Bible Guys Classics: Revelation - Christ's Return

So for anybody listening that's my age or older, they know this. He Johnny. All we gotta do is change it to Jesus because we're talking about the second Coming. So he Jesus. Yep, he's coming back. So he's Chris and I'm Jeff and we're the Bible guys. I think it's going to be way better when Jesus shows up than when Johnny Carson shows up. Yeah. By the way, I feel obligated to tell our listeners who said who said that? Here's what was his name? Art? No, no, no, no, no, I can't. Remember Ed McMahon, Ed McMahon, I want to say Art link letter And as soon as I started saying, that's not the right name, but Ed McMahon. Uh. So today we're going to start out with this is hilarious. So the segment is called who said It? And it's saying that you will read five lines from the Bible. So they're all from the. Bible of from the Bible. But I have to say who, and. You have to say who. You have to guess who said it. But get this, for some reason, I don't know why, but she chose all five King James version quotes oh. Good, good, Okay, that'll help. It'll help because you memorize that King James version. That's so funny. Okay, So this first one should be pretty easy. Let me die with the Philistines, uh Sampson. Yes, that's in Judges chapter sixteen. Yeah, this next one is super easy. I think you'll get it. Oh that's a lot of pressure. Yeah, I know it's a lot of pressure. But it's very clear who said this. Okay, ready, what is truth? That's pilot, Yes, punch, just pilot. That's in John eighteen. Now this one is not so easy. Okay. So this one again old English version. Nobody talks this way anymore. But here comes why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. That's Peter talking to Anonias and Sapphira. Yes, good job, Act chapter five. Okay, And then this one is here we go? Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. That's hard. I would I would not have guessed this. I would have gotten all three of those. I would not have gotten this to record. I sort of read it weird, weird, because it's a weird version. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. Oh, dude, I don't know. Uh, David, it's a great Yes, Paul apparently apostle man. I almost said Paul, and I'm not joking. Well, he's a good guess. He's most of the New Testament, but acts chapter twenty. Wow, apparently. Okay, so toward the end of his life, I guess I don't know what he meant by that. You'd have to have to look it up. I have to look it up. And then finally, here's the last one. I think you'll get it. Uh. It's small, but I think it's pretty distinguished. Speak for the servant hereth Samuel. Yes, there you go. Yeah, first Samuel chapter three. He was in the temple. Yeah, and he was responding to God. And I should have gone with my gut on the Paul thing, and it would have been five or five. Yeah. Well, that's all right, you know what, we're all human, yes, and if I can, if I can help prove that on occasion, that's good. If I can help prove that occasion. Man, are so much pressure, yeah, yeah, a lot of pressure. So we kind of have this thing going. What made Chris mad? Yes? And then usually it's let's ask Jeff the Bible, the obscure Bible verse questions like that, who said this? Or asked Chris about movies? Yeah, yeah, Chris's movies, guy, Yeah, yeah. So Jeff knows the Bible, Chris knows the movies. I don't think that's the point she's trying to make. Yeah. I think what she's doing is she she knows that you have a greater knowledge of you just do you just have more knowledge of especially obscure scriptures, right, And I have a wealth of knowledge of things that don't matter. Something matter, you know what. So storytelling is such an important part of speaking and preaching and making connections. Jesus would say, hey, let me tell you about the Kingdom heaven, and then he tell you about a farmer. I'm gonna say about the Kingdom heaven. He talked about sheep. Let me tell you about the king of heaven. He talked about some guy who gets robbed. Right, who's my name? Right? And so storytelling is so important with regard to connecting heavenly things to the earthly mind. Right, And so the skill set that you have is brilliant and. Well, thank you. But and every time we plan a service on a Sunday morning or a holiday service, that's exactly what we do. Yeah, we create artistic elements to tell a story. Yeah, all of it's. Perfectly designed to do what you do, perfectly designed. So we are in revelation, well, we're in prophecy, the end times kind of stuff. So we're bouncing around the New Testament and with different references to the end Times. But here we're going to hang out a little bit today in the Book of Revelation. I think it's all the Book of Revelation. It is, it is, and we're kind of now talking about some of the characters and the events that happen. Yeah, well, because this is a Monday, and people may just be tuning in the last five days, the last five podcasts we covered, you know, a lot of revelation, and this is the book that we're not necessarily going through chapter by chapter. But what we're doing is we're doing a broad overview in broad strokes and saying here's the main players, here's the main events. And we don't claim to be you know, theologians or professors, right, were the Bible guys who like to talk about the Bible, and hopefully this is a way that people can understand the Book of Revelation and be interested and then have it apply. Yeah. Yeah, So we're going to jump right into it. We've got a lot to cover, yep, And just kind of a warning for this week. This is the week when everything goes sideways and gets really crazy, right right, So last week we kind of established. It's the last three and a half years. Of tribu so we're kind of established. But hey, we read the back of the book. Hang in till Friday, Jesus winds. That's how it works out. But so let's just start in