What in the World is Going to Happen? - Tribulation 3

- we've been talking about the tribulation, the seven year

period of judgement on the earth and its inhabitants after

the rapture

- so far we've seen that books of Daniel and Revelation teach

that the rapture lasts seven years

- we worked our way through Daniel's seventy weeks and also

saw that that dovetails with the information in the book of

Revelation

- last week we looked at Matt. 24-25 to see what that passage

says about the tribulation

- we learned that Jesus decribed the tribulation with quite a

bit of detail for his disciples, but then he went on to

spend a lot of time talking about the applications of those

desciptions to them

- tonight we'd like to accomplish three things:

1) what is the purposes/purposes of the tribulation?

2) what does the book of Revelation contribute to this

subject?

3) what shouold that mean to us today?

I. What Are The Purposes of The Tribulation?

A. To prepare Israel to receive her Messiah

- if you were to pick up the Bible and start reading it

cover to cover, and didn't read:

1) the passages that talked about the tribulation,

2) the book of Revelation

3) a few other portions of Scripture like Romans

9-11

- one of the questions you'd have would be -what

happened to all the promises God made to Israel?

- their land?

- descendant sitting on David's throne forever?

- Jehovah being their God and Israel being his

people?

- see, what happened to all those OT promises made to

the nation of Israel?

- the answer to that comes from studying the

tribulation period

- because one of God's purposes in the tribulation is

to see a number of Jews accept the Messiah as savior

- one passage that teaches this is Zech. 13:8-9

"And it shall come to pass that in all the land,

saith the Lord, two parts in it shall be cut off and

die, but the third shall be left in it. And I will

bring the third part through the fire, and refine

them as silver is refined, and will test them as

gold is tested; they shall call on my name and I

will hear them. I will say, It is my people, and

they shall say, The Lord is my God"

- how do we know that this purpose will be

accomplished?

- 144,000 - Rev. 7:1-8

- wise virgins - Matt. 25

- INPUT - what does that tell us about God?

1. even his judgements have a gracious purpose

- have you ever seen someone lose their temper

and begin to say or do things that had no

purpose or redeeming value?

- (model airplane illus.)

- some people view the tribulation that way,

that God is finally fed up and destroys

mankind with no plan or purpose

- but that's not what these passages are

saying - instead they are saying that even

in judgement, God's gracious plan is that

some will turn and repent

2. God will go to great lengths to see men saved

- Romans 2:4 says - the goodness of God leads

to repentance

- it was God's desire that, because of the

- beauty of the creation

- miracle and blessing of life

- the simplicity of the gospel

- because of His goodness, men and women

everywhere would trust Christ as Savior

- but that hasn't happened

- he came unto his own, and his own

received him not

- they didn't respond to His goodness

INPUT - how would God respond to that if he

were like many of us? (thats your

last chance!)

- II Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slack

concerning his promise, as some consider

slackness, but is longsuffering toward

us, not willing that any should perish,

but that all should come to repentance

- What is the application of that to our attitudes

in witnessing? (need to be as patient as God is)

- you may have invited someone to your home Bible

study who said they didn't want to come, or maybe

were a little cold about the whole thing

- how do you respond to those kinds of people?

- there are people in our church today that you

would have never believed would be saved 12 months

ago

- God will go to great lengths to see men saved

the second purpose of the tribulation:

B. Retribution on the world

many places in Scripture teach that this is one of

the purposes of the tribulation

1. Rev. 3:10 - Because thou hast kept the word of my

patience, I also will keep thee from thehour

of temptation, which shall come upon all the

world, to try them that dwell opon the earth

2. Isa. 26:21 - For the Lord cometh out of His place

to punish the inhabitants of the earth for

their iniquity

3. II Thess. 2:12 - that they all might be judged

who believed not the truth, but had pleasure

in unrighteousness

- one thing that every Jewish child learned early was

that sin demanded a sacrifice, sin demanded a

sacrifice (a payment)

- of course a person today could trust Christ's

payment and live

- but for those who don't, they will have to pay for

their own sinfulness themselves

- I think one of the questions we need to talk about

in connectiuon to that is, what should our attitude

be towards this particular purpose of the

tribulation?

- Certainly we're not going to be jubilant at this

time

- anytime a person is judged, it is a sad time

regardless of how bad that person was

- but there is a sense in which even this purpose of

the tribulation is a positive one for believers

because at last truth wins out and evil is

destroyed

- do you ever grow weary living in a world filled

with evil?

