The Victory Party and Celebration of the Lamb is going to be the greatest cosmic event of all eternity. It will be attended by all the Saints, the Prophets, the Patriarchs, the Priests of the bible. You won’t want to miss this victory celebration. If you want to know how you get get an invite and RSVP, just listen to last week’s lesson.
What is the greatest celebration you have ever been to? Have you ever been to an election party? A New Years Celebration with a ball drop? A graduation party? A victory party? As hard as we try to imagine it, it is impossible to imagine the great celebration that is going to take place in Heaven at the blowing of this final seventh trumpet signaling the Victory Celebration of the Lamb. This will be the greatest cosmic event of all eternity. Our greatest and happiest moments here on earth will not compare to this joy to be had in heaven.
A couple of weeks ago we saw 3.5 days of celebration by the world when God’s Two Witnesses are killed by the beast. The entire world made merry and exchanged gifts in a great victory party because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. Their victory party like all things that are earthly was temporary and short lived. Our victory party will be an everlasting celebration without end.
With the blowing of the seventh trumpet we come to the end…again. Once again we stress that you cannot read Revelation in a time line fashion. It is more of a tapestry that you will see various pictures and scenes drawn out in an elaborate arrangement that you have to take in both individually and as a whole to see how all the chapters play into one another. You will see this again as we reach chapter 12 and begin to read about a spiritual warfare in the heaven that takes place between The Woman and The Dragon which has a timetable that stretches from an unknown beginning, we could say before Genesis one and extends past the Millennium with the judgment of the dead. If I was making a tapestry, I would make this portion the border and Christ the center because all the events center around The Lamb. That is one reason we did digress last week and talked about the centrality of The Gospel and the spiritual slumber that the state of Israel is in how she too will be waking up and saved through the Gospel.
Here in verse 15in chapter 11 we come to the great climax found in the middle of the book of Revelation with the blowing of the seventh trumpet. We just finished a brief pause and we are actually about to enter another brief pause starting with chapter 12 that will last until chapter 16 with the beginning of the pouring out of the 7 bowls of the wrath of God.
We covered a little bit of this passage already when I taught on Revelation chapter 11 as we talked about the comparison of the fall of the seemingly unsurmountable walls of ancient Babylon with the fall of unsurmountable walls of Old Testament Jericho and with the upcoming fall of the seemingly unsurmountable walls of the kingdom of this world that is soon to take place. In our passage tonight in verses 15-19 we are going to see great jubilation in heaven as the seventh trumpet is blown ushering in the long anticipated final coming of Kingdom of God after it has conquered the world.
15 Then 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 shall reign forever and ever.”
With the opening of the seventh trumpet we hear great voices in heaven saying:
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever!”
Isn’t that an awesome sentence? Won’t it be a wonderful reality to live in? Take a moment and just try to grasp the full concept of what this would mean or will mean because it is as sure to be as if it has already happened. “The kingdom of the world has become.” Even though it has not yet happened, the final 7 bowls of judgment have not yet been poured out, yet at the blowing of the seventh trumpet it is as good as done. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever!” That’s it. It is as sure of thing as if it has been done. Such is the power of the word of God. As in heaven, so on earth.
The whole dominion of the world comes into the possession of the royal power and kingship of Jesus Christ. God has always been sovereign over the world. This has always been a spiritual reality but now we see it also finally becoming a physical reality. This is the answer to our prayers, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” The great separation between heaven and earth, the physical and spiritual will be united once and for all. No more brokenness. No more temporariness. I love this truth. Don’t you?
Notice also, this is the third woe. The seven trumpets are broken up in a similar fashion to how the seals were broken up in a group of four and then three. The last three trumpets blasts are referred to as woe’s back in Revelation chapter eight:
Then I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”(Revelation 8:13)
The first woe from the fifth angel blowing his trumpet was a star falling from heaven to earth, and he was given a key to the bottomless pit which he opened, allowing a furnace of black smoke to rise up from its shaft darkening the sun and the moon with its thickness. Also coming out of the shaft of the bottomless pit were something like a swarm of demonic locusts that stung like scorpions. Instead of going after the green crops, devouring everything in sight, they went after people and stung them, tormenting them for 5 months. People sought death but were unable to die.
