Out of the Great Tribulation

Global warming? More like global freezing!

End of the world as we know it…

Lots of stories, anxieties and conspiracies going on...worry about the Mark of the beast in the Covid vaccine…

Some people just waiting to escape the craziness of this world have been coming up with theories and time tables...and interpretive lenses to understand the end times and to justify an escape from this dark and evil world...

Signed, Sealed, Delivered…

Signs of the times...wars and rumors of wars...the end is near...we’re in the End Game Now...

Sealed: God marks His people...We’re going to look at that some more...

Revelation 7:9-17

“Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb.”

11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:

“Amen!

Praise and glory

and wisdom and thanks and honor

and power and strength

be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen!”

13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

14 I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God

and serve him day and night in his temple;

and he who sits on the throne

will shelter them with his presence.

16 ‘Never again will they hunger;

never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat down on them,’

nor any scorching heat.

17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne

will be their shepherd;

‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’

‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

Heard and Saw

Recognize that there are a lot of assumptions that we can bring to the Text, whether from Pop Culture and Society around us and from Christian Culture and Christian teachers…

Sometimes these things prevent us from seeing what the text is actually saying...

contrast (repetition from before)

144,000 VS the Great Multitude from Nations

Who are these?

Those who have gone through the great tribulation...

Israel vs Church?

Replacement theology (where God is done with Israel and now it’s just the church as “spiritual Israel”)?

Dispensationalism (both exist as separate covenants)? Joined together in an Expanded covenant where we recognize that we are grafted into the covenant God made with Israel and fulfilled in Jesus...

Worship

Scene of Great Worship…7 things repeated from chapters 4 and 5...

They SERVE Him day & night

Great Tribulation

Thilipsis = persecution, literally pressure

generally thought of as a time of intense persecution, a final period of persecution that will immediately precede the end of the age, or the total amount of persecution between Christ’s ascension and return.

Same word used throughout the book to talk about the Pressures, Problems and Persecutions the church was facing…Trials and Tribulations...

Out of the Great Tribulation

OUT OF: can bring to mind the idea of The Rapture…almost like when someone has spoiled parts of the movie for you and you keep thinking the event is going to happen…but nothing here indicates that these people were raptured OUT of Tribulation but were those who came out of it by going THROUGH it....

- when has God ever plucked out His people?

Examples: Joseph, Egypt, Babylon, now Rome…church history...

This idea that God would remove the Church from the greatest time of Tribulation and Trial is actually quite new!

History of dispensationalism, pre-tribulation rapture premillennialism theology...recent history and major proponents...about ¼ of American Christians believe some of the major tenets espoused in it.

1875 a new kind of premillennialism called dispensationalism began to spread. The new premillennialism came to the United States following the Civil War, after flourishing in Britain among the Plymouth Brethren under John Nelson Darby who developed a new variety of futurist premillennialism. He called it dispensationalism, after the division of history into dispensations or eras.

Other older proponents: Scofield,

Contemporary proponents: Hal Lindsey, Tim Lahaye & Jerry Jenkins, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, D.L. Moody, RA Torrey, John Hagee, John Macarthur, and more…

Believers will be raptured into heaven. Then, God’s wrath and fury will be unleashed on the earth. Billions will be killed. They will then be thrown into hell, to suffer forevermore. All this will not only be endorsed by Jesus, but he will be the one leading the charge. Believers will rejoice. Hallelujah! Amen

It is out of the thelogical framework of dispensationalism that you get the result of pre-tribulation pre-millenial rapture.

Dangers

of Dispensationalism:

A rigid distinction between law and grace. The New Testament presents a covenant of grace contrary to the Old Testament as a dispensation of law.

Can be destructive to the ability to grasp the unity and significance of the biblical story and diminishes significance of Covenant

Antinomianism = the law is evil

This has given rise to hyper-grace theologies and hyper-grace leaders with all its dangers. It abandons the applicability of the Torah.

The classical view was cessationist on the gifts of the Spirit. The supernatural gifts of I Cor. 12-14 were only for the transitional age in the first century before the New Testament was written down.

Unity of the Church (John 17:21) is feared as leading to a false ecumenicism and deception.

Apathy, because “what does it even matter…”

No care for creation: the earth must be consumed in fire anyway…

No urgency to seek peace because any peace is a false peace

This same type of interpretive lens is at work in Jews and Muslims too...

There is a fear of contamination: Separation for purity is almost a badge of honor.

The Gospel is not the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Kingdom of God did not come yet...we have to wait for a millennial reign...

A rigid distinction between Israel and the Church.

The way they made the distinction of Israel and the Church (and there is a distinction rightly to be made) was part of what led to their view of the rapture.

To keep Israel and God’s work with the Church separate, the Church needs to be removed before the 7 year Tribulation.

Rather than GRAFTED-IN view

Teachings that the kingdom hasn’t come yet and that it is earthly...making it something earthly of the Jews and then “heavenly” after 1,000 years.

The door of entrance into the kingdom is not through racial inheritance, but through the new birth (John 3:3, 5). Citizenship in the king­dom of grace belongs to Gentiles as well as to Jews. (Eph. 2:19). Even now we are translated into the kingdom of grace (Col. 1:13).

