “mystery” in the Bible is something previously concealed that is being revealed.  The mystery revealed here is that Babylon has, indeed, influenced “the kings of the earth” and “the inhabitants of the earth.”

She is the “mother” from which all other false religions have their origin.  I suggested some direct comparisons in kingdoms that had a mother-son worship.  Whether or not a religion copies those Babylonian practices, the rebellion that occurred at Babel, with its attempt to worship something or someone other than God in an organized, systematic way, is the influence for everything that is false, and that opposes the Word of God.

“Abominations” and “filthiness” are summary words to describe the results of leaving God behind and worshipping the creation, or the creature, rather than the Creator.  The first chapter of Romans does a nice job of explaining the deterioration that accompanies spiritual seduction.  Let me read just a portion.

Rom 1:25  [they] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever…
Rom 1:26  For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Rom 1:27  Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Rom 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Rom 1:29  being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
Rom 1:30  backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31  undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
Rom 1:32  who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Abominations and filthiness are the wake of being seduced by the harlot.

Rev 17:6  I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Pop quiz: Who does the Bible say was “a murderer from the beginning?”  The devil (John 8:44).  Satan is, of course, the malevolent force behind Babylon, and its murderous rebellion.

His particular target has been the ancestors and successors of the chosen nation of Israel.  But he’s killed a bunch of Christians along the way that leads to the Tribulation – where the devil goes on a rampage against all the followers of Jesus.

Here is what these opening verses establish.  The Satan-inspired religious rebellion of the human race at Babel spread from there throughout history to every culture in every corner of the world.

It will come to its zenith in the future seven-year Tribulation Babylon.

It is just as much at work in the world today.

You are constantly being spiritually seduced by a murderous harlot whose purpose it is to see you destroyed.  The things that seek to undermine your walk with Jesus are no less whorish, and no less horrible.

Don’t try to be like Ulysses.  He wanted to hear the song of the beautiful Sirens, which drove sailors mad, causing them to crash and die upon the rocks.  Ulysses had his men tie him to the mast, then stuff wax in their ears.  While they rowed safely by, he heard the Sirens, and survived.

Are you tied to some sinful mast?  Repent, and keep yourself in the love of God.  Jesus is your heavenly Bridegroom, busy cleansing you, adorning you, to meet our Father in Heaven.

#2    You’re Made Aware Of The
    Coming Destruction Of The Spiritual Harlot
    (v7-18)

Babylon will be quickly rebuilt, becoming the capital of what is either a one-world religion, or (more likely) an ecumenical center open to all faiths.

It’s more likely that it is something open to all faiths because we know it will coexist with Jews worshipping at their rebuilt Temple.

It’s like those (coexist) bumper stickers.

The seven symbols come from various ideologies and religions.

The first is a crescent moon with a star, an Islamic symbol.

The second is a peace sign.

The third is the letter “e” with male and female symbols incorporated into it.

The fourth is the star of David, the religious symbol for the Jewish faith.

I believe the fifth is the letter “i” with the dot as a pentagram – a symbol used with Wiccan and witchcraft.

The sixth letter is the letter “S” with a ying and yang symbol behind it.  Ying and yang are a representation of perfect balance or equality used in Chinese Philosophy.

Last, the Cross, representing Christianity.

A kumbaya arrangement continues for the first three-and-one-half years of the Tribulation, until the antichrist – whose other name in this chapter is “the beast” – openly demands to be worshipped.  When he does, he and those aligned with him destroy all that has to do with the religious aspects of Tribulation Babylon.

Rev 17:7  But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

If we only had the vision, we’d be confused.  We could agree with those who say that the Revelation is full of signs and symbols that cannot be understood.  As always, be patient and read on – and everything is made clear.

Rev 17:8  The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Earlier in our studies we saw, mid-Tribulation, the antichrist assassinated, but raised back to life.  That is what John means when he says he “was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit.”

After the Tribulation, he is destined to “go to perdition.”  He will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire to suffer eternal conscious torment.

We explained in a previous study that the Book of Life is the Book of the Living – a record of every human being.  Your name remains there unless you die having rejected Jesus as your Savior.  When that happens, your name is removed – blotted out.

The Tribulation folks whose names have been blotted out chose to worship the beast even though they were warned by God to not do so.  The choice they make to worship the beast is a conscious, willful rebellion against God, and a rejection of Jesus, from which they will not repent.

Rev 17:9  “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
Rev 17:10  There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.

The key to deciphering this kingdom math is that the angel tells John “one [kingdom] is.”  One of the kingdoms existed in John’s day.  It was the Roman Empire.

That means the “five” kingdoms had “fallen” prior to Rome.  They were: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece.  Along with Rome, these are the kingdoms that the Bible is most interested in.

They are the ones the angel shows Daniel in his prophecies.  We’re looking at history from God’s point of view, not ours.

Rome is thus the sixth kingdom, and it is a seventh kingdom that “… has not yet come.”  It is described in verses eleven and twelve:

Revelation 17:11  “And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.

The beast, the antichrist, was part of the seventh kingdom, and is also the eighth kingdom… Huh?

It’s really not that confusing!

Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece are kingdoms one, two, three, four and five.

Rome, at the time of John, is six.

The Roman Empire will be revived in the first years of the Tribulation, making it kingdom number seven.

The Revived Roman Empire ruled by the antichrist during the last half of the Tribulation would be number eight in this list.

The antichrist, then, was “of the seven,” but comes to supreme power, and is the eighth kingdom.

What about the comment, “the seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits.”
Some say her HQ must therefore be in Rome, in Italy, because Rome is, after all, renowned as the city of seven hills.

Bible commentator J.A. Seiss wrote,

The seven hills of the city of Rome, to begin with, are not mountains, as every one who has been there can testify… But the taking of them as literal hills or mountains at all is founded upon a total misreading of the angel’s words.

… the angel… does not say, “the seven heads are seven mountains, where the Woman sitteth upon them,” and there leave off; but he adds immediately, “and they are seven kings,” or personified kingdoms.  The mountains, then, are not piles of material rocks and earth at all, but [kingdoms].

Rev 17:12  “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
Rev 17:13  These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.

After demanding to be worshipped following his assassination and resurrection, the antichrist will consolidate the Revived Roman Empire into an eighth world empire.  It will consist of a coalition of ten kingdoms, or probably regions, of the world subordinate to his supreme power.  These rule as the eighth kingdom.

Rev 17:14  These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

Jesus returns to earth in His Second Coming and, when He does, all the armies of the earth turn against Him, but are destroyed by Him.

Someone is with Jesus at His coming, at His victory.  Who are those “called, chosen, and faithful?”

It’s us – the church – having been raptured prior to the start of the Tribulation.

Rev 17:15  Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.

O yeah; we were talking about a harlot.  Did we get sidetracked talking instead about the antichrist?

No, not at all.  The harlot, who had so much influence over the whole earth, is going to have a problem mid-Tribulation.  If the antichrist demands to be worshipped as god, how can the false, one-world, coexist religion go on?  It can’t.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.

Whatever the final form of the religion of Tribulation Babylon is, whether a one-world religion, or an ecumenical union of all religions, when the beast arises from the Abyss empowered and indwelt by Satan, his ten buddies will aid him in destroying her.

You must either worship him, or else.  “It’s my way, or the die-way.”

Rev 17:18  And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

The harlot “is that great city” in that she is headquartered there.  If I say, “Vatican City,” you think of the Roman Catholic religion.  It’s a real city, but, at the same time, it is a seat of global religious power and influence.  Same idea here.

By the way, what about Roman Catholicism?  Isn’t she the harlot, as the Reformers, and many evangelicals, thought and taught?

To the extent Roman Catholic doctrine is a religion of works that promotes idol worship, it will certainly be a part of the ‘coexist’ religions of Tribulation Babylon.

But so will all false religions and philosophies.  So I’m no longer singling-out Catholicism as the harlot, all by herself; but she doesn’t get a pass, either.

Someone let me know that it was Linda Ronstadt’s birthday on the 15th.  She’s 69.

I sarcastically commented, “When will she be loved?”

Jesus loves you.  He demonstrated His love by taking your place on the Cross; by dying in your place,

He took your sin upon Himself so you could be declared righteous by God, have your sins forgiven, and enjoy eternal life, both now and forever.

Satan, who is behind the mother of all harlots, is a pimp.  He has a stable full of seductresses.  Like the Sirens, get too close and you will turn towards them, and be shipwrecked.

Who are the Sirens in your life?  Don’t think you’re going to be able to get closer-and-closer to them.  Get away from them.

Flee into the arms, and heart, of the Lord, Who loves you with an everlasting love; and who drew you to Himself.

Super Bowls VII (Revelation 15-16)

His superhero name is the Sphinx, and his super power among his fellow Mystery Men is to speak in predictable sayings.

Here are a few of them:

“He who questions training only trains himself at asking questions.”
“When you doubt your powers, you give power to your doubts.”
“When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you will head off your foes with a balanced attack.”

If you think those are profound, they’re not, so hold on before you tweet them, or post them to Facebook.  The movie they are from is a parody, and they are intended to be funny.

I will risk a saying this morning: “The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay.”

Pastors and Bible teachers sometimes (in fact, often) use it to point out the two very different responses people have to the Gospel in times of trial or trouble in their lives.  Some lean on the Lord, and become better for it, while others loathe the Lord, becoming bitter.

The greatest time of trial and trouble the world will ever know is the future seven year Tribulation.  As the judgments of God upon the earth and those who dwell upon it come to their conclusion with the pouring out of the seven bowls full of the wrath of God, there are two very distinct responses:

Believers who were martyred during the Tribulation are described as blessing God by singing to Him a song of deliverance (15:3-4), while those yet alive as His final wrath is being poured-out remain faithful to the end (16:15).

