Chapter 19 focuses on Jesus preparing to return. Then Jesus will return with His bride, which is His body made up of all the saints. These are the New Creations, who received the gospel of the truth as to be saved. They will come to execute judgement on those who are destroying the earth under the direction of Satan. At the end of Chapter 18 we saw the fall of the world's capital city, Tyre. In the last verse it says that in this city was found the blood of the prophets and the saints and of all who have been slain on the earth. The apostle John begins in verses 1-3 with this;
(1)"After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in
heaven, saying,
'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our
God;(2) because His Judgements are true and righteous;
for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the
earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood
of His bond-servants on her.'
(3) And a second time they said,
'Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.'
When we covered Chapter 6, we saw the seals opened up, which were a short snap shot, of what we have later read in an expanded version, of all that will take place in the last 7 years of this age. In verses 9-11, when the fifth seal was broken by Jesus, we saw this;
(9)" And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls
of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the
testimony they maintained;(10) and they cried out with a loud voice,saying,
'How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from
judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the
earth?'
(10) And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told
that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow
servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been,
should be complete also."
So before Jesus would come to execute His wrath, He would wait until the number of saints who were to be killed was complete. We see at the breaking of the sixth seal, in Chapter 6, the result of the destruction of the capital city, Tyre. It says this in verse 12;
"And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake;
and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon
became like blood.
Back in Chapter 16, verses 18 and 19, when the world capital city, Tyre, is destoyed as the seventh bowl of wrath is poured out, it said this;
(18)"And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and
there was such a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came
to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.(19) And
the great city [Tyre] was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.
And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of
His fierce wrath.
The prophet Isaiah wrote in his 24th Chapter, when he was descibing the destrution that would come upon the earth, this in verses 18-20;
(18)".................For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the
earth shake.(19) The earth is broken asunder, The earth is split through, The
earth is shaken violently,(20) The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, And it
totters like a shack, For its transgression is heavy upon it............................."
So we see the great city destroyed with an earthquke that is so big that all the cities of the world fall, and the smoke of her destuction, because of all the blood that is found in her, causes the moon to become like blood. Then back in Chapter 6, verse 14, right after this occurs, says this;
"And the sky split apart like a scroll and like a scroll when it is rolled up;
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places."
We saw from Isaiah, the windows of heaven open up. In Revelation Chapter 6, verse 14, John saw the sky split apart like a scroll. We will see in Revelation Chapter 19,verse 11, John sees heaven opened. This is when Jesus returns with His saints to execute His wrath. The sky will slit open. The veil that seperates this earthly realm from the spiritual realm will split open. This will cause the great earthquake. Those who are left on the earth, because they refused to believe the truth as to be saved, will see Jesus coming in the clouds with His saints to execute His wrath. In Chapter 6, verses 15-17, John sees this after the sky splits apart like a scroll;
(15)"And the Kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and
the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the
caves andamong the rocks of the mountains;(16) and they said to the mountains
and the rocks,
'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on
the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;(17) for the great
day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?'
John continues Chapter 19 with this in verses 5-7;
(5)'' And a voice from the throne, saying;
'Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who
fear Him, the small and the great.'
(6) And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of
many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying;
'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God , the Almighty, reigns.'
(7)"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of
the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."
What John Is seeing here is what he wrote about in Chapter 10, verses 5-7;
(5)"and the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up
his right hand to heaven,(6) and swore by Him who lives forever and ever,
who created heaven and the the things in it, and the earth and the things in
it, and the sea and the things in it, that there shall be delay no longer,(7) but
in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then
the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets."
The mystery of God is what it has been all about. It is finished when the saints are tranformed into their new glorified bodies, the new creations, that are able to enter the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians in Chapter 5, verses 25- 27, this about the church His bride;
(25)"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and
gave Himself for her;(26) that He might sanctify her, having clensed her by
the washing of water with the word,(27) that He might present to Himself the
church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that
she should be holy and blameless."
The bride, the church, the body of Jesus, will make herself ready by shedding the earthly body when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet as the apostle Paul wrote about in his First letter to the Corinthians in the 15th Chapter, verses 49-54;
(49)"And just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly.(50) Now I say this brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable.(51) Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shal not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed,(52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we shall be changed.(53) For this perishable must put on the imperishable,
and this mortal must put on immortality.(54) But when the perishable will
put on the imperishable, and the mortal will have put on immortallity, then
will come about the saying that is written, 'Death is swollowed up in victory."
Paul again writes in his first letter to the Thessalonians Chapter 4, verses13-18;
(13)"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who
have fallen asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.
(14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring
with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.(15) For this we say to you
by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming
of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.(16) for the Lord
Himself will decend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise
first.(17) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be
with the Lord.(18) Therefore comfort one another with these word."
John continues in Revelation Chapter 19, verse 8;
(8)"And it was given to her to cloth herself in fine linen, bright and clean;
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
The righteous acts of the saints are probably 90% just one thing, and that is the act of receiving what Jesus did for all of us when He died on the cross for our sin. He washed our sin away with His own blood, and kept us clensed with His word. Through His resurrection we can be born of above, born of the Spirit that raised Him from the dead, giving us eternal life. There is only one sin that will keep someone out of the kingdom of God, and that is blasphmie of the Holy Spirit. By refusing the drawing of His Spirit and saying I don't want you Jesus, it is telling the Creator, "Jesus you're not good enough for me." This is what is known as the only unpardonable sin. You chose you fate.
John continues in Chapter 19, verse 9 and 10;
(9)"And d to me ,'Write , Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage
supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are true words of God.'
(10) And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said to me, "I am a fellow
servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship
God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
John fell to worship the one who was talking to him. He had to think that this was some kind of heavenly being. The one who was talking to John is one of his fellow saints in their gloified state, as he was seeing heaven after the resurrection. After that John knew what was in store for him.
Jesus' peace and understanding be with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment