Kingdom Come

Revelation 11:15-19

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.”—Revelation 11:15 (NIV)

In John chapter 18 verse 36, when Jesus answered Pontius Pilot concerning Him being a king, He said “My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting, that I not be delivered up to the Jews but as it is My Kingdom is not of this realm.” (NASB)

In Matthew 26:52, Jesus told Peter to put his sword back in its place.

In Matthew 26:53, He said, “Or do you not think that I cannot appeal to My Father and He at will once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (NASB)

 When Jesus was teaching his disciples how to pray He said,

“Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” –Matthew 6:9-10 (NASB)

Regarding Jesus’ return, I Thessalonians 4:13-18 says:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (NASB)

We recently had a tornado warning in Oconee and Pickens County.  They announced it over the PA system at the plant and this thought came to me: “I may be just one tornado away from leaving this world and being with the Lord for all eternity.”  That thought made my day.  I became encouraged and realized that I don’t think about the Lord often enough nor do I think about His return or His calling me home as often as I should. 

Later I shared this thought with several co-workers and one of my co-workers (Joel Witman) made a comment that struck me.  Paraphrasing his comment from my memory,  Joel said something like this: “The thing that amazes me is that of all the religions in the world Christianity is the only one that teaches that if you are a Christian then when you die you are guaranteed to go to heaven, but 98% of the people that call themselves Christians fear dying.”

I asked myself later, “What would make Christians fear dying if they knew for certain that they were going to heaven?” I came up with two possible answers, although there are probably more.

1) They have unconfessed sin in their life and Satan has deceived them into doubting their salvation and doubting whether they are truly forgiven by the blood of the Lamb. Thus Satan has robbed them of the joy of their salvation.

2) They know in their hearts that they are not really forgiven because they know in their hearts that they never truly made Jesus Lord of their lives and they know in their hearts that they have been pretending to be saved.

So what does it mean to be saved?  It means that:

1) You recognized that you are a sinner.

2) You understood that the punishment for sin is death and judgment.

3) You understood that either you had to pay the punishment for your sin or someone who has not sinned had to pay it for you.

4) You have accepted Jesus’ death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin.

5) You have chosen to die to your old self and live for Jesus and obey the commands of His Father in heaven.

Matthew 7:21-23 says,

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (NASB)

Some people can pretend things are a certain way so long that they forget that they are pretending.  But regardless of whether the unrepentant sinner remembers that he or she is just pretending or not, in the end he or she won’t be able to convince Jesus who knows the hearts of all men and women.  He will say to them “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

On the other hand He said to His disciples in Luke 12:32, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.” (NASB)

Jesus does not want followers to be afraid.  If we are following His will and obeying the things that He has taught us or is trying to teach us each day we will not be afraid. On the contrary, we will be experiencing the peace that passes all understanding and we will be experiencing the day to day Joy of our Salvation.

The author of Hebrews assures us that when Christ comes back it won’t be to judge the believers who eagerly await His return.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. —Hebrews 9:27-28 (NASB) 

If we are eagerly awaiting Him we are not going to be in fear of His return. If we are not eagerly awaiting Him then we need to examine ourselves and ask why?

If it is because of un-confessed sin in our lives we need to confess our sin and regain the joy of our salvation.

If it is because we have never truly died to our old self and are not living for Jesus and have not made Jesus Lord of our lives then we need to make that decision with a sincere heart and die to our old self and receive Jesus’s payment for the forgiveness for our sins and make Him Lord of our lives and start living for Him so that we can experience the joy of salvation that so many other Christians do.

Now back to Revelation chapter 11, we read the following in verse 16:

And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, (NIV)

Why 24 elders?  Why 24 thrones?  Why not only 12?  Didn’t Jesus tell his 12 disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel?

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” – Matthew 19:28 (NIV)

In Luke chapter 22, the author Luke a doctor also records a time when Jesus told the disciples that they would sit on 12 thrones:

You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. – Luke 22:28-30 (NIV)

Earlier in this series, Carl read a verse in Revelation chapter 4 that also mentions the 24 elders and the 24 thrones. Revelation 4 records the following scene in heaven:

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.—Revelation 4:1-4 (NASB)

After the words “the twenty-four elders” in Revelation 11:16, the Amplified Version of the Bible adds the phrase, “[of the heavenly Sanhedrin].”  In the Amplified Bible foot notes in Revelation 4:4 where these twenty-four elders are first mentioned, Berry’s Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament is referenced for the origin of this addition.

Remember there are a lot of things that God told Moses to do in setting up the Tent of Meeting including making the golden lamp stands and bowls and setting out the bread of the presence and the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice on the altar and the Ark of the Covenant.   These were things that mirrored or were copies of what was in heaven or what was to be in heaven and on earth when the “kingdom of the world” becomes “the kingdom of the Lord and His Christ.”

God also gave Moses the law and court system in which the tribes of Israel set up in each of the cities and which was eventually set up in Jerusalem and called the Sanhedrin.  So, it is not too much of a stretch to think that these twenty four elders and their respective thrones represented the heavenly Sanhedrin, but we don’t know that for sure.

Now we do know for sure that there will be loud voices making the proclamation that the “kingdom of the world” has become “the kingdom of the Lord and His Christ,” and we know for sure that the 24 elders will fall on their faces and will worship God.  Additionally, because of verse 17, we know that these 24 elders will be saying: 

“We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.”—Revelation 11:17 (NIV)

We also know for sure that the nations will be angry. 

“The nations were angry; and your wrath has come.  The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great—and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within His temple was seen the ark of His covenant.  And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.—Revelation 11:18-19 (NIV)

If you have ever wondered where the arc of the covenant is located, wonder no longer, because Revelation 11: 19 reveals that its location is in God’s temple in heaven. The second part of the verse reveals what is going to happen on earth after the seventh trumpet blast in heaven has sounded.

Now putting the content of today’s five verses in the book of Revelation together we see that:

--There will be a seventh trumpet blast

--Loud voices in heaven saying:

--“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.”

--The 24 elders will fall down and worship

--The temple in heaven will be open 

--The arc of His covenant will be seen

--There will be lightning, thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm