The Harvest Of The Earth Series

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.