Book of Revelation Explained 13: The Rapture in Revelation (Revelation 4:1-3)

[Music] [Music] now we come to the part you've all been waiting for the section that deals with the rapture the tribulation the Antichrist the Battle of Armageddon and the Millennium right when you heard the term revelation that's what you thought of right and you know we've spent the last two or three months going through the first three chapters and it seemed like it was crawling along at a snail's pace and you're thinking when are we gonna get to the exciting part well we're here you see the book of Revelation is divided into three sections the past the present and the future if you remember in chapter 1 verse number 19 Jesus told John to write the things which thou has seen and the things which are and the things which shall be Hereafter now this is the basic outline of the book of Revelation it divides the book into three distinct sections based on what John was instructed to write he was told to write the things which thou has seen past tense chapter 1 the things which are present tense chapters 2 & 3 also known as the church age all of the things we've been studying over the last month or so and last but not least the things which shall be Hereafter future tense chapters 4 through 22 the things that will happen after the church age in other words after the church is raptured so revelation is divided into three sections that I want you to get this just pull out your chart follow along with me the chapters one is the things that thou has seen chapters 2 and 3 are the things which are in chapters 4 through 22 are the things which shall be Hereafter the future things that you've wanted to be studying so turn with me if you would to the book of Revelation chapter 4 verse number 1 says after this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven in the first voice which I heard were as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither and I will show you show thee the things which must be Hereafter now notice the first two words in this verse after this meta Tata after this after what well after the church age we just got through studying the letters to the seven churches in Asia now each church represents a different period in church history these periods of history make up what is known as the church age so when John says after this he means after the church age now the church age doesn't end until the rapture occurs right is that true would everyone agree with that yes well think about this if the true church is still on the earth has the rapture occurred if I'm still here has the rapture occurred no but when the rapture occurs what will happen well the dead in Christ are resurrected and those who are alive and well are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air which means that the true Church of Jesus Christ is no longer on the earth it's gone and when the church is gone the church age is over does everyone agree with that all right so if the phrase after this in chapter four verse one means after the church age then it must mean the rapture has just occurred would everyone agree with that does that make sense good that makes sense so in verse number 1 of chapter four we should see the signs that indicate that the rapture has occurred and that the church age is over if this is true if not it can't be referring to this so let's look at the signs that should be in verse number one that indicate that the rapture has occurred so turn back to verse number one after this I looked and behold a door was open heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither and I will show thee the things which must be Hereafter now I want you to notice what happened to John a door was opened in heaven now John didn't actually see this door open it was already open when he looked up to heaven I know that because the word open or opened and we go is written in the original Greek as a perfect participle now let me explain what the perfect tense means the perfect tense means that something happened in the past but the results of that event continue on into the present does that make sense see if I said I hit the ball and I wrote it in Greek in the air is tense it means that it happened in the past and it's over but if I said I hit the ball and I wrote it in the perfect tense it means that I hit the ball but the results of my hitting the ball is still going on into the present time does that make sense so what this means is that when he looked up to the heaven he saw a door that was standing open he didn't see it open it was already open and it was standing open does that make sense then John heard a voice speaking to him and it sounded like a trumpet now let me see if I can explain this because really this isn't a good translation in the King James Version and it's not really a good translation in any of the translations so let me just kind of explain it if I can it was a trumpet sound but he understood it as if it were as if it were a voice now if you don't mind what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you the original trailer or the original Greek and I'm going to translate it for you I understand that you don't know Greek don't worry about it I'm going to translate it so you can see it that all right okay let's see if it's ready to go nope I got the eraser going so I'm gonna do my pin right this is after this I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and ooh let's go back what did I do let's go back to fine point all right and I keep doing that get off of that well just know that's and and here's what's kind of interesting the way we talk is we have to say everything in order English does that and a lot of the four languages it's not that way right you can just kind of jumble up the sentence but you know by the way