Wednesday Evening | Pastor John Tilley Jr | Revelation

But go ahead and take your Bibles, go

with me to Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

And uh

we are right near the end of the book of

Revelation. We've been in Revelation for

a while. We've been in Revelation, I

think, for a year and a half. Um

obviously not every Wednesday night.

We've taken some breaks, but for a year

and a half we've been in the book of

Revelation.

And we have looked at the entire book.

We're down to chapter 21 is where where

we are in our study. We've got chapter

21 and chapter 22 to go. Chapter 21 and

chapter 22 are the eternal state. It's

the the God's final conclusion, how

things will end. Uh it is eternity.

Where will we spend eternity? That's

chapter 21 and chapter 22.

Because tonight lands where it lands and

next week will be uh with Vacation Bible

School, I did not want to start chapter

21 and 22 until we could we could look

at them together without taking a break.

Uh and so I want to be able to to go

through them in consecutive Wednesday

nights so that uh I think they deserve

that. They go together well.

And uh so after Vacation Bible School,

we're going to pick right back up here

in chapter 21. We're going to look at uh

eternity. We're going to look at the new

heaven, the new earth, the new

Jerusalem. It's all going to be it's

going to be wonderful. And uh it is

really the the highlight of the book of

Revelation is the new heaven, the new

earth, God's final conclusion. What is

God's final plan for uh uh Christians?

And uh so we're going to we're going to

do that not not next Wednesday, but the

Wednesday after. And we'll look at

chapter 21 and chapter 22. May take us a

couple weeks to get through both of

them. Uh but I'm looking forward to it.

So So make a note of that and read them

and then come prepared to study those in

a couple of weeks. But tonight

what I thought would be appropriate for

us to do, I've mentioned that I was

going to do this a couple of times. And

uh and so I've got it ready for you

tonight. And so what I thought we would

do is I want to give you the big picture

of the book of Revelation. Because the

book of Revelation is so controversial,

it there is so much going on in the book

of Revelation. Sometimes, and even as

we've been preaching through it, maybe

you felt like this at times, that as

we've been going through the book, you

understand better that passage, but you

don't understand better how that passage

fits into the whole book. You know,

okay, I understand what this passage is

saying, but I've forgotten where we are

in the whole timeline. I don't even know

what's going Where does this fit at? So,

tonight, I want us to take a look at

this. Can everybody see that okay? I'm

going to walk right through it with you

tonight, and I'm going to give you the

big picture of the book of Revelation,

and just remind you of this, and then if

you would like a copy of this timeline

that we're going to look at tonight,

then we can make that available to you,

and you can put it in the book of

Revelation in your Bible, and the next

time you read it, you'll have the

timeline, and you can keep track of

what's going on. So, when we come to the

book of Revelation, remember, Revelation

1, John is on the Isle of Patmos.

They've tried to kill him, they've tried

to boil him alive in oil, they've tried

to silence him, they cannot kill him,

they cannot silence him, so they exile

him, they send him off by himself on the

Isle of Patmos,

and just to live out the rest of his

days. And by the way, when God has a job

for somebody, the devil can't kill him.

Amen? When God had a job, God had a

message for John, that is the book of

Revelation, and so they could not get

rid of him because God was not done with

him. The safest place that you and I can

be is in the will of God, and as long as

God has a purpose for our life, you are

untouchable to Satan. Isn't that a

comfort to know? And so, there goes John

off to the Isle of Patmos, and the Bible

says in chapter 1 that he it was on the

Lord's day, he was in the spirit on the

Lord's day, and I think we all ought to

be in the spirit on the Lord's day.

Amen? It's okay to enjoy the presence of

the Lord on the Lord's day. Well, it was

Sunday, there was no church on the Isle

of Patmos, but John was on the Isle of

Patmos. He could not go to a a a church

like we would think of, and so in the

spirit on the Lord's day, I pictured

John as he's just going to get alone and

find a quiet spot and spend some time

with the Lord. And he did not know what

was about to transpire because as John

sat there on the Isle of Patmos on that

rock, looking up at the sky, enjoying

the presence of the Lord, perhaps he was

quoting some scripture to himself. He's

just

resting in God's presence. All of a

sudden, the sky opens and Jesus Christ

himself steps forth and gives John a

vision. And he says, "John, pick up your

pen, pick up your paper. I've got

something I want you to write down. I

want you to write down three things.

