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Calvary Chapel South Bay Tape #: TN20150716 Pastor Jeff Gill Category: Rapture

"John's Rapture Preview" - Revelation 4:1-3

PRAYER: Father, we have gathered together in this, Your house, which is to be called

a house of prayer, to pray to ask the God of heaven, the Creator of the universe, the

Lord of all the heavens and the earth, to speak to us through the power of Your word.

And so, Lord, we ask that You would just do that tonight, that You would push aside all

the hindrances, Lord, the things that we may have brought with us from work or maybe

school, home, perhaps something that happened on the road, Lord, something from

last week maybe years in the making, God, something that is interrupting that flow of

the Spirit in our heart or our mind tonight. We pray that You would just put those

things aside and speak to us as Your church. We're delighted, Lord, that we can call on

You and You answer. And so, Lord, please speak tonight we pray in Jesus' name,

amen.

Revelation chapter 4, and as you turn there this is the turning point and we'll get to

some of those things here in a little bit. But this is the turning point in the book of

Revelation. Up to this point in time, the Lord Himself has been speaking. He's been

communicating personally. He has spoken into our lives about who He is, what He is.

What lies ahead is now ahead of us. And so we're on the verge of turning the corner

and as we turn the corner, you would expect to find the Lord to speak to the issue of

"What now?" He's just finished this long discourse, these seven churches representing

the Church Age in its entirety from its infancy, its founding in the first century, to its

conclusion with the very last church, the church of Laodicea. The church of the very

last days, the lukewarm church that we finished with last time we were together. And

so from that point, the Lord is now going to begin to speak with the church beginning

to fade away.

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And so He says, "After these things..." (Revelation 4:1) Please circle that, underline

it, highlight it and ask yourself the simple question, "After what things?" Because it's in

reference to something that already will have come to pass and that something is the

Church Age. "After these things..." (Revelation 4:1) After the church of Sardis and

Thyatria, Philadelphia. After the church of Laodicea. "After these things..."

(Revelation 4:1) The Age of Grace concluding. The time of the church's influence on

the face of the earth will come to an end one day. It's one of the reasons that I believe

the church's time is now. We need to seize the moment. I don't know how much

longer we have.

I often get asked the question, "Well, do you think the Lord's coming back, you know,

this year, this week, next week, next year?" I don't have the answer for that in a

specific way but I can tell you this, if He's ever been close, He's closer still tonight. I

have said for several years now, it's almost as if you can hear the horses warming up in

heaven. They're getting ready.

And after these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking to me, saying,

'Come up here...'" (Revelation 4:1) John is getting a preview of what lies ahead for

those who are a part of the "After these things". Nearly 2000 years ago, the apostle, in

a cave on the island of Patmos, received a vision from the Lord. That vision from the

Lord transported him into the heavenlies and he saw what awaits every last one of us.

"Come up here and I will show you the things which (notice this, circle it,

underline it) must take place after this." (Revelation 4:1) And the "this" is after

these things. So it is a very clear statement that these things are going to take place

after the Church Age is over and after the things that are completed in the Church Age

have come to the fullness of their fruition. And they must come to pass. So it's

speaking of what we would call a foregone conclusion. The Lord, in His infinite mind

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and infinite wisdom, in His sovereign plans, knows exactly when this "after this" is going

to occur. He knows tonight when that time is and when He decides that time is it will

happen.

And so the next sixteen chapters are going to describe the things that will happen after

this. And they are varied and they are many and they are, if you are here tonight and

do not know the Lord Jesus, absolutely terrifying. If you know the Lord Jesus, perfect

love casts out all fear.

"For immediately I was in the Spirit..." (Revelation 4:2) Notice that he wasn't

transported bodily, He was transported spiritually. His body was not yet redeemed so it

could not enter the glories of heaven but his spirit, because of the blood of the Lamb,

was absolutely righteous as you are in Christ and I am in Christ. The righteousness you

have, the righteousness put into your account was put there by the perfect Lamb of

God and so thereby you, too, one day, can enter into glory. It's the beauty of your

personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you're here tonight and you're one of God's

children, you've said yes to Jesus, then you have sufficient righteousness because of

Christ to enter the glories of heaven, the nanosecond you take your last breath. To be

absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, amen? Glory in it. Glory in it

because when you leave this earth, you know where you're going. I always think about

guys when I think about this passage because we're famous for telling people we know

where we're going and then not asking directions. In this case, fortunately, the

directions are immutable. They were etched by Jesus and you're gonna go straight

there. There'll be no little detours off into purgatory or wherever. Absent from the

body and present with the Lord.

