Bible Guys Classics: Revelation - Christ's Return

So for anybody listening that's my age or older, they

know this. He Johnny. All we gotta do is change

it to Jesus because we're talking about the second Coming.

So he Jesus.

Yep, he's coming back. So he's Chris and I'm Jeff

and we're the Bible guys. I think it's going to

be way better when Jesus shows up than when Johnny

Carson shows up.

Yeah.

By the way, I feel obligated to tell our listeners

who said who said that? Here's what was his name?

Art? No, no, no, no, no, I can't.

Remember Ed McMahon, Ed McMahon, I want to say Art

link letter And as soon as I started saying, that's

not the right name, but Ed McMahon.

Uh. So today we're going to start out with this

is hilarious. So the segment is called who said It?

And it's saying that you will read five lines from

the Bible. So they're all from the.

Bible of from the Bible. But I have to say who, and.

You have to say who. You have to guess who

said it. But get this, for some reason, I don't

know why, but she chose all five King James version

quotes oh.

Good, good, Okay, that'll help.

It'll help because you memorize that King James version. That's

so funny. Okay, So this first one should be pretty easy.

Let me die with the Philistines, uh Sampson. Yes, that's

in Judges chapter sixteen. Yeah, this next one is super easy.

I think you'll get it. Oh that's a lot of pressure.

Yeah, I know it's a lot of pressure.

But it's very clear who said this. Okay, ready, what

is truth?

That's pilot, Yes, punch, just pilot.

That's in John eighteen. Now this one is not so easy.

Okay.

So this one again old English version. Nobody talks this

way anymore. But here comes why hast thou conceived this

thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,

but unto God.

That's Peter talking to Anonias and Sapphira.

Yes, good job, Act chapter five. Okay, And then this

one is here we go? Wherefore I take you to

record this day that I am pure from the blood

of all men. That's hard. I would I would not

have guessed this. I would have gotten all three of those.

I would not have gotten this to record.

I sort of read it weird, weird, because it's a

weird version. Wherefore I take you to record this day

that I am pure from the blood of all men.

Oh, dude, I don't know.

Uh, David, it's a great Yes, Paul apparently apostle man.

I almost said Paul, and I'm not joking.

Well, he's a good guess. He's most of the New Testament,

but acts chapter twenty.

Wow, apparently.

Okay, so toward the end of his life, I guess

I don't know what he meant by that.

You'd have to have to look it up.

I have to look it up. And then finally, here's

the last one. I think you'll get it.

Uh.

It's small, but I think it's pretty distinguished. Speak for

the servant hereth Samuel. Yes, there you go. Yeah, first

Samuel chapter three. He was in the temple. Yeah, and

he was responding to God.

And I should have gone with my gut on the

Paul thing, and it would have been five or five.

Yeah.

Well, that's all right, you know what, we're all human, yes,

and if I can, if I can help prove that

on occasion, that's good.

If I can help prove that occasion.

Man, are so much pressure, yeah, yeah, a lot of pressure.

So we kind of have this thing going. What made

Chris mad?

Yes?

And then usually it's let's ask Jeff the Bible, the

obscure Bible verse questions like that, who said this?

Or asked Chris about movies?

Yeah, yeah, Chris's movies, guy, Yeah, yeah.

So Jeff knows the Bible, Chris knows the movies.

I don't think that's the point she's trying to make.

Yeah. I think what she's doing is she she knows

that you have a greater knowledge of you just do

you just have more knowledge of especially obscure scriptures, right,

And I have a wealth of knowledge of things that

don't matter.

Something matter, you know what. So storytelling is such an

important part of speaking and preaching and making connections. Jesus

would say, hey, let me tell you about the Kingdom heaven,

and then he tell you about a farmer. I'm gonna

say about the Kingdom heaven. He talked about sheep. Let

me tell you about the king of heaven. He talked

about some guy who gets robbed. Right, who's my name?

Right?

And so storytelling is so important with regard to connecting

heavenly things to the earthly mind. Right, And so the

skill set that you have is brilliant and.

