Study of End Times week 28

The Seventh Trumpet July 27

Tonight we are in week 28 of our study of End Times, we will be looking at the last 6 verses of chapter 11 tonight which is the Seventh Trumpet and the coming of the third woe.

Last week we finished looking at the two witnesses and the persecution that they went through, but also how powerfully God used them.

As the witnesses finished the job God had sent them to do, the beast - which is the Antichrist - kills the two witnesses, and leave them laying in the street for three and a half days.

While the bodies laid in the streets, people would come by and torment the bodies.

After the three and half days, God breathed life back into the two witnesses and they arose, and a cloud took them to heaven, at that very moment a violent earthquake took place and seven thousand people were killed.

We are told that those that survived this earthquake gave glory to God, but we must remember and understand that does not mean they were saved.

We went through verse 14 last week but we are going to pick up tonight with verse 14, and then continue on through the end of chapter 11.

Look with me at our text tonight Revelation 11:14-19

Revelation 11:14–19 CSB

14 The second woe has passed. Take note: The third woe is coming soon! 15 The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. 16 The twenty-four elders, who were seated before God on their thrones, fell facedown and worshiped God, 17 saying, We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry, but your wrath has come. The time has come for the dead to be judged and to give the reward to your servants the prophets, to the saints, and to those who fear your name, both small and great, and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth. 19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and severe hail.

The interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets has ended, and the second woe is over and the third woe is coming quickly.

The millennial kingdom is coming soon but first will come the final, climatic judgment.

I. An Announcement of Victory

Revelation 11:15 CSB

15 The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.

As the seventh angel blows his trumpet , and John hears loud voices coming from heaven.

The King James version calls these loud voices - great voices - all the different translations refer to them as voices meaning that they were more than one and that it was more than likely a group and even possibly a large group of voices.

This could have possible been a choir of angels or saints in heaven that John was hearing, it could have been the twenty four elders that he sees in the very next verse, but probably more likely the large choir of angels and maybe mixed with saints.

These loud voices make a great announcement that the kingdom of this world, John is using the singular because the beast, the Antichrist as of right now has the world under his control, at the point in Scripture, at this point in our time, the world is under the control of Satan, which even at the point of time in our text it is still under Satan but the Antichrist is leading as Satan’s son, the false Christ, the false Jesus.

Satan does not have full power over the earth and the people as we seen a few weeks back, that just in the case of Job, and Peter, Satan must get permission from God before he can lay a hand on anyone, before he can harm someone.

But at this time Satan is running around wild and free, like a roaring lion, ready to lead anyone and everyone he can away from God.

1 Peter 5:8 CSB

8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

The great announcement from the loud voices in heaven though was that the kingdom of this world belongs the Jesus Christ, now we must understand that Jesus does not claim this kingdom until he makes his final return and sets up his millennial reign in the messianic Kingdom.

The victory has already been won, Satan offered Jesus the world’s kingdoms, but Jesus refused the offer, Jesus had been fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, and Satan thought he could get Jesus to break, but Jesus did not.

Instead, Jesus spent three years in ministry pouring into the disciples, spreading love, and the power of the Father and living a sinless life, then freely went to the cross for our sins, placed in the tomb, went to hades to release the captives, on the third day God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, defeating sin, death, and bring victory over satan, and then forty days later he returned victoriously to heaven where he is seated beside the Father interceding on our behalf.

We must not think because Jesus did not take Satan’s deal on that mountain top, that he is not reigning on high, yes satan is still alive, and still prowling around this earth, but you better believe that Our Lord has power over him, and has victory over him, and reigns over him all, He might not have set up the earthly kingdom yet, but Jesus rules over the kingdom of God which as of right now is a spiritual kingdom that is still being built, and when the time is right God the Father, will set things in motion to send Jesus to gather his people from this earth, which is what we call the rapture, we then will prepare for battle, during the great tribulation period of seven years, then Jesus will return for the battle of Armagedon where he will defeat Satan and all his followers once and for all, locking them up for the thousand year reign then after that he will release them to then cast them into the eternal lake of fire, for eternity.

No matter how difficult things get here on this earth, we need to remember that this life is but a vapor, just a blink in time compared to eternity.

James 4:14 CSB

14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

We need to remember that Jesus Christ is still the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and He is in control and one day, we shall as disciples of Jesus Christ shout in victory!!

II. An Acclamation of Praise

Revelation 11:16–18 CSB

16 The twenty-four elders, who were seated before God on their thrones, fell facedown and worshiped God, 17 saying, We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry, but your wrath has come. The time has come for the dead to be judged and to give the reward to your servants the prophets, to the saints, and to those who fear your name, both small and great, and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.

After John hears the loud voices in heaven make the great announcement about the kingdom, he then sees the 24 elders that are seated before the throne of God the Father.

These 24 elders as we seen back in chapter four, are believed to be the 12 patriarchs and the 12 apostles, after the loud voices make their announcement, they fall facedown before God and begin to worship Him.

In their worship they are giving thanks for three special blessings: first, that Christ reigns supremely; second, that He judges righteously; and third, that He rewards graciously.

A. Christ Reigns Supremely V. 17

In chapter 4:10-11 these elders praise the Creator, and in chapter 5:9-14 they worshiped the Redeemer and now here the emphasis is on the Conqueror and the King.

