Marcus Mecum - Seven Events of Revelation - Part 1
Today I wanna deal with the seven events of Revelation. So, we're gonna quickly comb through the Book of Revelation in one message and so I'll go as quickly as I can. And as we begin to look through these different events together I wanna just kind of up front say I'm aware that there are people that are really interested in this subject.
There are people that are not incredibly interested. All I would do is say there's a large amount of time given in the scripture to this subject, so it deserves our attention wherever you fall in, you know, whether you really love this stuff, or you really don't care much about it. It is in the book, and it is written for our good, for our benefit, and so I think it's appropriate that we spend some time and talk about it, whether you're interested or not. I am not incredibly interested in this subject. I had become more interested as I study it, as I get into it.
When I was in Bible school my first class, I can't remember what day it was, but it was my eschatology class. So, at 7:00 in the morning, I would go into a professor that was the most boring human being I've ever met. And so, I believe I passed eschatology, I believe I did. I'm not 100% sure because I hardly ever went 'cause it was the first class of the day. So, I wanna be honest that there's some things that I may not have incredibly together. But since Bible school I have spent time studying it and I think that today is gonna be an encouragement.
Last week we looked at the rapture, and the primary place that those who believe in the rapture of the church it's found in 1 Thessalonians 4. And this idea comes from the phrase that, "There will be a day that the trumpet sounds, that the dead in Christ shall rise first and that those who remain will be caught up". That word caught up is the latin word raptur, which means to be taken from one place to another. In the Greek it's the word harpazo, that means to be snatched away unexpectedly. And so, this is the primary place those people kind of get this idea that there will be an unexpected snatching away before Jesus comes back. And the reason that they kind of consider this is, in its purest form the second coming of Jesus Christ will be a return. He's going to come to the earth.
And so, there's several references, there's a lot of hints and clues to the idea that there will be an event before the final second coming and that that event will include a snatching away. I will touch on that today, but I will say wherever you fall in these camps it's more to encourage us to talk about it, to discuss it. It's less to be a brick that we beat other with. And more will just say, "Hey, let's have some fun in talking about some of this together".
I do not plan on winning and settling some big debate on the subject today. I just plan on encouraging you. I don't wanna discourage you. I don't wanna anger you. The idea of this subject is to put courage in your heart. The Bible says in the very beginning of the book, and we'll read it in just a minute. But it says that, "Blessed are those who read and understand this particular book". The Book of Revelation.
So, there is a blessing attached to reading and understanding this book. I have put into my reading every single day, I will at a minimum read one scripture in the Book of Revelation because the Bible says, "Blessed are those who read it and understand it". I don't know about you but I wanna live blessed and so it's a simple thing for me just to read it and say, "God give me understanding because there's a blessing attached to it". So, let's just say this, you may hate this subject but we're talking about this book. We're gonna read from this book and as understanding comes there's a blessing attached to this book, and I hope that that blessing will find its way to you. So, seven events really quick.
The first event is called the church age. I hope it's okay that I teach you today. I'm not gonna really preach. I'm gonna walk through it. The church age, chapters 1 through 3 is considered the church age. And this is occurring John the beloved was arrested, he was tried, he was found guilty of preaching the gospel. As a result, they executed him or they sentenced him to death by execution. The vehicle in which they planned on killing John the beloved was to throw him in a pot of boiling oil. And so, when his day of execution came, they took John the beloved, they threw him in this pot of boiling oil.
Some believe that they just filled the pot too high and as a result his body when it hit, the water splashed out. Others believe he was supernaturally delivered. Doesn't really matter, what we do know is that John the beloved was thrown into a pot of boiling oil supernaturally or otherwise he survived. They wrapped him in bandages thinking that there's no way he could survive the burns that he had to incur. They put him on an island called Patmos. Left him there to die. He's wrapped in bandages, probably barely hanging on to his life. This is an island that they would send political agitators, they would send the most violent of criminals. This is a very difficult place to survive. There's really no rule of law on this island.
And so, John the beloved is sent to this island really to live out his final days. And the Bible says that he is caught up in the spirit on the Lord's day. Now, the Lord's day is Sunday. Early Christians moved their gathering for worship from Saturday, which is the sabbath, a day of rest. It's still something we should consider to respect. It's still needed. But they moved the Lord's day from Saturday to Sunday, because Sunday is the day Jesus was raised from the dead. And because it's resurrection day it's not meant to be a day of rest, it's meant to be a day of great celebration and great rejoicing. And we're supposed to value both the sabbath, our day of rest and the Lord's day which is designed to be a time of celebration.
