HALLELUJAH, HE REIGNS! Revelation 11:15-19 February 22, 2015 Dr. Danny Forshee

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1 1 HALLELUJAH, HE REIGNS! Revelation 11:15-19 February 22, 2015 Dr. Danny Forshee - If you are a follower of Jesus Christ then you will no doubt be encouraged and motivated by the Word of God we read today from this amazing book of Revelation. As you open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 11 notice that we will have completed one-half of our study after today. We began this journey on January 19, There are 22 chapters and today we will finish our study of 11 of these 22 chapters. - The title of the message today reflects the exuberance and joy that emanate from our text. It causes great joy for the Christian as we are reminded that God is victorious. We must never lose sight of the fact that God reigns and He wins. The devil is strong and it seems that evil just continues unabated at times but the good news we will focus on today is God reigns! - Read the text. 15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever! 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying: We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. 18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth. 19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. - Revelation 10:7 is a key passage in understanding our text. I will read it. Remember that God will judge this world and deliver the title deed or the kingdom of this world to its true Owner and that is Jesus Christ. The devil is the god of this age as the Bible describes him in 2 Corinthians 4:4. He is the evil one, the usurper, and the destroyer of people s lives, families, nations and anything else he touches. God providentially allows him to rule but his rule will come to a definite end. God judges the world and Satan in the Great Tribulation. He uses 3 successive judgments with each of the three containing 7 specific acts 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls. These judgments from God overlap one another. View them as telescopic. The 7 th seal contains within it the 7 trumpets. The 7 th trumpet contains within it the 7 bowl judgments. These judgments of God upon earth are fierce indeed and they increase in severity and power as they

2 2 move toward the climax and that is where Jesus comes and utterly destroys the devil and the earth-dwellers at the awesome Battle of Armageddon. - With each day we draw closer to the events of the Book of Revelation. We have all seen the photos of the 21 Coptic, Egyptian Christians beheaded for their faith in Jesus. Before their deaths they were heard to say, Oh God, Oh Jesus. These men were day laborers that had left Egypt and traveled to Libya only looking for work to provide for their families. Revelation 6 speaks of the tribulation martyrs and Revelation 20:4 tells us about those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God. Someone asked me recently did I think that the Muslims would rule the earth and kill Christians in the last days? I do not think so because of the great harlot of Revelation 17 that I understand to be an apostate religion unifying all faiths but particularly hostile toward followers of Christ who maintain that He is the only way to heaven. More about this when we reach Revelation 17. I. THE SOUND (VS. 15) - Vs. 15 tells us the seventh trumpet angel sounds. This is a major event in the book of Revelation. With this angel s trumpet sound the beginning of the end of the world, as we know it, ensues. - Notice that there are loud voices in heaven. The Greek text reads, phonai megalai. The heavenly hosts burst forth in jubilant praise. Both the angels and redeemed humanity from all the ages of time break forth in praise to God. Why? The last part of the verse tells us. The day all God s children long for is here. When this trumpet blasts this signifies the beginning of the end for Satan, and it means that God will take from him what is rightfully His. - The child of God longs for this day of reckoning. When we see 21 of our brothers lined up to be beheaded for their faith, something cries deep within our souls for justice, for God to come and reign! - Many of you have sung these words during Handels Messiah. He closed his masterpiece with these words from our text. And he wrote it in such a way that it reflects the tenor of the occasion. It is loud, strong and the whole piece ends with a mighty, thunderous crescendo! - The kingdom of this world, not kingdoms, have become the kingdom of our Lord, referring to God the Father, and of His Christ, obviously referring to God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does the Bible affirm that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), but it also forcefully says that in the end He reigns forever. Currently, the devil reigns over the kingdom of this world. Three times in John s Gospel Jesus refers to Satan as the ruler of this world. (John 12:31; 14:30 16:11) John 14:30 states, 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

