The Flow of the Future - Part B

You have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Only one group can say that, and that's the church. Angels don't sing, I've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The nation of Israel, unless they're saved like any believing Gentile would be saved, could sing that. Only the church can sing this song. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip concludes his message, The Flow of the Future, and tells you about the song that you and the whole church will sing one day. Thank you for joining us today. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to bring more people into God's family and connect listeners like you to his unchanging truth. That's why we make teachings like this one today available to you and others on air and online.

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All right, let's get started. We're going to be in revelation today as Skip begins. So we have the very words of Jesus Christ in this book. We have a vision of Jesus Christ in chapter 1. So it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. By the way, do you know what the word revelation means? It's the Greek word apokalupsis. It means an unveiling or a disclosure, a display, if you will, a showing of Jesus Christ.

Apokalupsis. Unfortunately, that word apokalupsis, which has become our English word apocalypse, has a very negative meaning. The dictionary defines apocalypse as the complete final destruction of the world. It actually, in its original means, an unveiling or uncovering. And in the New Testament, it's used about 18 times. Whenever it speaks of a person, it talks about a person becoming visible so that people can see him.

So here's the best way to understand the book of revelation in terms of this definition. If you have an artist who is hired, let's say, by the city government to make a statue to display downtown at City Hall. And they pay him a lot of money, and he's worked many months, maybe even years on the statue. And it's the day to dedicate the statue. And so everybody's gathered in Civic Plaza, and the statue is draped so you can't see it.

The mayor says a few words. The artist then comes up and says, this is how I did it, why I did it, and this is what the statue means. And then the band plays. This used to happen in the old days.

I don't even know if this still happens anymore in cities. But the band would play, and at the precise moment, the veil was pulled off the statue, and it was apocalypsis. It was revealed.

It was displayed. So in the book of revelation, that's what we see happening. It's as if God the Father says, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to present to you Jesus Christ. That's what the book of revelation does. It presents it presents Jesus Christ. Now back to Martin Luther for just a moment.

When Martin Luther wrote his preface to the New Testament, he took the New Testament translated into the language of the people, which for him was German in 1522. In the preface to that translation, he said this concerning the book of revelation, my spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me, this is reason enough not to think highly of it.

Christ is neither taught nor known in it. Close quote. Got to be honest with you, when I first read that, this is what I said. I said, huh? That's what I said. Huh? Go ahead and say that. No, say it like I just said. Huh?

Yeah, that's what I said. Because I thought, Martin, are you serious? What do you mean Jesus is not recognized nor taught in it?

He's all over the book. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And I thought, I love Martin Luther and I'm thankful for his contribution.

I really am. But he was right about the reformation. He was wrong about the revelation.

And let me show that to you. In chapter one, two, and three, it's all about Jesus overseeing and evaluating his church as the exalted priestly king. In Revelation chapter four and five, Jesus is seen in heaven as the lamb of God and the lion of the tribe of Judah. In chapters six through 18, Jesus is depicted as the judge of all the earth. In chapter 19, we see Jesus returning as the conquering king of kings and Lord of lords. In chapter 20, he's reigning on earth as the bridegroom with his bride, the church, for a thousand years. In chapter 21 and 22, he is the one who illuminates the new Jerusalem and the eternal state. So it's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in every chapter from beginning to end.

So three features. This book is a prophecy. This book has a promise. This book reveals a person.

Fourth feature. This book comes with a plan. I love when a Bible book gives the outline to us. And the book of Revelation provides the outline to the book of Revelation in chapter one. Go down to verse 19 of chapter one. This is what the angel says to John.

Verse 19, write the things which you have seen. That's number one. And the things which are. That's number two. And the things which will take place after this. That's number three.

Write the things that you have seen, the things that are, the things that will take place after this. Three things. There's a three-fold division. John does exactly that. He writes what he sees, the vision of Jesus. That's chapter one. He writes the things that are, things pertaining to seven churches. That's chapter two and three. Then the bulk of the book is the last division, and that's chapters four all the way to 22, the things which will take place after this. The future things.

That's the outline of the book. So write the things, first of all, that you have seen, beginning in chapter one, verse 12. There's a vision. I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to his feet, girded about his chest with a golden band, etc., etc. It's a vision that he sees of Jesus Christ. By the way, you may or may not find this interesting.

People did last night, so if you don't mind, I'm going to share it with you today. For thousands of years, people have wondered, what does Jesus look like? What does Jesus look like?

Right? And there's not a physical description in all of the Bible what Jesus looks like, except one, and it happens to be in Revelation chapter one. It's the only depiction that we get of what Jesus looked like, and if this is Jesus in His second coming glorified state, not His earthly state, but you have all these artists, you know, making Jesus look like this, or that when I grew up, it was the surfer Jesus that was depicted. You know, his hair was sort of beautifully quaffed, you know, down, layered, a little bit blonde streaks in the front because he's been out on the waves, and it's like, okay, I can relate to this Jesus.

