Revelation: Part 10

Turn to Revelation 4. Now I’m determined tonight to show that Revelation 4:1-2, are literally what we would say in writing, a screenplay or a script, it’s a plot point. It’s a complete turning point in the message that the book of Revelation presents. So the only way we can see that is to review again Revelation 1:19, where Jesus gives the command to the apostle John that would indicate the outline of the book.

Now, look at Revelation 1:19 first. Jesus is speaking personally and directly to John the apostle. Write therefore the things which you have seen. All right.

I looked that up more intensively in the original Greek. The word Eidon is the word for what you have seen. And I looked it up as it is used in this context. And this is what the most authoritative Greek lexicon had to say.

It means to experience something by seeing it. You get that? To experience something by actually seeing it. So this simply -this adds to the argument that God showed me a long time ago in 1973 when I wrote, There’s A New World Coming, which was my first attempt at writing a book on the book of Revelation.

It means that he was to write only about the things that he had seen in such a way he actually experienced it. Which means he had to be on the scene. He had to be an eyewitness. And as I’ve said before, and, you know, this is not something that I’m trying to spook you with, or to go to hanger 51 or something like that.

Time is a creation of God. Time and space is a creation of God. And so God is able,to propel someone in time up to the future. That is no problem for him.

And that is the key to understanding anything about the book of Revelation. Because over and over again, John keeps saying that he looked and he saw and he heard. If you read the book of Revelation, you know that’s something that’s repeated over and over again. And he says that because Jesus told him three times in the first chapter he was to write only about what he saw.

And it means -and the word is Eidon in the Greek, e-I-d-o-n. That’s the root word. Which means to experience something by seeing. And so he is to write only about the things that he actually on the scene saw and experienced them.

Now, that is the first key. Then it says, and, once again, here’s the word, k-a-I, kai, in Greek. This word, according to the context can mean one of two things. It can mean and.

Or it can mean even. In this case, in the context, it should mean even. He is to write about the things that he saw and experienced, even the things which are. Now that talks about in God’s outline of history, the things which are or the age of God’s history that John had just entered.

It’s called the Church age. Because there’s seven ages God divides history into. And so when he says even the things which are, he is talking about the things that are in this present age where the Church is dominant in God’s plan for the world. Okay.

Now I just taught a series on God’s outline of history before I started the book of Revelation. And we talked about those different ages, how they started, how theyended, and so forth. So I won’t recoup all of that, but there are charts there. We have tapes and cds on all of that if you want to get into more detail.

But when he sees even the things which are, he is talking about the age in which we live. And we’ve just gone through chapters two and three where we see the Church age was divided into seven different stages. We are in the last of the seven stages, the age of laodicea. Now, it’s about to end.

And then he says, and the things which shall take place after these things. That is, after the things that are going on now, the Church age, he is then to write about the things which will happen after the Church age. The Church age will come to a close before the next stage of God’s history is opened. And the word after these things is two Greek words, meta touta.

And I said last week how important those words are. Meta touta. After these things. So there we have basically the outline of the book.

It’s divided into two parts. When he says write about the things which you have seen, that’s chapters 1, 2 and 3. But with Revelation 4, let’s turn there now. Revelation 4:1, we have the plot point.

There’s where things go future in God’s plan. Where it says, after these things. Now, any student of the Bible can look at that and say, wait a minute, I read that in Revelation 1 and verse 19. This must be the place where things change.

After these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in Heaven, and the first voicewhich I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me saying, come up here, and I will show you what must take place. Meta touta. After these things. There’s the change.

So it means after the Church is taken out. And the Church I’m speaking of here is not some building. It’s not some organization or denomination. I’m speaking of it in the true biblical sense, the Church is composed of every believer in Jesus Christ.

He doesn’t really care about your brand. People ask me what am I in, and as I’ve said before, I’m sort of a “cathepiscobapatarian.” it’s a strange creature, but it’s in there. Because it really doesn’t matter. What really matters is if you’ve come to a personal faith that Jesus Christ died for every sin you’ll ever commit and purchased a pardon for you.

And he holds it out in grace as a gift. You can’t pay for it. You can’t earn it. You can’t deserve it.

You can only receive it as a gift. For by grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it’s the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians, Revelation 2:8-9. So this is the plot point where the Church goes extraterrestrial.

And that’s the focus of what I want to talk about tonight. He goes on to say in verse 2, immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in Heaven, and one sitting on the throne. And the word translated immediate, it means it’s euthetos, e-u, thet, e-o-s. Euthetos.

This is a word. And I looked this up and I was excited, really excited to see what the best lexicons say about it. It is a word that was used of rescue at sea. And it means an instant rescue from mortal danger.

Isn’t that a wonderful word? An instant rescue from mortal danger. And that’s what he means when he says immediately he was instantly rescued from mortal danger. Immediately, I was in the Spirit.

And behold, a throne was standing in Heaven and one sitting on the throne. In other words, one moment he was on the earth, he was on the penal island of patmos. And he was a prisoner of Rome. He was sent there to die.

They sent this old man there. He was probably about 85 when they sent him there. And they expected him to die. They didn’t want -they didn’t want to execute him because they didn’t want to make him a martyr.

So they figured if he just died out on this penal island, people would forget him. So they sent him to thispenal island on patmos, where they only sent the worst criminals. They said, well, they’ll take care of him. Well, lo and behold, within a few weeks, he had led a bunch of the worst of ’em to Christ.

And they became his bodyguards. And they looked out for him. And more and more of those violent criminals became believers in Jesus Christ. That’s where he was when he wrote this book and God time traveled him to see some of the things that are in our immediate future.