This is in chapter 1. This is the

outline of the book." He said, "I want

you to write the things which have been,

the past." He said, "I want you to write

the things which are, that's the

present. And I want you to write the

things which shall be hereafter." That's

the future. God steps out and says,

"John, get your quill, get your

parchment. It's time to write. Write the

things that have been." Now, we know

this, chapter 1 is the things that have

been. Remember the outline I gave you at

the beginning. Chapter 1 is all about

the Christ, the things which have been.

Jesus Christ and John's writing in AD

95. Jesus Christ is already come as a

baby. He lived his life. He was

crucified on the cross. He was buried.

He rose again for 3 days, and he has

ascended into heaven. And Jesus has been

in heaven for years. The church has

began. Acts, the book of Acts, has

transpired. And so now

where we are in history, and John

Jesus is telling John, "Write the things

that has been." What is that? That's

Revelation chapter 1, and it's all about

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

Jesus Christ. If you want to know what

Jesus is like, go read Revelation

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. Then he said, "Write the

things which are." What are What What is

happening at that very time? Well, in

1895, all the way until present day, is

what we call the church age. It is the

church. And Revelation chapter 2 and

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

Revelation chapter 3 is all about the

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

church. There are seven letters written

to seven real, literal churches. And God

says, "This is my message to the

church." And each one of those message

messages have passed through time and

are applicable to every church that has

ever existed. So, we have chapter 1, the

things which has been, that's the

Christ. Chapter 2 and 3, the things

which are, that's the church. And then,

the rest of the book, chapter 4 all the

way to chapter 22, we see the

consummation. That's the things which

shall be hereafter. This is God's

message on how this whole thing ends.

And aren't you glad tonight to know that

God is the one who has written the

ending. Donald Trump didn't write the

ending. Iran hasn't written the ending.

No one is in control outside of Jesus

Christ allowing them to have some

control. Jesus is in control. He knows

how this thing's going to end. He has

written it down for you and I. There is

an ending. There is a conclusion to all

of this, and Jesus is in charge of when

and how that will take place. That ought

to bring some comfort tonight. Amen?

That That this world is not my home, but

Jesus is in charge. And when he says

that the time is right, when God the

Father nudges Jesus Christ and says, "Go

get your bride." then it's all going to

start happening very quickly. And so,

that's the big picture. That's the

outline of Revelation. Chapter 1 is the

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

Christ. Chapter 2 and 3 is the church.

Chapter 4 through chapter 22, the

consummation. Now, within chapter 4

through chapter 22, there are a lot of

things that take place. And that's what

I want to take just a little time on

tonight and break it down just a little

bit farther for you by looking at this

outline. All right?

So, chapter one is all about the the

Christ and we see here we start with

Jesus' resurrection from the dead. So,

we go all the way back to the

resurrection of Jesus Christ. He's

resurrected after 3 days in the in the

grave. 40 days after his resurrection,

he ascends up into heaven. You remember

the story. He rises up on a cloud and

and the disciples are standing there

with their mouths open saying, "What in

the world did we just see?" And an angel

appears and says, "Why stand you here

gazing up into heaven? And like as you

have seen him go, he shall return in

like manner." What are they saying?

"Hey, he's coming back. Don't worry.

This isn't the end. This isn't the last

you've seen of him." And so, Jesus

ascends. We know what happens shortly

after that. In the book of Acts, the

church is born. The Holy Spirit comes

down and fills Peter on the day of

Pentecost. 3,000 people are saved and

baptized and and it's a wonderful

wonderful thing. And then we enter the

church age. So, then we come to the book

of Revelation. Chapter one is all about

Jesus Christ. Chapter two and three is

all about the church. So, you see it

there. Chapter one through three, we can

just summarize that as the church age.

By the way, that's where you and I are

right now. That's where the the God's

timeline of events, that's where we are.

