Worthy is the Lamb: Revelation Wrap-up

David Krueger

Worthy is the Lamb • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Revelation 22:20–21

Second Coming

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Final thoughts on the Book of Revelation.

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Text: Revelation 22:20-21

Theme: Final thoughts on the Book of Revelation.

We began our journey through the Book of Revelation on 09/24/2017. I occasionally left the book to deal with other important topics like the Christmas and Easter seasons. I went into this sermon series kicking-and-screaming all the way. I didn’t really want to do it. But I’m convinced there was a conspiracy afoot, because a fair number of you were asking me, “When are you going to preach from the Book of Revelation?” I was reluctant for two reasons. 1st, it’s a hard book to preach through, requiring a significantly higher level of study then most other New Testament books involve. There are four major eschatological interpretations of the book, and each one of those have nuances of interpretative views. 2nd, My eschatological view is thoroughly orthodox, but outside the mainstream of what most Evangelicals in general, and Baptists in particular, believe. Honestly? It’s hard to preach something that you know the majority of your congregation probably doesn’t agree with.

When I came to the Lord in 1973, I learned about the pre-tribulation rapture just as I learned about all the other fundamentals of the faith. This was basic. This was Bible. This was truth. A time was coming — no one knew when — that all true believers would mysteriously vanish from the face of the Earth, because Jesus had secretly come to spirit them away in this event called the rapture. For the first five years as a Christian, I unapologetically embraced that view.

But the more I read the Bible, the more I realized I hadn’t learned this from the Scriptures. I learned it from other books. In essence I has taking Hal Lindsay’s and C.I. Schofield’s word on it. Most of my closest Christian friends believed in a pre-tribulation rapture. Some of the finest Christians on the planet believe in it ... men such as W.A Criswell, Billy Graham, Richard DeHann, Charles Stanley, Adrian Rogers, Chuck Swindoll, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, David Jeremiah, as well as Kay Arthur, and Beth Moore. You can understand why millions of American Christians embrace this particular view of the end-times as foundational to the Christian faith. It’s as fundamental as is the deity or Christ, or justification by faith alone. I don’t accept it. I am a premillennialist, but I am a historic premillennialist. I am not a dispensational premillennialist, and there are some pretty sharp differences.

The good news (for me anyway) is that a lot of you don’t care. You’re essentially “panmillennialists” — you believe it’ll all just gonna “pan-out” in the end. The bad news is that a lot of you don’t care, which means you miss a blessing by not reading the Book of Revelation. “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3, NIV)

I. WHY I AM A HISTORICAL PREMILLENNIALIST (and why you should be, too)

1. over the course of this sermon series a number of people have asked why I take the particular view of end-time events that I do — why am I a Historic Premillennialist?

a. well, that begs the question, “What is a Historic Premillennialist?”

2. it is one of four major eschatological views of end-time events

a. in your bulletin is a hand-out that lists, and explains the major end-time views

3. two main points set my position apart from dispensational Premillennialism

a. that God has only one people — the Elect — believers from throughout the ages, both Jew and Gentile, who have accepted God’s redemptive work on their behalf by faith

b. that at the end of the age, believers will go through the tribulation period — not escape it through a secret rapture of the Church

A. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HISTORIC PREMILLENNIALISM

1. 1st, it Is a Thoroughly Orthodox Interpretation of End-time Events

a. it’s not “weird” or “outside” the mainstream of Biblical interpretation

ILLUS. Theological giants of the past such as Baptist pastors, John Gill, and Charles H. Spurgeon believed and taught it, as have theological giants of the present like Albert Mohler, John Piper, D.A. Carson, and James M. Boice.

b. I tell this so you know that your pastor is not an eschatological heretic!

2. 2nd, It Is Called Historic Premillennialism Because it Was the Majority View of the Early Church Through the Beginning of the 5th Century

a. it is an eschatological view that the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ will occur prior to our Lord’s one-thousand year reign on Earth, but after the great apostasy — meaning that believers will go through the tribulation period

b. so what happened?

ILLUS. The Church’s eschatological view began to change in the early 5th century due to the influence of Augustine of Hippo, who allegorized the Second Coming, teaching that Christ rules the earth spiritually through his triumphant church. He was the preeminent theologian of his day, and his writings would influence the Church for 1,200 years. Augustine began as a Premillennialist, but came to reject that belief because he thought a literal kingdom was too carnal. He was the first theologian to adopt and teach what we now call Amillennialism. This remains the official teaching of the Catholic Church, virtually all mainline Protestants, and most Reformed — or Calvinistic — believers.