"...and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He

who sat there was like jasper.." (Revelation 4:2,3) Jasper, by the way, in this

sense, is clear. And I want you to know this is the first of the stones in the breastplate

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of the high priest. The second stone was like sardius, ruby red. It is the last stone in

the breastplate of the high priest. Perfect and yet red. A white robe and yet His blood.

It's a picture of the Lamb. "...there was one who sat there like jasper, a sardius

stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne in the

appearance of an emerald." (Revelation 4:3) You see, as you see this heavenly

picture, for us it's kind of hard to grasp it because it's really as John is transported

there, he's transported in the Spirit. He's given a vision and he's seeing something that

he's never seen before. He's witnessing something that you and I won't see until we

get there. But it absolutely transported him into the glories of heaven.

I wanna remind you of a few things as we move on because if you remember, when we

were in chapter 1, we got an outline there in verse 19 of chapter 1. It's important to

remember that now going forward because you remember that outline in chapter 1,

verse 19, it says this, "Write therefore what you have seen, what is now and

what will take place later." (Revelation 1:19) And so when you look at those three

things, what you have seen refers to the events that we covered when we were in

chapter 1. It was about everything that John had seen in his lifetime. That part of the

history of the Church Age. "What is now" is all of the Church Age in its entirety.

So we are nearing the end in a practical sense of that period of time of "What is now",

chapters 2 and 3, the Church Age. And then chapters 4, all the way really to the end of

the book of Revelation, include "What is to come," those things that will take place after

the Church Age is over. And so as we think on those things, remember where you are

in this timeline because the church at Philadelphia is gone, for the most part. The

church at Laodicea, very much at work in our world today.

And so what John is saying is there's gonna come a point in time when the Church Age

is gonna be O-ver, with a capital "O". And then these things are gonna happen. And at

the beginning of those things, he's transported to heaven for a glimpse of glory. And if

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what I believe is true, John represents you and me, all of the church that is alive on the

earth right now, today. He's a picture of those who are alive when that trumpet

sounds. He is a picture, really, of the Rapture of the church. And I wanna spend a

little bit a time tonight because I think it's important going forward. And before I begin

to speak on this topic, this topic which can be, if you allow it to be, divisive. And I not

only don't want it to be divisive, I absolutely do want you to understand what we as

Calvary Chapel believe to be true. And that is prior to the coming of the Lord, that the

church will be taken home. We will be raptured off of this earth and taken up to meet

the Lord in the air. And I can't wait.

But there are well-intentioned, Bible believing, Christians who believe otherwise. And I

want to give those views tonight and I want to set straight something for you. Nobody

goes to heaven because of what they believe about the rapture of the church. Nobody.

And so the reason I'm saying that is you may have people, maybe you have, like I do...

my brother happens to be of the "reformed" theology. And that reformed theology is

the last group that we're gonna cover here in a moment. They believe there will be no

millennial reign of Christ. That we're in this Church Age and that the tribulations

described in this book are going on even now. They represent the wars and all of the

things that have gone on from beginning of the Church Age until now. That the next

event is the coming of the Lord. And here's why I think we need to be very careful with

this particular doctrine which I believe I will defend for you extremely well. And I

believe that we can look at it and cling to it. If I'm wrong, we're wrong, and there is no

rapture, then praise God 'cause we are dumb about the things that are coming, okay?

We just don't know. And if they're wrong, they're gonna be really happy 'cause they're

gonna miss the Tribulation, okay? But the bottom line is for the believer, ultimately,

there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. So I

want to set the stage to not be divisive tonight. But I simply want to give you those

three views and then the one non-view of what many people believe.

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Before we do that, let me give you the chief reason, that I believe, that you can simply

be here tonight and go, "Man, one day the trumpet's gonna sound and we who are

alive and remain are going to meet Him in the air. It's gonna happen instantaneously,

forever to be with the Lord." And there are two things that I wanna point you to.

