Revelation: Part 16

We found that nothing happens on earth before it’s decided in heaven. And chapter 4 shows the Church in heaven, chapter 5 shows the saints, which means us, watching the throne of God, look for an official legal justification for the judgments that are about to fall on the earth. And there was a search for one who was worthy to open the seals, the scroll that has seven seals on it, which contain all of the judgments that are about to fall on the earth. And it says who’s worthy to open and unleash these seals that open the judgments.

They’re all contained. The seventh seal opens the seven trumpet judgments. The seventh trumpet opens the seven golden bowl judgments. They’re telescopic, you see.

They overlap, and one opens the next series. And, of course, we studied how it was found the Lamb that was slain, the lion of judah was the one that was worthy, it opened that. And I just want to point something out. You know, the so-called super Bible scholars, the higher critical school, which are not higher, but they’re sure critical, these august theologians that try to tear the Bible apart and say that it’s full of errors and all of that, one of the favorite things they like to say is they like to say, well, Matthew, mark and Luke, the so-called synoptic gospels, these are more historic than the Gospel of John.

Because the Gospel of John takes things from an entirely different point of view. So, I want to explain to you, yes, it does. And why? Well, suppose you had been an eyewitness to all that the book of Revelation says, and then told to write it and then later you, through the power of the Holy Spirit, look back on your memories of everything Jesus said.

Looking at it from the perspective of John who saw all of these things, wouldn’t you think it would be a little different? Absolutely. You see, the last book of the New Testament written was the Gospel of John. It was after he was on Patmos and wrote the book, and then returned to Ephesus where he wrote it.

Now here’s one of the reasons why John was able to understand something that Jesus had said. The other -there were a lot of things Jesus said many -that they didn’t understand the things that he was saying in John 16, but he says you will understand later, for the Holy Spirit, I’m gonna send the Holy Spirit and he will bring to remembrance all that I’ve said. So look with me -hold your place -look with me at John 5. You remember, he has just been challenged by the Jews for saying that he was God.

He defends himself here beginning with verse 19. Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, unless it is something he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, these things the son also does in like manner. While Jesus was on earth he voluntarily only used his human power.

Nothing he did, the miracles he performed, everything, he did not do them by his own divine power. Had he done so, he would have disqualified himself as being a true human. And to die forthe sins of man, he had to be a true man. So the Holy Spirit produced through him everything that he did.

And he did this by faith. So that’s what it means when it says, the son can do nothing of himself. So John understood this. And he’s the only one that emphasizes this over and over through this Gospel.

Then he says, for the father loves the son, and shows him all things that he himself is doing. And the father will show him greater works than these so that you will -so that you will marvel. For just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the son also gives life to whom he will. For not even the father judges anyone, but the father -but he has given all things to the son.

So that all will honor the son even as they honor the father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life already and does not comeinto judgment, but has already passed out of death into life. You know that?

Isn’t that wonderful? You’ve already passed out of death into life. That’s not gonna be decided when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ. If you’re there, it’s already been proven.

Now, in verse 27, and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth. Those who did the good -not deeds, deeds is in italics. That’s not in the original.

Those who have done the good, which is singular, to a resurrection of life, and those who have committed the evil to a resurrection of judgment. You know why it’s ‘the’ with a singular? Because there’s only one reason why anyone will go to eternal separation from God. And there’s only one reason why anyone will go to be in the presence of God forever.

What is that? To believe that Jesus Christ died in your place and paid for all your sins, meaning from your birth to your death. All means all. And so when you believe in him, that moment you pass from death to life.

But the verse I wanted to emphasize is this. He gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. You see, only a man who lived a perfect life and then willingly died for the sins of the world was able to purchase the title deed to the earth back from guess who? From Satan.

Satan won it by getting Adam to reject God’s word and to voluntarily reject relationship with God. And so by default, that gave the title deed of the earth to Satan. So it had to be another man who would be perfect, and then voluntarily die to pay the penalty of sin that would be worthy to get this back. And along with that, have the legal authority to judge the earth.

Now that’s very important. Because that’s what chapter 5 of the book of Revelation was all about. Who is worthy to open the seals? Well, here, John, looking through that, writes what Jesus had said.