Well, thank you. But and every time we plan a

service on a Sunday morning or a holiday service, that's

exactly what we do. Yeah, we create artistic elements to

tell a story. Yeah, all of it's.

Perfectly designed to do what you do, perfectly designed. So

we are in revelation, well, we're in prophecy, the end

times kind of stuff. So we're bouncing around the New

Testament and with different references to the end Times. But

here we're going to hang out a little bit today

in the Book of Revelation. I think it's all the

Book of Revelation. It is, it is, and we're kind

of now talking about some of the characters and the

events that happen.

Yeah, well, because this is a Monday, and people may

just be tuning in the last five days, the last

five podcasts we covered, you know, a lot of revelation,

and this is the book that we're not necessarily going

through chapter by chapter. But what we're doing is we're

doing a broad overview in broad strokes and saying here's

the main players, here's the main events. And we don't

claim to be you know, theologians or professors, right, were

the Bible guys who like to talk about the Bible,

and hopefully this is a way that people can understand

the Book of Revelation and be interested and then have

it apply. Yeah.

Yeah, So we're going to jump right into it.

We've got a lot to cover, yep, And just kind

of a warning for this week. This is the week

when everything goes sideways and gets really crazy, right right,

So last week we kind of established.

It's the last three and a half years.

Of tribu so we're kind of established. But hey, we

read the back of the book. Hang in till Friday,

Jesus winds. That's how it works out. But so let's

just start in Revelation chapter fourteen, and it says, then

I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him,

we're one hundred and forty four thousand who had his

name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And

I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of

mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder. It

was like the sound of many harpists playing together. This

great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of

the throne God. And before the four living beings and

the twenty four Elders. No one could learn this song

except the one hundred and forty four thousand whod been redeemed

from the earth. They've kept themselves as pure as virgins,

following the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been purchased

from among the people on the earth as a special

offering to God and to the Lamb. They have told

no lies. They're without blame. Jump in first and say

the description of who they are. You know, there's no

human that has never sinned with regard to alle right, right,

So this is the generality of who they are. This

isn't that they're perfect and sinless. The same thing with

the idea kept themselves pure as virgins. In the Old Testament,

prophets would often accuse God's people of committing adultery spiritually

by worshiping other gods. And so we know that through

up to this point chapter fourteen, the whole world has

been tempted, and the world other than those that are

following God have turned to worship the beasts, right, And

so they've worshiped other gods. And so it doesn't have

to be that they're virgins, but rather pure as virgins,

is what he's saying, meaning I believe what it's saying

is that they didn't cheat on God with the beast, and.

Didn't Jesus use virgins as as an illustration as well? Yes,

so yeah, it's the same thing.

So I think the big question is who are these

and one hundred and forty four thousand?

Right, there are some people who make a really big

deal about.

It, Jehovah's witnesses, to say that they're Jehovah's witnesses, right,

But it's just not that's not how the Bible spells

it out.

A billion people on the planet and they want to

be a part of the elite, the.

One hundred and forty four thousand.

Yeah, the problem is there's millions of JW's So that's

what's weird about it. But yea yeah, So anyways, let's go.

Revelation chapter seven spells out who these hundred and forty

four thousand are. Yep, So he says, then I saw

four angels standing at the four corners of Earth, holding

back the four winds, so they did not blow on

the earth or the sea, or even in any tree.

And I saw another angel coming up from the east

carrying the seal of the Living God. And he shouted

those four angels who had been given power to harm land,

and see, wait, don't harm the land or the sea

or the trees until we've placed the seal of God

on the foreheads of his servants. And I heard how

many were marked with the seal of God. One hundred

and forty four thousand were sealed from all the tribes

of Israel. Then it names the twelve tribes of Israel

Asher twelve thousand, Naptalia twelve thousand, Manassa twelve thousand, Simion

twelve thousand, Levia twelve thousand, Isakar twelve thousand, Zebulun twelve thousand,

Joseph twelve thousand, Benjamin twelve thousand. After this, I saw

a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation

and tribe and people and language, standing in front of

the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in

white robes and held palm branches in their hands, and

they were shouting with a great roar, Salvation comes to

our God, from our God who sits on the throne,

and from the Lamb. And all the angels were standing

around the throne and around the elders and the four

living beings. And they fell before the throne with their

faces to the ground and worshiped God. And they sang Amen,

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and

power and strength belonged to our God forever and ever.