3. 3rd It Is Now the Minority View among Evangelicals in General, and among Baptists in Particular

a. the majority view is now Dispensational Premillennialism which teaches a pre- tribulation rapture of the Church

ILLUS. Among all Baptists, 75% consider themselves Premillennialists, with the majority of them being Dispensational Premillennialists (even though they may not know it). A lot of it is due to the influence of the Left Behind book series. Written by Tim LaHaye, and Jerry Jenkins, there were 12 novels in the collection, published between 1995-2007. Total sales for the series reached an astonishing 90 million books. For an earlier generation, Hal Lindsay’s best selling book, The Late Great Planet Earth (which was virtually required reading among Christians in the 1970's and 80's), was hugely popular, and influential on the eschatological views of Americans. It was the No. 1 best-selling non-fiction book of the decade of the 1970s. The still popular Scofield Reference Bible, first published in 1909, and whose notes on Dispensationalism are considered, by some, as “inspired” as is the biblical text. The Criswell Study Bible, MacArthur Study Bible and Ryrie Study Bible all support dispensationalism in their study notes. It’s impossible to minimize the influence that these works have had on the end-times views of three or four generations of American Christians.

ILLUS. It is a view so firmly entrenched in the American Church that the official doctrinal position of the Assemblies of God denomination. You cannot be ordained within the Assemblies of God unless you are a Dispensational Premillennialist.

b. Dispensational Premillennialism is a relatively new adaptation of traditional Premillennialism

1) it is a theological system first developed in the mid-19th century, and it’s primary author was John Nelson Darby of England

a) it became an extremely popular view in Britain among the Plymouth Brethren

b) this new premillennialism came to the United States following the Civil War, and by the turn of the 20th century was flourishing among Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Baptists

2) Dispensational theology teaches that there are two distinct peoples of God: Israel and the Church and God is dealing with each separately

a) because Israel rejected Jesus as Messiah, God turned to “Plan B” which is the Church ... for 2,000 years God has worked in the world through His Church essentially “shelving” Israel

b) before God can resume with “Plan A” and deals with Israel again, the Church must be removed before proceeding with His final plans for Israel

c) this led to dispensationalism’s most controversial and distinctive doctrine — the secret, at any-moment, pre-tribulational Rapture ("catching away") of the church

ILLUS. Actually, if you go back 125 years, my view of Premillennialism would have been considered the normative view, and Dispensational Premillennialism — which is the majority view among Baptists today — would have been considered unorthodox!

B. THE CASE FOR HISTORIC PREMILLENNIALISM

1. 1st, It Provides a Straightforward Understanding of the End Times Events

a. historic premillennialism teaches that, at some point at the end of the Church age, the Antichrist — whom Revelation simply refers to as “the Beast” — will rise to power on earth, and the seven-year tribulation will begin

b. at the end of the tribulation, Christ returns, believers are resurrected and raptured to meet Jesus in the sky, and then Jesus and His church return to earth to rule for a thousand years

c. at the end of the thousand years the lost are raised to face judgement, and the faithful spend eternity on a new earth, under a new heaven ruled from a New Jerusalem

1) pretty simple!

d. there is no secret rapture of the Church

2. 2nd, It Accurately Reflects the “One People of God” Theme Found Throughout the Entire Bible

a. one of the major issues I have with Dispensational Premillennialism is its stark separation of Israel from the Church as two distinct peoples of God Whom He treats differently

1) from Genesis to Revelation, we see a picture of a God who is on mission to rescue sinners from every tribe, tongue, and nation

a) God accomplishes this through the perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ

2) under the new covenant, Gentiles have been grafted into spiritual Israel, and, through Christ, God has created His Elect People

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:13–22, NIV84)

3) here is one of the most important passage in the New Testament revealing God’s redemptive plan for Jew and Gentile

a) in Christ, God has made the two — Jew and Gentile — one in Christ

b) in Christ, God has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility between the two — Christians are one body, in Christ, despite nationality, ethnicity, or denominational identity or previous religious affiliation

c) in Christ, God’s purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two — a third race called “Christian”

d) in Christ, through the cross, God has brought Jewish believers, and Gentile believers into a new unity that he describes as a structure being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit — a holy temple in the Lord

4) dispensationalism, I believe, thoroughly complicates God’s redemptive plan by teaching that God as “Plan A” for the Jews, and “Plan B” for the Gentiles

3. 3rd, It Doesn’t Spiritualize Christ’s Millennial Reign as Other Positions Do

a. it alone holds to a millennial reign of Christ where Christ is physically present and ruling on this earth in a Messianic Age before the institution of the eternal state

4. 4th, It Doesn’t Treat End-time Christians As a Special Class of Christians to be Shielded from Troubles or Tribulations

a. why should Christians at the end of the age “get a pass” from trials, and troubles and persecutions that other believers throughout the ages have not?

