(2011) We are approaching the end of the mid-tribulation section of our study SLIDE 14-1 We ve already learned many intriguing details concerning the middle of Daniel s week of Tribulation Since these details are all generally simultaneous and build upon themselves it s easy to lose the big picture So before we dive into chapter 14 tonight, let s take a moment to review all that we ve learned so far in mid-tribulation First, chapters 10-15 form the grouping of mid-tribulation chapters SLIDE 14-2 More specifically, chapters 10 and 15 do not describe mid- Tribulation events themselves Instead, they form bookends around the mid-tribulation chapters Chapter 10 is a transition out of the judgments and into the mid-tribulation moment While chapter 15 reverses this pattern, creating a transition out of the mid-tribulation time and back into the bowl judgments The chapters in between (11-14) described simultaneous mid- Tribulation activity The 2 witnesses, Satan s expulsion, the Jewish remnant in the wilderness, the death and resurrection of the AC, the false prophet and more These chapters usually contain internal time references anchoring them to the dividing point of the seven year period Forty-two months, 1,260 days, or time, times and half a time But chapter 14 tonight is the only chapter without such a time reference
2! The confusion over the lack of an internal time anchor in chapter 14 is compounded by the chapter s references to events later at the end of the Tribulation Nevertheless, we can still recognize that the chapter begins with the final event of mid-tribulation Then quickly transitions into a short overview of the second half of Tribulation Let s set the scene for chapter 14 with a brief transition out the events of chapter 13 At the end of chapter 13, we learned that the false prophet would require all humanity to take worship the antichrist and take a mark on their bodies If they do not worship the image of the antichrist in the temple, they were killed And if they do not take the mark of the beast on their body, they could not buy or sell anything The mark is the name of the beast or the number of his name The number will be 666 The number 6 is the number of sinful man So triple 6 indicates extreme sinfulness Also, 6 begin one short of seven, it suggests imperfection in contrast to God s perfection Finally, we noticed that the false prophet s requirements placed all mankind between a rock and a hard place Everyone in the world was forced to make a decision concerning the antichrist There are no more agnostics (which is just a fancy title for an unbeliever) In fact, Revelation 13 told us that this forced choice will lead to the entire world taking sides
3! And they side they choose is ultimately a reflection of God s sovereignty Rev. 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. All those on earth who are not written in the book of Life will worship the beast, but those God has placed in this book will resist Among those who do not worship the beast, some will resist because they are already Christians who believe in Jesus But there will be another group who refuse to worship the antichrist even thought they have not accepted Jesus as Messiah We talked about these groups last week And we need to remind ourselves of them again now as we consider the beginning of chapter 14 The world is becoming polarized into a few camps defined by their response to the antichrist Among Jews, there are four groups SLIDE 14-3 Believing Jews (the remnant) Unbelieving orthodox And the unbelieving and apostate Jews The 144,000 evangelists Gentiles also divide into group: believers and unbelievers After the call to worship the beast and take the mark, these groups experience pressure in different way SLIDE 14-4 The believing remnant lies in protection in the wilderness and of course will not the mark or worship the beast The unbelieving orthodox will refuse to worship or take the mark, and as a result they will face stiff persecution during the second half of Tribulation including death for some The unbelieving and apostate Jews will join the rest of the world in worshipping the beast and taking the mark
4! Finally, we know the 144,000 will never take the mark or worship the beast So how will their work and lives be impacted by the false prophet s requirement that all worship the beast? Rev. 14:1 Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. John s vision changes to a scene of the Lamb standing on Mt. Zion. We know from earlier chapters of Revelation that the Lamb represents Christ And the reference to Mt. Zion is an important detail Zion is the Scripture term for Israel in the kingdom It refers to a glorified Israel reigning over the world in the promised Messianic kingdom There is no Mt. Zion on earth today It describes a future place So Mt. Zion would be the Temple Mount in that future kingdom Next we see the 144,000 standing with Jesus, having the name of the Father written on their foreheads The reference to the 144,000 can only mean one thing: The group144,000 Jewish men called to be evangelists at the outset of Tribulation They are marked with the seal of the Living God, which is the name of the Father Before we move deeper into the text, we pause here for a moment to ask where is this scene taking place Since chapter 14 appears as part of the mid-point of Tribulation, we know we haven t reached the end of the Tribulation period yet And if we haven t reached the end of Tribulation, then we know we haven t entered into the Kingdom yet
5! And if we haven t entered into the Kingdom yet, then Zion hasn t arrived yet, and there can be no Mt. Zion yet So where is this scene taking place? To find the answer, we need to move further in the text Rev. 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. Rev. 14:3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. Rev. 14:4 These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. Rev. 14:5 And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless. At the moment John sees the scene of Jesus and the 144,000, then he hears a voice from heaven The voice isn t really a voice...it s a loud thundering sound But it s also like the sound of harpists playing We could say it was like the sound of many thundering voices combined with harps playing John describes the sound as a song sung before the throne of God and before the creatures and the elders at the throne The only ones who knew this song were the 144,000 Therefore, the only ones singing must be the 144,000 So the chapter opened with a scene of Jesus on Mt. Zion But He s accompanied by the 144,000 evangelists Then there is singing in Heaven before the throne of God But only the 144,000 were singing So by process of deduction, the 144,000 are before the throne of God singing in Heaven
6! And this is also the place where they stand next to the Lamb on Mt. Zion How can they stand in Heaven on Mt. Zion if Mt. Zion is a place in the Messianic Kingdom? There are two answers One answer is that John was given a vision of the future in v.1 The scene on Mt. Zion was just a quick flash forward to give John a glimpse of what s coming for the 144,00 The second answer - and the one I prefer - is that John saw Jesus and the 144,000 standing on a different Mt. Zion They were standing on Mt. Zion in the New Jerusalem in Heaven In Revelation 21 the New Jerusalem descends from Heaven And the description of the city includes mention of a very high mountain in the city of Jerusalem This is likely the new Mt. Zion If so, then Jesus would be standing on Mt. Zion now in Heaven Paul seems to support this contention in the book of Romans Rom. 11:26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. This verse speaks of Jesus Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation And Paul describes Jesus as coming from Zion How can Jesus come from Mt. Zion if His Second Coming brings Him back to Jerusalem? One possibility is that Jesus is coming from the Mt. Zion in Heaven So why is John being shown this scene of the 144,000 in heaven with Jesus at the mid-tribulation moment? The text gives us those clues as well
7! Notice in v.3 that the 144,000 are described as those who were purchased from the earth To be from the earth is a clear indication that they have left earth and arrived in Heaven And the means of that departure is to be purchased We only have to go back to Revelation 5:9 to find what this word means Rev. 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Here we have another group around the Throne singing to the Lord with a song that declares that Jesus purchased men from the earth In this context, the term purchase clearly refers to the Lord purchasing believers by His sacrifice on the cross, by His blood So in Revelation 14 we must conclude that these 144,000 were removed from the earth and now reside in Heaven Then v.4 gives us the reason they left the earth They were purchased from the earth as first fruits for God The concept of first fruits is a simple one in Scripture In any bounty or reaping, the best are harvest first And they are given to God as an offering of thanks God gets the best and the first So in v.4 we re told these men are the ones who follow Jesus everywhere They are so devoted to him that they remain chaste and without even female companionship This would explain them being the best of those purchased from the earth They were the ones devoted to evangelizing the earth during Tribulation
8! And in v.5 they are blameless without even a lie in their mouths They are not perfect or sinless But they are the most holy of men on earth Secondly, they are the first to be taken in the period of martyrdom that has now come to the earth When the mark is required and worship of the image of the beast is required, these men refuse of course And they are killed, becoming the first martyrs of the Great Tribulation Now that they have been martyred, they are with Jesus on Mt. Zion awaiting the end of the Tribulation So if the 144,000 were sealed in chapter 7, how could they be killed at mid- Tribulation? Wouldn t the sealing protect them? Let s revisit the description of their sealing Rev. 7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, Rev. 7:3 saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads. They were sealed from the effects of the coming trumpet judgments Remember the trumpet judgments affect not only the earth but also the people The Woe Judgments were directed at people s bodies So the 144,000 were sealed to protect them from God s judgments But evidently that sealing didn t prevent them from dying at the hands of the enemy Remember the promise in chapter 13
9! Rev. 13:10 If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints. God is bringing martyrdom to the saints in these days, and the first fruits of that martyrdom will be the 144,000 By their example, the saints will have encouragement to know that death is not something to worry about Remember in chapter 12 we were told that mid-tribulation would include believers dying rather than bending their knee to Satan Rev. 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. The departure of the 144,000 from the earth is further evidence that the opportunity to know the truth and be saved by God s grace has come to an end on earth With the antichrist demanding that everyone take a stand, everyone will pick a side from this point onward In fact, the next section of the chapter makes this change utterly clear Rev. 14:6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; Rev. 14:7 and he said with a loud voice, Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters. John sees another angel flying in midheaven The last time he saw an angel flying in midheaven it was to give the earth a heavenly announcement prior to the Woe Judgments And here we see another heavenly declaration delivered by an angel to the entire world The angel delivers the eternal gospel The gospel is eternal
10! There has only ever been one Gospel and it has been preached from the beginning From Adam and Woman in the Garden to the Gospels From Abel to Zachariah And here the angel delivers it one last time to the world of this age The angel declares the window is closing, the train is leaving the station, the curtain is about to fall He says fear God and give Him glory Don t fear the antichrist, don t fear physical death Instead, fear the Lord, as Jesus taught: Matt. 10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. For the hour of judgment has come By hour the angel means the approaching time Specifically, it will arrive in less than 3½ years The angelic declaration is God s final presentation of the Gospel to the world prior to the return of Christ We can hardly accuse God of not making enough opportunity available Not only has God delivered the Gospel by means of men who faced death for their willingness to declare truth Now God has elevated the presentation to the heavenly realm And the angel that flies throughout midheaven is proclaiming the necessity of belief in the Gospel And of the coming judgment In fact, in this moment, the Gospel is proclaimed to the entire world, just as Jesus promised
! 11 Matt. 24:12 Because lawlessness is increased, most people s love will grow cold. Matt. 24:13 But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. Matt. 24:14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. Jesus tells us that the Gospel will be preached in the whole world And here we see that happening And He says it will be done as a testimony to all the nations In light of the events of Revelation 14, the sense of Jesus words is as a warning or to convict the world In other words, in the day of their judgment they will be without excuse Rev. 14:8 And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality. Rev. 14:9 Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, Rev. 14:10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Rev. 14:11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Then a second angel begins to make an announcement The second announcement concerns the enemy and his kingdom on earth The name of the antichrist s kingdom is Babylon As we ve said numerous times before, the topics of mid- Tribulation are spread out across several chapters And the subject of the antichrist s kingdom of Babylon is another of those topics that is explained in bits and pieces
12! The topic of Babylon is so significant to understanding the events of the second half of Tribulation, it gets two entire chapters devoted to it: 17 & 18 For now, we simply need to note the conclusion of the angel in v.9 If anyone of earth doesn t heed the call of the first angel to believe the Gospel and chooses to worship the beast and take the mark, they will perish There will be no second chance for anyone with the mark of the beast There is simply no source of the truth after this moment The fate of every person on earth will be sealed at mid- Tribulation Let s review the disposition of the various groups in the second half of Tribulation The specific judgment described is one of burning and suffering in torment And that suffering will take place in the presence of the angels and the Lamb Wherever this eternal judgment takes place, it will be within the presence of the Lamb SLIDE 14-5 This judgment will be never ending The smoke of their burning will ascend forever and ever Over the centuries and particularly in recent times, it s become fashionable to proclaim that there is no hell That God does not punish people in eternity, or that punishment is not eternal Some claim God gives second chances after death Other claim that eternal punishment doesn t last forever but after sometime it ends While we might be able to empathize with someone s desire to see unbelievers given a reprieve in eternity, we can t let our emotions cloud our understanding
13! The Scripture is abundantly clear about the nature and duration of eternal judgment for unbelievers They face a never ending burning torment from an angry God Who hate sin And they face eternal judgment because their sinful nature itself never ceases even in eternity Since the never accepted the payment offered by the Lamb of God, they go to the grave sinful And enter eternity carrying that sin nature And therefore they burn under eternal judgment Ironically, those false teachers who try to convince others that there is no hell or punishment isn t eternal contribute to the plight of the sinner They remove perhaps the one incentive God was prepared to use in converting the unbeliever, thus ensuring their demise Rev. 14:12 Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Rev. 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on! Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them. Then in v.12 the angel describes the perseverance of the saints Meaning that the saints will find the ability to persevere by their understanding of the following Those who die in the Lord from now will be blessed The phrase in the Lord clearly refers to the believers who haven t taken the mark of the beast At mid-tribulation, they face certain martyrdom And those who are about to face martyrdom in the second half of Tribulation will take heart in knowing that they will be blessed They will rest from their labors