Nonbelievers, having refused to repent (16:11), are described as gnawing their own tongues (16:10), and as blaspheming God to the bitter end (16:21).

We’ve been calling the Tribulation “the grace of wrath,” since God’s judgment being carefully meted out upon the earth dwellers is designed to lead them to salvation.

Since God’s grace is active all the time, we can see it in our trials and troubles now, prior to the Tribulation.  That means we, too, who currently dwell on earth can bless Him; or we can scorn grace, and blaspheme Him.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions: #1 Do You Bless God Seeing His Grace At Work?, or #2 Do You Blaspheme God  Scorning His Grace At Work?

#1    Do You Bless God
    Seeing His Grace At Work?
    (Chapter 15)

After a few chapters that filled-in some details, we arrive at the closing months of the seven-year Tribulation with the rapid pouring-out of what are called seven bowls of the wrath of God in chapter sixteen.  Chapter fifteen sets it up, describing the ceremony in the Temple in Heaven as the bowls are brought forth.

Rev 15:1  Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

Put most simply, God’s wrath is His necessary and proper response to human sin and disobedience.  A.W. Pink said it is “the holiness of God stirred into action against sin.”

His wrath will be “complete” reminds us that God will have done everything possible to save lost human beings from His wrath before He unleashes it upon the earth.

Rev 15:2  And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

These are the believers who were killed during the Tribulation.  Their “victory over the beast” was to die confessing Jesus Christ as their Lord.  When the moment of decision came, they refused to worship the antichrist, and showed their worship of Jesus Christ with their blood.

Victory in the Christian life is often God’s strength that is forged from your weakness.  It looks like defeat until you see it from Heaven.

Rev 15:3  They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!
Rev 15:4  Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.”

Moses sang his song right after God swallowed up Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea.  It really happened, but it also prefigured a greater victory to come, in the Tribulation.  If you’ll recall, a few chapters ago we read about Satan pursuing Israel into the Judean wilderness, but God protecting them.  So it could be that these martyrs are singing about the fact that God protects, on earth, the remnant of Jews who will receive Jesus as their King at His Second Coming.

Commentators are all over the place trying to identify the “song of the Lamb.”  It’s most likely verses three and four, being sung by the Lamb – by Jesus – to His Father.  It anticipates His return to earth to rule and reign for one thousand years.

The Tribulation is elsewhere called “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7).  It is also known as the seventieth week of Daniel.  It’s a time especially for God to fulfill His promises to Israel.  God will keep His promises to deliver Israel, and Jesus will return to establish the Kingdom.

Rev 15:5  After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.
Rev 15:6  And out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having their chests girded with golden bands.

Held back for centuries by God’s longsuffering with sinners, the seven angels appointed this task will be released.

It struck me how beautiful, and how beautifully dressed, they are.  The wrath of God, once released, is a beautiful thing, in that it brings all rebellion, all lawlessness, to an end.  It clears the way for a kingdom in which righteousness and holiness are enforced.

Rev 15:7  Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
Rev 15:8  The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

For anyone – believer or nonbeliever – who ever wondered why God isn’t doing something about all the bad things in the world, all the suffering, this moment in the future, in the closing months of the Tribulation, is the answer.  He is waiting for men to repent and, when they absolutely show that they will not, God puts an end to sin by pouring out His wrath upon them.

He’d rather men realize that He already poured-out His wrath against sin upon Jesus, on the Cross.  He’d rather men let Jesus be their Substitute and Savior.

But if they refuse, after so much prompting in the Tribulation, they will get what they deserve as sinners in the presence of a holy God.

It’s been our goal, throughout this series, to emphasize that, even though it’s the Tribulation, God’s grace is powerfully at work seeking to save lost men and women.

We will not be in the Tribulation.  While we are in the world, we will have tribulation – trials, troubles, tragedies.

Can you see, and even sing of, God’s grace at work?  The apostle Paul saw and sang about grace.

In one place he declared that whether he was abounding in blessings, or being abased by buffetings, he learned to be content (Philippians 4:12).  That’s grace at work.

In another place he said God’s answer to his prayer about a physical affliction he was suffering with was that it was good for him, to keep him humble and depending upon God’s strength.  He rejoiced in it (Second Corinthians 12).  That’s grace at work.

Paul wasn’t the apostle of grace just because he wrote so much about it.  It wasn’t something intellectual to him; it was something intimate.

Are you abounding?  It’s grace at work.  Don’t think for a minute it’s because of anything you have done.  Be thankful for it, rather than taking it for granted.

Are you abased – suffering or in some way struggling?  Grace will lead you through it, with rejoicing.

#2    Do You Blaspheme God
    Scorning His Grace At Work?
    (Chapter 16)

Speaking of sayings… Yogi Berra was famous for his odd sayings.  Here is a sampling of them:

“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”
“I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia.  Let them walk to school like I did.”
“It gets late early out there.”
“You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”

The one I want to get to, one of his most quoted, is, “The game’s isn’t over til it’s over.”

In chapter sixteen, it’s over.  We’ve still got stuff ahead of us in the Revelation – great stuff.  But the Tribulation comes crashing to its end as the bowls are rapidly poured-out.

Rev 16:1  Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.”

Again and again I want to point out that God has been busy throughout the history of the human race to let people know that this was coming, and could be personally avoided by faith in Jesus Christ.

Revelation 16:2  So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

Sores, like boils, break-out, probably on the hand or head where the mark of the Beast is.  The real nature of their decision to take the mark and follow the Beast is revealed.  They thought his mark would save them, but his mark was a sign of their own spiritual rottenness.

Revelation 16:3  Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.

Back in chapter eight there was a partial contamination of the seas.  Now it is complete.

I don’t think we can begin to fathom the effects of this judgment.  “Blood as of a dead man” is a phrase describing the stench from all the dead creatures.

Revelation 16:4  Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
Revelation 16:5  And I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things.
Revelation 16:6  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, And You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.”
Revelation 16:7  And I heard another from the altar saying, “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”

These who rejected Jesus also shed the blood of His saints; now in a moment of poetic justice, they are given blood to drink.

Revelation 16:8  Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire.
Revelation 16:9  And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.

The weather seems so important to us – the temperature, the humidity.  In the Tribulation, when someone says, “It’s a real scorcher out there,” it will be.

Remember that in the middle of the Tribulation God dispatched an angel to warn men that, if they took his mark and worshipped the Beast, they would be lost, spiritually, forever.  I therefore take their  failure to repent here, in the end, to be the sad consequence of that previous decision.

Revelation 16:10  Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.
Revelation 16:11  They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

Even while the sun is intensified, darkness covers the “throne of the beast” and his “kingdom.”  It’s God’s way of calling the world’s attention to the center of opposition to Him.

The verse speaks of an incredible “pain” associated with this bowl.  Have you ever been in so much pain that you bit down on something?  I remember biting down on my wallet as I was transported via van to the hospital after I had broken my leg.

Have you ever bitten your own tongue?  Man, does that ever hurt.

OK, now put that together.  The pain men will experience in the will be so intense that they will “gnaw” on their own tongues in some sort of failed effort to alleviate their suffering.

Sin is dark.  Men like to hide their evil deeds under cover of darkness.    But in the darkness we hurt others and we hurt ourselves.

Come out into the light.  If you’re sinning, you CAN repent.

Revelation 16:12  Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.

The Euphrates is one of the prominent rivers in the world.  It formed the eastern border of the old Roman Empire.

The Euphrates was the site of the worlds first great (and rebellious) city, Babel, after the global flood.  It was the site of Nebuchadnezzar’s magnificent capital, Babylon.  On its shores in the future there will be a New Babylon to serve as the capital for the antichrist.  (We’ll read about it in the next two chapters).

Exactly how the sixth angel acts to dry up the river is not stated.  It could involves shifts in the tectonic plates of the earth.  A major earthquake is discussed a little later.

It’s interesting to observe in passing that the source of the water for the Euphrates is the perennial ice cap near the 17,000 foot summit of Mount Ararat.  It’s where most researchers believe that Noah’s ark came to rest.  It could be that God has kept us from discovering the ark so it could be revealed in the last days as a witness to the world of God’s impending return for judgment.

There is so much going on with these bowls, it’s hard to get it all in.  For example there are a ton of similarities to the ten plagues before the Exodus – like darkness over the land, and water turning to blood.

Then there is something Jews would immediately recognize.  When the angels emerge from the Temple, they look a lot like the high priest emerging from the Temple once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  But since those who dwell on the earth have rejected Jesus, God’s wrath is poured-out on them.

The river is dried up to prepare a passageway for the “kings of the east,” literally, of the “sunrising.”

Revelation 16:13  And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Revelation 16:14  For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Yuk.  The armies of the nations of the world come for what they think are their own political reasons.  But, in reality, their movements are satanically inspired.

A lot of things that happen in the world, and throughout history, when it comes to governments, are satanic.  The devil is, after all, the god of this world.

Why gather all the armies?  The devil knows Jesus is coming back and wants to oppose Him.

But it’s not his battle.  It is “the battle of the great day of Almighty God.”  Whatever strategy Satan devises, God has His own moves to overcome him.

Verse fifteen is a direct quotation from the Lord:

Revelation 16:15  “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

The thief comes suddenly and unexpectedly resulting in your being plundered.  Similar warnings are given in Matthew 24 and Luke 12.  Those who are not ready will suffer loss.

The church will not be on the earth at this time, nor at any time during the Tribulation.  The apostle Paul assured the Christians at Thessalonica that the Day of the Lord could not overtake them as a thief (First Thessalonians 5:4).

The Lord speaks these words to encourage believers on the earth during the final months of the Tribulation, to remain faithful.

Revelation 16:16  And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.

Megiddo is a hill which overlooks the Jezreel valley.  On the opposite side of the valley can be seen Nazareth, the home town of Jesus until His ministry began.  Megiddo in Hebrew means something like rendezvous, or place of troops.