False ideas of the antichrist = was never understood to be a literal person who would reign for 3.5 years...until mid 1800s

The "secret rapture": The teach­ing regarding "secret rapture," or the silent taking away of the church before the time of trouble, is a most serious error. It doesn’t follow the order in Matthew 24 and creates an interpretive problem with timing that people do theological gymnastics with.

??? Charles Spurgeon spurned dispensationalism: "It is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed one at a time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement"

THROUGH the fire (Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego)...God met them IN the fire.

The Test and the Temptation...the process that Blacksmiths had to put the metal through the fire...you could only find if it was worth something by putting it through the fire.

Exodus from Egypt...

In the same way that God uses circumstances and people groups to bring about His judgment, God also provides a way of escape and deliverance.

The Pressures of Trials and Tribulation Purify and Prepare (Proverbs 25:4, Ezekiel 22:18, Zech 13:8-9)

James 1:2–4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Romans 5:1–5

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Dross from Silver:

Israel was likened to dross to God…

Malachi 3:2-3 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness...

1 Peter 1:6-7 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

+ Apokalupsis…there’s the praise, glory and honor when Christ is revealed...

What did Jesus say about being suffering/tribulation…?

Taking up cross and following

Matthew 24:3-11, 12-13, 14 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Persecution was real, and Jesus was promising to be there with them THROUGH the fires...

Critical Theory has advocated that there are only TWO options you are either the Persecuted or the Persecuter…the Oppressed or the Oppressor…here Jesus presents us with a Third Option…To be Overcomers! Those who are FAITHFUL to the end...

That means being willing to use power to serve others…power and position to sacrifice for others..

Those who are willing to go through the Tribulation

Finish Matthew 24 and see the order of events…why split that into several parts rather than Harmonizing it with the rest of Scripture?

In fact, the LAMB was to be there Shepherd!

God is our Shepherd (Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34)

Examples of God’s deliverance THROUGH trials and tribulations throughout history, even now in recent history the African-American community has demonstrated the power of this simple truth as they’ve endured under adversity holding steadfastly to the truth that “We Shall Overcome” not by being delivered OUT of the trials but through them...believing that God leads us...He IS with us, With us in the fire, With us as a shelter, With us in the storm...and that He WILL lead us through the fiercest battle...and that we SHALL overcome as followers of Jesus...and that we can unite in what Dr. King said based on the Truth of God’s word and His promises for followers of Jesus and truth for the African-American citizens of this country facing Inequality, Inequity, and Injustice...

We Shall Overcome Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130J-FdZDtY

Overcomers

He was filled with Hope because He understood that God wants to bring deliverance TO his people and THROUGH His people! He’s a God of FREEDOM...spiritually, physically, etc.

The African American people faced tremendous persecution, not for their faith, but because of their ethnicity! This was wrong and every place where there continues to be injustice and racism today should be reformed!

Those are real issues and need transformation...

As followers of Jesus we can learn from how the African American people faced persecution…their faith in the midst of trials and tribulations are a challenge to us all!

But to do that we don’t have to believe that there is a dichotomy of Oppressed and Oppressors but 3rd Option of Overcomers!

- This is a Drawback of critical race theory...founded in an atheistic moral relativism...in that framework this is the best that people can come up with…

- But NOT so with us!

When we face persecution, problems or pressures for our faith we don’t have to buy into this thinking of Oppressed or Oppressors...

We are NOT victims we don’t have to be Victimizers...

We don’t have to try to ESCAPE and we don’t have to EMBRACE societal sins and pressures...

There IS a third way….in fact Jesus would say that HE is the new and living way!

This way is an army, yes, but not if one people group...but of ALL NATIONS...NOT oppressed or Oppressors...but Overcomers...an army yes, but ready to die not to kill!

The cross has more power…turns oppressed into overcomers…oppressors into overcomers...

don't let the world define you! Surrender your power AND your powerlessness to Him…

Overcomers are willing to lay down their lives for others... they use whatever Power, Position, or Privilege they have for the good of others!

They are not using power or position or privilege for themselves...they don't seek it either.

They don't even overcome because of their own power...but by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony!

It's not wrong to recognize that there are power dynamics that are different...it's not wrong to acknowledge Injustice, Inequity, and Iniquity...it's the RIGHT thing to do, not because it's en vogue...this is one of those moments that what society is saying sounds like what Jesus is saying and you hear the echo in society...but that doesn't mean that ALL that these ideologies teach is truth!

Here we are told that God’s people WILL come out of the great Tribulation...God’s people WILL Overcome! That’s good news! They overcome when the LAMB becomes their Shepherd...When their war is peace and self-sacrifice…

Have you made the lamb your shepherd?

HE is the one who Leads us into a new and living way...

Are you an oppressor? It’s time to repent of that and be cleansed by the lamb...any time WE become the definers of good and evil rather than God our designer, we will bring injustice to the world...

Do you see yourself as oppressed?

If the LAMB is your Shepherd than you are called to be an Overcomer!

To be faithful in the face of persecution and pressure...to endure under trial...

The small Tribulations and Trials and the Big Ones