Out With the Old, In With the New Part 3

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Out With the Old, In With the New

We’re in part three of our look into the book of Revelations. We’ve looked at the reasons it was written. Last week we looked at what Jesus said to the seven churches. Each church had some issues, and praises from Jesus. We’re continuing our look this week at what happens when God says enough and hits the reset button. But before I begin, I want to make a claim. This is one of the hardest books to interpret. There are still tons of questions that aren’t answered. I will do my best to answer whatever questions that may come up for you. There is also a lot of hard things to hear in the message. With that being said, open your Bible to Revelations 5:1-14

First thing I want to point out, is this is the beginning of the end.

What do I mean by that?

This is the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

This is part of John’s vision, and he sees a scroll with seven seals.

We’ll look at the different seals in a minute

But there is a problem with the seals. No one appears worthy to pull the seals off.

An angel ask, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

Then there was silence. No one seemed worthy to open this scroll and it made John cry.

The elders broke the silence and told John to quit his belly aching.

They said “Stop crying. Look! The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has been victorious, so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.”

In other words, Jesus is here. He is the One who conquered death. He’s the one that can open up the scrolls.

Little further down in verse 9-10, these elders are praising the Lamb, Jesus, and saying “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slaughtered and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.

The 24 elders are praising Jesus for His redeeming work. Jesus was the lamb slaughtered for our sins.

Remember, when school started back last year, we talked about how in the Old Testament, an unblemished lamb was used to help take away sins. Jesus is that Lamb. That’s what they are referring to here.

Another thing, the elders say you redeem every tribe, every language and people and nation. Salvation isn’t just for certain people. It’s for everyone. This past Sunday we talked about our enemies in small group. Those enemies that you have, Jesus died for them too.

So let’s take a short pause right here because another question is about to be brought up. We’re pausing at Jesus, holding a scroll with seven seals. Remember I said this is the beginning of the end, but where are the Christians? What’s going on with the Christians? Will we still be here?

Let’s jump to . It says “We do not want you to be uniformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord. We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the archangels voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.

This is talking about the Rapture.

What is the rapture? It’s that point in time where God says go get our people, and Jesus comes back.

Notice how there is a difference between the first time Jesus showed up on earth and this time.

When was the first time?

Right, Christmas. Jesus showed up as a baby, in human form. It was very quiet. Very few people knew.

The second time He comes, it’s totally different.

Jesus is descending from Heaven. He won’t be born in a barn this time.

He’s coming in with a shout, along with the voice of the archangel and a loud trumpet of God.

There will be no denying that Jesus is coming back

The next two questions are ones that we can ask, and have a guess on, but we can’t fully answer. When is the rapture taking place and where are the Christians at.

So according to what we just read in Thessalonians, we know that all Christians will be called up and meet Jesus in Heaven.

Paul writes to the Thessalonians that they don’t need to worry about those who are “asleep.”

What does He mean by those who are asleep?

Those who’ve died in Christ.

It says they’ll be the first and the living believers will come second.

But When will this take place?

Answer, I don’t know. There are a couple of different guesses.

First guess is the rapture will take place before the tribulation. So before God starts His righteous judgement on the world, Christians won’t be a part of it.

So this theory puts millions of believers disappearing off the face of the earth. Those who are nonbelievers will be confused as to why random people disappeared.

If this one happens, think of all the chaos that would ensue.

Second guess, which is the one most Biblical scholars believe, is the rapture will happen either in the middle or end of the Great tribulation.

There is a few different reasons why this view has more of a following than the other view.

One main reason is Jesus talks about the end time in , , and . Not once did Jesus mention that Christians would be removed first

In , Jesus says there will be wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in various places, some will claim to be the Messiah and fool others. But again doesn’t say His followers will be called up.

No matter how the rapture takes place, the world is going to go through God’s judgement. This judgement will take place over a 7 year period, which again is called the tribulation. So let’s pick back up where we stopped. Jesus has the scroll and is going to open up scroll and break the seven seals. So chapter 4 and 5 or Revelations, is setting up the opening of the seals.

Each one of these seals brings a certain form of judgement to the earth. The seals breaking starts in chapter 6. However, the seals are not the only forms of judgement that are coming. There is also 7 trumpets and 7 bowels. We’ll start with the seals, then we’ll work into the trumpets. The first four seals are the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation

The seals aren’t the only forms of

First seal: A white horse, the horseman had a bow, a crown was given to him and he went out as a victor to conquer

So this horseman is believed to be the antichrist.

This idea follows along with Jesus teaching again in Mathew 24 about those being deceived.

The white horse, could be the forces of evil appearing to be righteous

It can also be an attempt by Satan to claim he’s victorious over Christ. Since the Christians will be persecuted and oppressed. Evilness will be in complete control

Second Seal: A fiery red one, and the horseman was empowered to take peace from the earth, so people would slaughter one another. He was given a large sword.

This one brings destruction and death

There will be no peace. People will riot, fight, nations will go to war with each other, rebellion against authority. There is no safety

Third Seal: A black horse, and the horseman had a set of scales in his hand.