The sixth angel blows his trumpet and releases the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year to kill a third of mankind. In these two trumpet blasts we see demonic forces being released first to torture and then to kill a great number of mankind. But before the 2nd woe has passed we have mention of the two witnesses. You would think that the second woe would be immediately mentioned after the effects of the blowing of the sixth trumpet were mentioned, after the killing of a third of mankind, but the second woe having passed is not mentioned. Instead there is a delay, we see the giant angel with the tiny scroll that John eats, the bitter-sweet decree of God that is give to us in small portions to swallow and the command to prophesy about many peoples, nations and kings. Then we see God’s two witnesses granted authority for 1,260.00 days, 3.5 years. They have authority to shut up the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophecying, they have power over the waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. They are immortal until their time determined by God ends and God allows the beast to kill them. The entire world rejoices and throws a worldwide party that these two witnesses of God are dead and no longer able to torment them. Then after 3 and half days a breath of life from God entered into them and they came back to life and were called into heaven by God while their enemies watched. At that hour an earthquake occurs destroying a tenth of the city and seven thousand people die and God’s enemies give glory to God.
It is only after all this that in Revelation 11:14 it tells us the second woe has passed and the third woe is soon to come. The second woe includes all of Revelation 9:13 to Revelation 11:13. In the first woe, the earth dwellers were tormented by the locust like creatures and were unable to die, unable to escape their torment through death. In the second woe the people were tormented by the two witnesses and unable to escape the torment of the two witnesses who would not die. And then we come to the third woe which begins with the blowing of the seventh trumpet, but unlike the other two woes, there is no mention of it’s passing or of its being completed. Knowing what we know about the first two woes that they were filled with inescapable torment, what does this lead us to believe about this third and final woe? In a sense, it is like the opening of the seventh seal that contained three more judgments of God. Instead of bringing an end to God’s wrath, we find more wrath. Wrath, wrath, wrath. Wrath to the third degree, the highest degree. Here we see torment, torment, torment. Inescapable torment to the highest degree. Woe, Woe, Woe. Such is the future of all those who will not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, and all of those who will not repent of their murders or of their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Revelation 9:20-21)
Remember all of these trumpet blasts are like warnings, warning the people to repent, judgment is coming, but they would not. And so we come to the third and the final woe, the intense mournfulness, the intense misery from affliction, which is the coming of the kingdom of God. Sad how something so great can and will cause such misery to all those who buck God’s will. As we study this passage, we study with great jubilation, great celebration, it is a great celestial victory party, but for all those who did not vote for The Lamb, who did not submit to The Lamb, it is the third and final never ending woe as they face the wrath of The Lamb. This will be not their death here, on earth, but the second judgment, where they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night….the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murders, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 14:10-11, 21:8)
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever!”
This is a bitter-sweet truth. It is sweet as honey as we read it but once we digest it and the consequences of all those who make God their enemy, all those who deny him and disregard him, all those who are self-deceived, it turns our stomachs sour.
For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:32)
There really is only one response and that is to fall before the throne of God and to worship Him. Pray to him. Acknowledge that he is Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy to the third degree. Holy to the highest degree.
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
One great lesson the book of Revelation has already impressed upon me is our call to worship, how we were created to worship God. Every time we see these elders it seems they are falling on their faces before God in reverent worship and I can’t help but feel convicted that I don’t worship God like I should. That is something that I have been personally praying about and position that I have been personally trying to enter into a more reverent worship of God that would be more acceptable for someone of his greatness.
