Before the Curtain Rises, Part 1

It's easy for us humans to think much higher of ourselves than we ought to, and to think that planet Earth belongs to us. Here in this period of time they will discover that all along this was the Creator's Earth. This is His planet, this is His air, His sea, His world, and He alone has the right to judge. God will use the idols of mankind to crush mankind. The universe, and everything in it, belongs to God. Often people seem to act like it's ours.

Many people in our day esteem planet Earth so highly that knowingly or not, instead of worshipping the Creator, they worship the creation. But friend, a day is coming when that will change. God will make His ownership of the universe clear. The way that He'll do that is by using His creation to bring forth His judgment. Stephen Davey is going to examine this today in a lesson he's calling, Before the Curtain Rises. This is Wisdom for the Heart. Here's Stephen with today's message. As I prepared to re-engage with you in this study, it occurred to me that what we really ought to do is set the stage for the next event in prophetic scripture following the tribulation, the most magnificent and glorious scenes ever seen on planet Earth. We just sung of them with emerald quartz and sapphire skies. That will be true. In order to set the stage for that, what I want to do is look at where we've been briefly in our session today.

I know you have it all down pat by now, of course. But let's take this study and review, especially for those new friends we want on the same page with us. Now, if you've ever been to a play, and maybe you've had a homespun play in your living room, one of our holidays in a little house at the beach, we brought all our home videos with us and we laugh till we cry. Our twin sons and our daughter, a year and a half younger than them, were performing plays and they'd do the Mary Joseph every Christmas and baby Jesus and they'd come out in the bathrobes and the towels and then they'd disappear. Our hallway was sort of backstage and we could hear them back there and, okay, arguing and talking about who goes out next and Mary and Joseph were having a fight over baby Jesus. Laughed and laughed and laughed. But if you've been to something a little more sophisticated, maybe a middle school play with your kids or a high school play or maybe you've been to Broadway and you know how it works in between scenes, the curtain drops and you can hear movement.

Maybe a bump or two. If there's a gap between the curtain and the floor, the stage floor, you can see feet moving around the stage. You can hear the sliding of furniture and other set pieces that are being put into place. You can't see him, but you know the stage manager is back there somewhere in control of all the moving parts, directing the stage crew and readying the actors to make sure that every prop and every person is in place. And then the curtain rises and the audience is swept into another scene as the drama moves forward.

That's us right now. We are the audience. We are watching and listening while the stage is being set for the next dramatic scene in the prophetic calendar. The curtain is closed so we can't see all the details, but there are glimpses of movement. There are spaces here and there we catch.

We can't interpret all of the sounds perfectly that we hear. We do know that the director is in control and all the set pieces and players are under his sovereign direction as the stage is being set before the curtain goes up and the next event which is the rapture of the church takes place. That leads me to say quickly, if you've never given your heart, life, body, soul, mind to Jesus Christ, do it now. Do it now. Before the curtain goes up, maybe even before the sermon is over, accept Christ as your sovereign Lord now. You don't have to join this church. You don't have to sign a card. You don't have to go through baptismal waters. You don't have to turn over a new leaf. Those will be evidences that you really did come to Jesus Christ, but they come after the fact.

You can settle it with God right now where you sit and I exhort you to do that. The curtain could go up today. Now when you attend a play, the more sophisticated kind, you typically get a program, don't you? And it tells you the scenes that are rolling out, those that will occur next. In fact, you get a brief synopsis of each scene and you can look ahead.

Now the body of Christ has been given that kind of program. It's this book of Revelation along with prophetic scripture throughout the Old Testament and of course much of it in the New as well. We can read a brief synopsis of each scene that will occur as well as a list of scenes yet to unfold. So by studying our program, taking it at face value, we know that we're right now in the first few chapters of Revelation, in chapters one through three, this period of time known as the church age. And we also know that when the curtain rises on the next scene, the rapture of the church, that what will follow closely after that then is the tribulation period and then after that the kingdom of Christ on earth and after that the eternal state. And I'm sure you have all that down pat, right?

Well let's slow it down a little. I want to push the rewind button before we get to the next scene. I have outlined the book of Revelation, in fact before we ever started, into four main sections. The first section is chapters one through five, which I've outlined as the sovereignty of Christ in his church. The church appears in the first five chapters of Revelation. In the first three chapters of Revelation, the church is on earth. In chapters four and five, the church is in heaven. Not surprisingly then, after chapter five, there are no more appearances of the church on earth until after chapter 18.

Why? Because from chapter six to chapter 18, through chapter 18, the time of tribulation occurs on planet earth and the church has been promised to be removed out of, chapter three verse 10, away from Ek, apart from, the language says, the presence of God's wrath on earth during the tribulation period. So chapters one through five have as their focus the sovereignty of Christ in his relationship to his bride, the church, first seen on earth and then seen worshiping in heaven. The second major division of our program is the severity of Christ in his chastisement and this is the bulk of the body of this revelation. This is the tribulation period where God pours out his wrath on humanity and planet earth to set the stage for the next event of God's calendar.

What exactly in review is this period of time? Well the period of time on this timeline that takes place between these two yellow arrows, one arrow refers to the church going up and the rapture being caught away is the Latin which gives us our word rapturo or rapture from Paul's writing to the Thessalonian church and the arrow coming down represents the return of Christ with the church to set up his kingdom. Between those two arrows are seven years of unparalleled human suffering, demonic activity, cosmic disturbance, Jewish awakening, gospel preaching and global crises that the world has never seen before. The four horsemen representing the four opening seals, the four riders of the apocalypse unleash those initial plagues of God's wrath and human suffering through one act of judgment after another. What will follow are cosmic disturbances, the moon turns to blood, the sun an eclipse and then flaring to strike the earth with great heat, natural disasters are going to come one after another striking the earth over and over again as the angels sound trumpets signifying new fresh disclosures of God's wrath and then the final blows of God's judgment depicted as bowls tipping over pouring out as if the wrath of God was water being poured out upon the earth.

We have spent quite a lot of time studying that progression of time revealed to us in Revelation chapter 6 through 18. No one as we've studied will be worshipping this tortured earth anymore. God will bring more damage to the planet he created than mankind could ever conceive of. No one will be worshipping mother earth anymore.

As we've said there will be no more earth days during the tribulation. Mother nature will no longer be a cute little title for the politically correct. She will effectively as it were become a monster of great torment.

Why? Because the created order which by this time in Revelation has reached the status of divinity and the universe considered almighty which by the way is interesting we're there now. Creation will by the command of the creator turn on mankind and nature will become the agent in God's punishing hand. The world will discover their error and their false idols. Matthew Henry wrote more than a century ago this pastor commentator that the unbelieving world thinks that everything in creation belongs to them. He wrote they believe this is their planet, their earth, their air, their sea, their rivers, their world and that they alone have the right to judge it. Well here in this period of time they will discover that all along this was the creator's earth.

This is his planet. This is his air, his rivers, his world and he alone has the right to judge and God will use the idols of mankind to crush mankind. Nature will run riot as natural disasters along with following diseases and unparalleled crime and starvation. They will reach such devastating levels that by the end of the tribulation coffins will not be able to be crafted fast enough and corpses will lie out in the open. In fact revelation informs us that by the end of the tribulation half the world's population will be dead.

During the seven year period between those arrows primarily the last half of that period of time that Christ adds the word great to the word tribulation. This will be the time when the antichrist declares himself to be God. He will put up an image of his own claim to deity. He will demand that the world worship him. Demonic activity will run rampant as Satan and his antichrist have their way in ruling the world.

Now why does all of this unfold? What is the purpose again of the tribulation? Well first and foremost for Israel and you need to know that. In fact if you miss Israel in all of this being reconstituted you miss so much of what God has in store. I remember reading one critic in my last couple of years of study, critic of revelation who said the book of revelation is so Jewish.

Well it is. All the prophecies of Israel's regathering and awakening come to pass in revelation as Israel is not only regathered but converted. Isaiah, Amos, Zachariah, Daniel and more these prophets spoke with certainty of Israel's national conversion as an ethnic elect people returning to the land of their fathers and maybe we've in our lifetime begun to see that happening. In fact you need to understand that one of the ongoing evidences and I've said this before but I'm going to say it again.

The evidence is that we know God will keep his covenant promise to this ethnic people of Israel is that Israel not only exists today but they still after thousands of years have a national conscience and a national heritage and a national vision from Father Abraham thousands of years ago to today the Hebrew people exist. When the Olympics were held not too long ago maybe you watched the opening ceremonies. Amazing and all the nations represented and their athletes marching into the stadium during the opening ceremonies you did not see one athlete from the Hittite nation did you?

No. You didn't see any of the Ninevites perform either did you? Or the Girgashites or the Jebusites or the Amorites or what I like to say all the other mosquito bites. You didn't see any of them. You did not see one Philistine competing in the long jump.

Why? They were long gone absorbed into the peoples of the world but not the Israelite. The tribulation will be that period of time when ethnic Israel this elect nation Paul speaks of in Romans 11 will experience national conversion and they will see Christ descending as he sets up his kingdom they will look upon him they have pierced. The tribulation is not a time for the church to suffer the wrath of God then or at any time for that matter. You know I've had people say to me Stephen the only reason you believe in the rapture is because you don't want to go through the tribulation.

Duh. It's an ancient Hebrew word you speak when in the presence of brilliance hey no kidding but I'll usually ask them well why do you think the church should suffer through the tribulation and I'll invariably get an answer back that says something like because the church needs to be purified. Well first of all it's terrible theology both practically and biblically. It's terrible practical theology because when somebody says the church really needs to be purified first before it enjoys the kingdom of God I want to ask them which church are you reading the news?

Are you watching? Are you talking about the church in Sudan where thousands of believers have been martyred in the last decade for their faith in Christ? Are you talking about the church in Iran or Saudi Arabia where to accept Christ is to lose your life? Are you talking about the church in China where that nation is still imprisoning and torturing those who believe? You know the problem with a person who says something like that is they're interpreting prophecy through American eyes. Through western eyes the blood of the martyr is flowing around this globe in our lifetime more than ever before. So when I hear some well-meaning believers say the church needs to go through the tribulation because it needs to be purified I think how utterly embarrassing. Wake up! Read!

You're gonna have to dig because the western media shuts it down but it's out there. It's also poor biblical theology not just poor practical theology as it relates to the doctrines of truth revealed to us about the Christian's position in Christ. The Christian does not have to be further purified in order to enter God's presence. The Christian is purified. Second Corinthians 5 21. We are not earning the righteousness of Christ. We have the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote to the Philippians in chapter three verse nine. You don't have a righteousness of your own derived from the law or keeping the law but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Ladies and gentlemen we're not earning it.