3 3 - But that will change. Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord s Prayer Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10) - We are familiar with the aphorism or adage that says, All good things must what come to an end. But there is a major exception to this otherwise accurate statement. God s kingdom will never end. The devil s reign and power will be broken, shattered, and destroyed, but God reigns forever and ever. - The Christian contemporary group, Newsboys, have a wonderful song that captures the victory of Christ, His eternal reign. The title of the song is He Reigns. It s the song of the redeemed Rising from the African plain It s the song of the forgiven Drowning out the Amazon rain The song of Asian believers Filled with God s holy fire It s every tribe, every tongue, every nation A love song born of a grateful choir It s all God s children singing It s all God s children singing Let it rise about the four winds Caught up in the heavenly sound Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals To the faithful gathered underground Of all the songs sun from the dawn of creation Some were meant to persist Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples None rings truer than this And all the powers of darkness Tremble what they ve just heard Cause all the powers of darkness Can t drown out a single word When all God s children sing out All God s people singing

4 4 II. THE SONG (VS ) - Speaking of songs, notice the hymn, the anthem of praise of the 24 elders in verses Remember the 24 elders are those who represent the saints of the Old and New Testament, the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles of the Lord, and even the saints of all time. - Notice what happens next they fall on their faces and worship the Lord. Amen. This scene reminds me of a song We fall down we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus, the greatness of His mercy and love, at the feet of Jesus. - This is the proper posture of worship of the redeemed on our faces before the King. - Don t miss the posture of these redeemed people of God in heaven as they worship. They and we worship by falling down. It comes natural to us because God is worthy. We have already submitted our lives to Him in worship and obedience and so it is only natural for us in heaven to fall down and worship before Him. When someone falls on their face, they are no longer sitting or standing but they are on their knees. I read this insightful comment on our text this week, While there is no doubt that such actions as standing, lifting holy hands to heaven, singing, and praying all have their place in Christian worship, the contemporary scene seems to be largely unaware of the most consistent response to a worshipper s discovery in the presence of God. (Patterson, p. 253) - Notice the rich theological content of their song or our song in verses They begin with giving thanks. These believers are thankful and appreciative that God is enjoying His rightful due. The word translated Almighty is pantokrator. Dr. Robert Thomas, p. 108, writes about this word, It contributes the thought that none can resist His power. It appropriately speaks of God s all-embracing sovereignty that at the point of the song s perspective becomes a visible reality in asserting its direct rule over the world. Interesting that in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew, the translators used this word pantokrator to translate the Hebrew name for God, Jehovah Sabaoth the LORD Hosts, the God of the armies of heaven. Paul uses the Greek word in 2 Corinthians 6:18 and John uses the word nine times in the Apocalypse. (Patterson, p. 253) - The hymn of praise also speaks of God s eternality, His nature or being. He is Yahweh the eternal God who was, is, and is to come. And verse 17 closes with the causal statement as to why they praise Him because You have taken (perfect tense, speaks of God s permanence of control). The use of the perfect tense verb also speaks of an action that has taken place so that the impact will remain interminably into the future (Patterson, p. 254). God has never given up absolute control over the

5 cosmos but in His divine providence He has allowed evil to have its day and accumulate for themselves the wrath of God. (Ibid.) Your great power is megalen dynamin, and the verb reigned is what is called a proleptic aorist where a future event is so certain it is spoken of in the past tense. (See Thomas, p. 109) - Vs. 18 the song of the heavenly hosts continues as it speaks of the nations anger and God s wrath. Why are the nations angry with God? John 3:19 says that men love darkness more than light and their deeds are evil. God is holy and just and He created us out of love and He desires that we serve Him and not self or the devil. And mankind with his free will rejects God s love. And because they reject Him He judges. But He judges in His wrath after their rejection. - Read Romans 2:5. 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. - Vs. 18 speaks of judgment. There are various future judgments in Scripture. The Great White Throne Judgment is in Revelation 20:11-15 where God judges those who rejected Him and He casts them into the lake of fire. Believers do not appear there, but we do stand before the judgment seat of Christ after the rapture and receive our rewards for faithful service (1 Corinthians 3:14). There is also the judgment of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25: I believe this takes place just prior to Christ s thousand-year reign the believers will reign with Him and unbelievers are thrown into hell. I believe this last judgment is in view here but not at the exclusion of the other two. - Just a couple of comments about these judgments. One, the prophets refers to both Old and New Testament prophets but primarily the former. The saints are believers, notice this small and great. From the believing peasant to the believing prince all are rewarded for faithful service. Notice that all true followers have this in common they fear God s name. We fear, honor, have respect for the name of God. We do not use His name lightly with our lips or with our lives. We honor the Name above all names. - The unbelievers also receive their judgment. God destroys those who destroy the earth. Thomas, p. 113, says this description includes all agencies of evil. - God wins, and because we are with God we win. The devil loses and all who serve him lose as well. - Franklin Graham says in his excellent book, The Name, p. 45, We must realize that there is a war under way that is much bigger than terrorists attacks. This is a war that transcends politics and religion. The real battle going on today is between good and evil. God and Satan. In every culture, in every nation, in every state, city, and community, in every home, and ultimately in every heart, a war rages on. - But thank you Lord that one day the war will cease. Those who destroy the earth will be destroyed. Amen! 5