Amen.

Then one of the twenty four elders asked me, who

are these who are clothed with white? Where did they

come from? And I said, sir, you're the one who knows.

Then he said to them, It said to me, these

are the ones who died in the Great Tribulation. They've

washed their robes and the blood of the Lamb and

made them white. That is why they stand in front

of God's thrown and serve him day and night in

his temple. And He who sits on the throne will

give them shelter. They will never again be hungry or thirsty.

They'll never be scorched by the heat of the sun.

For the Lamb on the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will lead them to springs of life giving water.

And God will wipe every tear from their eyes. So

it says that these one hundred and forty four thousand

ultimately represent a multitude that can't be counted. So these

hundred and forty four thousand from the twelve tribes are

out leading this uncountable number of people, and they are

they are the martyrs that die who reject the Beast

or the Antichrist and are martyred because of it.

Yeah, and so again, the tribulation lasts years. So if

you're a person who believes like we sort of, you know,

we lean toward the rapture being pre tribulation. So even

though that there's theories of you know, mid tribulation or

post tribulation. So I believe that I think that evidence

points to that. So I think that, you know, those

of us who already know Christ won't have to be

worried about being in one hundred and forty four thousand,

and according to what I understand, I think that it's

the people who have converted, who decide to repent, who turn,

who've changed their mind all of a sudden, that's right,

And all of a sudden, now they are now rejecting

the Beast, and everything is made clear to them.

And there's a lot of ways that you can look

at that. Remember when we talked last week about how

important numbers are. Yes, see right, they're very symbolic a

lot of times, especially in the book Revelation. So the

number twelve is a number of completeness, and so twelve

thousand times twelve equals infinity, right, Well, one hundred and.

Forty four thousand and so or infinity.

I guess what I'm saying is it's the complete number

of the followers of God. I really believe that's what's

talking about. It doesn't have to be just the one

hundred and forty four thousand. And that's why that passage

references this. After he sees the one hundred and forty

four thousand, he sees this massive multitude from all around

the world before the throne of God, and it's I

believe it's the completeness of the followers. But they seem

to be the majority of them from Israel. Yeah, they're

Jewish people who finally turn to the Messiah after the

tribulation has begun. That seems to be it.

I don't know.

I don't know for sure, but you know, there's a

lot of different opinions.

Well, you know, I made a joke about infinity. But

remember when Peter asked Jesus how many times you should forgive?

And he said, should I forgive up to seven times?

Do you remember what Jesus said?

He said seven seventy times seven right now.

He wasn't literally saying stop at four hundred and ninety

one times, right right right, the four hundred and ninety

five time, then you can say, I don't forgive you.

It was infinity. He was saying, No, it's not seven times,

it's seventy times seven. He's referring to the fact that

it's unlimited because you're not going to forgive somebody else.

Seven is the number of God. So forgive like God forgives.

Yeah, that's right, that's right. So numbers are significant, and

there's it's no mistake that things. You know, when it

says there's twelve, there's twelve jewels on the crown, right,

it represents the twelve tribes of Israel. It's the promise

that God made from the beginning with humanity, starting with

Abraham through Jacob, through the twelve tribes. And so it's yeah,

it makes sense to me that God would use symbolic

numbers for those who were, you know, the martyrs counted

among them.

Sure, sure, so then it pivots a little bit. And

so one thing that we're not going to do is

we're not going chapter by chapter through the Book of

Revelation and covering all of the different seals that get broken,

the trumpets, the seven bowls. So there's seven seals where

finally Jesus is able to come and open the seal,

and then after that it starts to unpack these seven

destructive plagues that begin to happen. When the seventh one happens,

it rolls into the seven trumpets, and these seven trumpets

blast and it unveils seven more horrific things that happen

on the planet. And then when you get to the

seventh trumpet, then the seven bowls begin to be poured

out of the seven files begin to pourt up, and

basically what happens is the plugs are ramping up in horror.

