The Return of the King
Revelation 19:11 – 22:21
Intro
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Well, we have been looking into the events surrounding the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The Rapture
We saw that the rapture is the next event on the time line of these end times events and that it could happen at any moment.
Now, in regards to this event, we do not know the day or the time. So, Harold Camping was wrong (Again) in regards to the end of the world being Friday,
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just like he was wrong about the Rapture happening on May 21st, just like he was wrong when he predicted it on September 7th, 1994.
Nobody knows the day or the hour, only the Father in heaven.
But that being said, the rapture is an event that Scripture talks about and there is nothing that needs to precede this for it to take place. It could happen at any moment.
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The Great Tribulation
Then last week, we talked about the tribulation which will come sometime soon after the rapture and will formally be ushered in with the signing of a covenant between the Anti-Christ and Israel. Things may start out peaceful, but will quickly evolve into a time of great tribulation as wickedness increases greatly and God’s wrath and judgment is poured out on this world. This will greatly increase in the middle of the 7 year period and will eventually culminate with the actual return of Christ.
And that is where we are going to begin today.
Turn with me to Revelation 19:11.
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We are going to read through most of the last few chapters of Revelation today and see what will occur when Christ actually returns as King.
Revelation 19:11 – 20:3
11I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
17And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."
19Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
20:1And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended.
Pray
The second coming of Christ is a little bit different than the first coming.
This time
Jesus returns and reigns…
…as a Conquering King
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It says that He comes “with justice He judges and makes war.” (v. 11) and that He has tattooed down his thigh “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (v. 16).
His purpose is not as the babe in the manger to bring salvation and seek and save the lost. He has saved all that will believe. Now he returns to rule and reign with justice and to conquer and bring judgment and make war with those opposed to him in the battle of Armageddon.
Ezekiel 38:22-23 speaks of this battle.
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22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’
Jesus will return as a conquering King and execute His judgment and justice upon the world just as has been prophesied.
After He conquers His enemies,
Jesus Returns and reigns…
In His Millennial Kingdom
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Revelation 20:4-6
4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Here we see that Christ comes back and sets up his millennial kingdom and that believers who died during the tribulation will have positions of authority reigning with Jesus. But that is not all. In fact, all
Believers who have died before Christ returns
will reign with Christ in the Millennium
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This is not only for the tribulation saints.
We see Jesus talking to the Disciples in Matthew 19:28 and says to them
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"I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 6 is rebuking the Corinthians for bring disputes before the ungodly and he says in 1 Corinthians 6:2, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?”
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And in Revelation 5, we are told about Jesus’ worthiness to open the seals because He purchased men for God by His blood from every tribe, language, people and nation. And it says about these people that Jesus purchased with his blood that
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“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:10)
People who have died as believers in Jesus Christ will reign with and have authority during the millennium kingdom that is established on earth.
Well, if all those who have died in Christ are having positions of authority and rule, then who are they ruling over?
Believers who are alive when Christ returns
will be subjects of Christ in the Millennium
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At Armageddon, all of those who are opposed to Christ will be killed. After Satan is bound for the 1000 years and the beast and false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire, Revelation 19:21 tells us that those who were allied with Satan “were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh “
So at that point, the only ones alive are those who have believed in Jesus as their Savior and did not die during the tribulation.
Those are the people who will enter into the Millennium and be subject to Christ and those who will reign with Him.
Now being a subject in this kingdom will not be a bad thing at all.
This will be an amazing time on the earth.
Listen to how God describes this time through Isaiah.
Isaiah 65:20-25
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20 "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. 21 They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.
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23 They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. 24 Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, "says the Lord.
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Much of the effects of the curse will be eliminated as Christ rules the world in this Millennial Kingdom.
This is not heaven yet. People will still die, but they will live to be very, very old. When we read the Old Testament in the early chapters of Genesis, we see that people lived to be very old. It will be that way again during the Millennial Kingdom.
And the animals will get along with each other and with people.
Ohio – Animal Slaughter
There won’t be situations like in Ohio this past week where a bunch of animals from a private preserve had to be killed because the owner let them loose and killed himself and the animals were a danger to people.
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Isaiah 11:8-9
8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
This will be a time when there really is “Hope you can believe in!”
His Kingdom will have come and his will, will be done on earth during this time, just as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
It will be this way for 1000 years!
Not Heaven…yet
Now this is not heaven, though the circumstances that are experienced will be great. But even though circumstances will be near perfect and life will be long, the subjects of this kingdom, those who have been born during this time and those who are still alive who entered this kingdom, will still have their fleshly sin nature.
We think so often that if we had better circumstances, and if Satan were not around to tempt us, we would be moral and upright people with no desire to sin.
The fact of the matter is that our greatest need is not perfect circumstances.
