Author: Randall Smith

It was a nice afternoon that January 29, 2012, and a businessman was returning to his south Florida home after a week away. He was traveling at about seventy miles an hour. Trees were flying by on both sides of the car, and he was humming, because he was making great time. “I-75 is often one of the most boring parts of the journey, but at least I am nearer to home”, he thought. Coming down that long stretch of straight highway south of Gainesville, he noticed his acceleration – this was a hill. It was slight… it was a Florida hill. He could barely see it, but he could feel it. The engine was pulling back. As he was briefly gazed at his radio tuner that seemed to have been phasing in and out of reception, his eye caught a flash and he immediately snapped into driver mode, watching the flashing signs ahead. “Oh, man!” he said to himself. The road was blocked. There were no less than dozens of vehicles with lights flashing on top. His first thought was about how long this was going to take. His second was to change the channel of his radio. It was then he heard the story. A dozen were believed dead in the road just ahead of him. Suddenly, the inconvenience was pushed back in his mind, and he gained an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the flashing lights and signs that were strewn across the highway. He was, after all, safe. The signs slowed him down, and the lights brought him to a stop. In the end, the warnings helped him to know that danger was ahead, and that he could prepare for it.

In a very real sense, Revelation 12 is a series of signs that flash and tell us of what is ahead. It is not a pretty picture for many, but understanding it will help us navigate in the present….By the mid point of the cyclical letter that John wrote to be distributed to the seven churches of Asia Minor, the forward progress of the flowing story of Tribulation slowed to a sweeping view of the context of what God was doing in human history. It is as though God slowed down John’s advance to show him the BIG PICTURE of the Tribulation.

Key Principle: The signs tell the story – but we have to learn to look at them and understand both the blessing of their warning and the truth of their message!

The BIG PICTURE has always fascinated me – and in the Bible the scenes and sayings must always be set in to it. God is at work telling His story – and all of that story harmonizes to share His person and His purpose. In other words, to understand the Bible’s message to you, you have to understand the Bible’s big story. I have told it often to my students – because all the details of God’s Word are consistent with the BIG STORY He is telling through the library of books and hall of writers He has used to record and compile His Holy Word. Let’s review it again: What is the Bible’s big story?

The Bible is a romance book. It is a relationship book. The center of the story of the Bible is a story of two marriages. Let’s step back and look at the whole landscape of the story…In the beginning God created a world of angelic beings. One of those beings rose up in mutiny, and took with him a third of the angelic kingdom. God’s strategy was not to simply wipe out His creation – for He is a relational being. His choice was to be creative a second time, and craft a story before the angelic world of a second world – a physical world we call our universe. In that universe, God would show Who He is – and the angels would understand His true glory.

He made man and woman and placed them in a beautiful garden. He allowed the enemy access to them, and they joined in mutiny against their creator – just as that third of the angelic host had before them. Angels that followed God gasped as God allowed a stolen world to corrupt the whole of His once beautiful creation. Without missing a beat, God promised a Redeemer – a Son that would make his entry through the womb of a woman. The enemy tried to corrupt the race of men and woman and ruin the blood lines. God fired back in protection and flooded the world, saving a family with clean blood, and started anew – penalizing permanently any fallen angels that wanted to try to ruin the race. Time passed and men grew in numbers. Eventually God separated their attempts to unify and they became ethnic groups, language groups, and even nations.

God chose from among the nations one that He would offer a special relationship… and He declared that nation to be His wife. He wrote her love sonnets, cards and poetry – but she was not faithful. His love was ever promised, and hers was fickle. She cheated on Him. Then she cheated again. Then again. He wept over her, but declared that divorce was necessary for her to learn what she needed to know. What wasn’t learned in His warm arms would have to be learned in a cold and cruel world. She was put out – but not until she was pregnant.

The woman bore a Son of the Father. He was one of her nation – but His Father was the One in Heaven. The Son grew up, and the estranged wife of His Father caused some of the deepest wounds to His heart. The Son visited her and cried over her. –but she wasn’t ready to listen. The Son grew up.

The Father told the Son to take a wife of His own. He was not to choose a nation, but rather a PEOPLE, defined by love to Him, and not by any ethnicity or national ties. The Son took a bride and engaged her – leaving to His Father’s house until the Father called for the wedding to take place. The bride was left to prepare herself for the wedding to come, and to offer example and comfort to the estranged bride of the Father.

One day the Father blew the trumpet for the wedding to come. The bride of the Son was swept into glory, and the estranged wife of the Father was not invited to the feast. In fact, in one last and giant effort to get her away from her addiction to others, the Father punished her suitors and caused them to show her their real disdain for her. When she saw they did not truly love her, and that she could only count on her ex-Husband, she cried out to Him. He sent His Son to call her back home. When she saw the Son, she recognized Him as one she wounded, and she wept a mixture of tears of joy for her rescue and sorrow for the pains she inflicted on the Son. When the family was all joined together – the story concluded with God remaking the universe and restoring things to His original design  for them. The angels nodded – they got the message. God isn’t fickle, and the original relationship failure, in spite of the rumors spread by the Deceiver – wasn’t God’s fault.

One of the places we can really grasp the story well is in Hosea. Another is in Revelation 12, and that is what I want us to look at in this lesson together. The passage is a story of:

THREE SIGNS THAT REVEAL THE UNSEEN STORY

These three signs are PEOPLE whose description and actions explain both God’s program and the enemy’s response – by “pulling back the curtain” of the spiritual world that is often unseen by people on earth.

Sign #1: There is a Woman at the center of the story.

Revelation 12:1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars…5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations ….6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

If you look closely at the description of the woman in the verse, it is clear that God the Father is speaking of His chosen and estranged wife. The events of the chapter hinge on our understanding of the identity of the woman! How can we identify her? We look closely at her description and compare that to the Scriptures for a match.

First, note the sign was formed in Heaven: The picture of what God was doing in the Book of Revelation can be seen in SIGNS formed in the Heavens. These signs were a device to help John move the story ahead. Note that this sign – like the others of the book – was a DIVINE thing – not simply happenstance on earth.

• The Bible shows God as the MAKER of the nation, not someone looking around the nations that happened to notice her existence. God didn’t choose a wife by showing up at a party of the nations and noticing her in the corner of the room – He crafted her upbringing. God created a nation – and God chose her as a groom chooses a bride. The case for God’s marriage to Israel is not a difficult one to make- for God poetically made it Himself in Scripture as we shall see in a few moments.

• One of the reasons I believe so strongly in the LITERAL understanding of God’s Word is the sign He provided in the nation of Israel. If you watch closely what Jesus said about the last days before His return to earth, they are filled with the promises to Israel that people would increasingly despise her and wish her destroyed. Right in the middle of Jesus’ sending speech to the twelve disciples in Matthew 10, He jumped off to a future time before His return in a prophetic statement. It I s always a struggle in the Master’s teaching to know when He is speaking of believers in general (which the disciples could represent) or Jewish people (the disciples were also all Jews). To know, you have to look closely at His words:

Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 “But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; 18 and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19 “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 20 “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. 21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. 23 “But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.

Jesus mentioned specifically synagogue persecution – meaning persecution by other Jews. He mentioned persecution by Gentiles – insinuating the persecuted are Jews. He ended with the return of the Son of Man – meaning it was NOT simply about the twelve, but future followers of His. Jesus said men around the globe would increasingly HATE THE JEWISH PEOPLE –even if they didn’t actually KNOW the Jewish people first hand. The rise of such irrational hatred can be seen on the internet, the TV, and National Public Radio. This past week I heard a commentary by a man who argued – and his entire panel of learned Americans agreed – that Israel is to blame for the Iranian threats, because Iran is only making a nuclear weapon because Israel is so threatening to them. I can only say it defies logic and history to think this way – and is a demonstration of the growing DECEPTION that is befalling people in circles all around the globe. Israel’s leadership is not always right – but they did not threaten the annihilation of Iran – leaders of Iran have threatened them. It has been public, vicious, and repeated. I don’t believe most Iranians want this said by their leaders – but it is reprehensible to pin it back on Israel that such things are happening.