He says, oh, yeah, he told usthat in the beginning, we just didn’t understand. Kind of exciting, isn’t it? Now we come to the beginning of Jesus opening those seals, and unleashing judgment on the earth. From chapter 6 through chapter 19 of the book of Revelation, we have a chronological unfolding of the events that are gonna happen in that seven years of Tribulation that the prophet Daniel predicted would precede the coming of the Messiah.

Now, I say chronological. It is. But I want to bring out something about the peculiarwriting style of Hebrews, Jews, Israel, so forth. The Israelites had a peculiar style.

You could see it first in the first two chapters of genesis. The typical style is they would go through, chronologically through the events and then come back and take out of those events only part of them that God wanted to emphasize and explain more. Well, that’s typical Hebrew writing style. So the second chapter of genesis, you know, some people try to, again, the higher critical school, they try to make a point of, well, why does he go back and only take part of what he said in chapter 1, and he kind of gets them out of chronological order.

Well, you see, in the second chapter, the Hebrew, when he is explaining things that are important, instead of putting them in order of chronology, he puts them in order of importance. In the first go-round, he puts them in order of chronology. Now, that’s just their style. In the book of Revelation, there is -you know, it’s written in Greek.

But it’s a Hebrew who wrote it. John. And so what he does under the inspiration of the spirit of God, is he shows the chronology, but in this book, he intersperses in chapters 6 through 19, he intersperses vignettes in which he explains main characters, main purposes, main organizations. And in these vignettes, they go — I mean, they might reach back like in chapter 12, they might reach back all the way to the beginning of Israel.

And then bring it to a sharp point as to how it’s gonna be developed in these seven years and explained. Actually, Revelation 12 shows the mystery of anti-semitism. Why? He explained.

So let me show you something here. The chapters that carry the chronological order forward are -turn over to that real quick. Chapter 6. Chapter 8 and 9.

Chapter 16. And chapter 9. So each one of those carries forward the chronology of the seven-year period. Are you with me?

All right. Now, let’s look at the vignettes, and why. As I said, chapters 4 and 5 introduce the Church in heaven, and the basis of Christ’s authority to bring the awful judgments upon the Christ-rejecting world. Now, chapter 7, this is right after the six seals are released, chapter 7 gives God’s grace.

It explains God’s grace in immediately calling 144,000 evangelists to offer salvation to this Christ-rejecting world. Right in the midst of all of this judgment. And that’s why this is brought in in chapter 7, and it shows that even in the midst of this judgment, God still has grace. God still — he will not have an earth that doesn’t have a witness.

See, when we’re caught out, there won’t be any believers left. So, chapter 7 begins by saying, an angel saying, do not hurt the sea or the trees or the water or anything on earth until God has sealed the 144,000 servants of him, 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel. So, anyone that thinks there’s some lost tribes, God knows where they are. He even knows where 12,000 of them are that he wants in a special way.

All right. So chapter 7 explains the -God’s grace in having evangelism in this. And it’s brought in right after the horrible judgments that take place in the first blast, the first six seals. And it’s before the seventh seal is opened.

All right, now, the next vignette is chapter 10. This is another gracious interlude after the seal andthe trumpet judgments, and before the horrific seven golden bowl judgments, which are beyond anyone’s imagination. I mean, they’re terrible. And so it explains God’s judgment and it’s like the world is so numbed by the impact of the six seals, and the seventh seal opens the trumpet judgments that seven -or I should say the sixth trumpet judgment because the seventh hasn’t sounded yet.

So it’s like God causes a pause to everything to let mankind collectively sit back and say, now what does this tell me? And he’s still trying to give them a chance to repent and to be saved. All right. So that’s the purpose of chapter 10.

Then chapter 11. Chapter 11’s another vignette. This is one of the strangest of them all. It begins by predicting that a false temple is going to be built by the Israelites.

And it’s going to be built over the site of the first temples and yet the court of the Gentiles is said to be left out because it’s given to the Gentiles, which explains -you know, the real temple was built north of the dome of the rock. The muslims got it wrong. They didn’t know where they were going. And so, but that’s fortunate because it left room for them to build the temple on its exact site and still leave room for the dome of the rock to stand there.