The both of these two days properly entered into bring balance to the mind, bring balance to the body, bring balance to your spiritual life, and really do begin to deal with the whole man or the whole person, not just your spirit life, or not just your physical life. But all of us need to realize God has made you, he's created you. He knows exactly what you and I need and a lot of the anxiety, a lot of the depression, a lot of the worry, a lot of the emotional damage. A lot of the spiritual fatigue comes from the fact that we're living like the world, and we're running like the world, and we're striving like the world.
But you and I need to develop a faith in saying, "God, you designed me and so it's okay if I rest today because while I rest you can work for me". That's the idea of the sabbath. "I don't have to just work like the world because I have a God that's working when I'm not. He's working on my behalf. He's putting things together so I can get more done in honoring God than someone else can that's not honoring God". So, Jesus shows up and he visits John on the Lord's day. And the description of what Jesus currently looks like is found in chapter 1, and his eyes are a flame of fire, his hair is white like wool. Out of his mouth is coming a two-edged sword. When he speaks it's the sound of many waters.
It's like a thousand Niagara falls just when he opens his mouth the thunder and the boisterous voice of God is speaking to John. And he says to John, "I want you to write about the things you're gonna see. I want you to write a book. And I first of all, want you to write a book about the things that were. Then I want you to write a book, continue to write about the things that are. Then, the things that are to come which is the big part of the book is the prophetic side which is all about the future".
But the first three chapters that set up our first thought is all about the things that are. These are the things that we're dealing with today, right now, in our hour and our day, the things that are. But when you get to Revelation 4:1, let's just read Revelation 1:3, "Blessed is he who reads and those who hears the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it: for the time is near". These last days. A near time. A close time. Now let's keep going. Let's look at chapter 4 and verse 1. It says, "After those things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was a trumpet speaking to me saying, 'come up here and I will show you these things which must take place after this'".
This will bring about the second event in the Book of Revelation, and this is the event that is debatable, and it's the event of the rapture. Many believe that chapter 4:1 represents what we read about in 1 Thessalonians 4, the catching away, or the unexpected snatching away where we go from one location to another. They put this event in chapter 4:1, "I heard a voice. The voice was like a trumpet. It said to, 'come up here'". And again, this is in reference to what most would call the rapture, and this is how they validate that idea. Chapters 1 through 3, you read about the idea of the church 18 times in those three chapters. You do not see the church again until we get to the end of the book and we're in heaven together.
So, this is why many believe that the church is gone after chapter 4:1, because it's never referred to again. It's never brought up again. You never see the church talked about during the tribulation the church is absent, the church is strangely silent, strangely gone. And so, this is where they would believe it's because the church is gone. The church has already been taken. We're out of here. Now it's let, and 1 Thessalonians by the way, says Paul says this that, "The antichrist can't even show up on the planet and begin to have his way or accomplish his agenda until the Holy Spirit is taken".
So, whether you believe you're gonna go through the tribulation or you believe that God's gonna take us out before that, all I would say is it doesn't really matter whether it's PRE-trib, MID-trib, POST-trib or however you wanna look at it, or if you don't even know what I'm talking about doesn't even matter. Wherever the return of the Lord comes I just wanna make sure that the Spirit of God is still here, because if the Holy Spirit is here, we can go through anything this world throws at us, we can go through anything hell throws at us, but we are in desperate need of the Spirit of God. I believe it was David who said, "Above all things take not thy spirit from me". And so, we have the second event that's kind of dropped in there.
The third event would be the tribulation period which is a seven-year period. This is primarily marked by a Middle East peace treaty. The antichrist will have orchestrated this and will be a hero for the next three and a half years of the tribulation. Daniel 9 goes into great detail on that. And then you read about the tribulation, so chapters 6 through 19, the majority of the Book of Revelation is all about the seven-year tribulation period. It's a very difficult part of the book to understand.
It's where most people get confused because John would have primarily been writing about things that he saw but didn't understand. He wouldn't have had a reference point for certain things. He wouldn't have had a reference point if he saw a fighter jet in the air with fire, you know, coming out of its wings. He wouldn't have understood what that was, and so he would have called it a large bird with fire coming out of its wings. He would have referred to different things that we would know represent probably nuclear war.
Which right now, you can't even read the newspapers with the crazy threats coming out of Russia, and all this conversation going back with nuclear war and those kinds of things. You might have just read that in the newspapers. You'll literally just read the headlines of the newspapers and you pretty much can go side by side with the Book of Revelation with some of the stuff.