14! We can imagine that their labors refers to their work in resisting the enemy during this unparalleled time of persecution They also include the efforts to spread the gospel to others and support the believers who remain And these (good) deeds will follow them into eternity to their glory and eternal reward This the cause for their perseverance The perseverance of the saints in the Great Tribulation will be in knowing that God wins in the end That the antichrist is defeated and they will join in the glory of the 144,000 That those who persecute them and put them to death will face an eternal judgment in just a few months And that they will rest from the difficulties of Tribulation while receiving rewards in Heaven But just in case we had any doubts that martyrdom will be widespread, John receives confirmation in this vision Rev. 14:14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. Rev. 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe. Rev. 14:16 Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped. On a white cloud is one like a son of man He has a sickle in his hand And at the command of an angel, he swung his sickle and reaped the earth Obviously, we have numerous questions about what John is seeing, so let s work back through the details We ll begin by determining who is the one on the cloud with the sickle
15! John says he was sitting on a cloud like a son of man The reference to son of man immediately draws us to suspect this is Christ, since son of man is a messianic term And John commonly uses that term for Christ in his gospel But there are a several other details that cause us to question that conclusion First, he has a golden crown on his head But the word for crown is stephanos, which is not the form of crown we would expect for Christ Christ wears a diadem In fact, when we see Christ s return in chapter 19, He s described as wearing diadems, not stephanos Second, the one on the cloud takes an order from an angel sent from heaven It seems unlikely that the Lord in His glorified form would take a command from an angel Third, the angel that gives the command is described as another angel The reference to another could simply mean another angel like those earlier in the chapter who made announcements to the earth But it seems to suggest that the one on the cloud is also an angel sent from heaven Fourth, Jesus described a reaping of the earth during Tribulation in the Olivet Discourse Matt. 24:31 And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Jesus was describing how the events of the Tribulation end, which is a different moment than the one we re studying now
16! Nevertheless, Jesus says the angels will perform the reaping of the elect upon His coming It makes sense to conclude that angels would also be involved in the reaping here So for all those reasons, I conclude that the one on the cloud is simply similar in appearance to a man or even to Christ in a sense, but in reality he is an angel To the bigger question of what s happening here, the answer is martyrdom This is to be our confirmation that the second half of Tribulation is a time of great martyrdom The angels will be reaping the earth throughout the second half of Tribulation The antichrist will initiate great bloodshed among the believers And the Lord will allow him to have success But as the angels already declared, the success will be temporary Rev. 14:17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. Rev. 14:18 Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe. Rev. 14:19 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. Rev. 14:20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles. Finally, we see two more angels emerging from the temple in Heaven One angel has a sickle also, which further suggests that the earlier one on the cloud was an angel too Then a second angel follows and gives an order to reap The angel with the sickle is given the task of removing a different group from the earth We know this second group is different than the first group because they face a different fate
17! This group is placed into the great winepress of the wrath of God The effect of this gathering is great bloodshed In fact, the blood rises impossibly high To produce the amount of blood is 4½ feet high and two hundred miles long This event happens in the Valley of Kidron, and so the amount of blood here is literally the blood of millions of people If we assume it flowed in a river half a mile wide in the valley, we re talking about 62 billion cubic feet of blood That would require over 300 billion people s blood Instead, it likely means that at the moment of the winepress, there will be a sudden moment of mass death in the valley And it will release a 4.5 foot high wave of blood that flows away from the valley for 200 miles We re still talking about a tsunami of blood The ending of Revelation 14 describes the eventual fate of the unbelieving world upon the return of Christ The specific moment when the winepress of the wrath of God takes place is at the end of Tribulation In fact, this reference is a foreshadowing of the bowl judgments, which are right around the corner in a chapter or so And when it comes, the world will see immense bloodshed But in the meantime, the world is a relatively peaceful place for the unbeliever In the final months of Tribulation, the unbelievers will experience relative peace, especially compared to what they endured in the first part of Tribulation The only people suffering in the final days of Tribulation will be the believers and the Jews That is until the bowl judgments begin, at which point the world will experience suffering unlike anything they have ever witnessed before
18! So as mid-tribulation events conclude and we begin to transition into the second half of Tribulation next week, here s the map of mid Tribulation events again Next week we leave mid-tribulation events behind and enter a fourchapter section on the concluding events of the seven year period SLIDE 14-6