We're in Revelation chapter one through

three. We are in what is called the

church age. That's where we live right

now. After that though, in Revelation

chapter four and verse number one, the

church goes up. The next thing to happen

on God's timetable is the rapture of the

church. We're not looking for the

Antichrist. We're not looking for the

false prophet. We're not looking for the

mark of the beast. You and I as

Christians are looking for the trumpet

to sound, Jesus Christ to descend on a

cloud and call us up together. Paul

wrote about it in Thessalonians. He said

that the trump will sound. The dead in

Christ will rise first and you and I

which are alive and remain will be

called up together with them in the air

and will meet the Lord in the air. Now,

this is not the rapture of the church,

is not the second coming of Jesus

Christ. Don't confuse those two. Second

coming of Jesus Christ is going to

happen way on down the timeline. The

rapture of the church, Jesus Christ

doesn't set foot on earth. He comes back

in the cloud and we go meet him in the

air. But the second coming of Christ, he

will set foot on earth. All right, so

don't confuse those. Chapter 4, rapture

of the church, we go up. Revelation

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 and 5 is a beautiful beautiful

picture of the church of Jesus Christ.

It's called the 24 elders. If you go

back and and read it again, pay

attention to the the phrase the 24

elders. That is the church. And we're

gathered on a sea of glass around the

throne of God casting crowns at his

feet. It is a beautiful worship service.

Um we're going to have the marriage

supper of the lamb in this time. Uh the

bema seat, the judgment seat of Christ

will take place at this time. Revelation

4 and 5, beautiful picture of what's

taking place when you and I go up to

heaven. But what's happening on earth?

Well, in heaven it's the greatest

worship service of all time. But on

earth, it's quite different because when

the church goes up, the judgments begin

to come down. And beginning in

Revelation chapter 6 all the way through

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

Revelation chapter 18, the largest chunk

Revelation 18 · chapter mention

of the book, uh John receives visions of

the seven-year tribulation period. And

we spent the majority of our time

walking through this section of the

book. And we were looking at all of

these different judgments that are going

to come. Seven vial judgments and seven

trumpet judgments and all of these

groups of judgments that will take place

over this seven-year period, Revelation

6 through Revelation 18.

That's going to that it's it's a lot of

chapters in the Bible, but it's only 7

years, right?

3 and 1/2 years, uh the abomination of

desolation takes place. 3 and 1/2 more

years, and what happens then? What

happens at the end of the tribulation

period? Revelation 19 takes place. What

happens in Revelation 19? It's the

second coming of Jesus Christ. At the

end of the tribulation period, Satan is

going to gather this great army

together.

Satan, the false prophet, the

Antichrist, they've all been active up

to this point. They're all going to

gather this large army together. They're

going to be waiting in the valley there

in outside Jerusalem, and they're

anticipating a great battle against

Jesus Christ. Well, you and I, we've

been in heaven for the last 7 years.

We've been enjoying, worshipping like

we've never worshipped before, but now

it's time to go to battle. King Jesus

will get on his white horse, and he'll

begin to ride out of heaven. You can

read about it in Revelation 19. Jesus

will begin to ride out of heaven, and

you and I will be riding behind him on

white horses. And we'll be coming down.

It'll be a thunderous sound as those

horses ride down out of heaven. I don't

know how that's going to work exactly,

but God's bigger enough to make it

happen. Amen. And so, here we come,

riding behind King Jesus. And the devil

anticipates a great battle, but there

will be no battle whatsoever, because

the Bible says that at the word of Jesus

Christ, they will be completely

defeated. The massive army, the largest

army in the history of the world, will

be immediately defeated as if it was

nothing at just the word of Jesus

Christ. It'll go forth as a sword out of

his mouth, and it will defeat Satan and

all of his armies. The Antichrist and

the false prophet By the way, this is

called that battle, that moment is

called the Battle of Armageddon.

That's the first battle.

The Battle of Armageddon.

The false prophet and the Antichrist are

bound up, and they're thrown into the

lake of fire. We're coming back to that

spot, so don't forget about it. Satan,

however, is put somewhere different. He

is bound up and cast into what is called

the bottomless pit.

And Jesus Christ, and you and I ride

into Jerusalem on our white horses, and

King Jesus sets up his kingdom. And it's

called the millennial kingdom. That's

Revelation chapter 20, the thousand-year

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

millennial reign of Christ is the first

six verses of Revelation chapter 20. You

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

and I, as children of God, we get to

rule and reign with Christ for 1,000

years. He rules and reigns from

Jerusalem, and he has this great

kingdom, and and the Bible speaks of it

and details it for us in Revelation

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

chapter 20, those first few verses. And

it's a wonderful, wonderful kingdom.