We have it. Furthermore the church does not merit the grace of God. That's on biblical theology more than a billion people on the planet believe that. There's not a list of things to do to earn the grace of God. We have been given the grace of God through the merit of Jesus Christ alone. By the way grace is defined biblically as unmerited or undeserved favor from God. In other words if you earned it it would not be grace. Paul wrote to the Ephesian church in Christ we have that is now we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us Ephesians 1 8. We watch the scene unfold as the church was raptured singing to their gracious redeemer the church symbolized by the 24 elders wearing white garments as Christ promised the church wearing crowns upon their heads as Christ promised the church seated upon thrones as promised by Christ to the church in fact reinforced by the apostle Paul who wrote to the Corinthian Christians these words that are startling if you ever want to sit down and meditate on them do you not know that the saints will one day rule the world in other words the church in heaven during the tribulation will return with Christ as the tribulation comes to a close and as Christ sets up his kingdom we the bride of Christ will serve as co-regents with him ruling and reigning during this dazzling glorious kingdom on earth for a thousand years with its economies and its businesses and its exploration and its developments and we will be in the administration of the emperor now while we do not know when the rapture will occur we do know that after the rapture occurs sometime after the tribulation will begin we're not sure how long it will be before the tribulation begins but we do know that begins with the signing of some kind of peace treaty that brings peace to Israel is prophesied and delivered to us in Revelation Matthew chapter 24 and Revelation chapter 6 provided for us a complimentary commentary on one another and we learned that the tribulation began with the presence of a leader who was able to bring peace to the Middle East particularly with Israel in mind the peacemaker will soon be revealed as the Antichrist he's able to broker this peace which seems to settle things down for the first half of the tribulation but at that midpoint he begins his bloodbath as he seeks to exterminate the Jewish people that's one of the reasons the Jews flee from the Antichrist who seeks to wipe them out along with those who believe in in the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ now this is more than anti-semitism this is Satan's attempt to keep the prophecies of a reconstituted nation of Israel from their land which if he can do that if he can wipe them off he can then what he can make null and void any further prophecies from being fulfilled of Christ ruling from Jerusalem from David's throne and so we studied at length the flight of the Jews warned by Jesus in Matthew 24 when you see these things happening you better run don't worry about packing clothing or storing food you just run because of all these horrors that will be unleashed on the planet and most evangelical scholars are many that I read have suggested that they flee many of them who can who can get away to a place called Petra it's a wonderful hiding place and I'll review that quickly we looked at that concept together most of the buildings in this ancient city were literally carved into the sandstone hills about a thousand years before Jesus Christ was born around AD 551 the 6th century an earthquake occurred and it caused the people to abandon these built-in homes these literally the city fearing for their lives should the mountains collapse some of the buildings they're not just rough hewn some of them are beautifully carved into the mountains excavations have revealed in through these openings major highways and and boulevards and shops and and homes Petra was rediscovered in earnest in 1812 it's been a point of fascination and excavation ever since one of the reasons petrol would make such a great place to retreat and hide during the tribulations of the fact that it would be easy to defend should they be found most of the buildings can only be reached on foot or donkey or camel in fact enemy soldiers would have a difficult time sending a large army into this area without having to march in single file since much of Petra is surrounded by sheer cliffs this would certainly be a wonderful area to protect and an area in which to hide we also learned that the Antichrist's agenda is not only the extermination of the Jewish people but the exaltation of his own divinity he will forge together one world government a one world political body a one world economy and he will rule now the concept of a one world government in a one world economy in fact a one world religion are not new they've been around a long time throughout history the world of mankind has fought for world domination in fact just read the record of Alexander the Great who hoped one day to rule the world from Nimrod's rebuilt Babylon read of Napoleon who attempted also to unify the world under his control and he also in fact he had plans drawn up for the rebuilding of Babylon there in modern day Iraq from which he wanted to rule the world where did he get that idea from well none of the attempts at a unified world system under the rule of one man is yet to succeed but just look around just listen at the rising volume the rising rhetoric of nations clamoring for a for a one world political government a one world economy in fact if you look at all the many I should say of the major religious bodies sort of chucking overboard convictions relative to whatever they believe in their hope to somehow forge a unified religion you can't help but wonder if the curtain is going to rise soon since nobody can predict the timing of these things there's only one wise option to submit to the king of the universe today one day every person will submit to his authority we have the opportunity to do it joyfully now you're listening to wisdom for the heart the bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey Stephen pastors the shepherd's church in Cary North Carolina today's lesson begins a series from revelation entitled thy kingdom come this message is called before the curtain rises there is more to this message it was too long to fit in one broadcast so we're going to come back to it and bring you the conclusion next time between now and then we'd love to hear from you one of the joys of our ministry is hearing from listeners and learning how God's using this ministry to help you grow in your faith you can send us a message through our website wisdomonline.org you can also call us our number is eight six six forty eight bible once again that's eight six six forty eight bible I'm Scott Wiley and I thank you for joining us today Stephen will be back next time to conclude this lesson so please join us right here on wisdom for the hearts