- Christie Hefner article

- see, we live around those mentalities every day and

its possible to get pretty down and discouraged

because truth seems to be taking quite a beating

- the truth of the tribulation ought to encourage us

because siding with God's truth is the side that is

ultimately win out

- we're not talking about some kind of holy

arrogance, but the ditch on the other side is

believers who walk around down and discouraged

because of their beliefs

- they're almost embarrassed to admit they believe

the Bible

- or that they've trusted Christ as their Savior in

this unChristian world

- somewhere between holy arrogance and spiritual

depression is what the Scripture calls confidence

and boldness, knowing that being on God's side is

being on the victorious side

- Paul said, thanks be unto God who always leads us

to triumph in Christ

- there's something wrong with the believer who goes

through life almost apologetic about the fact thats

he's a Christian, or that he ordering his life by

God's truth

- so those are two of the primary purposes of the

tribulation

- now lets look at:

II. Description of the Tribulation from Book of Revelation

- what I'd like to do here is give an overview of the

tribulation judgements as they are described in

Revelation

1,2,3,4,5,6,( ) 7 Seals______________________________________

1,2,3,4,5,6,( ) 7 Trumpets___________________

1,2,3,4,5,6, ( ) 7 Vials _____

(explain parentheses)

A. Seven Seals of the scroll (chaps. 6-19 - 19:10)

- the judgement chapters in Revelation begin with a

scene in heaven where there's a scroll with seven

seals

- often important documents in those days were sealed

so that the person who received the document could

be sure no one opened it along the way

- the way that worked, a king would write what he

wanted on a scroll, pour melted wax on the joint,

imprint that wax with his ring or some other object

bearing his seal

- then only a qualified person or persons were

allowed to open it

- the particular scroll described here has seven

seals, where the writer wrote a while, them sealed

it - then wrote some more, and sealed that--until

it became a scroll with seven seals

- read 5:3-7

- 1st seal - (6:1,2) White Horse-AntiChrist peace

campaign (Matt. 24:5)

- 2nd seal - (6:3,4) Red Horse-peace removed-war

(Matt. 24:6)

- 3rd seal - (6:5,6) Black Horse-famine days wages

buy meager food (Matt. 24:7)

- 4th seal - (6:7,8) Pale horse-death (Matt. 24:7-8)

- 5th seal - (6:9-11) Martyred trib. saints - How

long? (Matt. 24:9)

- 6th seal - (6:12-17) Worldwide chaos and great

prayer meeting (Mt. 24:12-17)

- Parenthesis (Rev. 7) - Important Persons

- sealed witnesses of the tribulation

period

(144,000 Jews and a great host of

others)

- 7th seal - (Introduction of Christ)

B. Seven trumpets (8:7-19:10)

- 1st (8:7) Hail, fire, blood, 1/3 of trees and grass

burned

- 2nd (8:8,9) great fire in the sea - 1/3 sea as

blood, 1/3 fish and ships destroyed

- 3rd (8:10) wormwood star falls, 1/3 water made

bitter, many men die

- 4th (8:12,13) 1/3 sun, moon, stars smitten

(Angel - 3 woes to inhabitants of earth for

the 3 trumpets yet to sound)

- 5th (9:1-12) Satan cast out of heaven, locusts

plague from bottomless pit

- 6th (9:13-21) 4 angels of River Euphrates, army of

200 million horsemen, 1/3 people killed,

rest repented not

Parenthesis (Rev. 10-11) - Important persons

10:1-11 - Angel and the little book

11:1,2 - Times of Gentiles to end in 42 months

11:3-12 - 2 witnesses killed and arise

11:13,14 - (last of the 6th trumpet) - 2nd woe -

earthquake kills seven thousand men

- 7th trumpet (11:15-19)

Parenthesis (Rev. 12) - Important persons

1,2 - the woman

3,4 - Satan

5,6 - Christ

7-12 - archangel

17 - Jewish remnant

13:1-10 - beast out of the sea AntiChrist, man of

sin (2nd person of unholy trinity)

13:11-18 - false prophet (3rd person of unholy

trinity)

14:1-5 - lamb and the 144,000

14:6-7 - angel declaring the gospel

14:8 - angel declaring fall of Babylon

14:9-12 - angel declaring the doom of the beast

worshippers

14:13 - doom of the beast worshippers

14:14-20 - vision of Christ and his sickle

(Armageddon)

C. Seven Vials

1st (16:2) - sores on those with the mark of the beast

2nd (16:3) - blood in the sea - death)

3rd (16:4-6) - fountains of water affected

4th (16:8-9) - sun scorches, men repent not

5th (16:10,11) - sore upon beast and his followers -

men repent not

6th (16:12) - waters of Euphrates dried up to prepare

way for kings of the east

Parenthesis (16:13-16) unholy trinity gathered for

Armegeddon

7th vial - (16:17 ff) - thunder, lightening,

earthquake, hail, plagues upon great Babylon

(Rev. 17) - Doom of Political Babylon (Rev.