This seal will bring famine to the earth

What follows any type of war? Famine. Lack of resources.

John says in verse 6 of chapter 6 “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius”

In John’s day, a quart of wheat was what was needed for one person to live on for a day. Denarius was a days worth of work. In other words, people will work all day just to feed themselves. there will be nothing extra. Prices will be so high you can’t afford anything

This famine will be devestating

Forth seal: A pale green horse. The horseman on it was named death and Hades was following after him.

Almost consider this like a zombie horse.

It’s going to bring death to 1/4th of the earth.

To put it in perspective of how massive that is, in 2011 the world reached a population of 7 Billion. by 2044 it should reach 9 Billion. If this happened right now, 1.75 Billion people would die.

The last three seals are announced as woes

Fifth seal is the crying out of those believers who have been killed because of God’s word

These are the ones who didn’t compromise on God’s word. They were faithful followers of Christ.

These are the Martyrs of Jesus. I keep using these believers as examples, but the ones killed on Christmas day in Africa because they were Christians. It’s those who die for the sake of Christ.

These martyrs cried out how long before they would be avenged.

This should remind us that all things work in God’s timing. Not ours. He gave them white robes, and told them to rest because it wasn’t time.

The sixth seal, a violent earthquake occured, the sun turned black, the moon became like blood, the stars feel to earth and the winds blew. Every mountain was moved

This is a complete change of everything we may no. This is a monstrous change to the world we know.

If we go into verse 15, it says “Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the military commanders, the rich, the powerful, and every person hid in the caves among the rocks of the mountains.”

One, we see that there are still people here going through everything.

Two, we see that social status doesn’t matter anymore. No one can stand

With all this going on, Chapter 7 brings a bit of hope to believers during this time. 144,000 will be sealed from the tribes of Israel along with a multitude from every nation, people, and language that no one could number. And they’re all protected by Jesus

This multitude stands before the throne of God, clothed in white robes, worshiping God and crying out in joy for their salvation through Christ Jesus.

The Seventh Seal: Brings forth more judgement. There is silence and then seven angels appear with 7 trumpets. Things are about to get worse. An 8th angel had an incense burner and the incense and prayers filled the burner with fire. He cased it onto the earth, causing more earthquakes, lighting, fires, and this was the sign for the other angels to get ready to blow their trumpets

First trumpet: hail and fire mixed with blood fell to earth.

1/3 of the earth was burned up.

1/3 of the trees

all of the grass was burned up

Second Trumpet: 1/3 of the sea was turned to blood.

1/3 of the living creatures in the sea died and 1/3 of the ships on the water were destroyed

Third Trumpet: a star fell from heaven and 1/3 of the rivers and springs were turned to wormwood

What’s wormwood?

It’s mentioned this one time in the New Testament, but 8 times in the Old Testament. It is associated with bitterness, poison, and death.

So the water will not be safe to drink

Forth Trumpet: 1/3 of the sun, moon, and stars went out

So there will be hardly any light left in the world.

There is always a warning with this trumpet. A voice is heard saying “Woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining trumpet blast that the three angels are about to sound.”

These four trumpets can be seen as God’s proof there is no other way but through God. First shows there is no answer in the material world, second and third show the sea and food supplies don’t have an answer, and the fourth on life itself. God is the only one with answers

The four

The 5th trumpet: locust came from the smoke of the earth and they were given power of scorpions. These are believed to be demons released on earth.

They were instructed to attack the people that did not have God’s seal

Everything else was not to be touched.

For those without the seal of God, they are going to look for death but won’t find it.

I don’t know if you realize it or not, but there is spiritual warfare going on around us all the time. We just can’t see it. This trumpet brings it to life where those on earth can see it.

The 6th trumpet: fire, smoke, sulfur flood the earth and 200 million mounted troops bring death and destruction to 1/3 of all humans left

In other words all of hell is released onto earth.

God is still showing He is in control of everything because specific instructions are being given.

We also see the coming of two witnesses.

These two witnesses will proclaim the Gospel and it’s almost a last time to come to faith in Christ.

They’ll serve for 1,260 days or 44 Months.

No one can hurt them, they’ll be protected by God. Anyone who tries will be burned by fire.

After their time, Satan himself will fight them and kill them.

They’re bodies will be on display for all the world to see for 3 1/2 days

Their death will be celebrated

After the 3 1/2 days God will raise them from the dead and call them into heaven. Which will strike fear in everyone that’s left

I’m going to end things here for this week. We’ve talked about a lot of hard things. When God says he’s done, it’s not going to be a pretty sight. Our God is a just God and His judgement will be poured out into the world. As a believer, I read things like this, and all I can think is I know I’m good, but what about those around me? What about those who don’t know Christ. When I die, I know that I’m covered. Jesus is my Lord. He is my Savior. But what about you? Have you placed your faith in Christ? Do you know that once this world is done, you’ll have Jesus standing there going, this is my son, this is my daughter, whom I love and I’m pleased with. I covered their sins on the cross.

Let’s pray.