So he says immediately. Now, look, what is the first thing he sees? He says — he’s on the earth and he says, immediately, I was in the Spirit and I was in Heaven. And the first thing he sees is the throne of God and God the Father sitting on it.

That’s exciting, isn’t it? You better get excited because I think a bunch of ya are gonna be part of this. Some of ya are gonna be shocked and you’re gonna be up there and you’re gonna be surprised and say, oh, my God. That’s right, child.

Now, I want to show you some parallels between what is said here in some verses about this extraordinary event that theologians have randomly called it the Rapture because that comes out of the latin version of the Bible. Rapturo. A latin word, not a Greek word. The original words of the New Testament were Greek.

And the original word for us being caught up to meet Christ in the air is harpazo. Harpazo, which is the word for pickpockets. And it meant to snatch something with stealth. And so I want you to see this.

We are going to be snatched out of the world instantaneously by stealth. In other words, the world’s not gonna know what happened. In a nanosecond. But let’s look at some of the verses.

I want you to see some of these, because they’re quite exciting. Now here’s one that most people never relate to this event. By the way, I don’t callthis event the Rapture. I call it the great snatch.

Okay. Here we go for the great snatch. Turn to John. John, Revelation 11, beginning with verse 25.

And I want you to think about what you’re reading with me. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me though he were dead, even shall he live. As it says in the new american standard, he who believes in me shall live even if he dies.

Okay. Now, verse 26 is the one to look at carefully. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Is something strange about that verse? You can’t believe after you’re dead, can you? No. He says he who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live.

In other words, he’ll be brought back in resurrection. But he says, he who lives and believes in me, shall never die. So what does this have to refer? The Rapture.

He is looking -he hadn’t announced it, no one had ever revealed it. But he said there’s some people who would believe in him, be alive and yet never die. That could only refer to the generation who’s in the Rapture. Because there’s one thing appointed to us, unless we’re in the Rapture, and that is we die.

Now, we’ll be resurrected as believers, but we die. But Jesus says there’s some who live who will never die. I think some of you may just be part of that. Get excited!

All right, now, look with me at John, Revelation 14, beginning with verse 1. And, you know, I know that I’m reading verses that you hear a lot at funerals. And, you know, I have to confess something. I hate to do weddings, but I love to do funerals.

Because no matter how people try to avoid it, at funerals, you’ve got to think about your own mortality. And, you know, hey, we all try to not think about it. But when you’re in a funeral, you can’t avoid it. Death should have no fear.

It should not haveany fear for us. We know where we’re going. 2 corinthians, Revelation 5 says, to be absent from the body is to be face-to-face with the Lord. So if we die before the Rapture, hey, my dad died in my arms.

He was 95 years old. You know, he lived a full life. And he really died with a smile. And right now my mother, too, they’re up there and they’re looking at the Lord face-to-face.

Now, they’re in a spiritual existence, but they’re very much alive, very much conscious, and they’re with the Lord. What’s bad about that? Sometimes I think the Rapture may be the worst of the two because no telling what condition he may find us in when suddenly he says, come up here! Then all of a sudden, oh, my Lord.

I didn’t mean what I was doing. I remember telling jan crouch one time, I’ve said some things -no wonder she never liked me. But I said, jan, you know, when the Rapture comes, have you ever thought of the mess you’re gonna leave? You know, that wig and those false eyelashes and all that, they’re just gonna be on the floor.

O, God, help me. But here’s what it says in John, Revelation 14:1. Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, or dwelling places.

If it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, so that where I am there you may be also. So what’s Jesus doing right now? He’s in a building program.

And he’s preparing a place for everyone who believes in him as savior. And he says I’m not building all of these places to be unoccupied. So he says, and if I build them, first-class condition, if, and I am, I will come again for you. And when he comes, what’s he gonna do?

Take us to be where he is. Instantly. All right. Now keep all of these things cataloged in your mind, because there’s a lot of -and, you know, there are a lot of honest disagreements.

I have friends like dr. Walter martin, before he died. Walter and I were good friends, always. We would argue.

He said, you know, Jesus can’t come for the Church until after the Tribulation. We’re gonna go through it. And I said, no, he’s gonna come before. And so we would get into this big argument and then after which we’d say, oh, let’s go have dinner.

And we would. We were good friends and we stayed good friends all the way through. So what I’m saying is, there are good men, good theologians, who disagree on this point. And I respect them, but I have very definite views and very definite biblical reasons for why I say Jesus is going to come for you and me, the Church, before that awful seven years of Tribulation begins.

And one of the reasons is, if you study closely what itsays in matthew 25, when Jesus comes back to the earth, the first thing he does is what? What does it say in matthew 25? It says immediatelyafter those days, he comes back and he gathers what? All ta ethne.

Translated, nations. But it means gentiles. Because you can’t judge nations for eternal destiny. Because within nations are individuals who may believe in Jesus or not believe in Jesus.

So in this context, ta ethne means the gentiles. He gathers together before him all gentiles. He gathers the israelites in another place. It’s a segregation, which is another reason why the Church couldn’t be here.

Because if the Church were here, there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile today, is there, as far as God’s salvation is concerned? If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary. And he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives. As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario that the prophets predicted for the end times.

I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible are now very curious. This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness.

The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been, for the Church and for the nation. Male announcer: join us next week for the continuation of Hal Lindsey’s Bible study of the book of Revelation. Male announcer: you can find more of Hal Lindsey at his website, www.hallindsey.com. Male announcer: there you can access our video and article archives.

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