It is a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Even in the midst of near perfect circumstance and very long lives, there will be those who live during this millennial kingdom who outwardly obey, but who inwardly rebel and are not real followers of Christ.
And these are the ones who will be deceived and their sinful hearts exposed at the end of the 1000 years.
Revelation 20:7-10 tells us that
7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth — Gog and Magog — to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Application
Maybe you are here today thinking if only I had a job, or a better job, or if my wife were nicer or if my husband were more godly, or if my kids would just listen to me, or if I won the lotto, or if I had a nicer car, or if, or if, or if….
While those things can be nice and relieve stress for short times, they do not solve any problems.
The greatest need of people is relationship with Jesus Christ, not better circumstances.
That reality is truly going to be shown during the Millennial kingdom.
And those who are so easily deceived by Satan then, as well as now, are going to face a Jesus that returns and reigns as Judge
Jesus Returns and Reigns…as Judge
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Revelation 20:11-15
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the Great White Throne judgment. This is a time when all of those who have not believed in faith and trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior will be judged.
They will be judged on what they have done and not done in this life and none of them will be found worthy of heaven because their names are not written in the book of life.
They will face different degrees of punishment based on how they lived their life.
Jesus says in Luke 10:12
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that “it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for” a town that did not welcome the apostles.
But even though there are different degrees of punishment based on how people without Jesus have lived, they will for eternity experience that degree of punishment and torment and never have any hope of heaven.
Hades now
While this judgment is yet future for unbelievers, right now they go to Hades. There used to be 2 sides of Hades, the hell side and the paradise side (Abraham’s bossom – Luke 16:22-23). When Jesus died for the sins of those of faith, those in paradise were ushered into heaven and now when a believer dies, he is immediately in the presence of Jesus.
When an unbeliever dies now, he goes to the torment side of hades. This is not yet the lake of fire, but still a place of torment.
To Hell and Back
As I was preparing for this message, I ran across a book written by a cardiologist from the University of Tennessee, Dr. Maurice Rawlings. He wrote a book titled, “To Hell and Back.” In it he and his colleagues had interviewed more than 300 people who claimed near- death experiences. What made this study unique as that the interviews were conducted immediately after the experiences had allegedly occurred, while the patients were still too shaken up in the immediacy of the moment to gloss over or re-imagine what they experienced, not years or even months or weeks later.
Nearly 50 percent of them reported encountering images of fire, of tormented and tormenting creatures and other sights hailing from a place very different from heaven. In follow up interviews much later, many of these same people had changed their stories Either they were unwilling to admit to their families, or maybe subconsciously even themselves, that they had caught a glimpse of something like what the Bible calls hell.
Dr. Rawlings concludes, “Just listening to these patients has changed my life. There is a life after death , and if I don’t know where I’m going, it is not safe to die.”
http://bible.org/seriespage/pay-day-some-day-revelation-201-15#P101_45351
P reaching Today Citation: Daniel Meyer, “The Light at the End of the Tunnel,” Preaching Today No. 238.
Is it safe for you to die?
If you were to die today, would you know for certain that you have nothing to worry about in regards to your eternity?
If you don’t know for sure, you can know for sure.
This is one of the reasons God has given us the Bible.
Back to Basics
Now, if you don’t believe the Bible is God’s word, then you need to come to our Back to Basics Seminar on November 13th from 1:30pm to 4:30pm. In that seminar, we go through evidences regarding why you can believe that this really is God’s word as opposed to any other religious writings.
And God tells us through John the Apostle in John that you can know you have eternal life.
1 John 5:11-13
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11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
In just a moment, you are going to have an opportunity to know that you have eternal life by receiving Christ as Savior.
But for those who have received Christ, you not only don’t go to hell, which is what each one of us deserve, but instead, we will be with the Lord forever.
And when the millennium is ended, Scripture tells us that
Jesus Returns and Reigns…
… over a New Heaven and Earth
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Revelation 21:1-5, 22-23; 22:3-4, 12-14
21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
22:3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
Conclusion
Have you been washed clean by the blood of Christ?
Will you be able to enter into the new heaven and new earth to be with the Lord forever?
Or will you face judgment at the Great White Throne?
Is it safe for you to die?
It is only safe for those who have received the salvation that God freely offers through belief in Jesus Christ.
When you have received Him as your Savior, your name is written in the book of life, and you can know for sure you will see Jesus face to face when you die or when He returns for his church at the rapture.
If you need to receive Christ, the Bible tells us that we do that by believing in Him
John 1:12 - Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
That belief is not just some mental ascent to the facts, but a heart belief that displays itself in actions. And one of those actions should be confessing that belief.
Romans 10:9 says “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
I am going to lead in a prayer of confession and if you want to receive Jesus as your Savior, then confess your belief in Him to the Lord along with me.
Let’s pray.