Armageddon is derived from the original Hebrew word pronounced har-Megiddon.

The plain there at Megiddo is fourteen miles wide and twenty miles long.  Napoleon called it “the most natural battlefield of the whole earth.”

Jerusalem initially falls to the forces of the antichrist, prior to the return of the Lord.  In Zechariah 14:2 we read,

Zechariah 14:2  For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

But then:

Zechariah 14:3  Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle.

Joel 3:16  The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.

Zephaniah 3:8  “Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord, “Until the day I rise up for plunder; My determination is to gather the nations To My assembly of kingdoms, To pour on them My indignation, All My fierce anger; All the earth shall be devoured With the fire of My jealousy.

Armageddon isn’t a metaphor for some maybe-we-can-divert-it destruction.  It’s a place where mankind’s centuries-long, Satan-led rebellion will be crushed.

Revelation 16:17  Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

There were seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls.  “It is done!”

Revelation 16:18  And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.

A storm breaks out overhead.  The earth shakes beneath.  The next verses will describe some of the dreadfulness of these two things.

Weather can be terrifying and it can kill.  The same with earthquakes.

Revelation 16:19  Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

This is a global shaking; “the cities of [all] the nations fell.”

What is “the great city?”  It could be Jerusalem; or the rebuilt “Babylon” mentioned in the verse.

Jerusalem will, in fact, experience geographic alterations at the Second Coming of Jesus.  For one thing, we know that Mount Zion will split in two.

I am one who thinks that Babylon will be rebuilt in Iraq and serve as the antichrist’s capital.

Back to the earthquake itself:

Revelation 16:20  Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

This is the Big One – the 10.0.  (It’s off the charts).  This seems to indicate topographic changes all over the planet – not confined to the area around the Middle East.  Creation scientists see this as a leveling of the planet.  High peaks and low troughs and valleys level out so the entire planet is somewhat accessible during the reign of Jesus.

Everyone will be able to climb Everest.

Think of how terrifying a seismic event like this will be.  If you’ve ever experienced a severe earthquake, multiply that by like a million.

Revelation 16:21  And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.

The largest hailstone recovered in the US fell in Aurora, NE on June 22, 2003 with a diameter of 7 inches and a circumference of 18.75 inches.  Since its weight could not be determined, the hailstone that fell on Coffeyville KS in 1970 remains the largest on record at 5.7 inches and 1.67 pounds, with a circumference of 17.5 inches.

A “talent” is believed to be around one hundred pounds.

“The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay.”

The Tribulation saints see the grace of God at work and they bless Him.  Most are martyred, but some are alive during the bowls; Jesus lets them know He’s not coming for them as a thief, but as as their Savior.

Nonbelievers blaspheme, using their tongues to gnaw upon rather than to acknowledge God’s grace.

If you’re a believer, it’s doubtful you blaspheme God during your trials.  But do you bless Him – for His grace in them?

If you’re not a believer, that can be rectified by God’s grace as He offers you the forgiveness of your sins through faith in Jesus Christ.

Rom 5:8  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

God already poured-out His wrath against sin upon Jesus for you.  You cannot withstand it on your own.

Receive the Lord!

Angels In The Atmosfield (Revelation 14:1-20)

Go for it… Go for broke… Pull out all the stops… Go all out.

They are the expressions we use to describe extraordinary effort put into some task.

Racer Jeff Gordon once said, “When you’ve got the Daytona 500 out there at stake and everything riding on the line, guys go for it, and the guys that go for it are the ones that are either going to win, or they’re going to wreck.”

Pro surfer Bethany Hamilton, who survived a shark attack but lost her arm, said, “I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe He gave me the passion and determination to continue surfing… I had to go for it.”

Chapter fourteen of the Revelation of Jesus Christ has a “go for it” spirit.  It depicts the extraordinary effort by God in the seven-year Tribulation to reach men with the Gospel before it’s too late for them to make a decision.

First we see God “go all out” from the very start of the Tribulation by raising-up and sending-out 144,000 Jewish evangelists to preach the Gospel.
Second we see God “pull out all the stops” mid-Trib by dispatching an angel into earth’s atmosphere “to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people…”

It reminds us, too, that when it comes to Jesus Christ, we all have a decision to make; and that our decision determines our eternal destiny.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 The Gospel Demands That You Make A Decision, and #2 The Lord Defers To The Decision That You Make.

#1    The Gospel Demands That You Make A Decision
(v1-13)

My favorite thought about the Revelation of Jesus Christ, this time through it, is that, on every page, God is portrayed as calling out to sinners, not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to eternal life.

Sure, it’s intense; but that’s because the time to repent of sin, and be saved, is so short, and running out.

Verses one through five both take us back to the very beginning of the seven years, and they show us the end of those years.

Rev 14:1  Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.

This takes us back because, as the Tribulation began, we saw, in chapter seven, God choose and commission these 144,000 Jews to go around the world preaching the Gospel.  They are 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

They were sealed by God and rendered untouchable by their enemies.  Here we see them, safe and sound, at the very end of the seven years, having accomplished their task.

“Lamb” is John’s favorite name for Jesus in this book.  He’s the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

Mount Zion is on earth.  This is an earthly scene.  It is the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the seven years.  There the 144,000 will gather to Him and then accompany Him into the Millennial Kingdom on the earth.

Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps.

“Harps” are really instruments that we would call guitars.

These sounds coming “from Heaven” will be the soundtrack for the singing of verse three.

Think of certain movies you love, and you’ll realize the soundtrack played an extremely important role telling the story.

Rev 14:3  They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.

We’ve seen these characters “before the throne,” before:

The “four living creatures” are a type of angel, whose joy and job it is to worship the Lord day and night.
The “elders” are the church – resurrected and raptured and safe in Heaven prior to the Tribulation.

Don’t the 144,000 need to be in Heaven to be singing “before the throne?”  No.  Whenever we sing, isn’t it to God?  Aren’t we before Him?  Doesn’t He hear it before His throne?

The 144,000 are on the earth with Jesus, on Mount Zion, at His Second Coming.  Heaven is providing a live soundtrack for a song they sing.

It’s a “new song.”  God is preparing a lot of new music for the return of Jesus.

As for our evangelists, “no one could learn that song” except them.  They were “redeemed from the earth,” saved by grace through faith, as is always the case.  But it’s clear they are a very distinct, very unique group, among all those who are saved.

Rev 14:4  These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins…
The fact they “were not defiled with women” seems to argue for their being men.

As to sexual activity they are said to be “virgins.”  Why?  Think about it: These guys are untouchable by the forces of evil but that would not extend to a wife and family.  They are better off without those relationships, in the Tribulation.

The Bible does not teach celibacy as being more spiritual – only that at certain times it is preferable.

It is possible to relate these words to spiritual purity as well, letting us know that these guys avoid all spiritual fornication.  But I think the more literal interpretation is intended.

Rev 14:4  These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.

When you read that “they follow the Lamb wherever He goes” it looks forward after the Second Coming to their work in the kingdom on the earth Jesus will establish.

Talk about a posse.

“These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”  The firstfruits are always the promise of a greater harvest.  This is one confirmation that they are God’s evangelists.  They get saved, and as they go through the Tribulation, God uses them to save multitudes.

Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

“Deceit” is a word that can be associated with idols and idolatry.  The reign of the antichrist is characterized by lies and idolatry.  In fact, we read in Second Thessalonians that there is something called “the lie” that people who follow the antichrist will believe (2:11).

The 144,000 never waver.  There is no compromise at all in them.  Not only do they all make it through to the end, they do so without being broken by the pressures exerted on them.

The 144,000 are also said to be “without fault.”  It could be translated “without blemish.”  Jews were familiar with the phrase as describing the quality of the sacrifices that were worthy of being brought to God.

There, standing with the Lamb of God Who was without blemish in His sacrifice on the Cross, are 144,000 followers without blemish.

John wrote these things after the destruction of the Temple in 70AD.  The Jews could no longer offer their sacrifices – their lambs – to God.  But they didn’t need to, because Jesus was the last Lamb, and by faith in Him, the Jews could be given His righteousness, to be like Him.

In the middle of the Tribulation, things will get much more intense  for those who dwell on the earth.  We saw, in chapter thirteen, the man we call the antichrist will be assassinated, but returned to life.  We also saw that he would be empowered by Satan.
Although he can’t touch the 144,000, he is given power to kill two other powerful witnesses.  He has a sidekick who can perform miracles and signs and wonders, and who demands everyone worship the antichrist.  If they refuse, they will first be cut-off from society, then cut-down.

At the precise moment when the greatest pressure is on for lost men and women to make the decision that would forfeit their souls to the devil, God dispatches an angel with the Gospel.

Rev 14:6  Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people –
Rev 14:7  saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Every now and then there is some atmospheric event that gets us out and looking up at the sky.  Mid-tribulation, people will tell you to go outside and look up because an angel is flying by, talking from the sky.

Talk about pulling out all the stops, this is it when it comes to Gospel preaching.  “Every nation, tribe, tongue, and people,” meaning EVERYONE, will hear the warning and be invited to receive the Lord as their Savior.

Have you ever heard that the Gospel must be preached to the whole world before Jesus can return?  It’s true – with regards to His Second Coming.  The Gospel will be preached to the whole world by this angel.

The Gospel does not, and most likely will not, be preached to the whole world prior to the resurrection and rapture of the church.

The Gospel is called “the everlasting Gospel.”  That’s because of the particular aspects of it that the angel emphasizes, that “the hour of His judgment has come.”

This is their last opportunity to decide.  Everlasting life in Heaven or in Hell is always on the line, but in the middle of the Tribulation it will be on the line as never before, because the clock is ticking.