But what happened to the Middle Eastern Jesus, right? So everybody sort of depicts him differently. John sees him, though he had seen him once before, 60 years before this, in the flesh, the Galilean preacher, the one who healed and raised people from the dead, the one who himself raised from the dead. Here he sees a very different Jesus, a completely glorified Jesus. In this vision, he sees his hair as white as wool, similar to the Daniel chapter seven vision of the ancient of days.

He sees his eyes with a flame of fire, that penetrating gaze that he can see into men's souls. So that's what he writes first in this division, right? There's a flow to the future, and first he writes the things that he sees, Jesus. Second, he writes the things which are, that's chapter two and three. Chapter two and three, John records an evaluation of seven local churches that existed at the time in Asia Minor. The evaluation is made by none other than Jesus Christ.

That's why the words are in red. Seven churches are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. Years ago, I had the privilege of visiting those seven churches and seeing their ruins. They were actual local churches, but there's also an historical application to chapter two and three. These seven churches can also be seen as seven periods of church history from the apostolic era to the apostate era in the last days, the fallen away church. It also has timeless application to churches of all ages.

Every community has churches like these churches that are in Revelation two and three, and every church has church members like every one of these churches in Revelation two and three. So there's those three divisions, what you have seen, the things that are, the things of the church, then finally, and the things which will take place after this. Now in that outline, verse 19, chapter one, verse 19, that outline, things that you've seen, things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The Greek word is important.

That's why I'm going to share it with you. The things which will take place, metatauta, after this, metatauta is the Greek. And I bring that up because when you get to chapter four, verse one, it opens up and it says, after these things.

But the Greek word is metatauta. So John, write what you see, things that are, and the things that will happen, metatauta. So he does that, he gets to chapter four, and he says, now after these things, metatauta, so we're clearly entering the third division of the book in chapter four.

I want you to notice something else. What is the last word of chapter three? Shout it out if you read it. Churches, churches, churches, 19 times the word church appears in Revelation chapter one through three, 19 times. Church, church, churches, church, church, 19 times. But the church is not mentioned again through the entire book until you get to the very end of the book in Revelation 22, verse 16. So this shift of looking at the details of the church to absolute silence about the church is striking, and it's totally unexpected if the church is going to go through the tribulation, which it is not, because the church is mentioned nowhere during that period of judgment. So the best explanation of this is a straightforward reading of the book of Revelation, to see Revelation not as some preterist view, historicist view, it happened in the Roman this, and let's make this stuff up there, but to see it as a an actual chronological prediction, straightforward chronology of what is going to happen. So you have the church age with Jesus superintending his church, at the end of the church age you have the rapture of the church, and then you have the tribulation period.

That's the best explanation. So John writes about the vision, writes about the church, and then mettata after this. Now after he writes about the church, he hears a voice. A voice is like a trumpet calling him upward.

Sounds very familiar to us. Look at chapter 4, verse 1. After these things, mettata, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. Now a lot of people ask me, well where is the rapture in the book of Revelation? It's in the white space between chapter 3 and 4.

I'm going to show it to you. After these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. The first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me and saying, come up here and I will show you things which must take place, mettata, after this. Immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne. He who sat there was like a jasper, in other words a diamond, and a sardius stone bright red like ruby in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald wizard of oz on steroids. Around the throne were 24 thrones and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads. Sounds strangely familiar, does it not?

Doesn't it sound a little bit like what we covered last time when we were in this series? First Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul said, the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, thus we shall always be with the Lord. And that's where the church is. John suddenly caught up into heaven and he sees 24 elders and the throne of God. The church is safely ensconced in heaven for I like to call it a seven-year honeymoon, right? The marriage supper of the lamb takes place, we read about in the book of Revelation. So we told you a few weeks ago about an ancient Jewish wedding that after the wedding ceremony was a seven-day feast and the bride and the groom were tucked away from the crowd, tucked away from the world, and then at the end of that seven days the groom would present his bride once again to the wedding guests for the final celebration. So one of these days Jesus is going to rise from his throne in heaven as his father says, son go get your bride. Then all of us who are heaven-born will be heaven-bound.

And John is caught up in chapter four. He sees the throne of God but he also sees 24 elders and four living creatures. Who are the 24 elders? They're around this throne like a an ancient court with a king in the center and around our our subjects.

Who are these 24 elders? Some say, oh they're just symbols. 24 elders are just symbols.

I don't think so because these symbols are talking to one another. Other people say, no then they're angels. These are just angels. Well I know they're not angels because in chapter 5 verse 11 he says, then I looked and I heard the and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders. So they're differentiated between angels and elders and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000. Also it can't be angels and it can't be symbols because of the song they sing. Let me just let me cut to the chase. This is the church the 24 elders I believe represents the church in heaven.