18) - Doom of religious Babylon

Parenthesis - Hallelujah's of glorified saints

Grand re-entry of King of Kings, Lord of Lords - Rev.

19:11

III. Implications of These Descriptions

INPUT - how do we know that there even would be any

implications of all this? (doctrine always given

to change us)

INPUT - can you think of any statements that might guide

us in seeing applications from this material?

1) Revelation of Jesus Christ - this material

wasn't given to wow us like a science fiction

novel

2) Rev. 1:3 - blessed is he that reads, and they

that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep

those things that are written in it

- questions to guide us, 1) What do these verses teach us

about Jesus?

2) what about these verses do we need to

read, hear, and keep to be positioned

to receive God's blessing?

A. Appreciate the orderliness of God

- earlier we talked about how the tribulation isn't a

time where things are out of control, because there

is a clear purpose

- this overview of Revelation streghthens that point

because - the tribulation isn't a time where things

are out of control because the judgements are

carried out in such an orderly fashion

- everything's perfectly organized with the

judgements carried out in a systematic way where

they are both devastating yet under control

- illus - (Yater's baby Tucker)

- born - took a big gasp of air, perforated his

lungs

- air went into the chest cavity and made his lungs

collapse

- Doctor recognized what was happening, rushed him

down to neo-natal

- put a needle in his chest cavity, drew off the

oxygen, then reinflated the lungs

- I wouldn't complain about that doctor bill, would

you?

- thank the Lord for a man who was able, in a

stressful situation, identify the problem and then

respond in an intelligent and controlled manner

- I was talking to someone else about that and they

said the great danger in that situation, when the

adrennelin is flowing, is for the doctor to

actually overreact and maybe cause worse damage

because he didn't respond in a controlled manner

- that situation impressed me, but infinately more

impressive is the God of heaven who is judging the

awfulness of sin yet does so in an organized,

controlled manner

- by the way, can I ask you, is that the way you deal

with the sinfulness of others?

- you do have to address the sinfullness of others

from time to time

- if you have people working for you, you do

- if you have children, you do

- if you're a church member, you do

- if you're married, you do

- would the folks under you say that, even when so

and so is dealing with my sin or shortcomings, they

do it under control, in an orderly fashion?

- thats the way God deals with sin, and thats the way

he wants us to deal with it

- you might say - thats hard to do - you're right

- can I give you a hint on how to get that done

- one thing you've already done - study how thats

true of God, and grow in your appreciation of it

- in addition to that - when you're going to deal

with someone else's sinfulness or shortcoming,

plan it beforehand and write it out

- thats exactly what God has done with the

tribulation

- I'm not saying He did it to keep Himelf under

control

- but the fact that he did it means no one could

accuse him of being disorderly or out of control

B. Recognize the power of Christ

- Sunday before last Pastor was walking us through

John 7 where Jesus calmed the storm

- remember the disciples amazement to see the wind

and waves obey Him?

- for sure that ought to be one of our responses

tonight as we see how the entire Universe responds

to Christs commands

- we know that Christ created the world

- we know that by his power it is held together

- but we've also seen tonight that by his word, it

can be destroyed

- one of the things the tribulation reveals about our

Savior is his great power

- its pretty easy, when we look around at the

circumstances, to feel pretty powerless

- folks often say, I just can't keep going

- I can't keep living for God in this trial

- I can't keep returning good for evil

- I can't keep bringing up my children in the nurture

and admonition of the Lord

- I just can't keep growing

- Paul said in Eph. 1 that he wanted the eyes of our

understanding to be opened, so that we waould grow

in our comprehension of:

- what is the exceeding greatness of his

power

- studying the tribulation can help us grow in that

understanding

C. Be sure your picture of Christ includes his function

as judge

- as I get out and have opportunity to talk to folks

who say they are Christians but either don't attend

church or do't attend one that teaches the

Scripture, there seems to be a characteristic that

is often present

- that is, no real understanding of the expectations

of Christ, or future judgements that he will

perform

- because of that, they think its pretty spiritual to

mention God when they are having a difficulty or in

the hospital or whatever, but there's just no

category in their thinking for the kinds of things

we're talking about tonight

- that results in a view of Christ similar to many of

the pictures we see that artists have done

- where Christ is a weak individual who's there

basically to answer your requests--

- this material puts that in balance

- Revelation 1 pictures Christ as one who:

"Had in right hand seven stars, and out of his

mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; and his

countenance, was as the sun shineth in its

strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his

feet as dead"