that the nouns are declined and the verbs are conjugated that it's meant to go in a certain order that's the way it is here and the reason you don't put it in the order that way is because what you're trying to do is emphasize certain things so it says and the first so I'm gonna put first and this is sound that is the Greek word phone egg now can mean voice but truthfully it has to be in the context to mean voice because it truly means sound and the first sound I heard was as a trumpet speaking with me saying come up and Oh Dez here and now this is the tough part that Dyke so that is written in the future tense so it means I will show so I've got to write three words in a little bitty space so that is I will show to you what must and this can either be happen or come to be Genest I all right so I'm going to right come to be but it you can put hop it or whatever you want to do and now I'm going fooled way off there we come back to the fine point so we'll just put happen here now what after see what happens is I go too fast it's what it's telling me but here's what I want you to see when you look up at here he says and the first sound I heard was as a trumpet speaking with me so what happened is it was a trumpet sound but he understood it as if it were what a voice and the sound of the trumpet said to him come up here to heaven and I will show you the things that must happen in other words come to be after this after what after the church age after you come up here now it's interesting that john heard the sound of a trumpet speaking to him because that's exactly what's going to happen at the rapture look at first Corinthians chapter 15 verse number 52 Paul is teaching on the rapture and the reason he has to teach on the rapture of Corinthians is the same reason you had to teach on the rapture and first Thessalonians when the Christian started dying what was their first thought wait a minute Jesus was resurrected why are we dying and so Paul had to come in and had to teach on the rapture the rapture and to say wait a minute you're not going to miss out your relatives who have died you're not going to miss out Jesus is going to come back and the dead are going to be resurrected and then they said well the debts going to be resurrected what about those of us who are alive so Paul had to teach on what was going to happen to those who were alive when Jesus came back so we see this in 1st Corinthians 15:52 it will happen in a moment talking about the rapture in the blink of an eye when the last trumpet is blown what so what signals the rapture the trumpet the trumpet going to signal for when the trumpet sounds now it's interesting because John in chapter four verse number one hears the sound of the trumpet speaking to him that's kind of interesting I don't know if it's like to get two tongues and interpretation or if it's like the gift of word of knowledge now what do we mean by the gift of word of knowledge if you've studied the spiritual gift to get the word knowledge is when you know something supernaturally that you have no way of knowing in the natural now if you've ever operating that gift you understand what I'm talking about it's like when you're talking with someone and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit puts something down inside of you where you know something about that person and they never told you anything about it you just know that's the gift of word of knowledge the gift of tongues interpretation is when you're able to interpret a language that you have never heard before so what's kind of interesting is John hears this trumpet speaking with him it's kind of interesting how many have ever heard of trumpets at trumpet speaking to me but that's what he says he heard the sound of a trumpet speaking to him and he understood what the trumpet was saying the trumpet was saying come up here now I'm gonna make this a little more simple I don't believe that you have to have that spiritual gift but you probably have to have the word of knowledge because the military used to use trumpets to signal commands or orders before they had walkie-talkies and all of the other modern type of equipment and so when the person the bugler would get up and he would blow the trumpet he would blow it in a certain way that everyone knew what that meant the trumpet would speak to them well I don't know if John knew what the trumpet was saying that the trumpet was speaking to him and supernaturally he already knew what it said come up here and I will show you things that must come to be after these things now let's go back to first Corinthians 15:52 for when the trumpet sounds that signals the rapture those who have died will be raised to live forever and we who are living will also be transformed so the trumpet knows the rapture so what's going to happen when the trumpet is blown well the dad's going to be resurrected those who are living will be transformed now in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 4 verse 16 through 16 through 17 Paul gives us a little bit more detail so let's look at that he tells us that we're going to be caught up in the air from the trumpet sounds for the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command with the voice of the Archangel with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first after that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them who is them the dead who are resurrected we will be caught up together with them in the clouds now here's interesting the Lord's going to come down from heaven but is he coming all the way to the earth no why because we're gonna go up and meet him in the clouds and then he says to meet the Lord in the air not on the ground so we will be with the Lord forever now notice what he says the trumpet is gonna sound those who have died