Full Transcript

Welcome to Share the Word podcast. Well, if you’ve been following Share the Word over the years, we want to thank you for being part of the success in this Great Commission project. We continue to bring you the big ideas of the New Testament chapter by chapter. Today, Pastor Paul Nitz continues with the book of Revelation and has combined chapters 4 and 5 together. Let’s get started with today’s podcast. Revelation 4 and 5, From One Age to the Next.

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.’ Immediately I was in the Spirit. Those are the opening lines of Revelation chapter 4, After These Things. Chapters 4 and 5 provide the segue between the past, what I will refer to as the church age, and the future, that is, the things to come, as John calls them. That is, what happens after the church age, after the true followers of Christ are taken up to heaven.

Before we get into the main idea in these two chapters, I want to clarify one aspect of my understanding of God’s Word in general and Revelation in particular. The Jewish people are God’s chosen people in a special sense. The whole Bible attests to this fact, and anti-Semitism is anti-Christ and anti-God. But stepping back and looking over the history honestly, the Jewish people certainly have been unfaithful and rebellious and unbelieving at many points in their history, never more seriously, in hindsight, than when the leaders of the nation of Israel 2,000 years ago decisively rejected Jesus as their Messiah. At that point, God intentionally moved His focus from them onto building something new. Jesus revealed this would happen in his parable of the vineyard in Matthew chapter 21, and Paul wrote about it plainly in Romans 11.

For example, at verse 25 it says, I don’t want you to be uninformed of this mystery so that you will not be wise in your own estimation. A partial hardening has happened to the Israelites until the full number of Gentiles comes in. Mystery, in Paul’s lingo, remember, means a new revelation from God. Question: What was the new revelation God showed Paul about Israel vis-à-vis the church? Answer: That a partial hardening had happened to Israel until the full number of Gentiles comes in. After the leaders of Israel formally rejected Jesus, although some of the apostles stayed in Jerusalem, wanted to keep focus on sharing the gospel with Jews, that’s not where the divine spotlight turned, as we see in Acts.

God’s focus went global. He essentially threw open the doors to the whole world to become part of a new special group of chosen people, the body of Christ, the church. Jewish people could join in, and many did, but the church of Jesus Christ has been primarily made up of Gentiles, all of us who have believed the gospel message. However, don’t forget the until. This age in which God is building the church will go on until the full number of Gentiles comes in, we’re told. What number is that?

Well, God only knows. So, since the church age began until now, Christ has been building his church as the Great Commission is carried out and the gospel is proclaimed to all nations. When that divine project has run its course, however, God’s focus will once again revert to his ancient people. Their Messiah will return. His long-promised kingdom will be established, and all the unconditional covenant promises God made to Israel will be kept. That’s, in a nutshell, how I take the Bible and especially how it relates to God, the church, and Israel.

Listen carefully to this. Revelation chapters 2 and 3, which we just covered, were all about churches with messages for seven of them, real historical congregations, messages which were also applicable for all churches throughout the last 2,000 years of this church age. But once we get to chapter 4, when God calls John in the Spirit to come up here and I’ll show you what happens after these things, we hear no more about churches. Why? Because the church age will be over then. In fact, the word church, referring to believers in Jesus meeting in cities and towns to worship and learn together, which occurs 19 times in chapters 2 and 3, suddenly disappears when John is called up to heaven to see what must take place after these things, that is, the future events he writes about in the following 19 chapters of Revelation.

This is very significant. In fact, I think it’s accurate to say the trumpet call, come up here, in chapter 4, that corresponds or symbolizes the rapture. John is experiencing being shown what will happen when the church age closes and believers are called up to heaven. After that, there’s no mention of the church or churches during what comes next, the tribulation era. And it’s interesting that the gospel preached then reverts back to the gospel of the kingdom, just as John the Baptist preached when the Messiah was ready to appear in Israel the first time. Comprende?

Not all Bible-believing Christians accept this interpretation or accept the rapture theory. That’s okay. It’s an interpretational, not fundamental doctrinal question. But I do, because it fits several things in the New Testament very well. As I’ve noted, like the sequence of events here and the same sequence of events in Paul’s answers to the Thessalonians’ questions about the end times, which we discussed back in episodes 87 and 89. Quickly, let me summarize three points that convince me there will be a rapture of the church, meaning Christians alive at the end of this church age we are in now will be taken up to be with the Lord before the tribulation era John describes in Revelation 6 through 19 begins.

Apply your thinking caps now. First, the rapture theory is most consistent with the New Testament’s teaching about imminency, the idea that believers should be looking for and ready for the return of Jesus at any time, that it will happen suddenly without warning and will catch most off guard. We church age believers are never told to look for the dawn of the tribulation, but to look for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Him who rescues us from the wrath to come. Those are references, I think, to the rapture. In contrast, the second coming of Christ to put down His enemies and set up His kingdom, which is described in the Olivet Discourse and later in Revelation 19, sounds like a very different event.