For those who think I am playing politics, let me say this: Whatever happens to Israel in the future will involve the whole world. You will be involved and so will your children. Her nation was formed in the heavens and God is telling His story through her – if the Bible is to be believed.

Second, the image was that of a woman. That is entirely consistent with Scripture’s view of Israel – since her major prophecies of love, failure, divorce and restoration are all as a bride of the Father in Heaven.

• God often described His relationship to Israel as a husband. Hosea 2:16 “It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “That you will call Me Ishi (my husband, literally “my man”) And will no longer call Me Baali (my Master). That wasn’t new. God used the terminology many times: Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband–the LORD Almighty is his name–the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth. There are many more we could cite.

• The marriage between Israel and God was depicted as a “rocky one” because of Israel’s unfaithfulness. The early verses of Hosea 2 describe a painful divorce by God, because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, and follows that description with the coming of a chastising that is severe – leading to the restoration of her marriage. In her unfaithfulness, God wrote Israel a certificate of divorce.

Compare that to Romans 11:28 and her enmity at the time before her eventual restoration: Romans 11:28 “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Israel is depicted in the Epistles of the Christian Scriptures as the divorced wife of God that is awaiting her restoration to Him in a future time that will come about because of a terrible Tribulation.

She will one day be broken by God’s chastising, and only then see her Messiah as Zechariah foretold: Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”

Third, the woman has a stunning wardrobe. The relationship of her clothing  -the sun and moon under her feet – is also completely consistent with the covenant God made with her. What does the sun, moon and stars have to do with Israel?

• Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, … “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. …35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: 36 “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.” 37 Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the LORD. 38 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the city will be rebuilt for the LORD …(it) shall be holy to the LORD; it will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.” God promised that Israel’s existence and security was the wrap of the sun moon and stars. Her promise to continue in His sight is her garment.

Fourth. the woman was crowned with twelve stars. Again, it is nearly impossible to miss the connection with Israel, that was known through the ages as “the twelve tribes of Israel”. In the dreams of young Joseph in Genesis 37:9 Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, “Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Fifth, the woman gave birth to a Son. This child was born of a NATION and for a NATION– but He was not a mere child… He was a Divinely appointed RULER. As God’s appointed ruler, he HAD to be born of that nation – for Israel was forbidden to appoint one of another nation over themselves (Dt. 17).

Sixth, God prepared an escape hideaway for the woman. There came a period of 3 and one half years when Israel only survived the attacks against her, because of the protective hand of God over her. She found her estranged husband her protector against her illicit lover – and life became very strange for her. Jesus warned concerning the Tribulation period: Matthew 24: “So when you see standing in the holy place “the abomination that causes desolation,” spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress [great tribulation], unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again (Matthew 24:15-21).

The first sign was Israel as a woman estranged from her God. Having birthed a child of her former husband and having been promised His love for all the ages, she was finding protection from Him while the nations and their false gods and value systems no longer tolerated her.

Sign #2: The Child of the woman is set for great things.

Revelation 12:2 “and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth… 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

Three descriptions of the child and His work help identify Him:

First, He was ruler appointed by God. God’s specific promises to David through Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 7 (later summarized in 1 Chronicles 17:11-14 and 2 Chronicles 6:16) represent an unconditional covenant in which God promised Israel that first, He would not withdraw His hand from the Davidic line regardless of the performance of the kings in that line, and second, that the Messiah would eventually come from the line of David and establish a kingdom that would endure forever (2 Samuel 7:10-13).

2 Samuel 7:10 “I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly … 12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. … 16 “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’

Second, He would come FROM Israel, but RULE ALL THE NATIONS one day. This seems in keeping with what we saw in the last lesson: Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” The rod of iron with which He would rule is identical in wording to Revelation 19:15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Third, He would be caught up to God’s throne room. Certainly, no Bible student could miss that description so common to John and the other Apostles. Did not the book begin with a vision of the Risen Christ in the throne room of God in chapter 1? Did not Acts 1 show Jesus being “taken up to Heaven”?

The second sign was the Messiah that had been born of Judah in the line of David, but was caught up to God until the time of the end, when He would return to rule all nations.

Sign #3: The dragon wants to kill both the woman and the Son.

Revelation 12:3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

There are four descriptions, but we will look more at them in the next lesson. Just touch the description lightly for now:

First, he is a great red dragon. Ha-satan occurs 13 times in the Masoretic Text, in two books of the Hebrew Bible, including Job 1–2 (10x) and in Zechariah 3:1–2 (3x). Biblically, he was behind the attempts at Israel’s destruction in Haman’s plot, and his fingerprints were on Herod’s killing spree of the babies of Bethlehem.

Second, he took a third of the stars and threw them to the earth. When Satan rebelled, something changed about his characteristic lodging in heaven, because we read: “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12). Jesus made a glancing reference to it when He said: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). It could even be that the STAR that fell to earth in Revelation 9:1 was that of Satan himself – though that is not certain. We are told that an “innumerable company of angels” was created by God (Hebrews 12:22), and here one third of them chose to rebel with him.

Third, he had seven heads and ten horns. If you follow the pattern of Daniel’s visions, like that of Daniel 7, a head was a national kingdom, and a horn was a ruler of that kingdom. This dragon is the “backer of nations and rulers” that will become more a part of the story in the next chapter. Satan built a national coalition through human surrogates – but it is nevertheless HIM behind it all!

Fourth, he stood before the woman to devour the child. A good reference point could be simply Matthew 2:13, where God thwarted the attempt of Herod to kill the baby Jesus.

The third sign was Satan and his harassment of the woman before the Messiah’s birth – as he tried to stop God’s program. He attempted to destroy the child, but God intervened and whisked the infant to safety in Egypt.

Stop for a second and think…

The remainder of the chapter is about Heaven’s victory over the dragon in a cosmic battle that cast Satan to earth in the midst of the Tribulation – and the havoc he brings when he gets to earth. He has been “an accuser of the brethren day and night” in Heaven, and his voice is no longer welcome there. Michael, the “guardian of the Jewish people” in Scripture (as revealed in Daniel 10), is given the cue to help him to the exit (12:10):

Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. 12 “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

Michael is clearly an archangel that apparently got his name from the dispute that Satan caused. In Hebrew, Michael means “who is like God”  – a rhetorical question, that stood in opposition to Satan’s attempt to show himself to be exactly that – like God (see Ezekiel 28). Satan will be put out, and the earth will face a shock wave of new BLOOD LUST and POWER CRAZE. Satan is running out of time by the mid point of the Great Tribulation. But, if you listen closely… you can already hear him getting stirred – and the nations that puppet his deception are already speaking out.

We will come back to the scene, but let’s not exit without making clear why God took the time to pull the curtain back for us to see this scene.

God has an ultimate plan for both the believers of the church age and the Jewish people – the people of Israel. God’s future for Israel does not guarantee that all they do in their current unregenerate state is acceptable behavior, but we must wise up to the rise of an increasing wave of ANTI ISRAEL thinking that is putting even churches in opposition to any future for that people. Replacement theology and Arab Liberation theology – both which hold that the church is the new Israel – is reaching into churches and denominations and moving them to enmity with Israel and any future plan of God specifically for them.

• I dream of a church that will uphold a literal view of God’s Word  – and will not bow to networks, nations or religious leaders that will preach hatred and destruction to the Jewish people.

• I dream of a church that will support Israel’s self development – by helping them to care for all their people – both Arab and Jewish – to the end of producing the best society that unregenerate man can… because God is working a plan in them.

• I dream of a church that will form its ethics FROM the Word of God, and not reinterpret the Bible in some liberation theology that saddles its own sense of ethical boundaries on the people of God.