Number one, we must make a distinction between Israel and the church because if you

combine the two, if you spiritualize the church and spiritualize Israel, it becomes a

mishmash. You cannot look at the prophecies of Isaiah, the prophesies of Joel, the

prophesies of Zechariah, you cannot look at the prophecies of Daniel and you cannot

separate out Israel and the church. And when you do that, you have to go to the

second thing, which is a non-literal rendering of scripture. If you simply, literally,

render scripture for what it says, unless you have a really good reason not to, and

when the Lord says, "Look, I'm gonna come and get you and snatch you away and I'm

gonna meet you in the air," I think we can trust God on that. And so there are two

things: the distinction between God's program for Israel and a program for His church

and a consistent, literal interpretation of the scriptures.

So, as people who believe in the rapture of the church, notice this. 1 Thessalonians,

chapter 4, verse 14, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so

God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 4:14) So

he's talking about coming back from heaven with a specific group of people. To be

absent from the body is to be (present with the Lord), so that is the group that he's

referring to, those that are already there. Notice what he says next, "For this we say

to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain..." (1

Thessalonians 4:15) What was John at the time? He was alive and he was remaining.

That would be anyone who's alive and remaining at the time that this event occurs.

"...until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are

asleep." (1 Thessalonians 4:15) So anybody that's gone on before the Lord, they're

already with Jesus. Very simple. "For the Lord Himself will descend (notice where

from) from heaven (and He will do that) with a shout, with the voice of an

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archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

And we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together..." (1

Thessalonians 4:16,17) Very interesting word. We'll get to that in a few moments.

"...together with them to meet them in the clouds with the Lord in the air."

(1 Thessalonians 4:17)

So notice where this meeting takes places. It is not on earth. It is in the heavens.

That is very different than the Second Coming because the Second Coming takes place

on the earth, not in the heavens. So there is a clear distinction here between this event

and the second coming of the Lord.

"And thus we shall always be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:17) So he's

speaking to those who would be alive and remaining on the earth. He says, "So these

groups will then be merged into the body of Christ, complete at that time. Those

who've already gone on before, who are in heaven, those who are dead in Christ, those

who are alive and remaining, boom, together. What do we call all those people? We've

been studying them now for almost two months. We call them "the church", amen?

That's all believers of all times who have ever trusted in the name of the Lord Jesus

Christ and been saved, everybody gathered together. So the church is now together.

Where are they? They're in the air, forever to be with the Lord. Notice he has not

spoken anything about the Battle of Armageddon. He hasn't said anything about

coming back to earth and defeating sin. He simply says, "You're going to be together

with the Lord." "And thus we shall always be with the Lord and therefore

comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:17,18) What comfort

would it be if you were to gather together with the Lord and then immediately begin to

fight the Battle of Armageddon or go through the Tribulation? That is a hard question

for anyone to answer. During the Tribulation, chapters 6-19, that we'll cover as we go

through this, you're going to see that the Lord is trying to draw national Israel together.

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There was a promise made that Paul repeats in Romans chapter 11. He speaks those

things very, very, very clearly and he says there in chapter 11 verse 25, "For I do not

desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery (the mystery of

the gospel) lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part

has happened to Israel until (notice this) the fullness of the Gentiles has

come." (Romans 11:25) The end of the Church Age. The last bit of God's dealing with

the Gentile world and that is what we are. We're not national Israel. I am not a

Hebrew. I am a Gentile believer and so are almost all of you. There may be some

tonight that are actually Hebrew believers. You're completed. I love that term. How

awesome is it to be a Jewish believer in Messiah because you have the best of both

worlds. You have the promises of the covenant and you also have new life in Christ.

That is a...that's a double dip...that's not even fair.

"...until that fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so (verse 26 says) all

Israel will be saved, as it is written (and notice why that is true): For the

Deliverer will come out of Zion and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob

for this is My covenant with them (not with the church, with Israel). I will take

away their sins." (Romans 11:25-27) How are all sins taken away? Nothing but the

blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. It is the blood of

Christ that cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And so this is a picture of Israel

coming to faith in Messiah. That happens because the time of the Gentiles came to an

end. And so I believe this points towards the church being taken away off of this earth

and you will notice that the church is not mentioned on the earth for the next sixteen

chapters. There's no mention whatsoever. None. Jesus Himself will not speak again,

except for one verse, until the end of the book of Revelation.

And so John is now getting this vision, that he's now been transported to heaven. He

sees heaven and heaven is downloading to John. This is like, in the Mission Impossible

series where, you know, you have the little chip and you put it in. It's like all the

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information goes and just downloads the whole thing. John's getting the full download

now.

And so we have three basic views of this event. The first one, which is the view that I

hold to, the view this church holds to, the view that I believe best explains what

scripture clearly says is going to happen. That the church is going to be caught up.

Those that are alive, that remain at that time, will be snatched away. My little diagram

here helps you to understand that.

So you have the Old Testament times. You have the Church Age which we just looked

at, the seven churches. At some point in time prior to the Tribulation, that final week

of Daniel's prophecy, the church is snatched away and there are a couple of things that

go on in that period of time. You have the Gog/Magog campaign to where Russia and

its allies, aligned with the Arab nations that are listed there in Ezekiel 38 and 39, come

against national Israel. And as they come against national Israel, it looks like they're

going to win and one of the reasons that that looks like it's going to be in place is the

Antichrist will have risen and as he rises, the first thing he does for the first 3 1/2 years

is he creates a peace treaty with national Israel. He creates economic prosperity for

the entire world. He develops a one-world monetary system, a one-world religion and a

one-world government. And so as he does that, that first 3 1/2 years looks like it's

going to be a time of peace. And then all of the stuff that is going to unfold in the next

sixteen chapters comes about. The Antichrist rises and then, literally, all hell breaks

loose on earth. The church is snatched away and during the period of time, God pours

out His wrath on the earth. Following that, the Lord returns, that Second Coming, that

down arrow that you see there. And then a thousand years of the Lord ruling and

reigning with His saints here on this earth. It's the first view. The easiest to

understand as far as I am concerned.

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The next view, which is a little different, and it really is fairly easy to see. It's known as

the "Pre-wrath" view basically because of what I just explained to you, that the

Antichrist will rise. He'll be a man of peace initially. And so as he's a man of peace, he

comes to the world, kind of with a peace treaty. And he says, "Look, I'm a good guy."

When the Antichrist rises, many people think, you know, he's gonna be like the epitome

of looking like the devil that most people have in cartoons. He's not. He is going to be

suave. He will be debonair. He will absolutely wear Armani and Gucci and he'll be

carrying a wad of cash in his pocket. He'll have some serious bling. He'll be driving all

the best cars and he will be well spoken, extremely well liked. People will fall in love

with the Antichrist because they will be deceived because the Holy Spirit has now been

pulled out of the world, because the Holy Spirit resides in the church, amen? So if the

Holy Spirit is in the church and church is no longer here, it’s gonna be pretty easy to

deceive the world with world peace. Does not the world ache for peace right now?

And so in this view what happens is that peace treaty comes about and then all hell

breaks loose on earth. And so before the really bad stuff happens, before what they

would like to call the wrath of God occurs...but if you remember correctly, it's gonna be

kind of tough to buy and sell during that period of time. And we'll get to all this as we

study through these next sixteen chapters. You're gonna need to take the mark of the

beast. You're gonna have to buy into the system. And so, this view says, then the

church will be snatched out 3 1/2 years into the Tribulation. Then the Second Coming

of the Lord, the Battle of Armageddon, all those things, then a thousand year reign of

Christ.

The third view, which is the "Post-tribulational" view, to me is the one that absolutely

makes zero sense. I call it the "yo yo" view because it assumes all of those things to be

true. You're still gonna have the battle of Gog and Magog, the campaign that could

well last years. We're not actually told when it starts, when it ends. We just know that

the church is raptured and taken off of the earth. But during that time of the

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tribulation, the Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob's Trouble when God is pouring out

His wrath on this earth, they believe the Christians are still gonna be there and the chief

reason that they believe it is because we deserve it. And that is true. I do deserve the

wrath of God but I'm pretty sure my Bible says I've been saved from it.

So again, remember why we believe this literal interpretation of scripture, 1

Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 6, "Let us not sleep as others do but let us watch

and be sober," it says in verse 6 of 1 Thessalonians 5. "For those who sleep,

sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who

are of the day be sober..." (1 Thessalonians 5:7) That means to be wide eyed,

awake and alert. Sober. You know, kind of like you've been driving at night and you

kind of doze a little bit and you swerve towards the center divider? You remember how

awake you are when that happens? It's like, "Oh, dear Jesus. I almost died," and your

eyes get like this big and like for the rest of the drive, you're like, "Okay, I'm awake

now." Sober. Awake. "Let those of us be sober, putting on the breastplate of

faith and love and the helmet of the hope of salvation." (1 Thessalonians 5:8)

You see, I'm girding my mind up for the truth.

And the truth is, here it comes, "For God did not appoint us to wrath..." (1

Thessalonians 5:9) The whole purpose of the Tribulation is God's wrath poured out on

unbelievers on this earth. So why would God save us from wrath and then make us go

through it? It makes no sense whatsoever, just plainly interpreting scripture. "But to

obtain (notice this) salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (1 Thessalonians

5:9) Makes a distinction between the pouring out of the wrath and the salvation that

we have in Christ Jesus. It's a very clear distinction. "...who died for us that

whether we wake or sleep, that we should live together with Him." (1

Thessalonians 5:10) You see, His point is, "I didn't appoint you to go through that

wrath." That wrath is for unbelievers to go through because they have rejected Jesus

Christ. They refused to turn from their sin and the way that Joel describes what the

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world has done to national Israel which they continue to do today with the help of our

own government. The reason this treaty that we just signed with Iran is so

reprehensible is because it puts at risk God's people, Israel, and you are either for God

or you're against God. And God says, "I will bless those who bless you," and He's

speaking of Israel. He still has a plan for the nation Israel. The whole world, whether

it believes it or not, waits tonight for what happens to national Israel.

And so He says, "Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as

you are also doing." (1 Thessalonians 5:11) He's saying, "Look, I haven't appointed

you to wrath. When the bad stuff comes, you're gonna be gone." And so that third

Rapture view makes no sense that we're going to go through the very thing that He

saved us from. You have been saved from the wrath of God by the blood of Christ.

Praise the Lord!

The final view and it isn't a rapture view, it's a "no rapture" view. Whenever you see

the prefix "a", that means not and so a-millennialism means no millennium. There will

not be a millennial reign of Christ. So that literal reign of Christ that we'll see as we get

to the end of the book of Revelation, those who hold this view believe that will not ever

happen. That it, in fact, is actually going on now, spiritually speaking, in the hearts and

the minds of every believer, in the lives of the church today and that the wrath that's

been poured out is things like the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide and all of

those things that we've seen. Wars… when Jesus spoke of wars and rumors of wars,

He was talking about the wars that have already happened. And so you have to not

interpret literally scripture because scripture is very clear that these things that will

occur in the very last days will have never been seen before nor will they ever happen

again. And so, again, those who hold this view believe that there is simply going to be,

the next event on God's timeline is, the return of Christ. And that Second Coming will

unleash these things on the earth. The earth will be cleansed and then there will be

the, in essence, the eternal state will then come. And so those views...

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Now the reason that I've really told you all these things is quite clear. We're at the end

of the Church Age. Something big is on the horizon and that something big is the

trumpet of God that one day is going to sound and I believe will snatch away the

church by force from this earth. And I wanna get to that in our remaining time. You

see, as we think on these things, you can see some of the highlights of this chapter

because it's very, very sovereignty-centric - Rapture of the church, God's throne, the

approaching storm of God's wrath. We're gonna see the four living creatures, the 24

elders, all these crazy things are coming. This is an absolutely unbelievably exciting

book because it causes us to think about where we are today on this grand timeline.

And every time the world sticks a finger in the eye of national Israel, we're getting

closer and closer and closer.

And I'll encourage you to read Ezekiel 38 and 39 over these next couple of weeks. And

you read that for yourself and then realize that list of nations is all predominantly Arab

nations. They're all aligned together today. Every last one of them has a vested

interest in the erasure of the Jewish people from the face of the earth and they are

being absolutely aided by two nations, Persia (which is modern day Iran) and Russia

(Gog).

And so as we look at this going forward, where are we? Let me give you a little bit of a

history here. One of the most common...early church, beginning back at about 400

A.D., the church began to search the scriptures and what they came up with was what

we call the "7,000 Year" theory. It's one of the oldest theories dating the earliest parts

of the church. The Jewish people believed and we believe as Bible believing Christians

and whether you believe in the "gap" theory that there were six literal days and then

billions of years or whether you believe in punctuated, you know, time or whatever, we

almost all agree that God literally formed the universe and everything in it in six days

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and then He rested on the seventh. And so there is an equivalence here. And speaks

of a couple of passages put into practice over a long period of time.

2 Peter chapter 3 verse 8 says that one day is as a thousand years unto the Lord,

amen? So if you take that, Hebrews chapter 4 verses 4 through 11 presents the

millennial reign of Christ as a day of rest. And when we get to the end of the book of

Revelation, we'll have a literal thousand year reign of Christ. So when you look at that

type of understanding, if God created the world in six days, then we believe that He will

also deal with the world for six days.