Rev 14:8  And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

This next angel looks ahead to the fall and destruction of a literal city of Babylon that will exist in the Tribulation.  There is also going to be a false religious system called Babylon.  We’ll read all about them and their fall in chapters seventeen and eighteen.

The city and the system make “all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”  The world wants to get you drunk with its excesses so you will commit spiritual fornication.  One aspect of being drunk is you are desensitized to things that would normally be off limits.  You feel uninhibited.  The world gluts us so that things that we would once have considered off limits don’t seem so bad – or even seem good.

Rev 14:9  Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,

Rev 14:10  he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

Any concern about involuntarily taking the mark of the beast and being lost forever without realizing it should be alleviated by these verses.  Whatever the mark turns out to be, you must consciously choose to worship or to not worship the antichrist.  You will first be warned by an angel declaring these words from the sky in clear language you can understand.

This is why having a Social Security number, or a credit card, or a national ID card, or even having an implanted microchip, do not bother me in the least.  We won’t be on earth when the antichrist demands worship.  It won’t be until mid-trib, three and one half years into it.  I will have been resurrected or raptured along with all the believers of the church age.

If you want to oppose microchipping, do it on the basis of privacy issues.  It’s not a biblical problem, really.  Technology is not the mark.

Eternal conscious torment is (sadly) taught in the Bible.  I wish it wasn’t.  There awaits the devil and fallen angels, the antichrist and his false prophet, an eternal place of torment with fire and brimstone.  It was created especially for them.  But it will be the eternal destination of all those humans who worship the antichrist after being forewarned.  It will be the address of all those who die without receiving Jesus.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

There will be those who refuse the mark.  Their “patience” means their willingness to endure whatever earthly consequences come their way.  For multitudes, it will be martyrdom.  They will be “the dead who die in the Lord” from that decision on.

They will choose Heaven over earth and, thus, they will find eternal “rest from their labors.”  It will be difficult to be on the earth without the mark.  Once safe in Heaven, “their works will follow them.”  The Lord will reward them with those things that cannot corrupt or be taken away.

At the end of verse thirteen you’re told that the Holy Spirit speaks. His words are what you’d expect Him to say as the Comforter.  Things are gonna be tough, but it’s all going to be great in the end.  Hang in there; live for Jesus, live for eternity.

We tend to think of making a decision to follow Jesus as a one-time event that we can point to in our past, saving us for eternity from eternal conscious torment.  True; but if you’re saved, you are to go on deciding to follow Jesus day-by-day.

The world and the devil exerts pressure upon what the Bible calls your flesh.  It’s a constant struggle this side of Heaven.
You are told to “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).  It’s a choice; you decide.

Likewise you are told “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).  It’s a choice, because you are encouraged to ask, seek, and knock for the Spirit in greater measure (Luke 11:9-13).

At the end of our service, we will give you opportunity to spend time with the Lord, and to make those kinds of decisions – especially asking Him to fill you with His Spirit.  Take full advantage of it.

#2    The Lord Defers To The Decision That You Make
(v14-20)

I like movie trailers (except that they tend to show too much).  In many cases they are better than the movie.

Our verses at the end of chapter fourteen are like a trailer for the coming Battle of Armageddon that occurs at the end of the seven year Tribulation.

Jesus and His holy angels are depicted as harvesters coming to harvest souls with their sickles in hand.  The verses describe this harvest of mankind by comparing it first to a harvest of grain and then to a harvest of grapes.  Each focuses on a particular aspect of the final harvest of judgment at the second coming of Jesus.

The harvest of grain focuses on the separating of believers from nonbelievers.
The harvest of grapes focuses on the crushing of the armies gathered against the Lord at His Second Coming.

Revelation 14:14  Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.
Jesus once said of Himself that the Son of Man shall be seen coming upon the clouds of Heaven (Matthew 24:30).  He said that He would send His angels to gather the elect (Matthew 24:31).

The reaper sickle is the most common symbol known to mankind to represent death.  Faithfully carried by the Grim Reaper, by death personified, it has been widely depicted in everything from movies and games to religious scripture and mythology.

Not the Grim Reaper but angels will assist Jesus by gathering the human race and by separating believers from nonbelievers.

Believers will live on into the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that Jesus establishes for one thousand years.
Nonbelievers are reaped and thus lost for eternity having rejected God’s many offers of salvation.

Revelation 14:15  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

It’s an announcement.  All of this plays out like a stage production with perfect timing.

The particular words chosen describe overripe grain.  Wheat and tares look alike; they are left to over ripen because the grain heads of wheat will eventually bow down whereas the tares remain erect.

The harvest of grain is describing the process of separating believers and nonbelievers at the return of Jesus.
In Matthew twenty-five this same event is described as separating the sheep from the goats.

The wheat or sheep represents believers who have survived the Tribulation; they will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as its first citizens.
The tares or the goats represent nonbelievers who have survived the Tribulation; they will be cast into Hades to await their final judgment at the end of the one thousand year Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

Revelation 14:16  So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

You see why God goes to such extraordinary lengths to reach out with the Gospel during the final seven years.  The sickle is about to be wielded.

The harvest of souls is next compared to a harvest of grapes.

Revelation 14:17  Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

If you’re counting, this is the fifth angel in this chapter.  This harvest is describing the events immediately upon the return of Jesus to the earth, before He sits and judges between sheep and goats, the wheat and tares.  The armies of the world will be gathered together to oppose the Lord in the Valley of Megiddo; it’s what the Bible calls the Battle of Armageddon.  Jesus will easily overcome His enemies.  Those who die in this harvest will die in their sins and be lost for eternity.

Revelation 14:18  And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.”

“Power over fire” probably means this is the same angel which is mentioned in chapters eight and nine who stands by the altar of burnt-offering.  He has authority over its fire to offer the incense to God that represents the prayers of the saints.

The coming forth of this angel is the answer to the prayers of the Tribulation martyrs.

Revelation 14:19  So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

A “winepress” was a large vat or trough where grapes were collected and then crushed.  The juice flowed out of a duct that led into a large holding vat. The winepress is often used in the Bible as a symbol of God’s wrath and judgment against sin.  It’s an illustration for the punishing, crushing judgment at the Second Coming of Jesus.

Revelation 14:20  And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

The “city” is Jerusalem.  Blood from the human armies Jesus defeats at His Second Coming might be pooled as high as a horses bridle for about 180 miles.

I say “might be” because some scholars suggest that the verse only means blood will spatter as high as a horses bridle.  Either way this is a terrible, bloody battle in which multiplied thousands are killed.

People object to the mention of horses since we live in such an advanced technological age with sophisticated weapons of war, like unmanned drones.  Well, a lot of stuff will be wiped-out by the judgments of the Tribulation.  I have no problem believing that horses will again be used in battle at Armageddon.

Remember, too, that Jesus returns on a great white horse and we, the church, return with him on horses.

The overripe aspect of this final harvest is to remind you that throughout history, and especially in the Tribulation, God is striving with sinners, seeking them to save them.

Both believers and nonbelievers complain God isn’t doing enough to curtail evil in the world.  God admits that the world is overripe for judgment.  He’s waiting, waiting, waiting for more to be saved, because the alternative is so drastic; so final; so tragic.

One day His longsuffering must end.  It will be too late to repent and believe on the Lord.

Have you made that initial decision – to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin?  The Lord does all He can to reach you, sending the Holy Spirit to operate on your heart, by grace, to free your will.

But you must decide, and He will defer to your decision,  because love like that which was shown you on the Cross cannot be forced upon you.  It must be received freely, as a gift.

You can receive Jesus any time.

You can receive Him right now.

The Devil Went Down To Gore ‘Ya (Revelation 11:15-12:17)

Pam was so troubled by it, she wanted to report it to the police.  Or, at the very least, to eBay.  Instead she called me at work.

She had just received payment for an auction item.  Along with payment, she said that the seller had included a weird, threatening photograph of himself.

Well, of course I was upset.  First thing I did when I arrived home was take a look at the photo.

Sure enough, it was disturbing.  It was of a guy with a giant mallet in one hand… And a watermelon in the other.

It was Ron Gallagher.

He probably thought he was being generous, giving Pam his autographed fan-pic.  Little did he know the effect it would have since she had no idea who he was.

Do you know who Gallagher is?  He’s a comedian who uses props in his act, especially watermelons, which he smashes with a giant mallet.

If you sit in the front row of his show, you’re sure to get wet, and messy, as he smashes lots of things besides watermelons.

You’ve probably been to other shows where you are warned you’ll get wet depending upon where you’re seated.

Seating is important in our text in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  The verses talk about both the wrath of God (11:18) and the wrath of Satan (12:12) affecting those who dwell upon the earth during the last half of the Tribulation.

It will be messy.  We might say that all the inhabitants of the earth will all have a front row seat to wrath.

We won’t; and by “we,” I mean the believers of the church age.  We will be seated before God’s throne in Heaven (11:24) while wrath is raining upon the earth.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 From Where You Will Be Seated, You’ll Be Spared From The Wrath Of God, and #2 From Where You Will Be Seated, You’ll Be A Spectator To The Wrath Of Satan.

#1    From Where You Will Be Seated,
    You’ll Be Spared From The Wrath Of God
    (11:15-19)

Jesus took a scroll from His Father’s hands and began to open its seven seals.

When He opened the seventh seal, it revealed seven trumpets that were to be blown, in order.  We’ve heard six of them so far in this book, and have seen the events associated with them.

Now we hear the seventh and final trumpet blast.  It is a spectacular note of triumph.

Rev 11:15  Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

The seventh trumpet is momentous.  It reveals the final strategies of our heavenly Father to redeem creation.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee points out that the word “kingdoms” is singular.  Though we see many sovereign nations, and talk of the succession of various kingdoms throughout history, the Bible is more concerned with who is ruling the whole world as its king.