• I dream of a church that will not be backed into a corner called “politics” when God’s Word and its understanding are at issue, thwarting her ability to speak out on behalf of the apple of God’s eye.

I dream of that church, because that is the church Jesus began. That is the one that should be awaiting His trumpet call. The estranged bride of the Father should feel our love and learn of the God she has drifted from because of our living witness. If she does not, we are not fulfilling an essential role left to us. God made it clear… The signs tell the story – but we have to learn to look at them and understand both the blessing of their warning and the truth of their message!

I have a shocking confession to make that will likely set some of you back… I was never a big fan of Motown’s music. It isn’t that I disliked the IDEA of allowing young African American singers to break into a career that was dominated by people who look like me. In fact, that is the part that I liked about the studio. What I didn’t like was the sound of many of the artists. Their world and mine were as far apart as I am from British Comedy today. I understand that SOMEONE thinks it is funny – but it just isn’t my taste.

I mention this hard and personal truth today, because the title of my message was borrowed from a young man that was promoted under the Motown label, while I was just a little boy. His name was “Shorty Long” and he died much too young in a tragic boating accident in 1969. By the time of his death, the song: “Here Come the Judge” and made its way onto the charts, and soon after even onto a spoof on network television. What began as a “smack down” answer to a tough minded judge in the segregated south, ended as a comedy routine on night time television. “Here Come the Judge” showed the inequities of the system if you were young, black and lived in the south.

I am using the title because the statement is true. The fact of the matter is that a judge is coming – but He is a perfect judge. He is coming to a world that is not prepared, and to believers that should be prepared. The Bible teaches that he is not going to judge followers of Jesus of their sin – for that was fully judged at the Cross and our trust in the work of Jesus alone covers us from any future penalty for our sin. The lamb paid for all of our sin. God has been clear. At the same time, the performance as a believer is going to be judged when the Savior comes– and I should walk every day with that coming review in mind. Let me show it to you in the context of the seventh trumpet in Revelation 11:

Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. 18 “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Key Principle: When I stand before Jesus – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years will evaporate into the smoke as the fire of His eyes burn through my life’s work. What is left after all the selfish, ego-driven, stubborn, hard-hearted, gossip-laden, flesh colored work is gone – is what Jesus can BEGIN to celebrate. Mature believers keep that day in their minds eye – and never lose sight of it. 

The voices of Heaven – likely the angels that serve our God- cried out that Jesus was about to draw the end curtain of humanity down on the world below. His uncontested and rightful place over the world was about to be fully made manifest to all who walked the alleys of planet earth. Kings and Kingdoms would yield all authority to the One who created them. His title “king of kings” would be shown in its completion.

Then another set of voices was heard… that of the twenty four elders – the believers of the church age as we identified them back in our study of Revelation four and five. You may recall that when we studied Revelation four and five, we concluded that these twenty-four appeared to relate to the PRIESTHOOD serving at that time in  Heaven. We saw that John was likely seeing what the prophet Ezekiel had long before seen in his earlier vision into Heaven, in Ezekiel 8:16; Ezekiel 11:1, a priesthood in Heaven that served in the Heavenly Temple. The twenty four reminded us of the courses of the priests. (1 Chronicles 24:3-19). The elders seemed to FUNCTION as priests in God’s Temple, but that wasn’t all –their description clued us into their identity:

• By their praises in Revelation 5:8, we can glimpse into their PAST. They were from all tribes and nations, and they were redeemed.

• They were made priests of Heaven BEFORE the Lamb opened the book and brought on the Great Tribulation (Rev. 6:1).

• They sat on thrones apparently denoting judgment, and had been judged themselves. They were crowned with a STEPHANOS or “victor crown”, not a DIADEM or “ruler crown”.  Paul warned the church at Corinth that a future job of believers would include judging even angels in 1 Corinthians 6:1

• They were clothed in White Robes: This is the garment of the priests. It is also the marker of those who have been judged as “righteous” (like in Rev. 19:14 “And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.”)

After all is considered, it appears as though John has dropped in on the worship ministrations of the Redeemed of the Church Age, who have already been JUDGED, and now served as Priests and Ministers before the Holy One on the throne. They praised God for His SAVING WORK on their behalf in Revelation 5. Now their anthem was renewed. It was not the same as that of Heaven’s host – because their experience with Jesus was entirely different. They were SAVED by His blood. They were RESCUED by His obedience to His Father. They were CHANGED by His love. They offered two observations as ex-earth dwellers:

• First, You (Oh Lord) raised up the dead ones and they were judged and rewarded as those who feared your Name.

• Second, You (Oh Lord) wrought judgment on the earth and have taken up your cause against a rebellious planet with people that are destroying, through their resistance, the world that You have created.

John mentioned a judgment for the believers that already had taken place. Jesus had previously revealed the truth of that PERFORMANCE JUDGMENT for His people in previous revelations to the Apostle Paul – particularly in 1 and 2 Corinthians. For the balance of our study in this lesson, I want us to look at what was shared by Paul – so that what John opened up in Revelation 11:18 has its proper context. After this, our next study will continue into Revelation 12.

1 Corinthians in context

Before we look at the Judgment of believers over their performance, let me set the passage in 1 Corinthians 3 in the context of the letter it is found within. The first letter to the Corinthians can be easily divided into two major sections: chapters 1-6 are about the division that was evident in the church and was communicated to Paul through the household of Chloe – as one of the church’s biggest problems. The balance of the book, chapters 7-16, are responses to questions the church posed previously – they requested instruction. Since the issue of division is the immediate context of chapter three, it is important to keep in mind Paul’s goal: Help believers see the importance of the church’s work so that they would not divide it or belittle it.

In chapters one and two, Paul pleaded with the people of Corinth to heal their division. He argued that the church was unique. Its STANDARD was the Eternal Word of God and its CENTRAL TRUTH was the work and Word of Jesus. Over emphasis on the WORKER as celebrity was harming the body. He pressed further in the second chapter, stressing that there is nothing like the church of Jesus Christ. The rules of how to do what we do are set in fences that are unique to this work. The church could not simply depend on flashy methods, high words, celebrity personalities, passive hearers and un-surrendered hearts. It was an operation of God’s Spirit – not of slick marketing and up beat themes.

The church exists to exalt Jesus Christ as the gift of His Father to men. We are to seek HIS GLORY – not our own. Someone has said: “No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase SELF ESTEEM.” We are to search the pages of His Word and grow in His grace. We are to reflect His glory to the nations. Since the fall in the Garden men have been starved for the glory of God, and the church is to be the screen on which glory is projected.

Paul made clear that while people may criticize, mock and play with the Church of Jesus Christ – they do so at their own peril. They do this because they do not truly comprehend how God feels about their casual attitude – he had in mind in particular those believers in Corinth.

Paul called them to stand together as a sign they understood the value of God’s Church. They needed to understand with God’s spiritual discernment – but that required surrender to God’s Spirit. Paul wrote: 1 Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. God’s truth is spiritually discerned, while life on earth is physically discerned. Spiritual discernment is based on maturity – and that is a matter of the Spirit’s work in the born again believers, and based on their conscious surrender. Un-surrendered Christians are selfish and flesh oriented Christians. They trade the ability to really grasp the things of the Spirit for their hunger in this physical world. They cannot really comprehend what God wants, because they are living in a different world by a different standard. Because of their stubbornness, Paul told them he could not feed them as adults (3:2). He could clearly see immaturity in their congregations by their DIVISIONS (1 Corinthians 1:3-4).

As the Apostle James said, battles between us come from battles within us. Hurt people hurt people. Refusing to be healed by God will eventually spill over into wounds we will give another – it is inevitable. Either I can take my wounds to the Cross and have them healed there – or I will wound others with my stubborn and failed self-reliance. This church was divided, because people in this church refused to grow up in Christ and yield to Him. Many a church conflict can be summarized in that same way.