Now, this is a theory. Pastor Jeff is not telling you that he heard from the Lord but it is

an interesting nonetheless theory. Almost four of God's days have been taken up in the

Church Age or two of them in the Church Age and almost four of them in the preceding

history that involved the Jewish people up until the time of the Jewish nation being

founded again in 1948. And so you have 6,000 years. That only leaves us a very, very

tiny period of time. Perhaps as little as 70-80 years is all that's left for us to be able to

say, "Ah, God dealt with the world for 6,000 years and then a year of rest." So all of

the stuff that we're now going to look at kind of gets crammed in to the remaining part

of that particular theory. So something to think about.

The bottom line is we're close. We don't know exactly when these things are going to

transpire but if the Bible rightly can be discerned to believe that, from the Lord's

perspective, one day with the Lord is a thousand years, could be that we're awful close

because we've just about wiped out 6,000 years of human history. And the Lord hasn't

come back yet for His church. Feast on that for a little while. You see, as you think on

these things, we have to be really careful to blow these things up too far because I

think people get in trouble when they do that. But it is interesting that the Lord keeps

us thinking about the imminent return of the Lord. It could be tonight. Might be before

you get home.

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And so verse 1, "After this, I looked and there was a door before me standing

open in heaven." (Revelation 4:1) So where is that door? In heaven. Where is

John's body? It's on earth. So he's seeing into the heavens spiritually. He's

transported there. He looked and he heard. So he is not only seeing it but he's hearing

the voice. So John gets a preview of exactly what we looked at in 1 Thessalonians

chapter 4 - we who are alive and remain would meet Him in the air. He went in the

spirit to the air. This was not something he saw on earth. He was transported to

heaven.

So it is a type, if you will, of the rapture of the church. He's saying basically, "C'mon up

here." He looked. He heard. And as you read these passages that point us toward this

time when the church will be snatched away, the immediate thing a lot of people will

say, "Well, you know the word rapture is not in your Bible." That is absolutely true.

The word, rapture, is not in the Bible because it's not an English word. The word,

rapture, comes from a Latin word, rapturo, which is a transliteration of a Greek word,

harpazo, and those words when you look at them, they are linguistically absolutely

correct that "to be snatched away by force" is to be raptured. That is an absolute

correct rendering of the original Greek.

But it went from Greek to Latin to English. And that's why you don't see it, 'cause it's a

Latin word. Very simple to understand. And people say, "Well, you know, I don't think

I can believe that." Well, if you don't believe that, let me give you a little problem for

you to work out. Um, then why do you believe that we should call God God? His name

is actually Y-H-B-H, if you want to look at it in the original Hebrew. We actually try and

spell it out, Yahweh, but we call Him God. So His name really isn't God. He said, "I AM

that I AM is My name." Jesus actually isn't Jesus either. His name is actually Yehoshua

or Yeshua. It's transliterated. And in that transliteration, we get Jesus (or Jesus). It's

the same name. It means God is our salvation. And so before you get too far off and

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people complain and whine about using the word, rapture, "You're right. The word,

rapture, isn't in there." But neither actually is God or Jesus. So if you use God for

God's name and you use Jesus for Jesus' name, you have the same problem as

speaking about the rapture of the church. It's simply a transliterary issue where you're

taking from one language to another. So from Greek to Latin to English. The word

that's used there means to be caught up, snatched away by force, drawn up.

The human author of the book of Revelation is now speaking about things that he saw

in heaven. And there are several. Enoch was a type. He was snatched away. Elijah

was snatched away. Jesus Himself was taken up into heaven. The apostle Paul, taken

up into heaven. John now is taken up into heaven. So there have been pictures of this

event throughout the church's history on this earth and throughout the history of even

ancient Israel.

And so there are four doors that were opened in heaven. Now John is standing before

that one door. He's looking and we see him staring into heaven and he gets these

highlights, if you will, of what it looks like there. And, again, when you're trying to

describe God, because no man can see God and live, amen? If you were to...that's why

Moses saw His back. He never saw the full face of God. He saw the back of God, the

shadow of God if you will because you can't see God and live. And so John, looking

into heaven, gets a partial glimpse of these things. And so he says, "Look, here it is.