And anyone with a copy of Revelation will be able to mark on their calendar exactly when that event will happen because, as we’ll see later in this writing, the exact time it will happen is given in months and days from one unmistakable sign that occurs in the middle of the seven-year tribulation. So, the second coming is not imminent now and never will be. Definite things must take place before it can occur. Put simply, there is a return of Jesus described in the New Testament, a calling up of believers to be with Him, which is imminent, which could happen at any time. And there is a return of Jesus to destroy God’s enemies and set up His kingdom, the date of which those living during the tribulation era will be able to decipher on their calendars. That’s a telling difference.

Speaking of Thessalonians, and here is the second reason. It was to that church that this truth, also called by Paul a mystery, that is, the rapture was explicitly given, and it was given as a promise to comfort and encourage those early Christians who were right then worried that the start of persecutions meant they had somehow possibly entered into the tribulation and missed the rapture. Listen, persecutions Christians sometimes have to endure are something entirely different than the wrath of God. The tribulation will be a unique time of God’s wrath falling on the unbelieving and rebellious world, and Paul told the Thessalonians that they were not destined for wrath. If we understand at all what is coming in Revelation described there literally, I mean, no one on earth at that time will escape the effects of the cataclysmic wars and natural disasters that will engulf the planet.

And there’s nothing comforting and encouraging about imagining trying to survive that nightmare. But the promise that Jesus is coming to save His people from the coming wrath of God found in 1 Thessalonians, and also found in the promise Jesus made to the faithful church at Philadelphia we saw recently, I will keep you out of the hour of testing that is about to come on the whole world. That’s very comforting. If the church does not go up prior to the judgments coming down, I have no idea what 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 are even about. And there is no mystery, that is, no new revelation being revealed there. And third, here’s an important factor I don’t think we’ve ever discussed on Share the Word before.

So gird up the loins of your mind. That’s an old way of saying, do your best to follow me here. The New Testament is clear in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection passage, that when Jesus comes back for His church, dead believers will be physically resurrected, and living believers along with them will be transformed instantly in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Remember? Transformed how? We’ll be given new immortal bodies, Paul says, ones fitted for heaven and for eternity.

The Bible is also clear, if again you take things at all literally, that after the separation of believers from unbelievers at Jesus’ second coming, this is described in Matthew 25, those who belong to Him, real mortal human beings who pass through that judgment, will go into the millennial kingdom of Christ. And they will repopulate the earth and as subjects of a literal kingdom for a thousand years. That these will be mortal human beings is required by Isaiah 65 and Revelation chapter 20 and other passages. Those in the kingdom era, a time when the curse of sin on this world is lifted, will live very long lives, and the population on earth will become like sand along the seashore, the Bible says, meaning innumerable. So the question is just who are these people? Who comes out of the Great Tribulation and repopulates the earth during the Millennial Kingdom era?

Are you thinking with me? If believers are transformed when Christ returns and given new immortal bodies, and He comes only once at the end of the Tribulation, and if unbelievers are rooted out then, like the tares in Jesus’ parable and are sent into judgment, there is no one available to enter in and populate Christ’s kingdom on earth. See the problem? However, if you understand that the church will be raptured prior to the Tribulation, the solution is very obvious. Those who go into the kingdom at the end of the Tribulation are the great numbers of people who were converted during it. Chapter 7 of Revelation describes them as a great multitude nobody can number from every tribe and nation, redeemed people who come out of Great Tribulation, who were converted during those seven years.

Many, many of these will be Jews who’ve received Jesus as Messiah during that time. So the sequence of events, as I understand it, is that church age believers are called up to heaven before the wrath of the Tribulation begins, just as John in his vision experienced. After that, the judgments begin to fall, but many people left on earth will turn to God and receive the gospel of the kingdom. Some of them will be martyred, as we’ll see, but many will live through it. And at the Tribulation’s conclusion, those are the people who will go into the Millennial Kingdom to repopulate the earth. Clear?

Or clear like mud? I know it’s a lot to take in. Don’t worry. We’ll learn more about all of this as we proceed through our Revelation study. And now back to chapters four and five for just a couple minutes. The brief lull before the storm.

What did John, now called up to heaven in the Spirit, see happening there? When the apostle Paul was given a vision of heaven, you might remember, he had a near-death experience, I think, and saw heaven. He came back only saying, I saw things too wonderful to put into words. In other words, I’m not even going to try. But John was taken up for the very purpose of telling us what he sees, and so he has to try to find the words, and here is his attempt. I saw a throne standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne, and he who was sitting there was like jasper stone and sardius in appearance.

These are reddish gemstones. And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. Also encircling his throne, I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. And out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds like peals of thunder. And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the center and around the throne, I saw four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.

The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature looked like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a human being, and the fourth creature was flying like an eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, day and night did not cease saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And when the living creatures gave this glory and honor and thanks to Him who sat on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever. The twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped him, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created everything, and because of your will it all exists. That’s how John describes what he saw in the throne room of God in heaven, best he could describe it.