Who is ruling?  The Bible says that Satan is “the god of this world” (Second Corinthians 4:4), and “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31), and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).  Those are serious titles.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, the devil offered the Lord all the kingdoms of this world if He would just bow down and worship him.  He thought of himself as the king over all of them – past, present and future.

Jesus did not dispute Satan’s claim upon the kingdoms of men.

But it wasn’t by bowing down to the devil that Jesus would redeem the kingdoms of men and become king.  It was by being lifted-up on the Cross, at Calvary, in His crucifixion.

The verb tense of “have become” indicates an absolute certainty about Jesus’ kingship, before the fact is accomplished.  It does not mean we are, in some sense, already in the kingdom.

When we talk about the kingdom of God, we’re not talking about a mystical, spiritual rule of God over the earth.  We are talking about a literal kingdom, with Jesus ruling from the earthly city of Jerusalem.

The kingdom of God is not yet; it is coming.  It is coming at the end of the seven year Tribulation, with the return of Jesus Christ to earth.

Rev 11:16  And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God,

When we first were introduced to the twenty-four elders we gave reasons why we believe they represent the church, resurrected and raptured to Heaven prior to the beginning of the Tribulation.

“Thrones” is translated seats in the King James Version of the Bible.  Any seat in the throne room of Heaven is itself a throne.

I’m thinking it’s stadium seating of some kind, because, after all, there are going to be billions of Christians around the throne.

Somehow there are no nosebleed seats.  We will all be full participants.

This is at least the fourth time we’ve seen the church fall prostrate before the Lord in adoring worship.  We’ll see it again in chapter nineteen.

It should encourage us to be full participants, now, in our worship.  It doesn’t mean we must fall down; that’s something we will do plenty of in Heaven.  It means we should engage, along with others who assemble, in worship that is appropriate.

Rev 11:17  saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

Because God is “almighty,” He is able to hold everything together while working out His plan to redeem lost mankind and the fallen creation.

He “is and was and is to come” reminds us that God has been working-out His plan of salvation since eternity past.

“You have taken Your great power and reigned” means the time will come at the seventh trumpet for God to finish out His plan.

Rev 11:18  The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Throughout the Tribulation, God is seeking to save men from every nation.  Instead they are “angry” at His seeming interference, and reject His servants and His salvation.
God’s “wrath” is not at all like human anger.  It’s not revenge, which Klingons say is a dish best served cold.

It is His measured but necessary response to sin.  For a believer, God’s wrath has been taken by Jesus on the Cross.  For the nonbeliever, it is coming.

This declaration of the final judgment comes with still time to repent.  In wrath God remembers mercy and seeks to save.  He keeps warning that a day is coming when all offers to be saved will be off the table.  But until then He is not willing that any should perish.

God wants to reward you, and He will.  God is not willing you should perish (be destroyed), but you will, if you do not repent.

Rev 11:19  Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

People are fascinated with finding the lost ark of the covenant, which was a copy of this one you read about in Heaven.

I don’t think it will be found.  And, anyway, it doesn’t matter if it is, because God’s presence will not be in the earthly Tribulation Temple.

The physical phenomena mentioned – “lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail” – announce the final judgments coming upon the earth.

You see, when the seventh trumpet is blown, it reveals seven bowls of God’s wrath, of His final judgments, poured-out in rapid succession upon Christ-rejecting men on the earth.

We will be safe, seated in Heaven, worshipping God.

It’s become fashionable to accuse us pretribulationalists of being escapists, wanting to leave earth behind to fend for itself.  They speak of the so-called “secret rapture,” as if it were a recent, made-up teaching.

Look, this isn’t our plan; it’s God’s plan.  God determined to remove the church prior to the Tribulation, and to keep us from the day of wrath that is to come upon the earth.  He’s the One Who will seat us on thrones, in Heaven, while His wrath is being poured-out during the seventh trumpet blast.

#2     From Where You Will Be Seated,
    You’ll Be A Spectator Of The Wrath Of Satan
    (12:1-17)

Signs and symbols get a bad rap in the Revelation.  People always say the book is impossible to interpret, because, after all, there are so many signs.

As we are fond of pointing out, signs and their symbols are designed to communicate, not to confuse.  They are a universal human language.

True, there are odd signs:

The Newcastle Tramway Authority posted a sign saying, Touching Wires Causes Instant Death. $200 Fine.

Here’s another: Garbage Only, No Trash.

One more: Sign Not In Use.

Those are the exceptions, not the rule.  Signs and their symbols help us.

The opening verses of chapter twelve are at once the weirdest and the clearest of these signs and symbols.

Revelation 12:1  Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

There is only one other place in Scripture where you see the sun and the moon and twelve stars.  It is in Genesis, chapter thirty-seven.

Joseph tells his family about a dream, saying,

Genesis 37:9  “…Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”

The “sun, the moon, and the eleven stars” represent Joseph’s father and mother and brothers, the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel.  Joseph is the twelfth star.  The sun, the moon, and the twelve stars thus represent the nation of Israel.  We know this is the correct interpretation because of the very next verse in Genesis thirty-seven, which says,

Genesis 37:10  So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father [Jacob] rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?”

Jacob interpreted it for us.  The woman of Revelation Twelve is the nation of Israel.  It was through the nation of Israel that your Savior came as God and man.

God promised Adam and Eve that He would send a Savior into the world.  He would be born of a woman from the human race.  As the Bible unfolds, God continually narrows down the lineage of the promised Savior.  God chooses Abraham to establish a new nation, the nation of Israel.  The Savior would be born to a descendant of Abraham’s.  He would be born to a Jewish woman.

Yes, that woman was Mary; but the focus here isn’t on her, except that she was that Jewish woman.

Revelation 12:2  Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

You might say that Israel was “with child” throughout her history, until He was born.  That history is marked by constant pain, as the nation so often disobeyed God, and was disciplined. Nevertheless God was true to His promise.

Revelation 12:3  And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.

He is identified in verse nine as “that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan.”
When we get to chapter seventeen we’ll see that the description of heads, horns, and diadems refers to Satan’s past and future rule over the kingdoms of the earth.

Revelation 12:4  His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.

“Stars of heaven” is an Old Testament title for angels.  When Satan fell into sin he took with him one-third of the angels in Heaven.  The phrase “threw them to the earth” means that Satan and his fallen angels operate on the earth against the human race.

The gory imagery of the devil standing before the woman seeking to devour her child is a symbolic summary of Satan’s continual interference with the birth of the promised Savior.  Satan knew that the Savior would be born of a Jewish woman and so he has tried throughout history to thwart that birth.

Satan was behind the very first murder.  When Cain killed Abel, Satan was attempting to cut-off the line through which the Savior would be born.

When God began to reveal His plan to establish a new nation using Abraham, Satan’s efforts became focused on destroying his offspring.  Biblical history is full with his diabolical schemes:

At the birth of Moses, Pharaoh ordered the death of all male children born to Jewish women.

During the days of David, King Saul and others repeatedly attempted to kill David, through whom your Savior was promised to come.

The book of Esther records the attempts of a man named Haman to exterminate the Jewish race.

When Jesus was born, King Herod issued a decree to slaughter the Jewish babies.

Extra-biblical history is full with extermination accounts.  The holocaust was just the most recent.

Despite all of the devil’s murderous designs to “devour” Jesus, He was born through Israel:

Revelation 12:5  She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.

Jesus “was to rule,” but, instead, “was caught up to God.”  Something happened.  The Jews rejected Jesus as their king, and the kingdom was therefore put on hold.

Between that event and the next verse in our text about two thousand years have already passed.  The Revelation picks-up the story in the very middle of the Tribulation, as we read,

Rev 12:6  Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

This speaks of Israel being divinely protected for the last half of the Tribulation.  Jesus said the same thing in Matthew twenty-four, warning Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea to flee for their lives.
Some have suggested that the “place prepared by God” is the city of Petra.  Maybe; it’s a good candidate, geographically.

Rev 12:7  And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,
Rev 12:8  but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

In the Book of Job we learn that Satan still has access to Heaven.  God calls him there to give a report of his activities.

His normal base of operation seems to be the atmosphere around the earth.  At the blowing of the seventh trumpet, just past the middle of the Tribulation,  he will be fully and finally cast down to the earth by the archangel, Michael, in what is described as “war in Heaven.”  His privileges will be revoked.  They’ll change the access codes at the gates.

He will only have three and one half years on the earth until he is cast into the abyss for one thousand years.  All the fallen angels, those we call demons, will be on the earth at once with him until they, too, are incarcerated.

Revelation 12:10  Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

A “loud voice” makes a proclamation in Heaven.  We know it is a human voice because he (or she?) says Satan is the accuser of “our” brethren.

Heaven has an announcer.  Whoever it is he lets all the inhabitants know that Satan and his demons will not be allowed access to Heaven ever again.

The word “salvation” should be translated “the salvation.”  It refers to the total, final, complete redemption of all the fallen creation.

Although still three and one half years away, it is so certain that the voice can proclaim “the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ, have come.”  The end is inevitable; it will happen just as we are reading.

Satan’s primary activity through the ages is mentioned.  He is “the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night.”  Read Job chapters one and two and you see exactly how this plays out.

Satan’s accusations mean nothing because our sins are forgiven by the Lord.  We are “in” Him, and when the Father sees us, He sees Jesus.

Revelation 12:11  “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
Revelation 12:12  “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
Revelation 12:13  Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.

In verse eleven, believers are in view; in verse twelve, nonbelievers; in verse thirteen, the Jews.

The language used in verse eleven describes the defense of a martyr.  Secure in the “blood of the Lamb,” he or she won’t waver from giving a “testimony” of the grace and forgiveness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

You’d think the devil would cut nonbelievers some slack; but his bloodlust won’t allow it.

