Endure Suffering Patiently Series

ENDURE SUFFERING PATIENTLY

Revelation 6-9 (pp864-866) July 7, 2013

INTRODUCTION:

Last week we ended the message with Jesus, the Lamb which was slain, opening the 7 seals of a Scroll…In absolute selfless worship, the 4 living creatures, the 24 Elders around God’s throne, the countless number of angels call out with praise….”Worthy is the lamb…to receive glory, honor, power, wealth, wisdom and strength…and every creature in heaven, and on earth and under the earth and on the sea says, “To Him who sits on the throne…and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever. AMEN!

John has been called into heaven’s throne room to witness uninhibited, selfless worship of God on the throne, and Jesus, the Son who has accomplished God’s purpose of salvation through His death, burial and resurrection … “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29)…”The Lamb looking as if it has been slain.” (Rev. 5:6)

The Lamb, Jesus...is worthy…He’s worthy to receive all power, authority and praise because of His obedience and sacrifice for the One on the throne…He, and He alone has earned the right to open the seals which reveal God’s plan for the future. Listen as we read Rev. 6: 1-17 (p864)

That sounds a whole lot more like the Revelation we know and love, huh? Seals, trumpets, 4 horsemen, scrolls, famine, disease, and wild animals…What does all this mean?

I’ve never been real good at ignoring the Elephant in the room…. My nature, permanently, call it what you want usually walks in the room, looks around at all the other people ignoring a giant elephant …and says, “Hey, what’s with the Elephant?

Revelation 4:1 finds Jesus telling John…”Come up here (through Humans door) and I’ll show you what must take place, after this….I’ll show you what will happen next…The elephant?.... When is “after this”…when does “next” happen?

I don’t know….I have opinions and beliefs just as everyone else does...but I won’t stand behind this pulpit sharing an opinion as if it is “the Word of God”….Almost all views of the “The When This will take place” flow from this passage of scripture and some others…

Read Rev 20: 1-10 (p871)

When does Jesus return, when is the 1,000 year reign here on earth…that’s where the word (“Millennialism”) comes from. Is it a literal 1,000 years or figurative …does the church go through the Great tribulation recorded in these chapters or is it “Raptured” (word never used in scripture by the way) before the horrible stuff…or half way through the horrible stuff? John does not relate his revelation in chronological order…John jumps back and forth in time, and he also takes us back and forth between heaven and on earth.

John uses repetition to emphasize a key theme: When Christ returns he will come in judgment---to reward those who are faithful and punish those who are not. The conflict between God and Satan, and their followers flows through the entire book.

I THERE IS ONLY ONE FINAL COMING OF JESUS…THERE IS ONLY ONE END OF THE WORLD

Hebrews 9:27, 28 records these words, “Just as people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

The lamb was slain to take away our sin, all sin…but when he returns as the risen Lord of Lords and King of Kings it will be to bring judgment.

Rev: 6: 15-17 (p 864)

As the lamb opens the 7 seals…the first 4 are horses and riders…A white horse whose rider holds a bow, has a crown…conquering and bringing conquest….As the second is opposed one of the 4 living creatures, says “Come” and the rider of a fiery red horse comes out…taking away peace, people killing one another, the 3rd rider is on a black horse, He has scales in his hands…bringing famine and financial difficulty, and with the 4th seal…the living creature says, “Come” and there before John was a Pale horse…It’s rider was death….and Hades was following close behind him…people would die by the sword, famine, plaque and wild beasts of the earth.

Much of what John records has an immediate fulfillment…you could see each of those things taking place under the Roman Empire but there is also an ultimate fulfillment…yet to have occurred before Christ returns…when?... Well.

Jesus even answered the disciple’s private question about when all this would take place and what signs they should look for in Matthew 24.

Matt. 24: 3-14 (p693)

John witnesses those martyred for their faith under the altar of God when the 5th seal is opened…They cry out….”How long, Sovereign Lord, Holy and True, until you judge the earth and avenge our blood?”