These doors of opportunity that are here." We saw one back in chapter 3. We see one

here in chapter 4. There was another in chapter 3, that door of the human heart or the

door of opportunity as we also call it. And then there's going to be one when we get to

chapter 19.

And so God is opening heaven's door to see things that we can't even imagine. And so

you would imagine them to be something that we would have a tough time describing.

And so as he says, "Look, these are things that must take place after this," it's because

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he's going to now describe three consecutive sets of seven judgments that are gonna

fall on the earth. And he's going to begin with the seven seals. They occur in chapter

6. They'll be followed by seven trumpets, followed by seven bowls as God pours out his

wrath on the earth.

And so the trumpet of God, as he looks into heaven, is giving him the confidence that

these things came actually from the mouth of God. He says, "Look, I'm telling you

things. They're from Me. I have all of this under control." When we look at the world

tonight, many people, especially those who don't know the Lord, look at the world and

it almost seems like, well, that's a case for there not being a God. I mean, it's a mess,

amen? But can I tell you that God has it absolutely under control. We may not

understand how He has it under control but He has it absolutely under control. And He

opens doors. He closes doors. And when He opens them, no one can shut them and

when He shuts them, no one can open them. We've already seen that.

That door to heaven is about to open for the church. And it's going to be closed to

those who are on the earth. The Age of Grace is going to end. That door of

opportunity that is now open in grace is going to be a very different thing during the

Tribulation. It will cost you your life. It will cost you your head. It will cost you

everything. There will be people who get saved during that period of time. We know

them and we'll see them as Tribulation saints. National Israel will become saved. That

doesn't mean every Jewish person, doesn't mean every… It means like we are...

America's called a Christian nation. It's in that name. People will largely...as the Jewish

people see Messiah, they will mourn the One whom they have pierced and boom, "It

was Him!" That door that's easy right now because to believe on the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ is to be saved, amen? That's an easy thing to do. If you're here tonight,

that's what it takes to be saved. It means to acknowledge your own sin. It means to

put your faith and trust that Jesus Christ died for your sins on Calvary's cross. He has

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paid the price for them. He has placed righteousness, His own righteousness, in your

account and because you have believed in His name, you will be saved. You will go to

heaven. That's easy tonight.

But imagine when the whole world is ruled by people who do not believe. They will be

rejoicing that the church is gone. Is not the world right now even saying, "Man, just

get rid of Christians. They are the problem." I think they're gonna rejoice. You know,

there's been lots of books written and I don't wanna go into the speculation but

whether they believe we all got zapped away by an alien abduction or whether there

was, you know, the black plague and it only affected Christians, I don't know but I

know this: We're gonna be gone. They're gonna be here and it ain't gonna be easy to

find Jesus 'cause the Holy Spirit is in you. The Holy Spirit will still be in the world in

that sense, still available to those who seek but no longer with a common voice. You're

not gonna be able to walk up and tell somebody about the glories of God. You're not

gonna be able to convince them of the truth of the gospel with the word of your mouth

because you'll be killed for doing those kind of things. You see, he's off on a voyage.

He's having a vision.

As we look at the remaining structure, we can actually see chapter 4 being the

transition from the things which are to the things which will take place after this. This

is the transitional point. John first is going to present the church in heaven. We're

gonna see the 24 elders. We're gonna see the church, alive and well in heaven. We're

gonna then see the Tribulation, chapter 6 to chapter 18. We're then going to see the

Second Coming of the Lord, then the Millennial reign of Christ and finally, the new

heaven and the new earth. But before all of that happens, the church is gone. The

church disappears and we will not be mentioned again until the very, very end of the

book.

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And so he looks into the throne room of God and sees this incredible picture. Now,

remember, that we earlier saw the Lord walking among the candlesticks, amen? Okay,

if the candlesticks are in heaven, then you would not expect the Lord to be walking

among the candlesticks unless the candlesticks are in heaven. And so the candlesticks

are in heaven, the elders are in heaven, the pastors of the church have finally finished

the race. They've run the course. They've received that reward. They've entered in.

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

And so he now will shift gears to begin to tell us about what's gonna happen. In order

to do that, he says, "Look, I saw this One on the throne that looked like the absolute

most pure light that I've ever seen." Strangely and oddly enough, when you talk to

most people about out of body experiences, if they claim to have gone to heaven that is

the single most common comment they have - that it was bright light.