Revelation chapter fourteen, and it says, then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him, we're one hundred and forty four thousand who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder. It was like the sound of many harpists playing together. This great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne God. And before the four living beings and the twenty four Elders. No one could learn this song except the one hundred and forty four thousand whod been redeemed from the earth. They've kept themselves as pure as virgins, following the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been purchased from among the people on the earth as a special offering to God and to the Lamb. They have told no lies. They're without blame. Jump in first and say the description of who they are. You know, there's no human that has never sinned with regard to alle right, right, So this is the generality of who they are. This isn't that they're perfect and sinless. The same thing with the idea kept themselves pure as virgins. In the Old Testament, prophets would often accuse God's people of committing adultery spiritually by worshiping other gods. And so we know that through up to this point chapter fourteen, the whole world has been tempted, and the world other than those that are following God have turned to worship the beasts, right, And so they've worshiped other gods. And so it doesn't have to be that they're virgins, but rather pure as virgins, is what he's saying, meaning I believe what it's saying is that they didn't cheat on God with the beast, and. Didn't Jesus use virgins as as an illustration as well? Yes, so yeah, it's the same thing. So I think the big question is who are these and one hundred and forty four thousand? Right, there are some people who make a really big deal about. It, Jehovah's witnesses, to say that they're Jehovah's witnesses, right, But it's just not that's not how the Bible spells it out. A billion people on the planet and they want to be a part of the elite, the. One hundred and forty four thousand. Yeah, the problem is there's millions of JW's So that's what's weird about it. But yea yeah, So anyways, let's go. Revelation chapter seven spells out who these hundred and forty four thousand are. Yep, So he says, then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of Earth, holding back the four winds, so they did not blow on the earth or the sea, or even in any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east carrying the seal of the Living God. And he shouted those four angels who had been given power to harm land, and see, wait, don't harm the land or the sea or the trees until we've placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants. And I heard how many were marked with the seal of God. One hundred and forty four thousand were sealed from all the tribes of Israel. Then it names the twelve tribes of Israel Asher twelve thousand, Naptalia twelve thousand, Manassa twelve thousand, Simion twelve thousand, Levia twelve thousand, Isakar twelve thousand, Zebulun twelve thousand, Joseph twelve thousand, Benjamin twelve thousand. After this, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands, and they were shouting with a great roar, Salvation comes to our God, from our God who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. And they sang Amen, Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belonged to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the twenty four elders asked me, who are these who are clothed with white? Where did they come from? And I said, sir, you're the one who knows. Then he said to them, It said to me, these are the ones who died in the Great Tribulation. They've washed their robes and the blood of the Lamb and made them white. That is why they stand in front of God's thrown and serve him day and night in his temple. And He who sits on the throne will give them shelter. They will never again be hungry or thirsty. They'll never be scorched by the heat of the sun. For the Lamb on the throne will be their shepherd, and he will lead them to springs of life giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes. So it says that these one hundred and forty four thousand ultimately represent a multitude that can't be counted. So these hundred and forty four thousand from the twelve tribes are out leading this uncountable number of people, and they are they are the martyrs that die who reject the Beast or the Antichrist and are martyred because of it. Yeah, and so again, the tribulation lasts years. So if you're a person who believes like we sort of, you know, we lean toward the rapture being pre tribulation. So even though that there's theories of you know, mid tribulation or post tribulation. So I believe that I think that evidence points to that. So I think that, you know, those of us who already know Christ won't have to be worried about being in one hundred and forty four thousand, and according to what I understand, I think that it's the people who have converted, who decide to repent, who turn, who've changed their mind all of a sudden, that's right, And all of a sudden, now they are now rejecting the Beast, and everything is made clear to them. And there's a lot of ways that you can look at that. Remember when we talked last week about how important numbers are. Yes, see right, they're very symbolic a lot of times, especially in the book Revelation. So the number twelve is a number of completeness, and so twelve thousand times twelve equals infinity, right, Well, one hundred and. Forty four thousand and so or infinity. I guess what I'm saying is it's the complete number of the followers of God. I really believe that's what's talking about. It doesn't have to be just the one hundred and forty four thousand. And that's why that passage references this. After he sees the one hundred and forty four thousand, he sees this