Paul called them to stand together as a sign they understood the true place of God’s servants. Understanding the place of leaders as servants of God and His revealed truth forced believers to see the impossibility of dividing over their service to Him, since they were mere servants and all served the same Master (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). We need not be confused. Paul had a proper and healthy self-image. He knew he was one that Jesus gave His precious blood to save – so he did not feel worthless. At the same time, he did not inflate himself with visions that his gifts made him more valuable than others with other spiritual gifts. He saw himself as we should see ourselves – those who serve Jesus by serving one another. He saw himself as one who labored alongside others who had differing roles – but the same goal – to be used by God to honor Him through the growth of His kingdom.

He said that “neither the planter nor the water bearer were anything” – for we are not indispensable, irreplaceable or the key to the future of the Kingdom – only Jesus is. Following a man is fine if he is following Christ. If not, he is leading you away from God’s direction – because Christ is always on the right path.

People who serve Jesus well aren’t pulling people to THEM – but they are pulling people to JESUS. At the same time, they are excited when a person is following Jesus well even if they are being led by another godly person. Competition in churches is often an ego battle of immature people masquerading as godly leaders. We must be MORE and MORE careful to uphold our brothers in Christ – to speak well or simply refuse to speak at all. My brothers in ministry deserve my love, encouragement and help – with as little criticism as I can possibly offer. The exception to that is when someone wants to deliberately corrupt the truth of the Gospel – but that, in my experience, is quite rare. It happens, but not nearly as much as gossip and criticism about other men of the Word occurs – sadly.

Paul called the to stand together as a sign they understood that God was watching what believers are doing on earth. Here is the heart of the truth we need to recall today. We must understand that God has given us the days of our lives. How we treat our ministry and faithfulness today will be accounted for in the future. Even though believers don’t lose salvation when they refuse to obey God in their walk – they do lose reward, and that will one day become plain to see. We will be judged in our performance by Jesus. Look at these words closely:

1 Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

In a moment of self-reflection, Paul recognized that God’s grace was the operative power behind his accomplishments in ministry. Who among us can say differently? He recognized that he was in need of a constant flow of grace from the time of his salvation through the whole process of honoring God in ministry. He also openly acknowledged the difference between a good plan for establishing a ministry, and a BAD plan. He said he was a WISE master builder when he placed the foundation stones. Others built upon his work, but Paul outlined the whole building with a foundation of Jesus Christ.

When Paul said there was “no other foundation” he was indicating that there was no other PROPER foundation. Men build ministry on many things that are not Christ. Some build them on EGO (believing that only their denomination or group can bring the truth), others on FAME (using a prior reputation and methods that draw crowds by their stunning approach, but are not directed by the Spirit of God). These may result in churches, but at their core they are not about serving Jesus Christ. The day will come when that will be clear – either at the judgment seat of Christ, or even before that time.

Paul the zeroed in on the judgment seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians 3:14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The real test of ministry is not its temporal popularity, but its spiritual endurance at the scrutiny of the Master. If Jesus doesn’t deem it a correct and healthy work – than it simply isn’t one. Heaven isn’t a place where a vote will be cast by the members of a theological academy or angelic choir. We serve only ONE – a Master Who will inspect all of the work that we have done. There is NO OTHER treasure higher than HIS SATISFACTION. At the same time, His satisfaction is often paired by the satisfaction of other godly men and women. People who have a healthy walk with God can “sniff out” teaching and leadership that is healthy – because we have the selfsame Spirit within.

Someday Jesus will take all of my labor and place it between us. He and I will look at the number of hours I have labored to know and teach His Word. We will look at the way I communicated that Word to people. He will examine the time I have spent caring for people – and He will give the TRUE and PERFECT evaluation of me. If I have done well in His estimation – the trial of my work before His fiery eyes of scrutiny will survive. If I have not done well – that work will evaporate – with no opportunity to relive my life on earth.

Let me repeat it again: When I stand before Jesus – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years will evaporate into the smoke as the fire of His eyes burn through my life’s work. What is left after all the selfish, ego-driven, stubborn, hard-hearted, gossip-laden, flesh colored work is gone – is what Jesus can BEGIN to celebrate. Mature believers keep that day in their minds eye – and never lose sight of it.

What does it mean for a believer to “SUFFER LOSS”? In the text it is clear that there is no issue of salvation or eternal destiny at stake in the argument – this is a judgment in the life of a believer. Everyone is judged TWICE by God – once for sin, and once for performance of work. The sin judgment determines one’s destiny. The performance judgment, measured strictly against what God has made us capable to complete – is about REWARD. Heaven is the HOME of the believer – but some level of REWARD before the Savior is a conditional blessing to those who live their lives for His glory. For each of us, Jesus will scrutinize our work, and we will see the real truth of our lives – what we were really about. Jesus told his parents when they sought Him in the Temple as a youth, “Did you not know that I would be about My Father’s business?” Perhaps they should have known – but I am not always sure that I could claim that same obvious exclamation. Beloved, I fear that many of us spend much of our lives on ourselves, and not on His honor and glory – can that be? May we see it now and avoid the sadness of loss later…

Paul insisted that believers take seriously their individual lives – but don’t forget the context. This was about the place of GOD’S CHURCH. It is clear in the passage that God wanted men to understand that the church of Jesus Christ is not just another organization to be criticized, gossiped about, and slammed at will. This organism is a living body created by a Victorious Savior. It has His fingerprints, His DNA and was purchased with His blood. It not only COST Him plenty to create, it was created with a God ordained DEFENSE system. Criticize it lightly, and God will censure your life’s work easily. Be careful, when you speak of the church… you speak of GOD’S CHURCH.

• Did not God’s church reach into the sin sick lives of men and women of the Roman Empire at the expense of being thrown to lions, being crucified or beheaded? It was NOT to win a theological argument – for the early Christians were really trying to offer hope to hopeless people.

• Did not God’s church reach the poor in many nations long before ever being considered by the rich among them? It was not to become WEALTHY  – for even today there are many who handle the broken in skid row and hungry in India’s streets for no other reason than to show their love for and obedience to their Savior.

• Did not God’s church begin some of the great universities of our world? It was not to become ERUDITE – for though they now shudder at the idea, the great schools of Princeton and Yale were begun to train men to share Jesus and His Word with accuracy and scholarship.

• Did not God’s church open hospitals in many cities of our world? It was not to gain control of health care legislation – but because they saw the sick as needy and the needy as open to Christ.

• Did not God’s church feed the poor in many places, offer addiction counseling and group meetings, help single parents with support, care for elderly and widows? Yes, sure it has… and it is just beginning its work. There is much MORE to do. We, His church, may not have been perfect, but we have not been FILLED WITH EMPTY WORDS EITHER – there is a track record and a history.

Where we have failed, we will seek to have God renew us. Where we have resisted, we will learn to submit to the Gentle Chief Shepherd…. But know this… this is God’s church in many places, under many names – and He has promised to be her defense when she is attacked – so tread lightly. Hold back quick words about the intent of others –even if their denomination or fellowship doesn’t completely agree with yours.

Listen to Paul’s later words to this same congregation. He reminded them that mature believers feel torn between Heaven’s home and earth’s mission of love. He said in 2 Corinthians 5:9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. …14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

There is a coming PERFORMANCE REVIEW of our Master. No believer can avoid it – but we can GET READY FOR IT NOW. We can allow God’s Spirit full control to accomplish His holy purposes in us today. He dominates where He is fully invited. When we open a room to surrender, He fills it up with Himself. Like air itself, when a vacuum seal is broken – the air rushes in with a wisp of pressure. The lid “pops” and the air displaces the vacuum. The natural state in our world is full of air. The natural state of Heaven is filled with the Spirit. Believers are people in transition – opening bit by bit through surrender to our new “natural state” the fullness of God. We will not fully get there in this body – but we will not need the body when we are fully there!