Well, what happens at the end of that

thousand-year reign of Christ? Satan,

remember, he was not put into the lake

of fire, which is a place of everlasting

torment. He was placed instead into the

bottomless pit. There's a reason for

that, because at the end of the thousand

years, Satan is going to be drawn out of

the bottomless pit for a period of time.

And for a

We don't know how many years, but for a

period of time, he's going to be able to

roam the earth again, and guess what

he's going to do. He is once again going

to gather a massive army together, and

once again, he's going to gather them

around the city of Jerusalem,

and they are going to prepare to fight

against God.

And so now we have We've already seen

the battle of Armageddon. This one is

called the battle of Gog and Magog.

They'll surround the city of Jerusalem,

anticipating once again a great battle.

Satan will once again think that he is

going to win this thing, and uh this

time, Jesus Christ doesn't uh doesn't do

anything, but God sends fire from heaven

and consumes them in a moment. There's

no battle at all this time, either. Fire

falls from heaven, like in the days of

Elijah, I assume, and and it consumes

the army. Satan is then bound up and

cast this time into the lake of fire,

which is everlasting torment. He joins

the false prophet, he joins the

Antichrist, and uh they are forever in

the lake of fire, never to be released

again. Satan is completely defeated.

That's the final judgment of Satan.

That's in Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

What happens to all of the sinners

though?

Well, people who have died without Jesus

Christ, who have rejected Christ and

have died, they're all in a very real

place called hell up to this point in

our in our timeline.

In Revelation chapter 20, the Bible says

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

that God takes forth all of those that

are in hell, all of those who have died

without Christ, and he brings them to

what is called the great white throne

judgment. We talked about this last week

in some detail, remember? The great

white throne judgment. There we see uh

the bench in Revelation 20, this great

judicial bench where King Jesus is

seated on a great throne because of his

power in a white throne because of his

purity. And he's seated there on the

throne, and it is the final judgment of

the lost.

And they will stand before a righteous

and a just and a holy uh holy uh God,

and he will uh drop the gavel of God's

wrath on every person who died without

Jesus Christ.

And when they stand before him, he will

take the book of life, and if their name

is not found in the book of life, then

they will be cast into the lake of fire,

which is everlasting torment. And

they're never to be released. They will

spend eternity forever and ever and ever

burning in the lake of fire with the

devil, the false prophet, the

antichrist, never to be released again.

And so, this is the final judgment of

sinners. So, as we go through the

timeline, we see that Jesus is working

all of this out, right? He's giving

everyone a fair chance to accept him.

Everyone gets ample opportunity to

accept him.

Those who refuse him over and over and

over will be judged for their rejection

of Jesus, and they will spend in in the

lake of fire. But what comes after the

lake of fire?

Well, Revelation 20 ends. We go into

Revelation 21 and 22. What happened to

you and I through all of this? Well, we

were there at the 1,000-year reign of

Christ, and now where are we? Where do

we go? Well, God in Revelation chapter

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

21 and 22 is going to build a new heaven

and a new earth and our eternal state.

This is called our eternal state. Where

will we spend eternity? We will spend

eternity forever and ever and ever

living in the new heaven and the new

earth in the presence of Jesus Christ. I

don't know exactly what that's going to

look like, but it's going to be the

greatest thing ever. It will be even

better than the 1,000-year reign of

Christ. It will be even better than the

millennial reign of Christ. It will be

an eternal state where we get to enjoy

the presence of God without any kind of

hindrance, any kind of distraction, any

kind of temptation, any kind of

sinfulness. You and I will have a new

body at that time. Our old sinful will

be done away with. It's going to be a

glorious, glorious state. And that's

what we're going to talk about in a

couple weeks when we come back to the

book of Revelation. So, here's the

timeline. This is the big picture of the

book. Here's what I want to do, and then

we're going to pray. But, real quickly,

as you look at this, as I talked through

all of this, is does anyone have a

question that you think it would be

helpful to hear this as a class tonight?

