A Glimpse of the Future

Then a voice comes from heaven, “like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder”. And the voice seemed like music, singing a new song which only the redeemed could sing.

Hi everyone, I’m Tammy Becker.  Welcome to the Almighty God & Gospel Girl Podcast.  This is week twenty into our series of Revelation and our podcast today is titled: A Glimpse of the Future.  My podcast today will be based on the reading of Revelation 14.  And if you would like to follow along with the notes or maybe you would like to find the links to anything mentioned in the podcast today, you can go to the link in the description or by visiting www.youministries.com and visiting the corresponding page.  As we get started today, I would like to remind you of my disclaimer, that as always…do not take my word, or anyone’s word for what you read…get yourself in the Bible and let God discern His Word to you.  I am only human and make many mistakes and do not claim to know or understand everything in the Bible…I just hope by bringing out this study that your interest is sparked enough to get into God’s Word and begin to deep dive on your own.

As we walk through the days of the Tribulation, John continues to narrate the vision he’s been told to write down about the judgments still ahead. The reel continues to roll, and the story continues to unfold. This chapter contains previews of coming attractions—but with a special audience in mind.

Revelation 14 records a message to those still in the conflict, the ones living day to day in a living war against evil and Satan and his henchmen. Will it turn out OK for us?

Yes, John reports. You will be harassed and sacrificed like sheep. But your sacrifice will not be meaningless.

This is the darkest day and the most horrible hour in world history. It is truly hell’s holiday. How will God’s people make it through this period if they refuse to receive the mark of the beast? Can they remain faithful to the Lord to the end against overwhelming odds? What will happen to the two beasts?

The two wild beasts we met in Revelation 13 are only half the story. Now John reveals the other side of the picture—the victorious stance of the Lamb and His followers in a future so real he writes about it as if its already happened. (Chronologically it will happen in Revelation 16:17—22:5).

Here’s the scene: The Shepherd who began with 144,000 sheep now identifies Himself as the Lamb standing on Mount Zion. And no, He didn’t lose one! He redeemed them, He sealed them, and He kept them, for He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep. These sheep are of a different fold from the flock we are in today. Their Good Shepherd brought them through the Tribulation.

The Lamb—not the two beasts—has the last word. Babylon—the great political, commercial, and religious capital of the world during the Great Tribulation—will fall. The followers of the Beast will be judged. Even though many of Jesus’ own will die for Him, they will not lose. They win in every way that matters.

The Millennial Kingdom opens with a peaceful, pastoral scene. In Revelation 19, the Lamb of God returns to the earth to reign from Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the city of the great King (see Psalm 2:6). This is the same Lamb we saw in Revelation 5—7 and 12—13. The darkness of the Tribulation days are fading away, and the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings. He stands there with the 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name inscribed on their foreheads.

Then a voice comes from heaven, “like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder” (v. 2). And the voice seemed like music, singing a new song which only the redeemed could sing.

Have you ever heard a choir of 144,000 voices? Up to this time earth has been out of tune with heaven, but now Satan’s rule is over, and the earth and heaven are in tune. The 144,000 learn the new song and join the harmony of heaven. They do not go to heaven but have been redeemed to enter the Millennium on earth.

These 144,000 have kept themselves from the sins of the Tribulation day; they’ve been pure when immorality spread like a virus on the earth. They also kept themselves from the worship of the Beast and his image. They refused to believe his big lie. They would not be deceived. They emerged purified from the fires of the Tribulation—because they were good? No, they are without blemish because they are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

John then reports on a scene, summarized here, that will be unpacked in detail in chapters 15—20. He saw an angel in a line with six other angels, “flying in the midst of heaven” shouting to the earth, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (vv. 6-7). This angel serves as a broadcasting station to the entire world.

Today, the gospel has been given to us to share. Angels would love to proclaim it, but they aren’t allowed to during our age. But in the Tribulation, the times get so intense only angels can get God’s message to the world. Angels are indestructible.