massive multitude from all around the world before the throne of God, and it's I believe it's the completeness of the followers. But they seem to be the majority of them from Israel. Yeah, they're Jewish people who finally turn to the Messiah after the tribulation has begun. That seems to be it. I don't know. I don't know for sure, but you know, there's a lot of different opinions. Well, you know, I made a joke about infinity. But remember when Peter asked Jesus how many times you should forgive? And he said, should I forgive up to seven times? Do you remember what Jesus said? He said seven seventy times seven right now. He wasn't literally saying stop at four hundred and ninety one times, right right right, the four hundred and ninety five time, then you can say, I don't forgive you. It was infinity. He was saying, No, it's not seven times, it's seventy times seven. He's referring to the fact that it's unlimited because you're not going to forgive somebody else. Seven is the number of God. So forgive like God forgives. Yeah, that's right, that's right. So numbers are significant, and there's it's no mistake that things. You know, when it says there's twelve, there's twelve jewels on the crown, right, it represents the twelve tribes of Israel. It's the promise that God made from the beginning with humanity, starting with Abraham through Jacob, through the twelve tribes. And so it's yeah, it makes sense to me that God would use symbolic numbers for those who were, you know, the martyrs counted among them. Sure, sure, so then it pivots a little bit. And so one thing that we're not going to do is we're not going chapter by chapter through the Book of Revelation and covering all of the different seals that get broken, the trumpets, the seven bowls. So there's seven seals where finally Jesus is able to come and open the seal, and then after that it starts to unpack these seven destructive plagues that begin to happen. When the seventh one happens, it rolls into the seven trumpets, and these seven trumpets blast and it unveils seven more horrific things that happen on the planet. And then when you get to the seventh trumpet, then the seven bowls begin to be poured out of the seven files begin to pourt up, and basically what happens is the plugs are ramping up in horror. Literally every horror apocalyptic type movie Hollywood has ever been able to put out are summed up in these things. Yeah, so, just to be clear, this all happens in the second half of the Tribulation, probably, which yeah, probably, that's right. Probably, that's what's most commonly. Interest Sure, the first three and a half years are understood to be years of peace and prosperity, right, and then God really unleashes it. So that means if that's true, right, that means that twenty one horrible things on the planet happen in a three and a half year timeframe. Right. It's bad enough if twenty one things happen in seven years, right, Right, But if it's but if it's truly three and a half years, we're talking every couple of months something horrible happens. So the Seven Seals are seven like final conflicts. The seven Trumpets are final destructions, and the seven bulls represent God's final wrath. And and let's you want to just I mean, there's not much to say about them other than maybe list them. Yeah, yeah, you know, because what are you going to do to talk about. Well, I think there may be things if you've heard anybody talk about all this stuff, there are things maybe you've heard before, Like, for instance, in the Seven Seals, the first four of the Seven Seals are the four horsemen of the. Apocalypse, yep. Right, So you've got the Christ rolling out, then there's war, there's famine, a quarter the people die as martyrs on the planet, right, and then there's horrible earthquakes and the sun turns to blood and people have to run and hide and they're living in caves. This is just the first seven, right, And there's the seven seals, and then when you get to the seventh seal, it's really announcing more is to come. And so understand that this isn't God just unleashing his wrath for the sake of unleashing his wrath. God's desire is to get their attention. And yet after each of these the Bible says multiple times the people refused to turn to God. Right, So instead of realizing, hey, it turns out everything God said was going to happen is happening, and he's true. Some people do turn to Christ, but the huge majority of the planet does not. They double down in their anger and hatred towards God. So then seven trumpets, the final instruction comes up. A third of the world's trees are burned because there's hail and fire mixed with blood falling from heaven. A third of the trees on the planet burn Hey, we just had a massive forest fire. There's going up in Canada, and when the wind turns, it makes the sky weird and people's breathing is bad all you know, as millions of Americans were struggling, they had to cancel baseball games because of the bad air quality. Right, you imagine if a third of the trees and the planet are burning, and then something like a huge mountain falls into the ocean, destroys a third of the ocean water. There's a star falls from heaven, right, destroys a third of all the fresh water. On the planet. The sun is struck in some way. I don't understand what this is, struck in some way. And then we lose a third of the light from the moon and a third of all the stars. And then these demonic locusts are released from the pit. Yeah, that's my favorite. And they can't kill people, just torment people for five months, it says. And the torture is so bad on the planet people wish they could die and can't from it. It's it's horrible. And these these these sounds great. These demonic locusts are are pretty scary. They got they got teeth like lions and bodies like horses, and they're wearing crowns. They got face kind of like a man. It's crazy, crazy stuff. And