Anyone have a question about the

timeline, about the events of

Revelation, about how all this plays

out?

Anyone at all?

If not, that's fine. I just thought I'd

give you an opportunity to do it.

All right.

Don't be confused by the book of

Revelation. It is a glorious, glorious

book. And you remember where we started

all of this, that there's a blessing in

the book of Revelation for the believer.

And I hope that this book is a blessing

to you. It ought to encourage your

spirit to know that God has an ending,

and it ought to motivate your spirit to

know that the ending for evil is very

bad. And so, we've got to get the gospel

to as many people as we can before our

time runs out so that they do not have

to end spend eternity in the lake of

fire. All right?

Here's what we're going to do tonight.

Uh Vacation Bible School is coming and

right around the corner. And so, what I

want us to do tonight is take a few

moments and I want us just to pray for

Vacation Bible School. And I want you to

pray specifically for it. Uh pray for a

few things.

Uh pray first of all for safety. Would

you pray that God would keep us safe

anytime that you have a bunch of of

stuff going on.

And we do. This is a busy, busy week.

We'll have bounce houses up. Kids will

be bouncing and having fun. Cars will be

coming in and out. There's going to be

traffic and it's going to be it's going

to be a lot of energy and a lot of fun.

With that, obviously, comes some risk.

Um and so, would you pray for safety?

Pray that the Lord would keep every

child safe, that there would be no

accidents, no broken bones, not even a

bloody nose the whole week, that God

would just keep everyone safe. And uh

pray pray for safety. And then, would

you pray second for good weather? Seems

like every year we have rain, and it

tries to rain every single year. And uh

would you just pray that the Lord would

give us good weather? Also, recently,

I'm sure you've seen in the news about

the the tent that got blown over in

Moneta. And uh

the big church event, they had a

thousand people under the tent. The tent

blew over. They didn't expect it. Came

out of nowhere. And uh actually was on

the phone with one of the pastors at

that church yesterday for quite a while.

And uh he said that never saw it coming.

They they had no idea. There was not a

cloud in the sky. There wasn't a breeze

at all. And it just out of nowhere took

the tent down. A terrible tragedy. Uh

pray that that doesn't happen. Pray that

the Lord would protect us from that.

We've got these big bounce houses up

here. If a gust of wind like that were

to come across this hill with those

bounce houses out there, we could make a

mess really fast or even worse someone

get injured. And so, just pray that the

Lord protects us from the weather, that

it stays calm, it stays pretty, and uh

that we don't have no incidents uh in

that way at all. And then third, pray

for children to hear and receive the

gospel.

Um this is the ultimate prayer request.

Uh it's worth it all. Uh it's worth

everything that we do if if one child

will receive Jesus Christ as their

savior. And so, we're praying that we'll

have a bunch of kids.

Uh I don't know how many kids God's

going to send us. I'm praying for a

hundred, but I don't have I

I'm a I guess I'm of little faith. I

don't know how we're going to handle a

hundred. So, I'm praying for a hundred,

but I'm also praying God, your will be

done. Give us what we can handle. And uh

but I would love to see a hundred kids

in here. That would just be incredible

and give them the gospel and uh watch

what God will do. And so, pray Would you

pray just three things? Pray for those

three specific requests. Pray that the

Lord would keep us safe, that the

weather would cooperate, and that we

would see many many children hear and

receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, and

that'll make it all worth it. And then

if you wanted to add one more prayer

request, just a tag on, pray that the

Lord gives our team of people enough

energy to to get through the whole week.

All right? It's going to be a long week

and a lot of kids

um and and it's go go go and we don't

finish. I mean, we're done here at 8:30,

but the kids aren't gone until 9:00 and

then we have a brief meeting. And and if

you're helping, it's going to be a late

night Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

Friday. A lot of late nights. And so,

pray that the Lord would help us to get

plenty of rest, to have plenty of

strength, and uh that we'd be able to

finish the week out strong.

All right? Here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to let you pray right there

where you're at. And I'm going to lead

us in prayer, but I don't want you just

to listen to me. I want you to take a

moment and pray over those four things.

Ask God to bless in this coming week of

Vacation Bible School.

Heavenly Father,

we're so grateful, Lord, to be able to

have