will be resurrected those who are alive will be transformed according to first Corinthians 15:52 and both will be caught up in the clouds in other words they will be raptured that phrase caught up is from the Greek word harpazo when it is translated from Greek into Latin we saw the word wrap wrapped yes and that's where we get our English word rapture so when people say the word rapture is not even in the Bible that's not true it is it's just written as harpazo it means to be snatched it means all of a sudden you're here in the next moment you're gone you've been snatched from Earth you're out of here that's what her pads o means so what happened to John in Revelation chapter 4 verse number 1 he was raptured he went to heaven now here's the important point that I want you to see his rapture represents the rapture of the church now let me say that again his rapture in chapter 4 verse 1 represents the rapture of the church now pastor how do we know that just because you said it no we know that for several reasons first of all what happened to John is exactly what Paul says will happen to the church secondly the church is not mentioned again unto the last chapter of Revelation chapter 22 did you know that now in the first three chapters we see the focus on the church why because it's the church age Jesus is concerned with the church but once we get to chapter four verse number one guess what we don't ever see or hear about the church anymore why do we not hear about the church anymore the focus is not on the church anymore who is the focus on the focus is on those who are left behind the focus is upon those who are still on the earth because Jesus was warning all the people in the churches they need to be prepared so they won't be left behind but the focus is now once we start in Chapter four not on the church but on those who are left behind and last but not least after John's rapture takes place here in chapter four verse one we do see the church in heaven only it's not called the church anymore the word Church ecclesia comes from two greek words the prefix AK which means out of and Kaleo which means to call we in the church are they called out ones we are called out of the world you see when you accepted Jesus Christ you had to make him Lord and by making him Lord you're called out of the church you're not to be like the called out of the church you're called out of the world you are not supposed to be like the world anymore that's what the church means we are for to your people we are now living by the principles of the kingdom of God we are governed by the Holy Spirit we serve another King does that make sense but what's interesting is we see the church in heaven the only thing is it's no longer called the church anymore now I'm not gonna spoil it for you and show you where until we get there but I'll tell you we'll get there tonight so just hold your horses but to understand revelation you need to know that John's rapture represents the rapture of the church so in Revelation chapter 4 verse number 1 the church is raptured the true believers are in heaven now with Jesus now here's what's interesting what Jesus toed Martha and Mary has now been fulfilled do you remember when Martha and Mary got all upset with Jesus their brother Lazarus had died and Jesus if you had been here he wouldn't have died and what did Jesus tell them jesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die believe us now this now how many of you knew that this is about the rapture the Jesus actually taught the doctrine of the rapture hmm I'm going to show you something interesting tonight if you don't mind let's put this passage of Scripture side-by-side with Paul's teaching on the rapture and then you're going to see very clearly what Jesus was saying and you're going to see that he was saying exactly what Paul said in first Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 16 through 17 so if you don't mind let's just scroll down a little bit can you see that we're gonna use verse 16 first and verse number 25 in John chapter 11 so notice what Paul said about the rapture he said for the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with the commanding shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet call of God first the Christians who have died will rise from their grave so let's put that the Christians who have died will rise from their graves can you see that everyone see that now notice what Jesus said to Martha Mary jesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life now most of us think that those are synonyms right oh he's the resurrection of life you know Jesus just kind of like to say things in twos I know those are two distinct things Jesus says I am the resurrection what is a resurrection a resurrection means you were dead now you've been raised again to be alive you've got to be dead first to be resurrected that make sense so he says I am the resurrection but I'm also the life two distinct things so he says I am the resurrection of life I'm just letting you know that Jesus said he that believeth in me and noticed this though he were dead yet shall he live okay that's the promise Martha and Mary I am the resurrection Lazarus is dead though he were dead yet shall he lives that makes sense so now we see that Jesus was saying in John chapter 11 verse 25 the very same thing that Paul said in first Thessalonians chapter 4 let's go further let's look at verse 17 there who went too far now this is very next verse then when's the end what does then mean at this time at what time when the Christians are raised the Christians who have died are resurrected when the Christians who have died are resurrected then together with them we who are still alive and remain on the earth we're going to be caught up in the clouds now are we going