Something To Look Forward To Rev 11:15-19
So far, we have gone through Revelation 11 and discovered:
That the measurement of the temple (the rebuilt temple, during the Tribulation period) by John
That the city of Jerusalem would be "trodden underfoot" by non-Jews for half the tribulation period
That God would raise up Two Witnesses, two men with the unique ministry of preaching the gospel to the world, prophesying the coming judgment and striking down those with even the intent of harming them with fire from their mouths
That their ministry would end after 1,260 days when Antichrist would kill them, then both he and the people of the world would leave their bodies to rot in the street for three and a half days during a celebration global in scope and in view
That after three and a half days (again, the Jewish superstition of the spirit leaving the body after three days) God would raise them from the dead with translated bodies fit for heaven, they would be called to heaven and go to heaven in a cloud
That following the ascention of the Two Witnesses that an earthquake will destroy 10% of the city of Jerusalem (one tenth of the buildings would fall down) and that "seven thousand names" (noted people, most likely leaders in "Antichristendom") would die; this being the second "woe" judgment.
Today, we begin the final teaching in Revelation 11 with the sounding of the seventh trumpet (the seventh angel sounded), which will yield a preview into the coming Millennial Kingdom.
This week, we will discover here in the latter part of Revelation 11 what Dr. Ed Hindson states in his "Revelation: Unlocking the Future" commentary: "From this point on, everything follows in rapid succession. These five verses (15-19) are among the most dramatic verses in the entire Bible. The are so powerful that George Frideric Handel took the words of verse 15, "and he will reign forever and ever" as the closing chorus of his great oratorio, The Messiah."--JH
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" Revelation 11:15 (NKJV)
There is unrestrained joy that the power of Satan is to be forever broken, and Jesus Christ is to reign supreme as King of kings and Lord of lords. With the defeat of the usurper, the question of sovereignty over the world will be forever settled. What Jesus refused to take on Satan's terms (cf. Luke 4:5-8) He will take on His own terms. Heaven rejoices that the long rebellion of the world against God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is about to end. The setting up of Christ's long-awaited kingdom is the apex of redemptive history.--J. MacArthur
I have to smile when I read Revelation 11:15. Why? It brings back some wonderful memories, but also is a promise that you my friend can take to the bank. I remember the fall of 1975 the practices and the performances of Handel's Messiah; it was a kind of magical time because that great music seemed to transport one into Heaven itself. In fact, "when he got to the Hallelujah chorus, his assistant found him in tears saying "I did think I saw heaven open, and saw the very face of God". Today of course it is the first two parts of this work that mostly get performed. The Hallelujah chorus is in fact the conclusion of part two, but in performances today it regularly is used to climax and conclude the Christmas performance of the first part of the oratorio." (Ben Witherington) I still get a thrill when I hear the Hallelujah Chorus, one of the most recognized pieces of music in all the world.
The blast of the seventh trumpet sounds, and in it the scene changes from earth at the mid point of the tribulation and fast forwards to the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ. John hears loud voices (Koine Greek phone megale, from which we get "megaphone"). These are shouts of joy and proclamation! So often, we get focused in on the issues and worries of today and lose sight of the big picture: Jesus will one day rule. One day Jesus will sit on the throne of David and rule the world.
I love to study God's Word! Here in this verse we see that there is a difference in the translations, and although it may seem to be minor it really isn't. In the NKJV and the KJV translations, the Koine Greek term basileia is translated as kingdoms, but it is actually singular--kingdom--and is tranlated as such in the NASB and ESV. So it should read "The kingdom of this world". Singular. What this shows us is that although to us we may look at the different kingdoms (including all governments around the world) and realize that they are governed by one person--Satan. Satan is the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) and the prince of this world (John 12:31). The term for world is kosmos, and in this particular context means culture or world system. The current world system is run by Satan. He is in charge of the culture; sometimes we look at people and the world system and we wonder "what are they thinking?". That is because Satan is in charge of the fallen world system.
During the Millennial kingdom, Satan will be defeated and thrown into the abyss for a thousand years. At the end of that one thousand years, Satan will be released and incite a rebellion that will be short lived and squashed by God. But Jesus will still rule and reign without interruption. Jesus will be in charge. He will still be on the throne. He truly will reign forever and ever!
And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. Revelation 11:16-17 (NKJV)
Something To Look Forward To, Part I
How often do we give up? How often do we lose sight of what is to come? Pastor Randy Alcorn tells the story of Florence Chadwick, a woman who in 1952 attempted to swim from Catalina Island in the Pacific to Long Beach, California, a distance of about 22 miles. She grew tired and weary toward the end, and there was a fog that was so thick that she could not see how much farther she had to go and gave up...less than half a mile away. She later said "I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it." Do you ever get so sick and tired of the "same old same old"? It often seems in life that we are defeated, that we just "maintain an even strain", that we just seem like we are part of the rat race and we are no different than the proverbial hamster on an exercise wheel. I think that perhaps this is the very reason why God had this preview of the Millennial Kingdom presented to John; it is easy to get caught up in all of the mundane things in life but also it is so easy to get so caught up in the horrors and even just the disappointments of the world we lose sight of what is important.
Back in Revelation 4, we were introduced to the twenty four elders. We identified them as most likely being representatives of the church because the stephanos crowns or "victor's crowns" which they will wear. We do not know precisely whom they are, but I would venture to say that the 12 Apostles and the Apostle Paul would be included.
