Revelation Part 17
Revelation 11:16
This part of the book of Revelation is briefly talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. This is not speaking of the rapture. At this point in our study the rapture has already taken place and the church is in heaven with the Lord. The return of the Messiah has been promised for centuries, and some day it will happen but not until after this period of time known as the Great Tribulation. When Jesus does return, of course His return will be recognized by those with spiritual understanding as one of the great events ever to happen on the earth. Those in heaven will understand the value and importance of the return of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Revelation 11: 16-17,
"And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and wast and art to come, because you have taken to thee thy great power and have reigned."
Jesus will return and rule on the earth because of who He is. He is the all-powerful, eternally existent one.
How can He not return and display His great might and power?
How can He not take the rule that is rightfully His.
Psalms 24:1 declares:
"The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof."
For a season God has delivered the earth to man. God ad given man the opportunity to rule the earth, to have dominion over it. Then Adam fell prey to the wiles of Satan and by way of power of attorney gave that rule to Satan, even though it was intended for man. Man will be held accountable for what we have done with our opportunities and responsibilities, but all of this power will one day be stripped from Satan and taken back by God in the person of Jesus Christ. When the "fullness of time has come", when man has failed finally and ultimately, when the world has gone through its greatest time of trial, testing and sorrow; then Jesus Christ shall return not only as the Savior but also as the mighty King.
Isaiah tell us that,
"The government shall be upon His shoulder, and of His kingdom there shall be no end."
He shall be known for what He is; the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
But before that happens, we must be told once again what is too often the common characteristic of mankind. The first phrase of Revelation . 11:18 says,
"And the nations were angry."
It’s one of the mysteries of the heart of man. Reason would tell you that man would think of the good things about God and would naturally and easily turn to Him, but that is not the case here.
We read in Jeremiah 17: 9,
"The heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things."
Instead of surrender to the God of heaven, rebellion against God is most common. When man gets saved by faith in Christ, one of the difficult struggles that they must often go through is getting past their own stubborn will and natural resistance to God, and being able to honestly say to God that they will go His way and do His will.
It seems ridiculous that human beings would imagine that they could fight against God and win. Such an attitude has been common throughout the history of the human race, and will be even more common during the Great Tribulation. One thousand years before Jesus Christ the Psalmist wrote in Psalms 2:1-3,
"Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take council together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."
If human beings continue in their anger and continue to refuse to repent of their sin, Psalm 2: 4-5 will see its ultimate fulfillment at the return of Christ. It says,
"He that sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure."
The rest of Revelation 11:18 says,
"…and thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and should destroy them that destroy the earth."
Today we live in the age of grace, but things will not always be like this. God is very compassionate and merciful and slow to anger. Some nations He has given hundreds of years to repent before His judgment was poured out. The point to remember is that judgment will always follow a time of opportunity.
The writer of Hebrews admonishes us
"that is is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
You can view your life as an opportunity, an opportunity to accomplish all you can for the Lord and all that you can become. Once the opportunity is over, you will be judged for what you did with the opportunity.
This is true individually and it’s also true collectively for the human race. When God placed man on the earth, He gave man the earth as a garden to tend. God made man as the most intelligent and the most capable of all the creatures. With opportunity comes responsibility. God expected that man would make the earth a better place in which to live. In order to do so, it takes a well-planned, concerted effort on the part of many people. Instead of making the earth a better place, most are helping to destroy the earth. We are not just talking about pollution or war or murder, although those things are a part of the destroying of the earth.
Think of the people who have gone to Hollywood and have sold their souls for fame and fortune. Not only have they lowered their own lives, but many have allowed themselves to be used as examples of sexual permissiveness and material excess, and have thereby helped to teach the young people of the world life styles that are destructive. Anyone who does not serve God is part of the total picture of what man is doing to destroy the earth.
But the day is coming when God will allow the destruction to take place no longer. The great Baptist preacher, R.G. Lee recorded a great sermon entitled, "Payday Someday"! Friend, Payday will come someday. For some it will be soon, for others they may have to endure the hardships and trials and testings of the Great Tribulation. But for all, payday will come. Jesus come not only to save people from their sin, but also to save the earth from destruction. He will come to destroy those who destroy the earth. The return of Jesus Christ will be a time of judgment. In Revelation 11:18 we are told several characteristics about the judgment that will take place when Christ returns to the earth after the Great Tribulation. It’s called
"the time of the dead, that they should be judged."
If the dead are judged, then that means that there is existence after death. Death is not the end of existence. It also carries the implication that reincarnation as taught by some eastern religions does not take place.
People will have the same identity after death that they had before it. There are those who are judged who will face the wrath of God, because they did not receive the salvation offered them in Christ. That’s why the believers in Jesus will so greatly honor Him and praise Him. The believers also deserved the wrath of God, but they escaped that wrath, having Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. In addition to those who are judged and condemned, there will also be those who are judged and rewarded. Several things are said about those who will be rewarded by God.
If you are wise, you will pay attention to this.
If you are wise you will listen carefully to what it takes to be rewarded by the great God of the universe so that you also can be rewarded and so that you will not miss out on the many wonderful things that God is hoping to be able to give you.
Revelation 11:18 says that God will reward His
"servants the prophets."
One of the main requirements to be rewarded by God is to be one of His faithful servants. Everyone serves someone or something, but only a few people serve God. Because so few serve Him, there will be great rewards for those who do. In the history of mankind, every person has had to make the decision of whom they will serve. Joshua said,
"Choose you this day whom you will serve; as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
Jesus warned people to be very careful whom they served. He said,
"No man can serve two masters. You will love the one and hate the other."
Those who decide to serve God will be rewarded. Notice that He will reward His "servants the prophets." A prophet is someone who speaks forth the Word of God. Perhaps the most important work of God is the spreading forth of the Word of God and the teaching of the truth. If you are a servant of God in some way you will be involved in the spreading of God’s Word in the world. If you do everything imaginable to serve God, but have no part in the spread of the truth of the gospel, then you are probably not serving God. God’s servants, those who speak forth the Word of God will be rewarded.
Rev. 11:18 also says that the saints will be rewarded. It is important to know how a person becomes a saint. Every true believer is a saint. The word saint comes from the same word as the word holy. You are not called a saint because of what you do for God, how many times a week you go to church, or even how much money you put in the offering plate, how many Christian TV programs you watch or how many TV ministries you support. Rather you are called a saint because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. You are called a saint because He has placed a robe of white on you after washing you in His shed blood from an old rugged cross way up on Calvary’s hill. An important part of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ is to realize that righteousness and holiness are credited to the account of believers freely through the blood of Jesus Christ. Such a standing is not earned or merited: it’s given as a free gift. Romans 3:24 says,
"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
Once we have become saints freely by grace through faith, God expects that we will grow in grace and grow in faith and the knowledge of His Word so that we will actually perform good works. There are many pitfalls that can keep a believer from growing in Christ and accomplishing the works of God or the will of God. For those who fight a good fight of faith, there will be rewards.
Revelation 11:18 says that God will reward the saints and that He will also reward those who "fear" His name. The word fear here means to have great awe and reverence, it means to honor and respect His name. Remember that one of the Ten Commandments says,
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
The name of God should be honored because the name of God stands for who He is. If you honor His name, then you also honor who He is and what He stands for. When Jesus taught us to pray He said to pray,
"Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name." There are so many people in the world who do not honor the name of God, who are highly offended at the mention of the name of Jesus. If you will truly honor His name, then there are things that you will say and things that you will do that will prove it. Notice that these actions, words and deeds come after and as a result of salvation, not prior to as in earning the salvation. After the tribulation when God judges the world, those who have feared His name will be rewarded.
Where can we find these people who will be so greatly rewarded of God?
Where can we look to find the servants of God, the prophets of God, and the saints of God?
Where can we find these who will be so greatly rewarded by God at the judgment?
According to Revelation 11:18 we are told that both "small and great" will be rewarded by God. The emphasis is on the equality with which God treats the human race. God is not a respecter of persons. God invented equal rights before human beings invented the word. Everyone will be judged according to the same standard. Everyone has been given the same basic opportunity and challenge to live by faith in this materialistic world. When we all stand before God, small and great, none of us will have material possessions.
We will stand naked save our character, we will have the life that we lived, and we will have the spiritual victories that we won or lost. Remember that Jesus said that,
"a man’s life does not consist of the things that he possesses."
We have share with you about those who will be rewarded by God at the judgment. At the end of Revelation 11:18 we are told one more thing about those who will face the wrath of God because they opposed Him and refused His salvation. The Bible says that
"God will destroy those that destroy the earth."
God will reward those who serve Him, but He will destroy those who destroy the earth. Those who do not serve God are actually having a part in destroying the earth. God says in the Proverbs,
"He that gathers not with me scatters abroad."
God is the Creator, He is the giver of life, and He is a builder and an encourager. Those who are the servants of God are used by God to build up good things. But remember that earlier in the book of Revelation the devil/satan was called the destroyer. Remember the names of Abbadon and Appolyon. Those who resist God and refuse to go God’s way have done the same thing that the devil has done, and they will join the devil in in being a part of that which destroys and tears down. They will also join the devil in the Lake of Fire that was initially created for the devil and his angels. It was never meant for man to experience such torment. Yet those who choose to enter hell, do so but only after rejecting God’s marvelous gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son.
John saw that Jesus will come to judge the earth. John saw that there were great promises for those who will be rewarded but a horrible judgment for those who are not. After seeing certain things about the judgment of those on the earth, John was shown something in heaven. John wrote in Revelation 11:19,
"And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail."
John saw the ark in heaven. Remember that there was an ark built during the time of Moses. The ark was built of wood and covered with gold, but the Bible does not tell us what happened to the ark. Perhaps the ark was taken to heaven, or most likely the ark that John saw here in Revelation Chapter 11 is the one whicht the ark of Old Testament was patterned after. There is a close relationship between the ark of God and the judgment, because one of the things inside the ark was the tablet on which were written the Ten Commandments. The Law of God. The commandments were the ten great laws given by God to man. The commandments were the instructions from the very hand of God telling man how they ought to live. When God comes to judge the world, He will judge the world based upon these Ten Commandments.
No one has kept the commandments without failure. Everyone is in danger of judgment because of their failure to keep the commandments that are in the ark. The blessedness of salvation through Jesus Christ is the fact that through Jesus you can have forgiveness for your failures to keep the commandments. The choice is yours. You can face the judgment of God based upon how well you have kept the Ten Commandments, or you can find free and complete forgiveness of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Romans 6:23 states that
"the wages of our failure, our sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son."
Romans 10: 13 states that
"whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."