I finished a great book recently called The Purpose of Man- Designed to Worship by A.W. Tozer that really helped to dig this truth deep in my heart and left an impression on me. Here are a couple of quotes from it:
We are born to worship, and if we are not worshipping God in the beauty of His holiness, we have missed the reason for being born. “ – A.W. Tozer, The Purpose of Man. (pg. 118)
The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross that He might make His people worshippers of God. That is why we were born, that we might show forth the exellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. “He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.” And we see that purpose – worship – when it is all over and consummation has taken place and been fulfilled. The beasts, the elders and the creatures under the sea, above the earth, in the earth, and in the heavens are all crying aloud, “Holy, holy, holy to the Lord God Almighty, which was, and is and is to come.” The purpose of God is that He might redeem us, put us all in the heavenly choir and keep us there singing His praises and showing forth His excellencies while the ages roll. This is the purpose of God in redemption. – A.W. Tozer, The Purpose of Man. (pg. 168)
I have always loved that truth found in 1 Peter 2:9
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
What an amazing position we have in Christ to be living demonstrations of God’s excellencies! That is the great thing about Faith. It is a receiving grace. Faith waits on God’s open hand. Our every need is an opportunity for God to display the excellence of his richness. Our every weakness an opportunity for him to display the excellence of his great strength. Our every question an opportunity for him to pour into our lives his wisdom. Our every failure an opportunity for him to display his grace and mercy. Our every day an opportunity to show us the depth of his love. Our every trouble an opportunity for him to be shown as our helper, counselor and Savior. We have a most wonderful position in Christ in being created to worship him, made to proclaim his excellencies as God demonstrates his goodness towards us.
Once again in previous lessons we have determined that these elders are representatives of the church. So we see the church falling before God on their faces in worship. We see the twenty-four elders, these rulers wearing crowns, vacate their own thrones in order to fall on their faces before God in worship. There is no competition. No power struggle. No plots. Just pure joy and adoration doing what they were always created to do worship God and being what they were always created to be a Kingdom of Priests and Kings
Remember this is what the Lord was after in Exodus 19:5-6 with the kingdom of Israel when he said:
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”.
And this is what we saw in Revelation 5:10 during all the great cosmic crescendos between heaven and earths creatures, before the opening of the seven seals.
And he made us into our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.
I was thinking this week about all the battles we are seeing in regards to separation of church and state and this verse came to mind about the elders being both kings and priests. Wouldn’t the world hate that? It’s no wonder in a few verses down we see the nations rage. They do everything they can to keep God out of the government because they do not want to obey God. They do not want to be reminded of the ten commandments. They do not want the ten commandments in the courthouse. They are attempting to do everything they can to throw God out of their midst because they are a rebellious people. They don’t want anyone ruling over them and telling them what they can or cannot do or defining what is right or wrong for them.
It upsets me every time I hear people speak of freedom from religion instead of freedom of religion. It upsets me every time I hear of people being sued for praying in public or saying the name of Jesus or even just mentioning God and being sued. It has gone to ridiculous extremes in our country and unless we have a great revival I don’t know how it will turn back around.
One day we will have a united church and state and it won’t go bad like the Catholic Church who abused their authority or even like our own great county America who was founded by Christians and ruled by Christian principles but have now abused our freedom in gruesome indulgences of the flesh to follow the lusts of their hearts into sexual immorality and all manners of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. Filling ourselves with envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:29-33). Doesn’t this sadly sound like America today?
The Kingdom of Christ will not suffer a downfall as all the nations in the world have because it will not be ruled by sinful man who cannot handle great power, position, possessions and popularity without growing prideful. It will be ruled by Christ.
17 saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.
18 The nations raged,
but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Notice how the Twenty-four Elders address Lord God Almighty in their worship as “who is and who was” but not adding “who is to come” as at other times. For in this instance, he has came. It’s no longer a future anticipation but a living reality and the whole reason of the celebration.
Christ has come!! He has taken his great power and begun to reign. The Master of the House has returned home and for all those who have anxiously prepared and watched for him this is a cause of great celebration. But for all those wicked servants who did evil in his absence this is a time of reckoning.
Verse 18 says The nations raged. They were intensely angry. They behaved violently, as if in state of a great wrath. Remember Psalms 2?
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall breakthem with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
“The nations raged but your wrath came.”