In effect, this angel is saying to God’s people, “Get wise, get smart, because you need to fear God. God saved you by His grace, but He is going to judge this earth.” This is God’s final call before the return of Christ in judgment.

Another angel announces the fall of the city of Babylon, the fountainhead of every false religion. The announcement is made as if the event had already taken place. The world is intoxicated by this city. Everyone is fascinated with its satanic worship, exorcism, and the cults based here (see Jeremiah 25:15-26, 51:7; Isaiah 13:11, 19). But just wait until Revelation 17.

A third angel announces that anyone who received the mark of the beast would fall under God’s wrath. Jesus will move personally and directly in putting down the rebellion against Him here on earth.

In this intense time under the Beast, no one could assume a neutral position. If you refused the mark of the beast, you starved. But if you received it, you rebelled against God and will “drink of the wine of the wrath of [God]” (v. 8; see also Psalm 75:8).

Many of God’s Tribulation saints, from the 144,000 Jews and of the untold number of Gentiles who will be saved during that time, will lay down their lives for Christ. During this horrific season, it will be better to die than to live. A voice from heaven told John to “write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on … that they may have rest from their labors, and their works follow them” (v. 13). The Lord will reward them for their faithfulness, patience, and good work. God doesn’t save anyone for their works, but He does reward us for them.

John then gets another spectacular view—on a white cloud, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself with a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand—descends from heaven (see Matthew 24:30). The crown on His head confirms this is our Lord Jesus, the hero of Revelation. At last we see Him, not as prophet or priest, but as King, His office that has always been connected with His return to the earth.

The sharp sickle in His hand reminds us of a frequent image in the Bible of God’s judgment of the wicked. Just then, another angel comes out of the heavenly temple, crying in a great voice, “It’s harvest time! Swing your sickle and reap. Earth’s harvest is ripe for reaping.” And the Lord gives a mighty sweep of His sickle and begins to harvest the earth in a single stroke (see Matthew 13:39-42). Harvest time in the Old Testament often spoke of this as “the Day of the Lord” (see Joel 3:13-14). The earth had yielded a crop of unbelievers, which now, at the end of the Tribulation, is coming into judgment. The angel gathered them from the earth to be judged in God’s great wine press. The treading of grapes was a familiar picture for the execution of divine wrath on God’s enemies.

In Isaiah’s day men would get into the winepress barefooted to tread out the grapes. The red juice would stain their clothes. In this picture of the Lord Jesus, there is blood on His beautiful garments as though He had trodden the winepress. When Christ came the first time, He shed His blood for all mankind, but some rejected it. Now He is trodding down the wicked, and it is their blood that is shed. What a picture this is! They rejected the precious blood of the Lamb, but now the blood of those who defied God and followed and worshiped the Beast bathes the earth. Frightful! As a ripe grape is mashed and the juice flies in every direction, so will little man fall into the vat of God’s judgment. This will be Armageddon—the mount of slaughter that will cover all of Israel in a final war beginning in the middle of the seven years of tribulation and is finished when Jesus Christ returns in person to the earth.

These scenes of judgment are terrifying. The only remedy for sin is the redemption Christ offered when He shed His blood on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins. We deserve this judgment; our only escape is to accept the work of Christ for us on Calvary’s cross. Hebrews 2:3 asks a question even God can’t answer: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Escape what? Escape judgment—the week of years is judgment. The only way out is to accept Christ’s offer of salvation. This judgment must inevitably come to those who reject Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for them. If God is just (and He is), this naturally leads to judgment. Someone must pay. If you refuse Christ’s substitutionary death, then you will pay. Nothing straightens out your life like knowing God is holy, that the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous, and that He will not tolerate sin in your life.

With this future view in mind, John unpacks the final judgments that will come next, leading up to Christ’s victorious return putting an end to the Great Tribulation.

Next week we see the final set of judgments pour out o the earth.