So many times we as the church look as though we have been defeated, and we need to be reminded that we are a royal priesthood reigning with the Savior, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

It may seem at times that the throne of heaven is empty, that God is far away, that Jesus is not near, but He has both power and authority and in fact He has all authority.

B. Christ Judges Righteously V. 18a

The Lamb is also the Lion!

In verse 18, we are given a table of contents if you will for the remainder of the book.

Revelation 11:18 (CSB)

18 The nations were angry,

but your wrath has come.

The time has come

for the dead to be judged

These events did not take place the instant the angel blew his trumpet; he simply signaled the beginning of the process, and now these events would take place as planned.

First, the nations were angry. What do the nations have to be angry about? Certainly the Lord has been good and gracious to them. He has provided their needs, assigned their territories, and graciously postponed His judgment to give men opportunity to be saved.

Even more, He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Today, God offers forgiveness to the nations! What more could He do for them?

Then, why are the nations angry? Because they want to have their own way. Like adolescent children, the nations want to cast off all restraint; and God will permit them to do so. They want to worship and serve the creature instead of the Creator.

Romans 1:25 CSB

25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

Next we see thy wrath has come, man’s wrath cannot equal the wrath of the Lamb, that is the wrath of God. Back in chapter 6 we seen a glimpse of how terrifying it is.

Revelation 6:16–17 CSB

16 And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?”

Even Satan's wrath, as cruel as it is, does not match the wrath of God; there was intense suffering in the first half of the tribulation, but only the last half will reveal the wrath of God.

There are two Greek words for anger/wrath: thumos, which means rage, passionate anger and orge, used here, which means indignation, a settled attitude of wrath.

God’s anger/wrath is not an outburst of temper; it is holy indignation against sin.

Both of these Greek words are used in Revelation to describe God’s anger: orge is used only four times; thumos, seven. God’s anger is not dispassionate, for He hates sin and loves righteousness and justice; but neither is it temperamental and unpredictable.

And the time of the dead, that they should be judged takes us to the very end of God’s prophetic program. In one sense, every day is a day of the Lord because God is always judging righteously.

God is longsuffering toward lost sinners and often postpones judgment, but there will be a final judgment of sinners and none will escape. This judgment is described in chapter 20.

C. Christ Rewards Graciously V. 18b

Revelation 11:18 (CSB)

18 to give the reward

to your servants the prophets,

to the saints, and to those who fear your name,

both small and great,

and the time has come to destroy

those who destroy the earth.

There will also be a judgment of God’s children, know as the judgment seat of Christ which is talked about in (Romans 14:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:9-15; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11)

God will reward His faithful servants and the suffering they experienced on earth will be forgotten in the glory of His presence.

Though God’s children will not be judged for their sins (as that judgment took place on the cross), they will be judged for their works and rewarded generously by the Master.

The judgment seat of Christ will take place in heaven after Christ has called His people home. When He returns to earth to establish His kingdom, the saints will be ready to reign with Him, with every blemish of the church removed.

Today, we groan as we serve God, because we know only too well our handicaps and blemishes; but one day, we shall serve Him perfectly!

Those who destroy the earth, refers to the rebellious earth-dwellers who will not submit to God. How ironic that these people live for the earth and its pleasure, yet at the same time are destroying the very earth that they worship!

When man forgets that God is the Creator and we are the creature, we begin to exploit our God-given resources, and this brings destruction. Man is a steward of creation, not the owner.

This brings us to our last point and the last verse of the chapter.

III. An Assurance of God’s Faithfulness

Revelation 11:19 CSB

19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and severe hail.

Chapter 11 opened with God instructing John to take a measuring reed and go measure the temple and the altar and then to count those that were worshipping there.

That was the earthly temple that, if we remember I shared that it was destroyed in 70 AD, the only remain part of it is a small section of a wall, which is now called the wailing wall.

The earthly temple will have to be rebuilt at some point as we mentioned in week 26, but here as we close out the chapter now we are talking about the temple in heaven.

The focus of attention is on the ark of God, the symbol of God’s presence with His people.

In the Old Testament tabernacle and temple, the ark stood behind the veil, in the holy of holies. God’s glory rested on the ark, and God’s Law was within the ark, beautifully illustrating that the two must never be separated.

He is the holy God and must deal righteously with sin. But He is also the faithful God who keeps His promises to His people. It was the ark of God that led Israel through the Jordan and into their inheritance.

This vision of the ark would greatly encourage God’s suffering people to whom John sent this book. God will fulfill His promises! John was saying to them. He will reveal His glory! Trust Him!

Once again, John saw and heard the warnings of a storm. Greater judgment is about to fall on the rebellious people of earth!

But God’s people need not fear the storms for He is in control. The ark reminds them of His presence and the faithfulness of His promises.

And on that ark was the mercy seat on which the blood was sprinkled each Day of Atonement. Even in wrath, God remembers His mercy.

The stage is now set for the dramatic appearance of the beast, Satan’s masterpiece, the false Christ, the Antichrist, who will control the world.

Chapter 12 begins the second half of the tribulation and with that we are introduced to evil trinity in chapters 12 and 13.

These three key characters are Satan the dragon, the false Christ/ Antichrist, and the false prophet.

We will begin looking at those three key characters next week.