The Judge is coming. Believer, Jesus is going to look at our lives. We will face a real performance review as believers. Mature followers of Jesus keep that day of measure in their minds eye – and never lose sight of it.

When Jesus comes, we will know the TRUTH. They’ll be no confusion- like this little story…Two little boys were the best of friends. As they grew up, their friendship only deepened. One became a preacher and the other a priest. And they would meet each week for coffee at the local Starbucks, no matter what else might be happening. After one such meeting, they shook hands and started to part ways. One was parked in front of the store and the other behind the store. They went to their cars and when one of them came around from the back, the other was turning from the front … and they collided. There they were, stuck in the street with both cars smashed up. After making sure the other was safe, the preacher begged the priest that this incident would not hurt their lifelong friendship. The priest agreed, reached into the glove box, and pulled out a small flask of whiskey and two communion cups. He poured one full and handed it to the preacher and said, ‘Here, let’s drink to our friendship.’ The preacher said, ‘Here’s to our friendship,’ and turned it up and drank it. As the priest put the whiskey back in his glove box, the preacher asked him if he was also going to drink to their friendship and the priest said, ‘Yes, but I am going to wait until after the police leave first.’

It was the 1970’s, and the rage in the Universities across America was educating new teachers for what was now known as a “Social Science” curriculum. New Math was showing its first graduates – and its first deficits. The so-called “Dr. Spock effect” was truly being felt as new teachers who were trained to believe that children grow up better in “less discipline oriented” and “more reasoned approach” began replacing the more rigid “old school“ teachers of American youth. Two perspectives began to emerge and profoundly clash – an older and a younger look at the way forward. Our nation had been born in struggle and based on advocacy – the ability to argue one’s position. The open teaching format advocated in my youth has now seen its outworking. In fact, forty years later, our perspective may be a bit different. We live in a surreal world, where the hippies of the sixties that once thumbed their noses at the establishment, now run the very corporations that drive our economy. Those who once sprawled out on blankets at Woodstock now occupy chairs in company board rooms. All we can say as we lose the color of our hair (and perhaps our hair itself) is: “The times they are a’ changin’!”

Out of the textbooks of that era, Claude Levi-Strauss’ book The View from Afar occupies a special place in the world of now aging textbook series. It was an avant garde social science set on anthropology and physical sciences, deeply rooted in naturalism – the notion that no single Creator was involved in our history, and no single purpose exists for our story. The world has always wanted to believe they were the god of their own destiny – and they were their own rule makers. Now it was codified in a textbook series, and youth were educated to believe that it therefore must be true.

There are two perspectives – two world views that affect decision making all around us today – naturalism and revelation cosmogony. They provide different ideas about how we came to be, why we are here, and what our destiny will be. The assumptions drawn from those world views seep into everything from economic and social policy to public education. The two perspectives are more responsible, in my view, for the deepening gap in American society than a simplistic red state and blue state divide – some of these ideas are the REASON for the color of those states, and the platforms and policies of political leaders of today.

This isn’t a message on POLITICS, but rather a message on PERSPECTIVES, drawn from a story of two views of the end of the world. I don’t intend to spend as long pummeling the end of naturalism, though our text does this convincingly well. Instead I will push through the first half of Revelation 11 – where God’s judgment of those who foolishly clung to their own man made religion of naturalism played out. I will press to a place that I hope will leave every believer that looks at the passage closely with tingling with anticipation and excitement. This is a story about two kinds of celebration, and two kinds of people that participate in them. It is a story about two perspectives on the Tribulation judgment – and the God who will bring it about.

Key Principle: God’s finish for human history will reacted to by men in two very different ways.

While lost men rage against God’s attempts to reach them and His right to judge them, God’s people celebrate His bringing all things to an end in a singular TRUTH – He truly is the Master of all. The chorus of Heaven does not celebrate man’s fall – but God’s ascendance to an unchallenged right to tell the truth about the universe and His mastery of it. All lies will be stripped bare, and God will open the eyes of all men to His majesty.

The View: John was told to look at two scenes and measure what God was doing:

The Apostle was given an instruction that showed him something many of us have never stopped to consider. He saw the two ENDINGS of man. John was told to look carefully – to “measure” it. Revelation 11:1 Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, “Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2 “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.

Did you ever get to the carpet store and try to guess at the size of the room? When we MEASURE something, we take out a standardized devise and look intently at the place. We don’t guess and we don’t round up or down – we get precise and careful about our observation. That is what John was supposed to do – MEASURE what was shown him. What he saw was a temple of God – apparently in operation on earth (because it was “trampled down by the Gentiles” for a time).

He looked carefully, and what he saw was a place of worship in Jerusalem at the site of the Temple, functioning in a way familiar to a Jew of the first century. He saw a great outer court – just as the Temple of Herod the Great had when John was a young man. It was by far the most vast court, mostly open to the sky (with the exception of its porches) and could hold thousands of men and women. The difference in this vision from that Temple was the court was not simply “occupied” by Gentiles – it was CONTROLLED by them for a three and one half year period. It is as though the holiest place to the Lord God was compromised in some way – allowing Gentiles to dominate in a way that was not at all familiar. As he mused about this, God called his attention to the streets of Jerusalem, to see two very important witnesses that God provided to reach people with a message of His forgiveness and love…

Scene One: God sent a way of escape to a scarred and floundering planet – two important witnesses (Rev. 11:3-14).

John’s attention fell on two witnesses because he couldn’t figure out why or how Gentiles were dominating part of God’s Temple. He heard a voice that put the scene into perspective…  11:3 “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

This picture made sense to John in a way that it may not be quickly apparent to you. Let me explain. What John saw was two men that witnessed prophetically for God during the Tribulation for three and one half years – the time that the Gentiles dominated the outer court of the Temple. They were described as olive trees and lampstands. If you are familiar with the fourteen chapters of Zechariah, as I know the students that studied the passage this week with me are, the image is simple.

Zechariah is a book that straddled the return of the Jewish people to the land of their ancestors from Babylon, during three waves of return over a 94 year period from 538 to 444 BCE. The first wave was that of Sheshbazaar and Zerubbabel under King Cyrus’ decree in 538 BCE (Ezra 1-6). The next wave of return was that of Ezra (Ezra 7-10), and the final one was that of Nehemiah (recorded in the Book of Nehemiah 444 BCE). When Zerubbabel came in that first wave, the people worked for a time on the Temple to rebuild it, but by 520 BCE they had stopped. A combination of internal issues like apathy and discouragement, coupled with external struggles of intimidation and governmental delay brought the project to a halt. In Ezra 5:1, God raised up two prophets: Haggai (whose name means “festal”) and Zechariah (or “Yahweh remembers”).

Zechariah is a book with two major parts. The first part was a series of visions about the present days of his time – and the need to see things from God’s perspective to renew passion for His Temple and its completion, found in Zechariah 1-6. The second part, written about 38 years later and found in Zechariah 9-14, told of Messiah – His first coming in 9-11 and His second coming in 12-14. The picture of the lampstands and olive trees was taken from the chapter four, amod the GET BACK TO BUILDING THE TEMPLE section. It was designed to encourage the leader that God would accomplish something by empowering a work that could not be done without Him. It is from this section that we read these words in Zechariah 4:6 “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.

We need not look at Zechariah 4 in detail for this study. Suffice it to say that God’s vision to Zechariah was to bring a message of assurance to the Jewish people and their leader to complete the task using the empowering of God’s Spirit. It was a time when they felt DEEPLY INADEQUATE for the task they were charged to complete – and God said that He would supply the OLIVE OIL – a shout out to His Spirit – to keep them empowered.

