When the Man Comes Around

Intro

“The Man Comes Around” by Johnny Cash

… There's a man goin' 'round, takin' names And he decides who to free and who to blame Everybody won't be treated all the same There will be a golden ladder reachin' down… When the man comes around

Big Idea: Be ready for when the Son of man comes around.

The Son of man saves those who are his to harvest (vv. 14-16)

What Revelation is all about: visions of hope for those in exile

A compilation/collection (Lots of “And then,” like Mark’s “and immediately”)

The prophesied Son of man will come in full glory (v. 14)

Read Daniel 7:13-14

George Eldon Ladd: “The presupposition (guiding assumption) of these two visions [those of the harvest and those of the winepress] is that the final spiritual struggle has occurred between Christ and Antichrist and men have made their decision: loyalty to Christ even unto martyrdom, or worship of the beast.”

Keep things symbolic

Angel memes

The Son’s presence (cloud = shekinah), the Son’s sovereignty (crown = full authority), the Son’s judgment (sickle = power to save, his only)

Kingdom as Lordship

Read Matthew 24:29–31

God has his emissaries (v. 15)

Angels are about God’s business (temple = innermost court and divine presence)

Read Luke 17:22–24

His day on the Lord’s timing (“the hour to reap has come”); days of the Lord in the OT prophets

Days of the Lord always come upon us when we’re least expecting them, but it doesn’t mean we can’t be ready for them when they arrive

A single swipe is all that’s needed (v. 16)

The wheat already stands out

Letter of Pliny to Emperor Trajan (list posted publicly of those known to be Christians in the region)

Cherry Point posting illustration

Christ knows those who know him, but are we as certain?

Reaping clears the way to know what must be gotten rid of (leads into the second vision/verses 17-20)

God’s justice is just even to the unjust (vv. 17-20)

Judgment must be grounded in God’s holiness to be properly understood

Wrath and mercy

Read Exodus 34:6-7

The reaping of the righteous and the trampling of the damned are two sides of the same work (vv. 17-18)

Same instrument/agent “he too had a sharp sickle”

The prayers of martyrs are not going unheard (Rev. 6:9-11), angel of the fire

Fittingness/fulness equal to reaping of the righteous (v. 18b)

Read Isaiah 63:3-4 (mention Joel 3:13)

This will be the total outpouring of God’s active punishment (vv. 19b-20)

Separation (outside the city) and torment (trodden)

Length of Palestine (184 mi.)

Conclusion

Illustration: The objective wrongness of Gabby Petito’s death

Lewis: the “Tao” is in every major known moral system

All forms of justice are derivatives of divine justice

If we do not first reckon with our Creator, then any attempts to make sense of his created order will always come back feeling askew

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still Listen to the words long written down

Which side of judgment will you be found on?

Illustration: a father saving his family from kidnappers (from David)

Do you have a heart for those who you think might be on the wrong side of the “vintage” of God’s wrath?