1) what makes these Christian so special??

b. in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, where he talks to his disciples about the end of the world, he tells them, “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21–22, NIV84)

1) it’s clear that he’s talking about the period we call the Great Tribulation

2) but, he says, for the sake of the elect — God’s people called Christian — God will shorten those days, less no believer survive

3) that seems pretty straightforward to me — the Church will be here during the Tribulation period

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, KJV 1900)

c. throughout Church history, right until this moment, our fellow-believers are suffering atrocities for the gospel — being burned alive, buried alive, beheaded, tortured, imprisoned, and exiled

1) yet, in Paul’s words, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37)

II. WHAT (almost) ALL CHRISTIAN CAN AGREE ON

1. 5 things we can agree on

A. ALL CHRISTIANS CAN AGREE THAT HISTORY IS GOING SOMEPLACE

1. history is going someplace, and it is headed exactly where God wants it to go

a. to that end God moves world events along directly, and providentially, to accomplish His precise will

b. the movers and shakers of this world may believe that they are directing the course of world events, and they would be wrong!

“Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. 9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. 11 ... What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.” (Isaiah 46:8–11, NIV84)

c. Daniel 2:21 specifically tells us that God controls the course of world events; deposing some political leaders while installing others

2. because God has a specific plan for His creation, He is providentially directing the world order to the climax He has for it

B. ALL CHRISTIANS CAN AGREE THAT JESUS IS RETURNING IN POWER AND GLORY

ILLUS. Every major Christian Creed and Confession has asserted this great truth. They assert it because the Bible plainly teaches it. Our own Baptist Faith and Message states: God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

1. Christ’s return is prophesied in the Old Testament and affirmed in the New Testament

C. ALL CHRISTIANS CAN AGREE THAT EVERYONE WILL BE RESURRECTED

“ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28–29, NIV)

D. ALL CHRISTIANS CAN AGREE THAT JUDGMENT IS REAL AND ETERNITY IS LONG

1. all peoples of the earth, from the beginning of time to the end of time, will be judged by God

a. all men will be judged according to what they have done with God’s Christ, His only begotten son, through whom the Father’s redemptive plan was accomplished

1) those who have received Christ in faith during this life, have their sin judged in the cross and have been justified freely by grace

2) those who have not received Christ during this life, will be judged at the Judgement Seat of Christ, and be eternally condemned to the lake of fire created for the devil and his angels

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:12–15, NIV)

E. ALL CHRISTIANS CAN AGREE THAT THERE HAVE BEEN COMPETING VIEWS ABOUT THE END-TIMES FOR CENTURIES, AND WE CAN AGREE TO DISAGREE IN LOVE

III. WHAT I LEARNED IN REVELATION (AND I HOPE YOU DID, TOO)

1. I Learned That I’m Still Struggling to Figure it All out after 46 Years of Study

2. I learned that persecution is part of the Christian life

a. Christians in this present age can expect to suffer intense persecution at the hands of an unbelieving, idolatrous world

1) no one is exempt

2) we will be slandered, accused of being on the wrong side of history for our moral stands, hated, jailed, tortured, and killed

ILLUS. In 2012, Cardinal Frances George, archbishop of Chicago and former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, published a column in his archdiocesan newspaper under the headline, "The wrong side of history." He wrote: "The present political campaign has brought to the surface of our public life the anti-religious sentiment ... that has been growing in this country for several decades. The secularizing of our culture is a much larger issue than political causes or the outcome of the current electoral campaign, important though that is." He concluded by saying, “I expected to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.'"

b. to suffer is not an indication of God’s disappointment with us but of our identification with Jesus

3. I learned that God is sovereign

a. God is absolutely and comprehensively sovereign over all the affairs of all mankind

1) not even the most wicked of men stand outside of God’s providential power

b. the world, by all appearances, appears horribly unstable, chaotic, and out of control

1) Revelation is God’s word to His Church that he is in complete control

4. I learned that Christ is King

a. Jesus Christ is pre-eminent above all earthly powers and persons, and potentates

b. at the heart of human sin is the tendency to exalt, as god, anything or anyone above or in preference to Jesus Christ

1) but he is King over all kings and Lord over all lords

c. we have assurance that God will accomplish his purposes and bring all things to their consummation in Jesus

5. I learned that Satan Is a Formidable, but Defeated, Foe

a. Satan hates God and hates you and hates the church

1) he will do all within his power, under God’s sovereignty, to undermine your confidence in God’s goodness and lead you to abandon your faith

2) but we are assured complete and final victory as we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and as we do not love our lives even unto death (Rev. 12)

6. I learned that Christians Will Be Preserved by God

a. although the wrath of God against sin and idolatry will intensify and expand as we approach the second coming of Christ, no Christian will be the object of His wrath

1) we will be preserved eternally safe and secure just as God preserved the Hebrews as he was pouring out His wrath upon the Egyptians

b. God has sealed his servants, all of them, with the Holy Spirit — and though we may be persecuted, no amount of suffering or hardship can separate us from the love of God in Christ

7. I learned that we Can’t Comprehend the Great Things that Lie Ahead

a. neither eye has seen nor ear has heard the marvelous blessings God has in store for his people

ILLUS. Christian saw the Celestial City and “it made Christian sick with desire.” When your meditate on the new heavens, new earth and the New Jerusalem, does it, “make you sick with desire.”

1) how do we even begin to comprehend a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem?

b. as Paul put it in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”