Since we have left Revelation 11, you may be lost. It seems that God sent to empowered two very special prophets to encourage the Jewish people at a time when their Temple was not completely theirs – an awkward rendering – but the best we can do. What did these two do and who are they? I am glad you asked. The passage in Revelation continues: 11:5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. 6 These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

They are two men – that is clear. They have God’s enabling to defend themselves with FIRE. They are weather faucets for the clouds of Heaven, and they can turn water into blood, and bring out a bag of plagues that will keep people from getting too sassy with them. Even to the casual observer, they appear to be Moses and Elijah – just by the description of their works. What is even more interesting is they may be ACTUALLY Elijah and Moses. God seemed to have some reason to take special care of their bodies at the end of their respective lives on earth. In the case of Elijah, he got that special chariot ride (2 Kings 2:12ff). For Moses, he died and was buried at Mt. Nebo (Dt. 34) but there was a demonic fight for his body (Jude 1:9). Jude tells us: “9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Now, I like Moses as much as the next guy, but what could you do with his used body? Satan evidently had plans, but so did God! We may well have evidence that the two witnesses are Elijah and Moses, back again. Why not a resurrected body – a 2.0 body like from 1 Corinthians 15? Simple, their assignment is to come back and DIE again – something you cannot do in a resurrection 2.0 body. Take a look:

Revelation 11:7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. 8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

Now we see the truth that John needed to carefully consider. Men that have decided there is not God, HATE those who desire to proclaim the truth of that God. They do not WANT a moral measure in their lives. They do not DESIRE a relationship with a CREATOR. They want a perverted freedom – a sense that they can do what they want any way they want – and be right with the cosmos. The problem is, they don’t want the TRUTH.

Three days pass – and God pulled out of His back pocket a “thousands of years old” story of third day turnarounds. Dead and laying on the street – a scene repeated a thousand times and burned into the consciousness of everyone on earth as only CNN can do… they GOT UP! Take a look:  Revelation 11:11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.

All celebrations over the final defeat of the God of the Hebrews, put off since the time of Haman in ancient Persia, were shut down. The Christmas like scenes of gift giving turned to horror, as the people that were so smug, so in control, got interrupted by the God of Heaven once more. The irony of another “Third Day” story from Jerusalem emboldened the believers of that time. The two champions arose, and Jerusalem stood speechless as the men floated upward, and a terrible earthquake set in.

Revelation 11:12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14 The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

John stood back and saw where all the posturing, mocking and defiance of mankind brought them – to ruin and sadness. Mocking was turned to mourning. In the face of a deteriorating planet, with agonizing pain and clenched fists – lost man chose not to accept directions to Heaven’s gates – because they brought with them the constraints of morality and a personal God.

Scene Two: Heaven rejoiced at the truth – His unchallenged reign was to begin!

Oh, but John wasn’t left in gloom. The call to eat the scrolls and continue to tell the truth of God’s greatness amid the Tribulation was buttressed by another view of Heaven. Just as John saw the end of naturalism and rebellion, the visions he was instructed to measure showed him something else – the open mouths of praise that marked believers that saw God’s absolute justice and un-paralleled splendor.

The room was electric. No performance of Handel’s Messiah could ever match the choir that sang the mighty words that day: 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” The words echoed on and on and on…just as Handel heard them generations later.

These words should bring enormous JOY to those of us who have followed Jesus. Let me unfold the story using a bit of poetic license…

From long before there was time, Yahweh’s presence filled all that was. At some moment, He had a thought – He decided to make a world… and so He did. He called on His Son – and told Him that it was His work to perform. The Son knew it would bring JOY to His Father – so He began to whip up a universe. It was filled with creatures – millions of them! They were made in elegant varieties – Cherubim to sit below the Father’s throne… Seraphim to guard above the throne and cry out the greatness of His Father. An archangel was created, and ranks filled with angels.. the Heavenly Host. The Father was overjoyed with the new world.

Time passed… perhaps ions… when one day a great tragedy struck. A cherub from beside the throne desired to take that throne from the Father. He was beautiful and cunning, and a third part of the Heavens believed he was able to dislodge the Father from His precipice. A failed plot began that split Heaven. The Son watched with confidence as the Father – the Magnificent Ruler of all – decided rather than to react – to tell a story. The angels drew near. The Father beckoned – and again the Son began His work. Another universe – one much more varied than the first was made. Color, texture, taste, light and sound – all were woven into this new tapestry and offered from the Son to the Father – from the Father to his servants. Angelic eyes opened wide.

Thousands and tens of thousands of lights were hung in the fabric of the new universe, as the angelic touched the heavens and sang at the wonders they saw! Around the lights were flung planets – all in swirls of color and beauty… all according to the plan the Father made to set His Divine story. Then the Son delighted as one small rock in space was given water and earth – and from them was drawn animals and trees, mountains and meadows. God then beckoned His Son to create another wonder – and man was formed from the dust of the Garden. He was the keeper of this new small world – and as this page of the story of the Father began –the angels watched in wonder… with no clue of what lay on the page beneath.

God’s enemy – that Fallen Cherub – was allowed access to take up residence on that new little world. He was allowed to tempt and draw in the new creation, to take hold and dominate his world. He was allowed to take the Son’s beautiful dawn and darken it. Light colors were altered – and a dark curtain descended, the once ordered and beautiful page was a scribbled mess. Yet the Father did nothing. Man had fallen – and His world was now in the hands of the Prince of Darkness. Man languished under the brutal strain of his new master. He cried for help. Yet, the Father eased back in the throne and Heaven waited…tension mounted in the angel’s ranks. Then, after a time, the Father called the Son. He told Him the time had come to reveal His story. He promised to save man from the grasp of darkness. Only the Son was able to really comprehend what would bring back His Father’s honor to the whole host of Heaven – so the plan was set in place. Heaven’s ranks and hell’s hoards had no idea what was coming next.

A Savior was promised to man – that was clear enough. But how? A light was to shatter the hold of darkness. He would be born both of woman’s pain and of Heaven’s glory. He was the Wonderful One – the Word of Life – the Witness of the Father. All eyes in the universe were laid on Him as the Son took up His new post in the story’s marvelous next frame. From eternity to time He fell. Immortal took on flesh. Promise took on the mantle of a common physique. The Vine began to yield branches. The door began to open. Hearts of men were tugged by the long missed sound of Heaven’s truth  – the Words of life spoken through the lips of this seed of David.

Time passed… and the enemy grew impatient with the Savior’s voice. The Truth became the subject of a great lie. Darkness crept in to envelope the light… A beating. A mock trial. Crushing blow upon crushing blow. Nails. A Savior rejected and in agony – writhing pain. His eyes closed, His voice raised to the Father. “Forgive them, they do not know what they have done! It is finished”…and the story was wrecked. Angels awaited the Father’s command to rescue – but no command came. – they could not understand. A dark night passed on earth, and Heaven was restless to see a resolution to the Father’s tale. Another night… a third morning. The Father smiled. A wave of His hand and the dead body of the Son was alive! He was awakened from the tomb and the stone was rolled back. The Prince of Life conquered death… and from His new life He drew in a breath from earth’s mists for a last few moments.

Before leaving the earth, the Gentle Shepherd began to gather His flock. He took them from every nation, and drew them into the vast family of those who chose to walk away from the dark lord into the light of the Morningstar. One after another was called. Rooms of the Father’s mansions were filled with them – the Redeemed of the ages. The magnificent work of the Father, born through the peril and pain of the Son was unfolded until the last words were spoken.

Here we are in our story. The room of Heaven is bound up in the Glory of the Redeemer. The vast choirs of Heaven together with those whose lives have been redeemed begin to sing of the saving work of this Rock of Defense, their Deliverer. They know the Bread of Life – for He was fed to the hungry, and they were filled. The enemy’s once unchallenged hold on the kingdoms of the earth is now broken – and inch by inch, the ground is pulled from his clutches by a force that is stronger than anything that adversary can muster. The truth is more powerful than the lie….the Light more powerful than the darkness. Cold is blanketed in warmth. Heaven knows it. Earth feels a sense of anticipation.