6 6 III. THE SIGHT (VS. 19) - Notice the word, then. After the 7 th trumpet sounds and after a time of praise and celebration the temple in heaven is opened and John sees the Ark of the Covenant. - A. JOY IN HEAVEN - The sight of the ark in heaven communicates joy, God s guidance, and His presence. Remember the ark on earth contained the two tables, the Ten Commandments, the rod of Aaron, and a jar of manna. These items denote God s presence with and provision for His people. The earthly ark was located in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple, and the Tabernacle and Temple themselves were only representations of their real counterparts in Heaven. Read Hebrews 9: Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. - Again, we have a very Jewish or Israeli emphasis. I agree with one writer (Thomas, p. 114) who said that with the earlier references to the temple and now the Ark of the Covenant, It is clear that the judgments to come relate to the restoration of God s people Israel and the fulfillment of all His covenant promises to them. - B. JUDGMENT ON EARTH - The remainder of verse 19 speaks of more judgment on earth. Joy in heaven and judgment on earth. This summarizes our future destinies. We will either be with God in heaven and live for Him and worship and serve Him in eternal bliss or we will suffer the judgment of God, endure His wrath, and the torments of hell. - One writer put it this way, All who have died and who did not elect to accept the judgment of God against sin on the cross are now to face their final judgment. (Patterson, p. 255) CONCLUSION AND INVITATION - God loves you and He wants you to believe on Him for salvation, turn from your sins and serve Him. Join the winning team. God wins. Be encouraged in the midst of such tragic days and evil times because God continues to save all who believe on Him. - This week I watched the testimony of Lee Strobel graduate of Yale University and legal editor for the Chicago Tribune and how he humbled himself and became a follower of Christ. I also read the story of Matthew Luhn and his faith journey. Both reminded me that God loves us all and one does not have to check their brains at the door of the church in order to become a follower of Jesus. In fact, Strobel said after he completed 2 years of research into the claims of Christ, he realized that it would take much more faith to continue being an atheist than it did a follower of

7 Christ. Perhaps you have heard of Strobel, author of The Case for Christ and other books on Christian apologetics, but you may not have heard of Luhn, but I am quite sure you have enjoyed his work and craft. Luhn is a computer whiz that helps make films that millions of children and the young at heart enjoy. You have probably seen and enjoyed some of his work. Matthew Luhn began his career at Pixar Animation Studios in 1992 as an Animator on the very first CG movie, "Toy Story". Since that time, Matthew has worked as a Story Artist on "Toy Story 2" "Monsters Inc.", "Finding Nemo", "Cars", "Ratatouille", "UP", "Toy Story 3", and "Monsters University." ( Luhn is about 40 years of age but around 20 years ago his faith journey began. His girlfriend became more serious about her Christian faith and this caused some anxiety for the Jewish Luhn. His girlfriends pastor met with Luhn and showed him how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah. He spent the next year reading the Bible and studying other faiths. But one day on a long hike he stepped out on faith and made his commitment to Jesus Christ. He told God, I have to trust You and believe in Jesus. He says, That was the turning point of my life. I couldn t be who I was before. I used to use cuss words to get an easy laugh, but not anymore. I was going to have to learn to pray. Today Luhn is married and has a 13 year-old son, and he is active in his church, Redwood Chapel, a large evangelical church in the Bay of CA. He stands for Christ and lets his voice be heard especially when he feels that filmmakers are overstepping their bounds in the production of kids movies. I like what he says about practicing his faith in the workplace, I m vocal, but friendly. I don t want to come across as Please fire me, but I make my views known. - I ask you today, How will your story end? I invite you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Serve Him with passion. 7