Verse thirteen continues the Old Testament symbolism of Israel as the woman through whom the Messiah was born.  Satan will turn his wrath upon exterminating the Jews.  If he can kill every last Jew on planet earth, so that there are none left at Jesus’ Second Coming, he can defeat the Word of God.

Revelation 12:14  But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.

The “eagle” is not a reference to the United States.  That’s wishful thinking.  The only reason anyone thinks it is because the eagle happens to be our national symbol.  The eagle has been used by many nations, past and present, including Nazi Germany.  Wikipedia lists at least twenty-four nations which presently use an eagle.

God Himself is the “wings of the eagle,” not any nation on the earth.  Check-out Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11-12 where the Lord compares His protection of Israel to eagle’s wings.

Like a mother eagle carrying her young to safety, so God will protect a remnant of the Jews.

Revelation 12:15  So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.

“Like a flood” alerts us that this is figurative language.  The devil’s attack will be sudden and terrifying, like the bursting of a dam threatening everything in its path.

Revelation 12:16  But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.

If Satan’s attack is compared to a flood, God’s protection will be like a drain that “swallowed up the flood.”

This reminds me of the Green Lantern, making things from his power ring that are appropriate to save the day.

Revelation 12:17  And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The “rest of her offspring” are believing Jews.  Those who immediately flee will be kept safe.  So the devil will go after the rest of the Jews – any Jews – to kill them.

All the while, you will be safe from His wrath, seated in Heaven, falling before God in worship.

Even before we arrive in Heaven, there are verses indicating we are already seated there.  Ephesians 2:6 speaks of us as “raised… up together, and made [to] sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

What does that mean?  Colossians 3:1 gives us a commentary on what it means:

Col 3:1  If [since] then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

Jesus was raised from the dead.  When you become a Christian, you share in the benefits of His resurrection.  Spiritually speaking, you, too, are raised from the dead, empowered by God the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life.

You are to approach life now knowing you will be seated on a throne, in Heaven.  Your seat is reserved.  It is so sure, so secure, that you can proceed as if you were seated there right now.

That destiny, if embraced, will affect everything else you think about and do.

Are you destined for the throne?  You are if you’ve repented of your sin, and trusted Jesus Christ to save you.

If you are not yet seated in heavenly places, you can be.  Jesus came to seek and to save you.  His grace is operating on your heart, right now, freeing your will to choose Him.

Come to the Lord, Who is risen from the dead; confess your sin; be saved.

BeastTube (Revelation 11:1-14)

I’m terrible at measuring things.  No matter how many times I take a measurement, I’m off by a significant amount.

I sometimes confuse measurements.  Like tablespoons and teaspoons.

Like the weekend Pam was gone on a women’s retreat, and the kids were little – probably around 4 and 2.  They had colds, and I was giving them their liquid meds every six hours.

Supposed to be a teaspoon – not a tablespoon.

Did you know that one tablespoon converts to three teaspoons?  I do now.  I thought, “Man, this medicine is really effective.”

When I discovered my mistake, I called our pediatrician.  He reassured me I had not killed them – not yet, anyway.
God properly employs a unit of measure in our text – a “reed like a measuring rod.”

Must be quite a reed, because it gives the Lord both a physical and a spiritual measurement.

John is instructed to “measure the temple of God, the altar,” but especially “those who worship there.”

We might use the word evaluate in place of measure.  God is going to evaluate the worshippers.

Do you ever think God evaluates your worship?  He does; and it’s a good thing.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 God Takes Your Measure As A Worshipper, and #2 God Takes Measures To Woo Your Worship.

#1    God Takes Your Measure As A Worshipper
    (v1-10)

Wait a minute… Where is this Temple John is told to measure?

It is in Jerusalem, on the ancient site of the previous temples.  At least, it’s going to be there.

We are certain that there will be a Temple during the Tribulation:

Daniel, in his prophecies regarding the Tribulation, often refers to a Temple, and to events that will take place there.
Jesus, quoting Daniel, spoke of the Temple in the Tribulation.

Here is one thing Daniel said:

Dan 9:27  Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

Daniel was talking about the final seven years before the Second Coming of Jesus – what we call the Tribulation.  Notice during that period there will be “sacrifice and offering.”  The Jews can’t have sacrifice and offering unless they have their Temple.

“He” is the world leader we commonly call the antichrist.  He will enter into a “covenant,” a treaty, with “the many,” the leaders of Israel, for “one week.”  It’s a week of years, seven years, corresponding to the length of the Tribulation.

In the “middle of the week” the antichrist stops the Jews from worshipping and does something to desecrate the Temple.  Jesus referred to this event as “the abomination of desolation.”

Then Jesus said, in Matthew twenty-four, Jews will need to flee immediately for their lives as the antichrist mounts a satanically empowered campaign of attempted genocide against them.

Our verses in the Revelation give us a look at the worshippers in the Tribulation Temple prior to antichrist’s campaign of carnage against them and the treading down of Jerusalem.

Rev 11:1  Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.

When the Jews were delivered from four hundred years of bondage in Egypt, God instructed them to construct a moveable Tabernacle – a tent, really, the Tent of Meeting.  It was a representation on earth of things that exist in the Temple in Heaven.

Since the Tabernacle there have been three permanent Temples:

Solomon built a magnificent Temple using his dad’s blueprints.    After Solomon’s Temple was completed (First Kings 5-8), the Tabernacle was dismantled.  It may have been stored in a room under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There is some evidence that it may still lie there to this day.  Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in the sixth century BC.
Upon their return to Jerusalem following seventy years of captivity in Babylon, the Jews built a modest Temple.  It is called Zerubbabel’s Temple after the governor of Israel at the time.

King Herod the Great transformed Zerubbabel’s Temple into the huge structure we’ve all seen models of.  It was the Temple that stood when Jesus was on the earth.  It is sometimes called the second Temple, because it was a remodel.  But because it was so elaborate, many label it the third Temple.  It was destroyed by the Romans around 70AD.

As we’ve reported many times in our weekly prophecy segment, the Temple Institute in Israel is planning for the construction and the operation of a third (or fourth) Temple.

Most of the furniture and implements needed to get the Temple up and running are already available.

Rev 11:2  But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.

The Jewish calendar is based on a thirty-day month.  Forty-two months equals 1260 days, and is the same as three and one-half years.

This verse seems to be saying that Gentiles and Jews will have kumbaya for a time, co-existing in peace, but it will be followed by three and one-half years of Gentile persecution against Jews as Jerusalem is “tread… underfoot.”

Daniel said the Jews would bring their sacrifices and offerings to this Temple.  As they do, God will “measure… those who worship there.”

They won’t quite measure-up.  How can I say that?  When Jesus died on the Cross, God tore the veil that was hanging between the holy place and the holy of holies in Herod’s Temple.  He tore it from top to bottom to signify that the way to worship Him was by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.

Sacrifices and offerings in the Tribulation Temple give God no pleasure, and they do nothing for the Jew who offers them.

The rebuilt Temple will exert a powerful influence on ethnic Jews.  So God sends them something even more powerful: the two witnesses.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

This must be the first three and one-half years of the Tribulation, because we’re going to see the two witnesses killed, in Jerusalem, before the antichrist begins treading upon Jerusalem in a mad frenzy to exterminate the Jews.

For three and one-half years, the two witnesses are preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world – but especially the Jews who are worshipping in the Temple.

Why do I say they have a special emphasis on the Jews?  Because of how their ministry is described in the next verse.

Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

The description of the two witnesses as olive trees and lampstands has an Old Testament background.  When Zerubbabel’s Temple was built, God called Joshua (the high priest at the time) and Zerubbabel (the governor) His two olive trees and His two lampstands.

The Tribulation Temple will have a Menorah, with priests keeping its bowls of oil filled, and its wicks trimmed.  It may be the one that is ready, at the Temple Institute, that you can see photos of on their website.

But the Tribulation Temple is not where God’s presence will be.

This verse says to Jews, “You won’t find YHWH in the Tribulation Temple, but you will find Him in Jesus, Whom My two olive trees, My two lampstands, are proclaiming.”

God will validate the Jesus-message of the two witnesses:

Rev 11:5  And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.
Rev 11:6  These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.

These guys are definitely old school, reminiscent of the prophets in the Old Testament whom God sent to Israel.

Let’s get into speculating as to who they are.

Zerubbabel and Joshua are sometimes suggested, since they were referred to in verse four.  Not likely, however; there’s no other reason to think it’s them.

These my not be re-entry prophets at all.  These could be two men alive as the Tribulation begins whom God calls and empowers as prophets.

The leading candidates among scholars are Elijah, Moses, and Enoch.

The main reason for thinking Enoch is one of the witnesses is that he never physically died.  He prophesied before the global flood and was taken directly to Heaven in a rapture.

The argument for Enoch is that whoever the witnesses are, they cannot have died previously, because in Hebrews 9:27 we’re told it is appointed unto men to die only once.

The words in Hebrews are a general principle, not a law.  Lots of people died more than once.  Everyone Jesus raised from the dead, during His ministry, died twice.

There is no compelling reason to think Enoch is one of the two witnesses.

Most commentators think Elijah is definitely one of them for the following reasons:

His ministry was a great deal like the ministry of the two witnesses.  He caused the rain to cease for a period of three and one-half years, and he called fire down from Heaven.

It is specifically prophesied that Elijah will return before the end of the age (Malachi 4:5-6).

Elijah had a unique conference with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17).

Some commentators think Moses is definitely one of the two witnesses for the following reasons:

His ministry was a great deal like the ministry of these two witnesses.  He could command plagues.

God seemed to have a special purpose for the body of Moses that Satan wanted to defeat.  In Jude verse nine you learn that Satan demanded Moses’ body but God had Michael the archangel intervene.

The enemies of Moses were destroyed by fire (Numbers 16:35).

Moses was the other guy, with Elijah, at the unique conference with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

The fact that, during the conference, Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah about the future and the kingdom gives them the edge.