to be caught up in the clouds before they're resurrected no the dead in Christ will be resurrected first when the dead in Christ are resurrected first then we who are alive and remain on the earth we're going to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air then the rapture we will be at the Lord forever now notice Jesus just got through saying if we go up Jesus said unto her I'm the resurrection to life so now he's going to prove he's the resurrection he that believeth in me though he were dead they dad they're gonna live but then he goes further he says and whosoever liveth now we're not talking about the dead anymore those who were living at the time that the dead are resurrected and believe in me they shall never die do you know any saying what Jesus was telling Martha and Mary is don't worry about it if Lazarus is dead when I come back all of the dead who believe in me will be resurrected but those who are alive when I come back they will never die do you see what Jesus was saying how many have ever been taught about this concerning the rapture never seen that before have you Jesus was talking about the rapture a person has died he is faced with the very same situation that Paul was Paul was faced with the situation that he was telling them that Jesus Christ was the Messiah he's the savior if you believe in him you get to go to heaven so everyone's looking for Jesus and then on the sudden these Christians start dying and I think well wait a minute what happens if you die before Jesus comes back and Paul says don't worry about it when Jesus comes back the dead in Christ will be resurrected and then those who are alive and remain on the earth at that time they're going to be transformed they're going to they're going to be raised they're going to meet the Lord in the air jesus said the very same thing to Martha and Mary he said I'm the resurrection life whoever believes me though he were dead yet shall he live in other words I will resurrect him those who are alive he will never die now why would he say that how can he say though they were dead and then he turns around they believe me they will never know what he's saying is those who die in me I'll resurrect him but those who are alive from the dead are resurrected and believe in me guess what they will never die do you want to know why my mom wants Jesus to come in her lifetime she doesn't want to die if my mom was in here I don't know where she goes I said mom do you want to die my mother no no she wants me to pray that Jesus will come back in her life because those who are alive when Jesus returns will not die now what I want you to see in chapter 4 verse number 1 is that John's rapture represents the rapture of the church and we see it for those three reasons number one is exactly like it was the way Paul described it and Jesus said it would be and then we come to that part where we don't see the church anymore it's never mentioned again until we get to the final chapter and the only thing only a reason it's mentioned there's because the church needs to listen to this they need to talk about this they need to understand what's going to happen and that's the only reason the church is even brought up then in the very last chapter and then the third reason is we do see the church but after this time the church is in heaven but we don't recognize as the church because it's no longer called by that name does that make sense first to and immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne now immediately as soon as the trumpet sounded John was in the spirit and he was standing before a throne in heaven now that's interesting because according to chapter 1 verse number 10 John was already in the spirit do you remember that if you go back to Revelation chapter 1 verse number 10 jesus said I was in the spirit on the day of the Lord so does that mean he wasn't in the spirit when he looked up into heaven he saw the door open does that mean he wasn't in the spirit when the trumpet blew and he understood it as if it were a verb as if it were a voice was John saying he wasn't in the spirit when all of this happened until all of a sudden he was found himself in heaven and then he was immediately in the spirit know John has been in the spirit the whole time when he told us in chapter 1 verse number 10 that I was in the spirit on the day of the Lord amen he's in the spirit and he continued on this is not two visions this is not a vid another vision as most scholars say he been in the spirit the whole time so why does John say and immediately I was in the spirit he says that because it's the only way he knows to describe the rapture experience you say when he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day he's there and he's seeing Jesus and he's seeing all of these things in Chapter one and then all of a sudden Jesus there and he's given him all this message to the angels of the churches the seven different churches in Asia he's in the spirit when he sees all this but he's on earth and all the sudden when he looks up to heaven and he sees the door standing open he hears the trumpet speaking to him and saying come up here immediately he says I'm in the spirit what does he say that because it's the only way he knows to describe the rapture experience immediately when that trumpet blew he was changed he felt the transformation just like we will feel when we are raptured now how do you say that except to say immediately I was in the spirit wait a minute Johnny I know that's what John's saying I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and then all the sudden I looked up and there's this door that's standing open in heaven and then I hear the sound of a trumpet speaking with me and it says come up here and immediately cram I'm up in heaven how do I say that I'm in