Literally every horror apocalyptic type movie Hollywood has ever been

able to put out are summed up in these things.

Yeah, so, just to be clear, this all happens in

the second half of the Tribulation, probably, which yeah, probably,

that's right. Probably, that's what's most commonly.

Interest Sure, the first three and a half years are

understood to be years of peace and prosperity, right, and

then God really unleashes it.

So that means if that's true, right, that means that

twenty one horrible things on the planet happen in a

three and a half year timeframe. Right. It's bad enough

if twenty one things happen in seven years, right, Right,

But if it's but if it's truly three and a

half years, we're talking every couple of months something horrible happens.

So the Seven Seals are seven like final conflicts. The

seven Trumpets are final destructions, and the seven bulls represent

God's final wrath. And and let's you want to just

I mean, there's not much to say about them other

than maybe list them. Yeah, yeah, you know, because what

are you going to do to talk about.

Well, I think there may be things if you've heard

anybody talk about all this stuff, there are things maybe

you've heard before, Like, for instance, in the Seven Seals,

the first four of the Seven Seals are the four

horsemen of the.

Apocalypse, yep.

Right, So you've got the Christ rolling out, then there's war,

there's famine, a quarter the people die as martyrs on

the planet, right, and then there's horrible earthquakes and the

sun turns to blood and people have to run and

hide and they're living in caves. This is just the

first seven, right, And there's the seven seals, and then

when you get to the seventh seal, it's really announcing

more is to come. And so understand that this isn't

God just unleashing his wrath for the sake of unleashing

his wrath. God's desire is to get their attention. And

yet after each of these the Bible says multiple times

the people refused to turn to God. Right, So instead

of realizing, hey, it turns out everything God said was

going to happen is happening, and he's true. Some people

do turn to Christ, but the huge majority of the

planet does not. They double down in their anger and

hatred towards God. So then seven trumpets, the final instruction

comes up. A third of the world's trees are burned

because there's hail and fire mixed with blood falling from heaven.

A third of the trees on the planet burn Hey,

we just had a massive forest fire. There's going up

in Canada, and when the wind turns, it makes the

sky weird and people's breathing is bad all you know,

as millions of Americans were struggling, they had to cancel

baseball games because of the bad air quality. Right, you

imagine if a third of the trees and the planet

are burning, and then something like a huge mountain falls

into the ocean, destroys a third of the ocean water.

There's a star falls from heaven, right, destroys a third

of all the fresh water.

On the planet.

The sun is struck in some way. I don't understand

what this is, struck in some way. And then we

lose a third of the light from the moon and

a third of all the stars. And then these demonic

locusts are released from the pit.

Yeah, that's my favorite.

And they can't kill people, just torment people for five months,

it says. And the torture is so bad on the

planet people wish they could die and can't from it.

It's it's horrible.

And these these these sounds great. These demonic locusts are

are pretty scary. They got they got teeth like lions

and bodies like horses, and they're wearing crowns. They got

face kind of like a man. It's crazy, crazy stuff.

And then these four angels are released from the from

the Euphrates river, and uh, then they go.

And and and.

And execute plagues on people. And I'm telling you that,

and then the Seven bowls begin, and we just go

on and on and on. It's really shocking that the

devastation that's happening on the planet and yet some people

turn to God, the huge majority double down and dig

their feet in and fight against him instead.

Yeah.

Yeah, So you know, those things happen, and people repent,

people are martyrs, and the world definitely goes through a struggle.

But then we get to when that comes to an end,

Jesus returns, That's right, and so the visible return of Christ,

and when he comes in the clouds, it is going

to announce a lot of different things, both you know,

in terms of battle and in terms of a wedding

and a honeymoon and all sorts of things happen at

that point.

So it's just racing towards the return of Christ. And

if you go back and remember, you know, Matthew twenty four,

Jesus is coming in the clouds the great power and

glory and mighty trumpet blast. First, Thessalonians said Jesus is

going to return. The Lord himself come down from heaven.