Rev 11:7  When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.

Not exactly the retirement party the two witnesses might have had in mind.

This is the first mention of “the beast” in the Revelation.  We’ll see a lot more of him.  He’s the antichrist.

If he “ascends out of the bottomless pit,” how did he get there?

Later in the Revelation we will see that the antichrist suffers a mortal wound, but returns to life.  One commentary puts it like this:

… this incident will happen after his resurrection from the dead… he will come back from the Abyss by means of his resurrection by Satan.  Along with his resurrection, the act of killing the two witnesses will provide another reason why mankind will worship him.

“Make war,” “overcome,” and “kill” indicate a prolonged campaign.  He tries to kill them in various ways, but can’t, until it’s their time.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

It’s Jerusalem, because that is “where… our Lord was crucified.”  But God, you recall, is measuring the Jews; He is evaluating them.  Spiritually speaking, when He looks at them, He sees Sodom; He sees Egypt.

The rebuilt Temple, with its renewed sacrifices, is already an abomination to God before antichrist defiles it.

Imagine if God were to evaluate us and say we were Calvary Sodom; or Calvary Egypt.

Rev 11:9  Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.

We’ve been talking mostly about the Jews.  “Peoples, tongues, tribes, and nations” describe the rest of the world.

Don’t overlook that people all over the world will “see their dead bodies.”  It’s only been within my lifetime that the technology existed for everyone in the world to, potentially, see a live event at the same time.  This is a tremendous prophecy that would have seemed ludicrous when John first uttered it.

Rev 11:10  And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

It’s a global holiday, a time of merriment rather than mourning.  People all over the earth exchange gifts.

I wonder what the celebration will be called?  I wonder what the Google banner will be those few days?  #deadprophetssociety.

Did the two prophets really “torment those who dwell on the earth?”  It seemed like torment to nonbelievers who refused to repent, and tried to harm them.

How sad that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, based as it is upon the love of God proven at the Cross of Calvary, could be considered torment.

God measures worshippers.  That means He measures you.  He measures me.  He measures us.

What is His standard?  I suggest it is what Jesus called the great commandment:

Mat 22:37  … ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39  And the second is like it: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Before you feel bad, because you don’t measure-up, remember that no one measures up.

Only one person, in the whole history of our race, has been able to measure-up.  Jesus loved the Lord His God with all His heart, with all His soul, and with all His mind.  Jesus loved His neighbor as Himself.

Should we throw in the towel?  Hardly.  Jesus gifted us with the Holy Spirit, to live inside of us, to empower us, to do with God what is impossible for us as men and women without Him.

God doesn’t measure us to show us how far short we fall.  He measures us to show us where we are going, because He that has begun this good work in us – of making us more like Jesus – will complete it.

#2     God Takes Measures To Woo Your Worship
    (v11-14)

In the concluding film to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Return of the King, when Aragorn suggests that the armies of men march against the gates of Mordor, Gimli utters his famous line, “Certainty of death, small chance of success – What are we waiting for?!”

It could be the battle cry for most of God’s prophets.  It only goes to show the incredible lengths God will go to in order to woo worshippers.

Rev 11:11  Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

For three-and-one-half years the two witnesses had been preaching about the resurrected Savior of the world and Messiah of Israel.  Just as He had been raised from the dead after three-and-one-half days, so were they.

“Those who saw them” were the whole world.  The whole world was watching.

What’s the most incredible, mind-blowing thing you’ve ever seen happen live, on TV?

For me it would have to be the second plane flying into the South Tower, World Trade Center 2.  It was unforgettable; incredible; almost surreal, yet only too disturbingly real.

The resurrection of the two witnesses will reverberate around the globe.  It will produce “great fear.”

Rev 11:12  And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.

It’s just my own speculation, but I think they hear the voice audibly, coming from Heaven – not through their TV’s or smart phones or tablets.  God leaves no doubt that the two are His witnesses, and that they have ascended alive into Heaven, having been miraculously raised from the dead.

“Their enemies saw them.”  Some men fear, but remain “enemies” of the two witnesses and, therefore, enemies of God.

Rev 11:13  In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.

When disasters strike, we expect statistics.  We want to know the damage in billions of dollars.  We want to know what percentage of the fire is contained.

This great earthquake will claim “a tenth of the city.”  The tenth, or the tithe, was what God had received from His people going all the way back to Abraham.

A Jew, hearing that a “tenth” had fallen, would think God had taken what was due Him.

Having said that, we want to be careful ascribing disasters to God.  I’m not saying God can’t, won’t, or doesn’t bring certain tragedies to bear.

I’m saying our response ought to be compassion upon the survivors in order to share Christ with them.

Commentators are split on whether or not the “rest” who were “afraid” get saved.

I lean towards, “Yeah, sure they do!”, mostly because the phrase, “and gave glory to God,” is pretty strong.  It’s way more than an acknowledgement that God exists.  Other places it is used, this phrase definitely means that the people giving God the glory were believers.

God goes to extreme measures in order to woo His enemies on the earth – both Jews and Gentiles.  He permits the antichrist to overcome and kill His two witnesses, in order that their resurrection from the dead might be the thing that opens blind eyes and draws men by grace to faith in Jesus Christ.

Rev 11:14  The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

The “third woe” is the blowing of the seventh trumpet.  It will reveal the pouring out, upon the earth, of seven bowls of the wrath of God, in rapid succession, covering the final three-and-one-half years of the Tribulation.

As the Tribulation intensifies, so do God’s efforts to save the Jews, and the inhabitants of the earth.

Yes, the judgments of the seventh trumpet will be severe – like the world has never known.

But in His wrath, God remembers mercy.  The Tribulation is the grace of wrath.

God has always been, and will continue to, seek worshippers.  Jesus said to the woman at the well, “the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).

If you are a believer, He sought you out.  He saved you.  Let Him measure your worship.  Repent of any regress.  Be refilled and refreshed by His Spirit to make progress.

If you’re not a believer, today you can be saved.  God’s grace is showing you Jesus, lifted up on the Cross to draw you to salvation.

Decide if you will remain God’s enemy; or give Him glory.

Come On The Biblical Mystery Tour (Revelation 10:1-11)

One benefit of getting a degree is showing-off the letters after your name.

We’re all familiar with abbreviations like AA, BA or BS, MA or MS, MBA, or PhD.

Did you know that there are over 125 graduate and post-graduate degree abbreviations?

I read an article about a Michigan man, Michael Nicholson, who in 2012, at age 71, had earned twenty-nine degrees, and was pursing his thirtieth.

He has one bachelor’s degree, two associates degrees, twenty-two master’s degrees, three specialist degrees, and one doctorate.

If you have neither the time, nor the resources, to earn a degree or two, you can visit www.phonydiploma.com.

I’m not joking; it’s a real, phony site.  They even hypocritically offer both a Masters and a Doctorate degree in theology.

There are genuine ministry degrees you can earn from accredited schools, e.g., MDiv (Master of Divinity), and DMin (Doctor of Ministry).

(We sometimes joke about seminary, calling it ‘cemetery,’ but we have nothing against continuing education in general).

It might surprise you to learn that, if you are a Christian, you already have at least two degrees.  In First Corinthians 4:1, the apostle Paul said,

1Co 4:1  Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

You have an SC with an emphasis on SMG – Servant of Christ (SC), with an emphasis on Steward (of the) Mysteries of God (SMG).

I was reminded of this verse because the word “mystery” is prominent in our text:

Rev 10:7  but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

Bible teachers must always explain the use of the word “mystery,” because it isn’t used in the Bible the same way we commonly use it today.

A “mystery” in the New Testament sense is not something that cannot be understood, but is some plan or purpose of God that has been known to Him from the beginning, but which He has withheld from the knowledge of men until the time came for Him to reveal it.

The “mystery” and the “mysteries” of God will be our theme as we work through these verses.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 You’re Told That The Mystery Of God Will Be Finished, and #2 You Tell The Mysteries Of God Until You’re Finished.

#1    You’re Told That The Mystery Of God Will Be Finished
    (v1-7)

If you’re a fan of ’80’s TV, you’ll remember the classic line from The A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God’s plan comes together.

We read, in verse seven, that “in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished…”

We can take a quick peek ahead at the sounding of the seventh angel to see exactly what mystery will be finished:

Rev 11:15  Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

God’s plan, revealed progressively, one step at a time through the ages, by the prophets, comes together.  Every mystery that has been revealed along the way culminates in the revelation of Jesus Christ reigning “forever and ever.”

Why is Jesus Christ reigning a mystery?  It is a mystery because God has delayed the establishment of His reign for six thousand years – four thousand years counting from Adam to Jesus, and now two thousand years counting from Jesus to the present day.

During the delay other kingdoms have reigned: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome are the kingdoms prominent in the Bible.

You’re also told that the kingdoms of the earth are themselves ruled by Satan, who is titled by Jesus the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31).  When Satan offered to give Jesus the kingdoms of this world, in exchange for worship, Jesus didn’t dispute Satan’s claim to them (Matthew 4:8-9).

It prompts nonbelievers to scoff and say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (Second Peter 3:4).

It prompts believers and nonbelievers alike to ask the “Why God?” questions about the wicked prospering while the righteous are suffering.

What was concealed is now revealed.  It is revealed in the pages of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  You see that, despite arguments to the contrary, God has been in charge all along.

Through the delegated authority He has granted to the human governments God has raised-up, and by His providence, He has, without violating man’s free will, furthered history to accomplish His purposes to prepare for the reign of Jesus.

Revelation 10:1  I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

Revelation nine left off with the sounding of the sixth of seven trumpets, which usher in the end of all things.  Now, instead of the seventh trumpet, we have another interlude until Revelation 11:15.

Remember: The Revelation is chronological if you follow the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls.  In-between God gives you important details to fill-in your understanding.