Why? Because of the song they sing. They sing lyrics that only saved people can sing. Angels could not sing these lyrics. The nation of Israel could not sing this only saved by the blood of the lamb people could sing these songs. Look at chapter 5. Look at verse 8 and when you're taking the scroll the four living creatures 24 elders fell down before the lamb each having a harp golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints and they sang a new song saying okay here's the lyrics you are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us these are redeemed saints you have redeemed us to god by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation only one group can say that that's the church angels don't sing i've been redeemed by the blood of the lamb the nation of israel unless they're saved like any believing gentile would be saved could sing that only the church can sing this song so there are 24 why just 24 well that's the symbolic language these it's a representative number just like in the old testament there were 24 courses of priests and 24 heads of those courses of priests and they represented the entire nation of israel these 24 elders represent the church i'm an elder by the way not this kind of elder but i'm i'm an elder of this church of calvary church i represent this church i am not the church in its totality obviously but i am a representative and so this is representative of the saints the church in heaven so and what in heaven so and we'll stop here this is the flow of the future this is the flow of the future question is are you ready for it are you ready for it because you should be ready for it because you just might be pitching next sunday you might be pitching next sunday life may be over for you after this week nobody knows so it behooves anybody who hears a message like this to make some pretty important choices years ago stephen cubby wrote a book called first things first some of you have read that book and are familiar with it in that book he talks about a seminar speaker giving an illustration taking a big jar think of a glass jar large open mouth jar next to it were a pile of fist-sized rocks he took the rocks and put it in the jar filling it all the way up with these rocks held up the jar and said to the audience is the jar full and they all said yes he took out a can that he had underneath filled with gravel dumped the gravel that went in between the large rocks and then he said now is the jar full and maybe everybody was pretty silent at that point maybe one person said yes it's full then he took a jar of sand that he had and poured the sand that went in between the rocks and the gravel and once again said now is it full nobody said anything at that point i think one person said no it's not he then took a picture of water poured that into that large open mouth jar filling it all the way up to the top and said now it's full and he said now what's the object lesson here what is the lesson i'm trying to get across and somebody shouted out um things aren't what they appear no somebody else said you can always fit more into your life if you try no that's not the lesson and then he said here's the lesson if i hadn't put the big rocks in first it would be too late to put any of them in it's the lesson of prioritizing your life putting in the big rocks first what are the big rocks first in your life i can think of a couple god a relationship with jesus christ based on forgiveness of sin pretty big rock the truth is a lot of things you think are important is just gravel and sand you putting that in first putting that in first putting that in first water water it you got to put the big rocks in first you got to establish the big stuff first the big stuff in all of these studies of the future is an ooh there's a cool new chart on end times theology and i have a copy of it the big rock is not that the big rock is am i right with god as i face the future am i right with god do i know jesus christ am i forgiven of my sins if you are not put that big rock in first in your life that concludes Skip heitzig's message from the series the end is near find the full message as well as books booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com now we want to tell you about a resource that will help you gain a better understanding of the current state and future of current state and future of israel how have conflicts and wars in the middle east set the stage for a future apocalypse that's the question ron roads takes head on in his new book listen to this what do you see coming in the next five or six years that might do injury to the church and without hesitation i said i really feel like we're going to see an explosion of subjectivism experientialism and mysticism along with occultism and some paganism how conflicts and wars in the middle east have set the stage for the end times this new book by ron roads addresses issues such as understanding islam rebuilding the temple and the annihilation campaign from the antichrist here's ron roads commenting on middle east events did you know that in revelation two and three we read about the church 19 times and then in the discussion on the tribulation in chapters four through 18 you don't see the church a single time it is gone in first thessalonians 1 verse 10 we are told that the church is to be delivered from the wrath to come that word delivered literally means snatched snatched away from we are to be snatched away from the wrath to come which is a reference to the tribulation period with your gift of 50 or more to connect with Skip heitzig you'll receive a copy of this new book from ron roads your gift will support the production and expansion of the connect with Skip broadcast call 1-800-922-1888 or go online to connectwithskip.com with your donation and we'll thank you with a copy of ron road's new book how conflicts and wars in the middle east have set the stage for the end times that's 1-800-922-1888 or connectwithskip.com be here again tomorrow to hear skip's message about the dark times in store for the earth there's nothing worse than what is coming on the earth it'll be worse than the dark ages worse than the black plague of europe that killed 25 million people it'll be worse than the great depression worse than world war one worse than world war ii worse than the holocaust worse than the bombs that went off in hiroshima and nagasaki worse than the 2008 recession and a recession worse than covet 19 it'll be worse with burdens on his make the connection the connection connect with Skip hyton is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never changing truth in ever-changing times