Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
Watch this message at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/episodes/161881
Do you know how cranberries are harvested? When the fruit is ripe, the cranberry bog is flooded with water. As the water covers the bush, the ruby red berries separate from the bush and float to the surface where they are gathered and distributed (Jeremy Poling, Sermon Central). As we continue through the Book of Revelation, I want you to understand that everything we’ve been discussing and seeing in Revelation is because the world is moving to a time when the earth will be harvested. As you will see tonight, it is a common theme throughout the Bible.
Harvesting, from an agricultural meaning, is at the appropriate time, the process of separating the mature fruit from the plant. Scripture commonly uses agriculture as a word picture for things related to the Kingdom. The word for harvest used in Hebrew is the word “qa?ir,” which also has similarities to the derivatives of the word that indicate taking, plucking or cutting of fruit. We find two primary applications in the Bible, first, there is a means of deliverance. The other application is the execution of God’s judgment on the world. Jesus uses both inferences in his parable of the wheat and the tares:
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30)
One of the more vivid pictures of the harvesting of the earth is, not surprisingly, found here in the Book of Revelation. This will be the focus of our study tonight. The second half of Revelation 14 shows that Jesus is Lord of the Harvest of Grain (God’s Grace) and of the Grapes (God’s wrath). Revelation is written to give us a clear understanding that the coming of Christ is coming imminently and when he does come it will be as a separation of the wheat and the tares. The first time he came in humility as a babe; he will return as the victorious King. The first time he came to seek and save the lost; when he returns it will be to judge the living and dead. The first time he came as a sower of the harvest; when he returns it will be to reap the harvest.
Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. 17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:14–20)
I. The Coming of The Lord in the Clouds (v. 14)
What John sees is the impending judgment that will soon take place. This is a picture of the final judgment. This is more poignantly unveiled in the following chapters with the Bowl Judgements. Biblical prophesy will often show the same scene from different views or describe the events broadly in one way and then more specifically in another form.
Here we are in the midst of God’s final judgment during the Tribulation and the worst is about to be unleashed. The seven seals have been opened. The seven trumpets have blown. The abomination of desolation has taken place. The persecution of Israel has escalated to a fever pitch. The execution and martyrdom of Christians all over the earth are going on. The whole earth and sky are devastated by divine judgment. Satan is ruling the earth with the iron fist of the Antichrist, aided by the false prophet. The whole remaining world is deceived into worshiping the Antichrist. All through this, God has sent evangelists and messengers to warn the people of the earth to repent.
One other thing about all of this. The worst thing you can do, or the church can do, is in some way soften the message of the Gospel to make it more appealing to someone. Nor can we redefine biblical truth to satisfy our own expectations or preconceived notions. The Bible is clear about who God is and His character. The Bible is also clear about how a man can be reconciled to God. The last thing we want to do is lead people to a false understanding and thus risk a false conversion. That doesn’t do anyone a favor. The heart of Jesus’ message was ‘repent.’ Jesus spoke of judgment and hell more than he talked about heaven. He was a straight shooter when he talked with people about the Kingdom of Heaven and so must we.
This is the worst time in all of history. The mission of the church and the heart of the believer is to help direct people toward God’s forgiveness now instead of the judgment to come. That’s more than getting someone to say a prayer and walking away unchanged. Repentance and forgiveness are life transformations so powerful that one’s faith is inwardly and existentially evident. God is giving man every opportunity to come to Him now, but as we will see that opportunity for harvest will come to a point where the fruit will rot on the vine.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; (2 Peter 2:4)
then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, (2 Peter 2:9–10)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18)
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. (Isaiah 13:13)
Notice the first thing John sees is Jesus coming on the clouds (Revelation 1:14). After his resurrection, we find Jesus being taken up into heaven on the clouds (Acts 1:9). His return will be the same. Matthew 24:30 “30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” When he comes on the clouds, he will have a crown (laurel or Stephanos) of gold. This is a victor’s crown. He will also have a diadem (a king’s crown), but John is emphasizing that this return is a victorious return.
Also notice that he will have a sickle on his hand. A sickle was a long, curved, sharp blade used for harvesting and it will be Jesus that does the harvesting the wheat of the church. He will look at the crop and separate the wheat from the tares.
This is something that is reserved for Christ and Christ alone by the Father. This must also take place before the entrance of the Kingdom of God. You cannot bring God’s final and glorious kingdom without first his final and victorious judgment over sin and evil. This is the image that John sees as Christ coming from the clouds.
Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.” 11 Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord. 12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. (Joel 3:9–13)
II. The Harvesting of the Wheat (vv. 15-16)
And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. (Revelation 14:15–16)
You will notice that the harvest of the earth happens in two motifs, a wheat harvest, and a grape harvest, and the first question is why. Some believe this is 2 images of the same event. However, if you look down to verse 17, John says that after this another angel comes out of the temple. So we’re left with the impression that first the event is the wheat harvest and the second event after is the harvest of the grapes. This leads us to understand that there are two distinct things happening. The first half of the harvest (the wheat) is Christ’s harvest of the elect and the second half of the harvest (the grapes) is the harvest of the ungodly.
I would surmise that the wheat harvest is the rapture of the church from the earth and following the seven-year tribulation is the harvest of the grapes of the world. Revelation 14:15 introduces “another angel,” that comes “out of the temple,” meaning that it bears a message from God the Father, “calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud.” This follows the pattern of the rapture where Jesus receives a command from the Father from an angel to signal the coming of the Day of the Lord.
“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mark 13:32)
Secondly, the godly are compared in the gospels by Jesus as wheat, i.e. as in the case of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares.
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24–30)
The Church is a mix of Wheat and Weed. There are many who are sitting in Church believing that their religiousness is sufficient to earn their place in heaven, while never knowing Jesus, living for Jesus, or sharing Jesus with others. They are deceiving themselves and the fruit of their lives is centered on being a weed. What is the difference between wheat and weed? The wheat produces fruit for the Kingdom of Heaven, a weed is self-serving, only interested in what they can receive. Our job is not to look around and try to decide who is the wheat and who is the weed, but instead to focus on loving the Lord and keeping His commands (John 14:15).
The idea behind the voice is there is a sense of urgency. The time is now, and the hour is near. The judgment is the separation of the wheat from the tares. “Put in Your sickle and reap because the hour to reap has come.” No more delay, no more grace, it is time for the harvest. The swift sharp sickle shows the completeness of this judgment and its speed, and its severity. The word “ripe” actually means to be overripe. God the Father has waited as long as He possibly can to withhold judgment without losing the crop. The sheep are separated from the goats. The Sheep are spared; the goats are destroyed.
II. The Harvesting of the Grapes (vv. 17-20)
Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:17–20)
Remember this is a vision of judgment. However, this time there is no harvest or separation. The grapes of wrath are all thrown into the winepress of God’s wrath. The first harvest was conducted by the Lord, who separated the wheat from the tares. Only Christ can discern the heart of man. The second harvest of the grapes is done by the angel in heaven.
The grapes are the people who remained on the vine of the world and never grafted into the vine of Christ. John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” Verse 18 says, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth.” Cut them off, sever them from the earth vine, sever them from earthly existence. Why? Because her grapes are ripe. A different word for ripe is used here, it means fully ripe, they’re in their prime, they’re bursting with juice, the juice of wickedness.
I believe this is a vision of the Battle of Armageddon. The world will reach a point where it will prepare to go to all-out war with God. The splattering of the grapes becomes the splattering of those destroyed. All the enemies of God who are still alive when the final return of Christ comes, all the enemies of God who have survived the seven seals up to now, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls, all of them who are still there who are still left will be engaged in the great final battle of Armageddon.
The valley of Armageddon is a great stretch of land that runs from the southernmost part to the northernmost part of the land of Israel. The very moment is described in Isaiah 63 and Joel 3. And at that point, God’s powerful angel puts the sickle in and the grapes are harvested and thrown into the great winepress of the wrath of God to be crushed.
And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:20)
The prophets, Zechariah 14, Daniel 11, and Joel 3 says the battle will be around Jerusalem. But apparently, the city will be spared without the bloody carnage that will go on all over the land. And blood will come out from the winepress up to the horses’ bridles. The image here is a total dissolution of those who reject God’s invitation to repentance, who oppose God, and who follow the world. The distinction is clear. God has withheld his judgment so long, that the grapes rotted on the vine.
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. (2 Corinthians 9:10)
The question for you to answer today is who are you counted among? The Wheat or the Grapes? The choice is yours.
They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.’ (Jeremiah 5:24)
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)
The Day of the Harvest of the earth will come, no matter what you do or believe. It will come in God’s time and in the course of the harvest season. Are you ready? How will you respond to God’s invitation of grace today? Will you let go of the world and be counted among the fruitful wheat, or will you hold onto the world and your sin to rot on the vine of the world? The choice is yours.