How can you describe things that are completely otherworldly? He saw God’s throne, although he doesn’t make any real attempt to describe God the Father besides comparing him in some way to the look of certain precious stones. He sees twenty-four lesser thrones encircling God’s. Those sitting on them he describes as elders, and they were dressed in white and had golden crowns on their head. By the way, when I’m speculating, I’m going to tell you I’m speculating now, and I’m speculating now. These twenty-four men are, I think, representatives of all of God’s people through all of the ages, like twelve representatives from the Old Testament probably, maybe the Old Testament’s leading characters like Noah and Abraham and Joseph and Moses and David and so on, get the idea?

Some people think maybe representatives from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. And from the New Testament era, likely the twelve apostles who Jesus promised would one day be given thrones to rule with him. Paul, of course, taking the vacated seat of Judas. That’s my best guess about the identity of the twenty-four elders. John sees them worshiping God and casting their crowns before him, crowns which represent, I think, faithful believers’ rewards. Isn’t it a beautiful idea to contemplate that, yes, faithful believers will be given awards in heaven one day?

But all of us there will know that all the glory really belongs to God who made us and then loved us enough to redeem us, and the only reason we’re there is because of His grace. But man, how about what John could only describe as four living creatures? Each of those beings has a different-looking face with many eyes and six wings, looking nothing like anything in our world. But these, strange to us looking beings, are a class of angels and the ones closest in proximity to God, apparently, day and night. In the Old Testament, another man was given such a vision of God’s throne room in heaven, Isaiah, and he writes about it in chapter six of his prophetic book. He saw the same six-winged creatures and called them seraphim, meaning burning ones.

He also said these fantastical-looking flying creatures always in the presence of God were saying, Holy, holy, holy, just like John says. One thing that we will be struck by then that we hardly understand now is God’s absolute holiness. What a scene. When chapter five opens, John says, Then I saw in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne, this is God the Father, a scroll written inside and on the back and sealed up with seven seals. This was a large scroll rolled up with seven wax seals protecting its contents. John continues, Then a strong angel proclaimed with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open this scroll and break its seals?’

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I was crying greatly, John admits, because no one was found worthy to do that. He was deeply invested in the story by this point, apparently. He realized that something extremely consequential for mankind was in that scroll, bound up in that scroll, and no one could open it. Again, we can only speculate, but perhaps the scroll represents something like a deed, giving its owner rightful authority over the earth or over what is going to happen next on the earth. Does anyone have or deserve the authority? And one of the elders said to me, John goes on, Stop crying.

This had to be Peter. Like, John, you crybaby, relax. Behold, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome, and he can open the scroll and its seven seals. Then, in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders, I saw a Lamb standing as if slain. Picture this: suddenly appearing in the middle of this whole scene, a bloodied lamb. And he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sits on the throne.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. And they sang a new song, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and purchased for God with your own blood people from every tribe and tongue, people and nation. Wow. The Lamb who was slain, of course, is Jesus. Purchased for God with your own blood means redeemed. Many translations will use that term.

The word here, redeemed, means to buy something back. Redemption is a beautiful concept in the Bible which captures how deeply those who belong to God are valued by him. A story I’ve heard that illustrates this concept very well is about a boy who worked meticulously and for a long time building an intricate and realistic model sailboat. Once he’d completed it, he anxiously took it down to the river that flowed through his city to test it out. But the current and the wind carried it away, and he could only watch, heartbroken, as it disappeared from view. But then, a few weeks later, he visited a hobby shop in his city.

He spotted his own boat there. He told the owner, I built that boat. That’s my boat. But the owner said, I’m sorry, but I got that model in some time ago now, and if you want it, you’ll have to buy it, and tells him the price. So the boy, who knows it’s his boat and who loves it because he created it, saves up his money for several more weeks until he has the full price for the boat in hand. He returns to the shop, pays the price required, and buys it back.

Now it’s twice his, because he both made it and because he bought it back as well. That’s redemption. John stands amazed, seeing this scene in heaven’s expansive throne room, the elders representing the people of God throughout all the ages, myriad angels, these amazing-looking living creatures who are always in God’s presence, and everyone is worshiping, all are praising Almighty God, who not only created everything, so we are not only His by virtue of the fact He made us, but even more so because He loved us enough to buy us back by His own blood after we were lost. He redeemed us, so we’re His twice. These two chapters are a brief prelude to all the things that follow, both on earth and in heaven, which bring about the final resolution of history, His story.

They reveal God the Father’s holiness, sovereignty, and glory, and reveal the eternal Son in His heavenly persona, the One who, out of great love, once became the Lamb who was slain for our redemption. And now, alone is worthy to determine the judgments that are about to fall on the earth. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, all that is in all of them, John heard them saying together, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever. Come back next time for more of the Book of Revelation. This is Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul.

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