As in chapter 4, we see a lot of good solid doctrine that some people choose to ignore or twist. First, you may notice that the worship is entirely focused on God not on the person that is offering up the worship. What is called worship today is often focused on the feel good instead of the holy and God honoring. These elders fall flat on their faces in reverance and respect to God. They give thanks. The Greek word here is eucharisteo, which means "thankful, grateful, well- pleasing. To show oneself grateful, to be thankful, to give thanks." (Spiros Zodhiates) How often do you thank God? I think we need to thank God more than we ask him for anything.
O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come,, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. Such great, wonderful doctrine! God is Lord--he is Master. He is God--plural, the three in one. Almighty--"The Lord God Omnipotent", God is all powerful and no one compares (Satan is a little God wanna-be!). The One who is (present time) and who was (eternity past, has always existed) and is to come (will always be, and will always be in charge. We can rest in the fact that God is in all time frames at the same time, and He is all powerful and in charge. We can look forward to that time when we will not fret over work, we will not be upset about the crazy decisions politicians and judges make!
The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth." Revelation 11:18 (NKJV)
Something To Look Forward To, Part II
God truly is an Awesome God, and one day all will be made right, truly something to look forward to! Let's look "under the hood" of this particular verse.
The nations were angry. it is a continual theme throughout Revelation that the hearts of men are in rebellion. Not only do they not repent, they do not repent when it will make all the sense in the world to do so. I think that we see the same thing in Washington DC, folks. If you are a Democrat, you will be against the Republicans and if you are a Republican you will be against a Democrat. Why? Because they are the opposition. I heard recently, and commented in a prior devotional that someone was quoted as saying Washington DC is like the "Hatfields and McCoys"; one party does not like the other "just because". However, those in that great, awful day will hate God because they do not want to be under his authority. They will not only reject God, but they will hate anything and anyone that exalts Him in the smallest degree. The glory that they will give God (verse 15) will be through clenched teeth. And this is not the "garden variety" hatred. A. T. Robertson notes that the term means "became angry." The culmination of wrath against God... John sees the hostility of the world against Christ."
Your wrath has come: The wrath of men can only do so much, but the wrath of God is all encompassing. God is loving and long-suffering, but only to a point; when the wrath of God cuts loose it never comes up short or goes too far.
And the time of the dead, that they should be judged...: Each person, when they die, will go to either heaven or hades at that moment depending upon their faith.
And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great: Each person, later on, will be judged upon their works. For the saved, the reward of the saints (Bema Seat Judgment). Note that here we see that they are identified by their attitude and works (those who fear Your name) and not by their stature either physically or famously (small and great).
We also see the sentencing of the lost in those that "should destroy those who destroy the earth.".` This is a reference to the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15) but clearly defines one of the qualifiers of the lost: those that destroy the earth. The term destroy is better translated as corrupt. "That is, all who have, in their conquests, spread desolation over the earth and who have persecuted the righteous, and all who have done injustice and wrong to any class of people." (Barnes' Notes) Isn't it great to know that one day, God will right all wrongs? God will straighten the crooked, restore that which has been broken. And in that day, we will be at peace and will be satisfied.
Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. Revelation 11:19 (NKJV)
The Heavenly Temple
This chapter opened with a temple on earth, but now we see the temple in heaven. The focus of attention is on the ark of God, the symbol of God's presence with His people. Warren Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary
I had never really given it much thought, but there is a temple in heaven. We will discover when we get closer to the end of Revelation that in the New Jerusalem there will be no temple, because "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple" (Revelation 21:22b, NKJV). However, there is a temple in heaven, "the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 8:2, KJV).
John is still in heaven in this vision but his focus changes to the place of worship.
Most people are familiar with the Ark of the Covenant from the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with Harrison Ford. One good point, I think, that the movie shows is that evil men cannot possess the power of God; toward the end of the movie when the Nazis opened the Ark they all died particularly horrible deaths (some melting like wax, some being shot through by bolts of lighting). However, there is one huge flaw in the story: the Ark of the Covenant is not on earth; it is in heaven. The late Dr. Henry Morris noted in The Revelation Record:
Men through the centuries have been almost as intrigued with the search for the ark of the covenant as they have with the search for Noah's ark. The ark was not in the restoration temple, nor the temple of Herod, nor in the tribulation temple. Neither is there any mention of it even in the millennial temple described in Ezekiel 40-48. People have rumored it is preserved somewhere in a cave in Ethiopia, or in the Arabian desert, or somewhere else. But there is no mystery as to where it is. God showed John, when He revealed to him the Apocalypse, that it was safely stored in the heavenly temple. No doubt the two tables of the Ten Commandments are there as well. If God could translate Enoch and Elijah to heaven, and if the resurrected Christ could ascend to heaven, He would be quite able to have an angel remove the ark from Jerusalem before Nebuchadnezzar's armies sacked the temple, and then have him carry it safely to the true tabernacle in the New Jerusalem under construction in heaven.
It's important that we understand why John sees this vision into the heavenly temple.
"The ark symbolizes God's communion with the redeemed because it was there that blood sacrifices were offered to atone for men's sins (Lev 16:2-16; Heb 9:3-7). Also, it was from above the ark that God spoke to Moses (Num. 7:89). The ark of the covenant is called in Scripture the ark of testimony (Ex 25:22), the ark of God (1 Sam 3:3), and the ark of God's strength (Ps 132:8). Inside it was "a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant" (Heb. 9:4). All that symbolized that God would supply His people, was sovereign over His people, gave His law to His people, and entered into an eternal saving covenant with His people." (John MacArthur)
The last part of this passage is not in Heaven, but shows an additional earthquake and great hail as another judgment on the earth, most likely Jerusalem itself.
God gives us, here in this section of Scripture, a peek into the holy of holies in Heaven. It gives us comfort to know that in the ark, we see the interface God has with us in Jesus Christ, we have protection in Him and fellowship with Him.