And that’s why the court of the Gentiles is left out, because there’d still be about 21 meters between the nearest point of the inner court of the temple and where the dome of the rock starts. So it explains that. And then, here’s where it really gets heavy. Chapter 11 explains God’s grace again in sending two of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament to be a constant thorn in the side of everybody.

I mean, they’re gonna preach and no one’s gonna be able to shut them up. And they will preach the first three and a half years of this Tribulation period. And so I’ll give you a hint, their names are Moses and Elijah. They left their calling cards there because it says one shuts up the heavens so that it wouldn’t rain for three and a half years.

Well, that was the calling card of Elijah, wasn’t it? The other one turned the water into blood. Who did that? Yeah, there you are.

You’ve got another hint. Jesus told his disciples that there were some standing there that would not taste of death until they saw the Son of Man coming in all his glory. And six days later it says he took him up on a mountaintop and they got an exact preview of coming attractions. Because he turned -the light began to show from inside through his skin, and he became white as light, as sun.

And they saw him as he will appear when he comes in the Second Coming. And who was talking to him about his departure? Moses and Elijah. And Peter, in typical fashion was so excited that he took his right foot out of his mouth and put his left foot in.

And said, Lord, let us build a tent for each one of you. Let’s just stay here. And then God the father in essence said, Peter, shut up, because he comes over in a cloud and he says, this is my beloved son. Listen to him.

I love the humor that’s in the Bible. All right. So this chapter shows us that God sends his two greatest prophets to warn the world of the false person that’s passing himself off as the Savior of the world, the Antichrist, and the false prophet he warned about. And then it shows how that these prophets will be murdered by them.

And that shows, you know, God once again is building his own case. This shows that God is absolutely justified in all the horrible things he’s gonna pour on the earth. Because instead ofhaving any sympathy for these prophets, it says they declare kind of a satanic Christmas. It says the whole world is gonna rejoice over the death of these prophets, and they’re gonna let their bodies lie in the streets.

And it says the whole world will see them. Television and satellite facilitated that and the Lord knew that would come. And that after three days they’re going to beraised up in front of the whole world, and caught up to heaven. And the world is gonna see this.

So, you see, God’s showing us that all of these people who reject his constant efforts of grace to them deserve everything they’re getting. And this -when the prophets are raised and taken up, it marks the exact middle of the seven years, the exact three and a half year point. And, in essence, we know what this is. God is removing his two official ambassadors.

Now, when a country removes the ambassadors, what does that mean? Yeah. Well, that’s exactly what happens then. Because it’s at this point that the Roman Antichrist is going to sit in the temple of God and declare himself to be God after these prophets are raised.

Now, that’s the point of chapter 11. We’ll go into great detail when we get there. All right, now, thenext vignette, is chapter 12. Chapter 12 is about Israel and the mystery of anti-semitism, and it adds one of the major reasons why God is judging the Christ-rejecting world.

Because of the way they have mistreated the nation that he created, when all nations were going away from God and deliberately trying to push the knowledge of God out of their memory. That’s why he chose Abraham. That’s why he created the nation of Israel so that he could deposit in this nation, his written revelation. They would preserve it.

They would demonstrate by their obedience to God that God blesses them and that’s why they should know that this must be the true God and how they should act. And when they didn’t obey him, he taught by that, too. Because he judged them. But he never let go of them.

Because he created them to through them, bring all the other nations to him. Now, Israel didn’t always understand that mission, but nevertheless, that’s why they were created. He also created them so that through the physical race of the Israelites, the Savior of the world could be born, and he was. Through Abraham, through judah, through the sons of David.

All right. So, I labeled chapter 12 vignette the mystery of anti-semitism. Now, chapter 13’s another vignette. See, I’m trying to show you what these vignettes do.

And how they fit in the midst of the chapters that take chronologically, you through that seven years. All right, chapter 13. This is a prophetic biography of the careers of the Roman Antichrist and the false prophet. There are two of them.

These are two of the main characters of this period. And so it gives you a prophetic biography of these two people. And it shows whatthey’ll be like, what they will do,and so forth. And this is an indispensable chapter.

Then chapter 14. Chapter 14 is another vignette of the ultimate victoryof the 144,000, and Christ’s special connection to them.

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 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.