The commanding shout second Thessalonians, Jesus will kill the beast

with the breath of his mouth and destroy him with

splendor of his coming.

The whole picture is victory. It's victory.

So let's just read it because this is one of

the coolest descriptions that Jesus. Remember when we read in

Revelation one, this Christ. Okay, now he's up in his game.

Something's read it. We don't have to really comment much

on this, he says in Revelation nineteen. After all of

these things, and after the world digs in against Jesus,

they all gathered together to fight against him. Then I

saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there.

Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges

fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like

flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns.

A name was written on him that no one understood

except himself, and he wore a robe dipped in blood,

and his title was the Word of God. The armies

of Heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen,

followed him on white horses from his mouth came a

sharp sword to strike down the nations, and he will

rule them with an iron rod, and he will release

the fierce wrath of God the Almighty, like juice flowing

from a wine press.

On his robe.

At his thigh was written this title King of all

kings and Lord of all lords. And then I saw

an angel standing in the sun, shouting to the vultures

flying high and the sky. Come gather together for the

great banquet God has prepared. Come and eat the flesh

kings and generals, and strong warriors, and of horses and

their riders, and of all humanity, both free and slave,

small and great. And then I saw the beast and

the kings of the world and their armies gathered together

to fight against the ones sitting on the horse and

his army. And the beast was captured, and with him

the false prophet, who did mighty miracles on behalf of

the beast, miracles that deceived all who had accepted the

mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both

the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into

the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Their entire army was

killed by the sharp sword that came from the mouth

of the one riding on the white horse, and the

vultures all gorged themselves on the dead bodies, of course

they did. Jesus wipes it out, and then he captures

the beast and the Antichrist and he casts them into

eternal judgment from that point on, and that's the beginning

of the end, right, And.

They could not have described a more awesome Jesus coming,

you know forth. So Jesus, you know, while on the earth,

dealing with humanity in love, you know, firm us and

love he was, you know, he said, blessed of the poor, sure,

blessed of the meek. Yeah, right, turn the other cheek,

love one another, demonstrate this and then and that is

you know who he is. And this is also who

he is.

So the world gathers together to fight. They're getting ready

to fight. I think they're getting ready to fight each other.

But then they see Jesus coming back, and they turn

to fight against him. So remember when we said, what

are they going to tell everybody when the rapture happens?

All the Christians just I think they're going to say, oh,

aliens stuck them. Sure, Then what's going to happen when

all the armies of the world turn around and see

Jesus on a white horse coming through in the sky.

I think the people who've just hardened their hearts and

rejected God are going to think that what they're doing

is they're fighting against an alien invasion, or they're fighting

against some kind of invasion on Earth.

Right.

I don't even know that they understand that they're fighting

Jesus at that point. Maybe, but their hearts are their

hearts are so hard and people have so firmly dug

in to say I don't believe in Jesus, and I

don't believe these things. So for whatever reason, the armies

of the Earth turn to fight against Jesus and white

Horse instead of surrendering to the King of Kings and

Lord of Lords I heard.

I think that the Bible says somewhere that they plan

on sending a guy up in an iron shoot to

close the wormhole with a nuclear bomb.

No, no, different, that's not in the Bible.

That's the event. Yes, oh my bad.

Yeah.

So here's the thing though, when you hear these things again,

God does not tell these things to scare us, unless

unless you're not prepared. But instead I'm saying you have

a choice right to get prepared. So he says in

Hebrews chapter nine, And just as each person is destined

to die once and after that comes judgment, so also

Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to

take away the sins of many people. And he will

come again not to deal with our sins, but to

bring salvation.

To all who eagerly are waiting for him.

So either he's coming to bring judgment for those who

are going to fight against him, or he's there to

bring salvation for the who are eagerly waiting for him.

Yeah. Well, i'll tell you what's that's the beginning of

a lot of different things when Jesus comes down, and

we're going to be tackling all of that starting tomorrow.

So what an unbelievable moment right for all of humans.

Tomorrow is about the judgment seat of Christ. But it's

not something to be afraid of, it's something to look

forward to.

Yeah, all right, Well we'll see you then on the Bible, guys. M.