The other thing that he says is, "Look, I see One who is a red light, a carnelian light

and, of course, that represents to us the blood of Christ which has cleansed us from all

unrighteousness. As Isaiah said, "Though my sins be as scarlet, You will wash them

and make them white as wool." It's the picture of the One who's on the throne and,

oddly enough, he gives us a picture of the Alpha and the Omega, the first of the stones

in the breastplate and the last of the stones in the breastplate. That was the picture of

the progression of the children of Israel. The last shall be first and the first shall be

last.

Jesus said, "Look, that's how it is in heaven. I am the Alpha. I am the Omega. You'll

all be there." To as many as believed in Him, to them He would give the ability to

become the sons of God. And so He says, "Before that happens, before I begin to deal

with the world for what it's done, before that Age of Grace comes to a close, right at

that end, I'm gonna take My church home."

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Family of God, you may not make it home. We used to have, I remember, back in the

late 60's or early 70's, my church, we had a...everybody, you know, if you were in the

youth group, we all had 1 Corinthians 15 t-shirts and it showed these shoes that were

like in the middle of the t-shirt and like the clothes were falling off on the other end.

And it was "Rapture Ready", you know? We were like waiting. Well, that was a while

ago but I know this: we're closer tonight than we were then and we were close then.

So I don't know when that trumpet's gonna sound. I don't know when the dead in

Christ are gonna rise. I don't know when that time is that we who are alive and remain

are gonna meet Him in the air but I know it's gonna be sooner than you think. And I

just simply ask you the question: "Are you ready? Are you Rapture ready?" I have to

look at it like this - you know, when you...in the old days, you remember, you used to

actually get tickets when you flew somewhere? Now it's all e-tickets. You don't get

anything. You just wave your Smartphone. Seriously. I just take out my Smartphone.

It's like, "Here's my ticket." But in the old days, they actually sent you a folio, you

know? You remember those things? You actually got a ticket folio and in it was an

actual hard ticket. And what everybody did is you took those tickets and they usually

were on the refrigerator or somethin'. You could stare at them, think, "Man, I'm

leaving tomorrow on a jet plane (it's a John Denver song, by the way)." Shows you

how old I am. "Yeah, I'm gonna be on that plane. I'm gonna be flying to here or going

to there." There was a...vacation tickets right there on the fridge.

I'm gonna ask you a question tonight: Is your vacation ticket validated for heaven?

Because if it's not, you need to square that away before you leave tonight. Because if

you don't know Him, you're gonna be here for the things that are coming in the book of

Revelation. And you don't wanna be here for that. This is not a pretty sight. But God

says what He means and means what He says. Good news is all you have to do is ask

Him into your heart and you'll be saved. And then you can start living for Him.

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We're gonna have the worship team come back up and I wanna pray. We've got some

prayer warriors available for you. Please, in Jesus' name...any of the people up here,

you can pray with them and you, tonight, can get that squared away to where your

ticket's punched. It's ready. Please don't leave this place without it, okay? And so if

that's you, Christ is calling. The door is open. And He's inviting you tonight to give

your life to Christ because tomorrow is promised to no man. Your destiny is secure in

Him. It is absolutely insecure in the world. Do not leave without knowing Jesus. Let's

pray.

Closing Prayer: Father, tonight, I believe there are people here tonight that do not

know You. They may have even in their own hearts even shunned this message, said,

"Hogwash. It's foolishness." But Your word actually says the gospel is foolish to those

who are perishing. It seems crazy –that the Creator God of the universe would come to

this earth and die for sinful mankind. That through His death, our sins would be wiped

away and we would be saved but that is the gospel. And so, Lord, I wanna pray

tonight that if there's anybody here that You would just right now by Your Spirit, speak

to them and they would come forward. They would bow their heart before You and

pray to receive Christ. Father, we thank You for the promise of the Rapture of the

church. Lord, we can't wait to leave but we also know we have work to do before we

go. So make us ready, Lord, for that time when the trumpet sounds, when we who are

alive and are still on this earth, rise up to meet You in the air. God, we do find comfort,

we do find hope in that promise. And so tonight, we bless You for rescuing us, God.

You rescued us. You saved us. Save, tonight, the lost we pray and we ask it in Jesus'

name and all God's people said, "Amen". If that's you and you need Jesus, we're gonna

be down here waiting for you. Come and be prayed for. Come and give your life to

Christ. The rest of you go get busy about your Father’s business, amen?