The nations who slew the two witnesses, who opposed all God’s laws, who persecuted God’s people, who tried to destroy God’s church, raged but they raged in vain for the wrath of the Lamb had come. They plotted in vain. He will destroy them by the sword of his mouth. Once again we are reminded of Christ’s sovereign authority. There is a Great Day coming for us to still that has came in to pass in this passage when he will reign and “the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ.” The nations can rage but all those who oppose him and make him their enemy now will be destroyed by his wrath. But blessed are all those who take refuge in him.
“And the time for the dead to be judged”
There is a Great Judgment Day coming. We are also reminded that there is another Judge. A higher judge then all the judges of the earth before whom we all must appear and to give an account of the deeds done in the flesh. There is no escaping this Judge or this court date. For those who have Jesus Christ as their defense attorney there is no fear. We have already been judged. We have already plead guilty. Christ interceded on our behalf with his own righteousness and paid the penalty for our sins.
Those who appear without him will have no one to stand behind. The time to plead guilty is now while Christ offers you grace and forgiveness for all those who confess their sins and trust in him. There will be no opportunity to plead guilty later. There are too many people right now who would plead innocent before God and trust in their own righteousness, their own works, counting on comparing their cases to other cases they see going on around them. There will be no one found innocent before God on that Great Day beside Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who died for our sins. All else are guilty. You haven’t entered in your plea yet, plead guilty now.
“and for the rewarding of your servants, the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name both small and great.”
For those who have already plead guilty, for those who have committed themselves to being Christ’s servants, for the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name it will be a time of rewarding.
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. – Revelation 22:12
Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. – 2 John 1:8
1 Cor. 2:9 says, “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” God has a reward prepared for us in heaven that no thief can steel, no rust destroy and that will never perish. But we must be careful that we do not lose our reward for it can be lost. Remember the warning to the Church of Philadelphia, “Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” (Rev. 3:11) I imagine we would weep if weeping is possible in heaven to see the rewards we could have had if only we would have turned off the television. What’s keeping you from your reward?
“And for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
During wars, the earth always faces much destruction because of the forces of man who trample it down. Sometimes the devastation can be so great, that one wonders if the land will ever be the same again. Fields burned down. Forests destroyed. Trees and underbrush worn down from troops and tore down to build fires and bridges. Bombings. Gun fire that kills not only men but the livestock. War is ugly and war exists because man exists in his sinful nature. Sometimes it may seem that the earth has no one to defend its abuse. Sometimes people can take it to too far and make an idol out of the earth. We are to care for the earth but we are also to reign over it.
This is a time for destroying those who destroy the earth, all those who consume the earth. All those who work destruction and ruin on the earth will be destroyed. The earth is God’s creation, along with all the creatures he has given us reign over to tend and care for. Here is fair warning to us that it is right and good to care for all of God’s creation as we would care for our own bodies. The only person who has the right to destroy the earth or any part of creation is the Creator himself.
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. (Deut 10:14)
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple.
What do you think God was communicating to his people by revealing the ark of his covenant within his temple?
Once more we see heaven open wide and we seen another glimpse inside as the ark of the covenant is displayed. The ark of the covenant was a symbol of God’s covenant relationship with Israel and a testimony of his faithfulness. You will remember how they carried the ark of the covenant, a sacred chest into battles with them and how they stored different items within it that were mementos of God’s faithfulness and activity. The ten commandments. Manna. Aaron’s rod. All the other nations around them would carry around silver and gold images and idols. The Israelites had no images of God, no idols of God because no such image or idol made of gold, silver or wood could ever represent God appropriately. What was inside the ark represented reminders of what God had done. God is known for what he does. How he acts unlike the dead idols who cannot say or do anything. Our God is a living God and we know him by what he does.
As Christians, we have the spiritual fulfillment of the Israelites physical reality. This sacred chest, the ark of his covenant is very much inside our hearts. God’s presence goes with us wherever we go. In our hearts we carry around this sacred chest, that is filled with memories of how God has been faithful in our own lives. This gives us strength and courage whenever we face any battle or temptation.
There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
Once again as on Mt. Sinai we see flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and earthquake and heavy hail all symbolic of the presence and power of our Mighty God and his awful great wrath.