The choir’s voices are raised in that room because of the Magnificent One, the Savior… the Son. The choir’s tones are lofty, because they must reach the precipice on which the Magnificent Father sits, above the crystal sea. The choir echoes the words…  It is Done! The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Anointed One. His reign shall once again be unchallenged in the skies. Oh, hear their music! Listen to their words! The end of man is the beginning of Heaven. The end of the enemy’s rule is the beginning of a walk – hand in hand – with the Father of all… because of the Savior. Heaven knows it well. Listen to their words:

11:16  And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.

Yes, Heaven knew God’s love, but they also knew something else. They knew that the darkness that still lay over many on the earth had stirred and twirled into a foam of rage. They wanted NOTHING to do with this Savior. Their song reminds:

11:18 “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 19 And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

There it is… the whole story. God unfolded on earth and across the universe a take to show the angelic host of Heaven WHO HE IS. His rebellious creation should learn of Him as He redeems another rebellious creation. Angels should see the story of man and learn… Judgment opposes the mutineer. The insurgent will meet his match.

The end of the passage is highlighted the truth – not everyone will respond to the Savior the same way. Some harden when the King comes into the room. They will not yield to Him. They want NOTHING to do with His presence or His power. They want to do what THEY want to do. Yet – they will meet Him. They WILL know WHO He is.

Others, like many who hear these words today – LONG to meet Him. They KNOW of His love, and long for His Power to be made clear. They await the song yet to be sung… and they tune their voices. God’s finish for human history will reacted to by men in two very different ways… How will YOU finish? It depends on whether you see Him as an obstacle to your happiness, or the key to it.

We’ve all heard the saying: “The truth hurts!” Usually it is said to us in the context of some lack in us that is being pointed out by someone who may be a bit less than sensitive to our feelings. We MAY KNOW something is true – but we don’t LIKE that it is true. Truth comes in both sweet and sour sauces…

 Some Biblical truths are incredibly sweet – it may just be that we aren’t focused properly.

Melvin Newland wrote this story:  “Have you heard the story of the farmer who was discouraged with his farm? So he decided to sell out & move somewhere else. He engaged a realtor to look the farm over & prepare a sales ad. But before putting it in the paper, the realtor called & read the proposed ad to him, saying, “See if this meets with your approval.” The ad spoke of a good location, a well maintained house, sturdy barns, lush pasture lands, a beautiful pond, fertile soil, & a great view. The farmer listened carefully, & then said, “Read that to me again, slowly.” So the realtor read it to him again. Finally, the farmer said: “No, don’t print that ad. I’ve changed my mind. I’ve always wanted a place like that. I’m not going to sell.

We do have positive truths that we need to recall. We have great and precious promises in God’s Word to be sure, and sometimes we are too swift to pass over their power as we are distracted by the darkness of this current world. 2 Peter 1:4 reminds: “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

Peter loved the word “precious” and used it concerning: Precious Faith– (1 Peter 1:7, 2 Peter 1:1), Precious blood– (1 Peter 1:19), Precious stone– (1 Peter 2:4-6), Precious Lord– (1 Peter 2:7) and Precious promises– (2 Peter 1:4). He emphasized to the beleaguered followers of Jesus that God had great things for them – BECAUSE HE DOES. They were precious promises ROOTED IN GOD’S NATURE and BACKED BY GOD’S POWER:

• In Numbers 23:19 and the story of Balak, the Word of God tosses out this nugget: “19“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said it, and will He not do it? Or has He ever spoken, that will He not make it good?
• 2 Peter 3:9- “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
• Eph. 3:20,21- “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

I read words of God’s promises and I am lifted. I see more clearly His power, and His love. He hasn’t left His people poor and without hope… yet those promises are not the only ones that I read about – especially when I open the last book of the Bible. These  truths of the Word – equally true in all eternity, are not sweet. They hurt us deeply inside. They make us sick to think about.

On many an occasion I have stood above the six foot hole as the casket was lowered down into it. I have led in prayer and celebration of a believer’s life – it is one distinct privilege I have as a Shepherd. Death is no foe, and it is not a point of fear to those of us who have trusted Christ and His Word. Yet, I have wept both inside and out, when the casket contains one who stubbornly and vocally refused Christ and salvation. The thought that all their chances to know Him are gone makes me sick.

Key Principle: Sometimes the truth hurts – but God has called us to speak the truth.

We must not be unloving, but we cannot dismiss the truth and act like the judgment of God is not as real as the blessing of God. Believers of every generation have been tempted to do so, but the whole counsel of God shared in His Word is sacred. We cannot pick and choose.

Let me show you the story of a man in the first century who got sick on tough truth. Our story began with a time of silence in Heaven – as the angels and living creatures before the throne were silenced at the coming of the judgment on the earth.  As silence slipped away, Heaven thundered and the earth shuddered at the blast of the Trumpets– one after the other, and brought a succession of pummeling judgments to our planet. Grass and trees across one third of the earth were consumed by the falling of fiery hail. The seas of salt water were impacted, as one third of them were poisoned by a volcanic type eruption that began from a mass thrown from above. A star called wormwood embittered the fresh drinking water streams and springs. Just when it looked like there was nothing that could be worse, the darkness and light that men had counted on – sunrise and sunset –were disrupted by the ash clouds that blocked the sun and moon from shining onto the fragile and struggling planet.

As if life on earth hadn’t already become a living hell – hell’s demons were released from the bottomless pit. We don’t know what they were, but we know whose they were – the locusts with the faces of men worked for the Wicked One. There is no question that at his direction, they hurt and maimed – causing despair and drawing men and women to cry out in agony. In the face of their terror, another judgment was released. Poised on the edges of the lands of the eastern cultures of Mesopotamia – where God originally called forth Abraham and much of the Bible’s first stories unfolded… were angels that were set to draw the final curtain to one third of mankind. Billions of lives hung in the balance as God’s emissary released word to unleash a 200 million strong army on the weakened sons of men. From their mouths and from their tails, they spit an agonizing sting that crippled their victims.

Was this a poetic description of a Satanically backed army of a nation? It is impossible to be sure. We can know what their impact, however. They brought such indescribable suffering that it is unimaginable men and women would not repent… but the text is clear. People held on stubbornly to their pagan beliefs – like a man whose logic has evaporated: as Revelation 9:20 reminds: “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

For a few moments, John stopped the progression of judgment to offer a personal note about his experiences. Revelation 10:1-11:14 is actually a parenthetical vision. This isn’t the first time John employed this technique. When the story of the seven seals was played out in Revelation 6 and 7, John stopped after six seals while the seventh seal was not yet open – and offered a picture from two visions (7:1-8; 11-17). In the case of the trumpets, he does it again, and the seventh trumpet is preceded by two visions of what he saw (10:1-11; 11:1-14). In the midst of the judgment, Jesus had him focus on something else – the consolation and encouragement of believers in the grip of the downward spiral of the planet. There are only eleven verses:

Revelation 10:1 I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; 2 and he had in his hand a little book which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land; 3 and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. 4 When the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.” 5 Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets. 8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11 And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

The very last sentence reveals the problem of the passage… John was sick by what he saw, and the Lord had to PUSH him to keep telling the whole story. We are no different today than our older brothers and sisters in the faith. Many want the “LIGHT BIBLE” – the kind with only six commandments and a 3% tithe. We want the celebration of Heaven without the punishment of Hell – the joy of prosperity without the lessons of leanness. We get beat up in the world, and we don’t want to hear negative words in church. “I come here to get lifted!” one lady said…. And I totally understand. The fact is that so do I. I want to say positive and fun things more than you want to hear them! The problem is, sometimes the TRUTH HURTS, and we are only served by being honest about that.