They said that Bill Gates just invested $200 million dollars in a micro chip that knows every single thing about you. It knows everything about you, and not only does it know everything about you, once it's placed on the, as actually now accomplished. They can actually do it. It has not been distributed but we saw through the pandemic whether you like it or not, that there is a way to get everybody to comply and we'll use fear and we'll use intimidation. And I'm not saying that it should be or shouldn't be. I'm just saying you saw how it can be rolled out to where you can't buy, you can't eat, you can't sell. You can do nothing. You're villainized without taking this thing.
That the world will say, "This is how we get peace, and this is how we get safety. This is how you care about your fellow man. Put this chip in your body". That chip today is done. It is finalized and it's also a tracking device. Everywhere you go, they will always know where you're at at all times. That's going on right now. But it's difficult to understand when you read because he only has imagery because he's writing about things 2,000 years ago that he was seeing today that his time did not exist. So, there's major symbolism as you read through those chapters.
Number four, the fourth event is the second coming of Christ. This is not a going up, this is him coming down. He'll be on a white horse. He'll have the vesture dripped in blood, on his thighs will be written King of kings and Lord of lords. We will be there with him. We will meet in the Battle of Armageddon, and we will finally see satan bound and cast into the lake of fire for a thousand years. Hell, and the devil will be defeated.
Which leads to the fifth event on our itinerary which is, "The marriage supper of the lamb". The whole motivation that God sent his son to redeem mankind is because the father had a goal with his son and the goal was that he would go find a bride, which is the church. Jesus wants to get married, and the church is the bride of Christ. And then once all of this happens the marriage occurs, a major celebration, a major party is going to take place called, "The marriage supper of the lamb".
This will lead to a thousand-year honeymoon period where satan again is bound. Jesus will be on the earth, we'll not be in heaven, we will be here on the earth. Jesus will reign out of Jerusalem. Many believe that the Garden of Eden will be restored. There will be a sin free earth that Jesus reigns and he rules for a thousand years. As God does this for a short period of time, after this, the devil will be released once again. "He'll go and he'll deceive the nations," the Bible says. And then he'll be dealt with once and for all. He'll finally be bound and destroyed.
Number six, the sixth event is, "The Great White Throne judgement". Years ago, I preached a sermon on this subject. It was a good message, and I probably should do it again. It's that kind of a staple message I think for believers. But this is the event that will determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The white throne judgement is not for believers. Really, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you will never experience the white throne judgement. The white throne judgement is not a works judgement so at this judgement it's not going to be asked, "What was your church attendance like? How many people did you win to the Lord? What was your giving record like? What was your serving like"?
None of the things that maybe we think are gonna be brought up, are brought up at this judgement. The question will be a question of relationship. The question will be, "What did you do with my son? What did you do with the cross? What did you do with the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ? What did you do with it? Did you love him? Did you embrace the cross? Did you have Jesus as the priority relationship in your life"? That will be the number one question around this judgement is the question of relationship. "What did you do with Jesus"?
And when that question is asked there should be a very clear response in your heart immediately. I know what my answer will be to that question. I know what my answer will be to the father, and it will be clear that he is my Lord, and he is my friend. And I gave him my life, and I gave him everything. I gave him my heart. That is who he is to me. And that question determines where you spend eternity. What have you done with Jesus? You say, "What about when the Bible says, 'did you clothe me, and did you feed me, as you've done to the least of these you've done to me'"?
That is not dealt with at the white throne judgement. That is dealt with inside of another judgement called the bema judgment or the judgement seat of Christ. And that is where believers will be judged based upon their works. And this is not about heaven and hell, this is a reward judgement. This is where you and I will be rewarded for the things that we do for the kingdom on the earth. There will be a reward and I can promise you when you get to heaven you say, "Well, I'm not about works, so I could care less about works".
We're not talking about works to get saved. That's done, that's dealt with. That judgement is over. You're on your way to heaven. Now it comes time for God to look at your life and say, "After all I did for you. I gave you my son. I gave you the word. I gave you my spirit and I gave you all this stuff. I sent angels down to guard, protect you, look out, all this I did for you. Now, what did you do for me"? You won't wanna say, "Well, I just said it will be grace and so I just decided to do nothing for you".
That will not be the response you wanna have. You don't have to like me as your friend right now but take just a second and as a person that's in this room hear what I'm saying. You will want to have a response when Jesus says, "What did you do for me"? You will want to say, "I did something for you. I did something for your glory. I did something that was about more than me. I did something for the gospel's sake, and for the glory of God. I did something with my life". And there's a reward attached to that.