then these four angels are released from the from the Euphrates river, and uh, then they go. And and and. And execute plagues on people. And I'm telling you that, and then the Seven bowls begin, and we just go on and on and on. It's really shocking that the devastation that's happening on the planet and yet some people turn to God, the huge majority double down and dig their feet in and fight against him instead. Yeah. Yeah, So you know, those things happen, and people repent, people are martyrs, and the world definitely goes through a struggle. But then we get to when that comes to an end, Jesus returns, That's right, and so the visible return of Christ, and when he comes in the clouds, it is going to announce a lot of different things, both you know, in terms of battle and in terms of a wedding and a honeymoon and all sorts of things happen at that point. So it's just racing towards the return of Christ. And if you go back and remember, you know, Matthew twenty four, Jesus is coming in the clouds the great power and glory and mighty trumpet blast. First, Thessalonians said Jesus is going to return. The Lord himself come down from heaven. The commanding shout second Thessalonians, Jesus will kill the beast with the breath of his mouth and destroy him with splendor of his coming. The whole picture is victory. It's victory. So let's just read it because this is one of the coolest descriptions that Jesus. Remember when we read in Revelation one, this Christ. Okay, now he's up in his game. Something's read it. We don't have to really comment much on this, he says in Revelation nineteen. After all of these things, and after the world digs in against Jesus, they all gathered together to fight against him. Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself, and he wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of Heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses from his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with an iron rod, and he will release the fierce wrath of God the Almighty, like juice flowing from a wine press. On his robe. At his thigh was written this title King of all kings and Lord of all lords. And then I saw an angel standing in the sun, shouting to the vultures flying high and the sky. Come gather together for the great banquet God has prepared. Come and eat the flesh kings and generals, and strong warriors, and of horses and their riders, and of all humanity, both free and slave, small and great. And then I saw the beast and the kings of the world and their armies gathered together to fight against the ones sitting on the horse and his army. And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet, who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast, miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Their entire army was killed by the sharp sword that came from the mouth of the one riding on the white horse, and the vultures all gorged themselves on the dead bodies, of course they did. Jesus wipes it out, and then he captures the beast and the Antichrist and he casts them into eternal judgment from that point on, and that's the beginning of the end, right, And. They could not have described a more awesome Jesus coming, you know forth. So Jesus, you know, while on the earth, dealing with humanity in love, you know, firm us and love he was, you know, he said, blessed of the poor, sure, blessed of the meek. Yeah, right, turn the other cheek, love one another, demonstrate this and then and that is you know who he is. And this is also who he is. So the world gathers together to fight. They're getting ready to fight. I think they're getting ready to fight each other. But then they see Jesus coming back, and they turn to fight against him. So remember when we said, what are they going to tell everybody when the rapture happens? All the Christians just I think they're going to say, oh, aliens stuck them. Sure, Then what's going to happen when all the armies of the world turn around and see Jesus on a white horse coming through in the sky. I think the people who've just hardened their hearts and rejected God are going to think that what they're doing is they're fighting against an alien invasion, or they're fighting against some kind of invasion on Earth. Right. I don't even know that they understand that they're fighting Jesus at that point. Maybe, but their hearts are their hearts are so hard and people have so firmly dug in to say I don't believe in Jesus, and I don't believe these things. So for whatever reason, the armies of the Earth turn to fight against Jesus and white Horse instead of surrendering to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords I heard. I think that the Bible says somewhere that they plan on sending a guy up in an iron shoot to close the wormhole with a nuclear bomb. No, no, different, that's not in the Bible. That's the event. Yes, oh my bad. Yeah. So here's the thing though, when you hear these things again, God does not tell these things to scare us, unless unless you're not prepared. But instead I'm saying you have a choice right to get prepared. So he says in Hebrews chapter nine, And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. And he will come again not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation. To all who eagerly are waiting for him. So either he's coming to bring judgment for those who are going to fight against him, or he's there to bring salvation for the who are eagerly waiting for him. Yeah. Well, i'll tell you what's that's the beginning of a lot of different things when Jesus comes down, and we're going to be tackling all of that starting tomorrow. So what an unbelievable moment right for all of humans. Tomorrow is about the judgment seat of Christ. But it's not something to be afraid of, it's something to look forward to. Yeah, all right, Well we'll see you then on the Bible, guys. M.