Go back to the beginning of what we read. The “strong angel” of 10:1 is one character that is described in 5:2, here, and in 18:21. We cannot tell if the being is the same, but we can tell that there are varying degrees of power committed to angelic beings. Perhaps a few own BOWFLEXES and it is more obvious they use them. With streets of GOLD, perhaps GOLD’s gym has franchised in Heavenly places – I just cannot say. A four-fold description of this angel is included: Revelation 10:1 …clothed with a cloud… rainbow was upon his head… face was like the sun… feet like pillars of fire.

 (1) He was “clothed with a cloud” – a Hebrew reference that denoted God’s presence in the case of the Temple’s dedication, or Sinai’s Law – that spilled into Revelation usually in the context of God’s wrath and judgment – in Revelation 1:7, Jesus will come again “with the clouds” (cf. Dan 7:13).

(2) He had a “rainbow upon his head” – an apparent Hebrew reference to the glory of God as in the words “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (Ezekiel 1:28). Revelation 4:3 says that God has such a rainbow encircling His throne.

(3) “His face was like the sun” may be a Hebrew reference to the authority or boundaries of God, as in the words . “And God made two great lights; the greater light [the sun] to rule the day” (Genesis 1:16). In Revelation 1:16, Jesus’ face “shone like the sun”.

(4) “His feet like pillars of fire” may well allude to the strength of the being to reap judgment.  Clearly the fire throughout the book is a powerful graphic allegory of God’s judgment. The  “pillars of fire” are reminiscent of Israel’s wilderness guidance system, where God provided a “pillar of fire” to guide the Israelites at night and a “cloud” by day (Exodus 13:21-22). We should remember that the pillar of fire not only guided them, but also protected God’s people (Exodus 14:24) as directed by God.

The angel announced with God’s presence, God’s glory, God’s authority and boundaries, and God’s enduring strength – the time for the last set of judgments was at hand…

Revelation 10:2 moves our eyes to his HANDS AND FEET. In his hands, he grasped a little scroll.  With his feet, this colossus spanned both the earth and the sea. One Pastor wrote: “This angel would win any game of Twister hands down.” The angel appears to be taking final possession of God’s stolen kingdom. Final judgment will claim the world for Christ, as God takes back what is rightfully His (Ps 2:6-8). This is powerfully encouraging, but the price of the takeover is sickening to John.

The little scroll may well be different from the scroll Jesus Christ unrolled in 5:1, mentioned again in 6:1, simply because John used a different word to describe it. In fact, he chose a Greek term not used elsewhere in the letter… we just cannot know for sure.  More than likely, the bulk of judgment completed – this was a fragment of the balance of the last set of judgments that were yet to happen – a piece of the same scroll.

Revelation 10:3 looks like the scene of one about to give a testimony in court – as they “raise their right hand and swear to tell the truth!” His opening cry brought calamitous sound in Heaven – again showing his power. Lions roar and all the animals know the King has spoken. “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion…” (Proverbs 19:12). There were SEVEN PEALS of thunder… and by now you are getting used to the idea of the seven. Here is may refer back to Psalm 29:3-9 where seven thunder peals are portrayed as the voice of the Lord:

Psalm 29:3 “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders, The LORD is over many waters. 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful, The voice of the LORD is majestic. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire. 8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, “Glory!”

Seven peals of thunder responded to the roar – but John was told NOT to write down what was revealed. Not everything he saw and heard were offered for prophetic delivery. Just as Daniel was told in Daniel 12, God has not revealed in Scripture all the judgments that will take place on the earth during the great tribulation. God’s Word is all true, but not complete – by His own intention. In 2 Corinthians 12:4 Paul shared that he “was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak”. Prophetic revelation is only partial (1 Corinthians 13:9), so we must interpret with caution and humility.

This angel “lifted up his right hand to heaven” -a gesture offered to demonstrate an oath (cf. Gen 14:22; Dt. 32:40; Dan. 12:7).” The oath carried a message that was CHILLING to John… The delay of God’s judgment was no more.

The God who IS was about to act. The God who created all things, was now claiming His creation. It is no accident that the key philosophical issues of our time revolve around these two truths—the existence of God, and creation. 

Our world cries out that all things were put here in random chance… there is no God and there is no purpose. Naturalism has won the hearts of our universities and our museums – but NOT the hearts of our people. The church stands yet today, proclaiming in the public square that a fool believes there is no God. A fool believes that man evolved and the world is getting progressively more enlightened. A fool seeks pleasure – much more than truth. We will not slip quietly into the night – our job is not yet finished. Fools may have found a following, but God’s Word stands sure. The cold night of naturalism will bring about a brutish society, bent on personal fulfillment and drowning in lust. The night comes, so we work with the truth – there IS a God in Heaven, He DID create what we are and see… and every eye will one day see Him.

The angels cried out “Time is up“—like a teacher administrating a test. Time for pencils down. Evils defeat is about to be unsealed. God didn’t even want the details to leak to His enemy – so they are unrecorded. He is going to do something that will blindside the wicked one – something none of us have even thought of – but it IS coming.

Judgment isn’t a sweet truth to the stomach. John was told to take the scroll and eat it. The initial taste wasn’t sour, but when it hit his stomach, it was sickening. He was given a commission to KEEP GOING with the truth of the Word. Don’t stop speaking out My Word, said the Lord… “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” Was it easy? No. Was it essential. Yes.

Not all truth is sweet. We must take God’s Word to the nations, but not until we have digested it and it has become part of what we are. Weak believers, unsure of the Word and its power need not apply to go elsewhere. They need to chew some more before going anywhere. In our mad dash to get people who are zealous, we must not jump to sending out those who have not digested the truths of the Word. The Bible is to be taken INSIDE. It is to do a transforming work. It will sober up the silly – and ground the flaky. We are struggling today as God’s church because we simply want to resist the process of learning God’s Word. We want the bullet point, fortune cookie, quick fix version of the truth. We can’t reach a world until God’s Word reaches US.

We possess the astounding privilege of a personal Bible to read – something most believers never had in history. Yet most wait for someone to spoon feed them truth. Men and women, God doesn’t force-feed His Word – but rather requires us to take it in hand, and ingest it in heart. The Word of God is called bread (Matt 4:4), milk (1 Pet 2:2), meat (1 Cor 3:1-2), and honey (Ps 119:103). We are supposed to be pouring it into our lives… and the lack of it will show in the anemic, un-resistant church. Often Madison Avenue has more influence than our Bible – because our people haven’t done their work.

Even more often – it isn’t YOU – it is US…those who open the book and teach it. We have backed down and made it easier than it really us.

Messages of the modern church abound but far too many of them are sweet. We are preaching messages about success and fulfillment, a positive outlook and a healthy self-image, but frankly there is little about sin and God’s holy wrath. We secretly hope that the Pastor will turn us to a “happy passage” on Sunday. Here’s a question posed by one Pastor: “ If judgment was near enough that the apostle John needed to be hardened by the eating of that scroll, should we not be more direct and more pointed in speaking to men and women about the realities of sin, righteousness, and judgment?”

To every teacher that is listening to these words, I want to tell the truth – being a true spokesman of God is no easy task. It requires a man or woman to be willing to tell people what they don’t want to hear. Don’t compromise truth to win a crowd – or you will lead them away from God’s purposes. Don’t skip the stomach ache- it comes with the book. God loves us. He wants us to know Him. He has made a way of escape. Yet, equally true is this: Jesus said most people won’t take the door of salvation and a walk with Him. Most will go the way well worn, and hope for the best.

Sometimes the truth hurts – but God has called us to speak the truth. We must not be unloving, but we cannot dismiss the truth and act like the judgment of God is not as real as the blessing of God. Believers of every generation have been tempted to do so, but the whole counsel of God shared in His Word is sacred. We cannot pick and choose. Remember these words from 2 Chronicles 36, at the end of the Hebrew Scriptures:

15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; 16 but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, until there was no remedy.

Don’t delay. Respond. God is waiting for His church to take Him seriously. Time is running out – and there are still many who will respond if we will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.