This chapter, through verse fourteen of chapter eleven, is a parentheses, describing events surrounding the seventh trumpet.

Some commentators believe this great person to be Jesus.  It isn’t; it is an angel.  The word “another” which qualifies angel means another of the same kind as before.

Why is he so much like Jesus in appearance – “clothed with a cloud… a rainbow… on his head, his face like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire?”

Do you remember when Moses came down from meeting with God?  He glowed.  Being in God’s presence changed his countenance.

This angel had been in the presence of Jesus and he took on some of the characteristics of Jesus.

Guess what?  You take on the characteristics of Jesus, too, if you spend time with Him.

The rainbow might be a natural occurrence since he is clothed with a cloud.  It also serves to remind you of God’s covenant with mankind.  God is keeping His promises.

Revelation 10:2  He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

What is this “little book?”

Some say it is another name for the seven-sealed scroll, now fully open.

Some say it is the account John gives from this point forward.

Some say it is the formerly sealed portion of the Book of Daniel, now opened.

Some say it is the angel’s orders or mission plan.

Since the text no where says, we can’t say for sure.

It’s probably not the seven-sealed scroll since an entirely different word is used to describe it.

What we can say for sure is that it is the Word of God.  All of the suggestions of what it is agree with that.

The symbolism of setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land is that he was claiming the whole earth – land and sea – for the Lord.

Revelation 10:3  and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.

We don’t know what he cried with a loud voice, but since it is described like a lion’s roar, we know it is a message of conquest and certain victory.

A lion’s roar is one of the loudest noises any animal can make.  It is so loud that it can be heard over five miles away from the lion.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, is coming as King to rule His kingdom and none will be able to withstand Him.

It’s why C.S. Lewis portrayed Jesus in the character of Aslan the Lion in his series, The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe.

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

Revelation 10:4  Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”

We don’t know exactly who or what are the “seven thunders,” nor do we know what they say.

Even in this book, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, some things remain unknown.

There are things which you will never know in this life.  While not knowing often seems to confuse or frustrate you, sometimes it’s good not knowing.

Not knowing keeps you humble.  If you think you know everything, and have all of the answers, you have a tendency to get puffed up with pride.  Not knowing some things keeps you humble as you must depend upon the Lord each step of the way.
Not knowing keeps you moving.  God has a plan for you, but the road can take some weird twists and turns.  If you knew some of the difficulties you faced you might draw back.  Not knowing keeps you trusting God through each one.

It’s better to know Who rather than how or why.  I love this verses from the Psalms:

Psalms 103:7  He made known His ways to Moses, His acts [works] to the children of Israel.

Moses was intimate with God and thus God revealed His ways, not just His works.  It’s always better to be intimate than merely to be instructed.

Revelation 10:5  The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven
Revelation 10:6  and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer,
Revelation 10:7  but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

We looked ahead, in chapter eleven, and saw that the “mystery” being revealed was the consummation of God’s plan with the forever reign of Jesus.

“That there should be delay no longer” ought to be highlighted with all the colors you have, as well as underlined.  As we survey the terrible plight of this world, the volume of human suffering, man’s inhumanity to man, the only firm hope is that it will be brought to an end by the return, then reign, of Jesus Christ.

Here, in these words, we are promised the time is coming when the delay will be over.

Why the “delay” at all?  Since we believe God to be love, and to be good, we must also believe that His plan to save mankind after our original parents sinned was and is the best possible plan of redemption.  We must believe it is the only way for our holy yet merciful and forgiving God to solve the dilemma of creating a being with free will, risking sin, but wooing them back to salvation.

It’s the kind of thing that takes a few thousand years.

On a more individual level,

2 Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The delay of the second coming of Jesus allowed most of us to become Christians.

I mentioned there were other mysteries involved in the mystery of Jesus’ forever reign.  We can take a quick tour of them.

In First Timothy 3:16 we read, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.”  It is no mystery that God should reveal Himself by speaking from the heavens, as on Mt. Sinai, but that He should take on human form, and live among us – that was a great mystery.  This He did in the person of Jesus Christ.

In Colossians 1:26-28, Paul speaks of another mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations, but was then made manifest to the saints.  He calls it the mystery of “Christ in you.”  It’s what we commonly call being born-again.  That this was a mystery can be seen in the reaction of Nicodemus when Jesus first mentioned it.  He was startled, overwhelmed, unbelieving.  He’d never heard of it before it was revealed by God to him.

In his letter to the saints at Ephesus (3:1-11), Paul says that God by revelation made known to him the mystery which in other ages had not been made known, “that the Gentiles should be ‘fellow heirs,’ and of the ‘same body,’ and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel.”

It was a revelation that God was going, in this dispensation, to take some Jews and some Gentiles and form of them a “new body” called the Church.

The rapture of the church is a mystery revealed.  “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (First Corinthians 15:51-52).

Writing to the Romans Paul says, “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until, the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25).  The revelation of this mystery to Paul accounts for what otherwise would remain a mystery – the miraculous survival of the Jewish people as a race while scattered among the nations.

There are other mysteries, but I think you get the general drift.  God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself by means of a plan no one could ever have begun to imagine.

It culminates, it comes together, in the end, with the Lord reigning forever and ever.

Knowing this,

#2    You Tell The Mysteries Of God Until You Are Finished
    (v8-11)

A couple of the guys in the Old Testament had to eat God’s Word:

Ezekiel was commanded to eat a scroll (Ezekiel 2 & 3).
Jeremiah said he found God’s words and ate them (Jeremiah 15:16).

It’s a simple illustration.  You are to take-in the Word for yourself before you can give it out.  In; then out.

In-then-Out.

Ideally we are to ingest God’s Word, be nourished by it, then grow in order to show others its power.

It’s like those ads for NutriSystem (in a sense).  There is a before and after.  The product has a sufficiency, but you want to see it have real results.

If current spokesperson, Marie Osmond, says, “Eat NutriSystem,” but looks just the same after as she did before, or worse, you’re not going to be inclined to sign-on.

If God’s Word isn’t changing us – why would folks sign-on?

John was a first century disciple called upon to reveal a mystery to the world.  You are God’s twenty-first century disciple who is called upon to reveal the mysteries of God to the world:

In Matthew 13:11 and Luke 8:10 Jesus tells all His disciples that “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God…”

Then, as we saw at the beginning of our study, the apostle Paul tells you in First Corinthians 4:1 that you are “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”

We are the ministers of mysteries.

Revelation 10:8  Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”

John had been transported “in the Spirit” to Heaven.  Now he was back on the earth.

We live in both realms, the earthly, and the heavenly.  We are described as seated in heavenly places with Jesus while simultaneously walking on the earth as ambassadors for Him, commissioned to tell about Him.

They’re not two separate ways of living.  The heavenly should dominate in terms of how you approach the earthly.

Revelation 10:9  So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.

The Bible nourishes our spirit the way food nourishes our body.  Let’s talk about that for a moment.

You know that you need food to survive.  The Bible is just as necessary to your spiritual survival.  It is even more necessary than your daily food.  Job said,

Job 23:12  I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.

When I was first saved I heard a radio Bible teacher say, “No Bible, no breakfast!”  It’s a good attitude to have – but it’s one that tends to fade over time.

I can’t eat for a month all at once.  I can’t eat once a week.  I shouldn’t eat one large meal daily.  Nutritionists, in fact, tell you to eat several – as many as six – small meals each day.

Whatever your actual eating habits, compare your time in the Word to them.  Which, really, is your priority?

Revelation 10:10  Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.

The description of the Word as bitter-sweet surprises us at first.  But God’s Word is always that way.

John himself was experiencing the sweet joy of having Jesus revealed to him.  Yet he was exiled on the Island of Patmos, being persecuted for the Word of God.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is bitter-sweet.  It is full of beasts and bowls and battles while simultaneously promising a blessing for reading it.  Everything in it reveals God’s mercy towards Christ-rejecting men, but also His wrath against sin and His judgment upon it.

All of God’s servants in the Bible were called to this bitter and sweet experience. You will be no exception.

There are as many as fifty English versions of the Bible.  You probably know the more popular ones, e.g., the KJV (King James Version), the NKJV (New King James Version), the NIV (Non Inspired Version), the NASB (New American Standard Bible), and the ESV (English Standard Version).

Star Trek fans often like to display their linguistic prowess by speaking, writing, and reading Klingon.  So it only seems natural that a Klingon translation of the Bible would come into being.

If you’ve ever wondered how to say “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God” in Klingon it’s quite simple.  “Daq the tagh ghaHta’ the mu’, je the mu’ ghaHta’ tlhej joH’a’, je the mu’ ghaHta’ joH’a’.”

Regardless the Bible you use, we all, as God’s living letters to the lost, are the BSV – the Bitter-Sweet Version.

Revelation 10:11  And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

John had been told (in verse four) to “seal up” a portion of the revelation he was receiving.  He may have thought his visions were coming to their end.

Nope.  There was a lot more to come.  We’re only at the mid-point of the Tribulation.

We haven’t met God’s two witnesses; or the antichrist; or the false prophet.

We haven’t seen the global, cashless economic system; or the attempt at a one-world government and religion.

We haven’t seen the rise and fall of another mystery, Babylon, as both a city and a system.

Most importantly we haven’t seen the return of Jesus Christ in His Second Coming to establish His kingdom on the earth.  Or the final disposition of the saved and the lost to Heaven and to Hell for all eternity.

You and I are Servants of Christ, Stewards of the Mysteries of God.

I wouldn’t go around claiming those titles.  It’s like that scene in the recent blockbuster movie, The Guardians of the Galaxy, where the hero says, “There’s one other name you might know me by: StarLord,” to which his captor says, “Who?”

Simply serve the Lord by telling others about the mysteries once concealed, now revealed.