the spirit again it's like a total transformation now John is going to describe what he sees in heaven now that he's there now this is kind of interesting because when you go to the Old Testament you see all the other prophets who had visions of heaven they always saw it from the perspective of Earth Isaiah Daniel whenever they had a vision of heaven and God his train filling the temple the glory of it it was always from Earth's perspective this is the only time we ever see a vision of heaven from heaven does that mean since so he's going to describe what he sees in heaven verse three and he that sat was to look upon like a Jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald I'm sticking with the King James Version but you can tell really quickly we're gonna get away from that right now we know that the person sitting on the throne is God because of chapter five verse number seven so we're gonna kind of kind of scoot up to chapter five verse seven to know to show you how we know this is God notice what revelation five seven says he stepped forward now who's he well if you read this in context it's Jesus Jesus steps forward and he took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne God so the one stepping forward is Jesus the one sitting on the throne is God when we read it in context when we get there so Jesus takes the scroll from the right hand of God in chapter five verse number seven so we know that it's God that's sitting on the throne when we read ahead now I don't know if you're like me every once in a while when I'm reading some thick's fiction book some type of novel and it's really suspenseful and I think gosh how's this going every once in a while I'll go to the bag just to make sure it's gonna turn out all right and the reason I do that is because I am want English majors refer to as a romantist I am romantic in the sense that I want things to turn out good but the reason I want things to turn out good is because I'm a pastor living in a sinful world as the pastor living in a sinful world I have to do funerals with babies I have to counsel women whose husbands ran off with their secretary and husbands whose wives are having affairs I have to go to the hospital and minister to people who are dying of cancer and have all of these type of sicknesses and illnesses and so I see enough bad does that make sense so if I'm reading something and it's not going to turn out good I stop reading it so every once in a while I'll be reading a book and it's really good but I co mmm this might not turn out good so you know what I do I flip to the back and I read to make sure that the protagonist the good guy is still living in the end and then once I find out well it turns out all right then I go back and it's okay I'll just finish reading the book now that's what we do here because he doesn't tell us it's God he just says it's one sitting on the throne but when we read forward we find out it's God now here's what's interesting John doesn't even attempt to try and describe God in any detail now why is that well I'll tell you why it's because it's too much for words so all John can do is try to describe the beauty and the brilliance of God through color that's kind of interesting to me so let's look at verse number three again and let's read it in the NLT because I'll be honest with you as I'm going through revelation I'm translating it in the original language and so this is closer to what the original Greek says so let's read it the one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones like Jasper and carnelian and the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow now this is kind of hard to figure out what John was trying to say because in their day they had a lack of scientific terminology so that kind of makes the identification of precious stones tough sometimes so in order to determine what stones he's talking about we have to actually go to other references in the Bible because when he says that this was the same stone we go to see well what how did he describe that stone so we need to do that because it makes it tough because today when we think of Jasper we think of a stone that's opaque and it's colored it's usually red yellow or brown now does everyone know what opaque means opaque means that it's not transparent it's not translucent when you pick up these old Flint rocks from Cherokee County can you see through it you can't see through it right it's not opaque or it's opaque so that the type of Jasper that we think of today we think of it as being opaque in other that's not transparent and it really isn't very bad valuable let me give you a picture of one that is the modern-day Jasper all right but that's not what John is talking about now how do we know that's not what John is talking about because in Revelation chapter 21 verse number 11 John says the Jasper is as clear as crystal turn to Revelation chapter 21 verse number 11 he says having the glory of God its radiance like a most rare jewel like a Jasper clear as crystal now what is the most rare jewel that's the most valuable today a diamond and it would be considered clear as crystal you know when we are actually coming in and trying to determine the quality of a diamond we're gonna look at the different seas we're gonna look at the caraway we're gonna look at a cut because on a diamond to cut determines how brilliant it is how the light reflects you didn't have a really good diamond but if it's not cut good it's not brilliant that's why when you look at certain stones you go wow that just sparkles the recent sparkles is because of the way it's cut now you can't always cut them the way you want to cut them because of the way they come in nature they're going to break certain way so you know that and then you have color now the more clear it is the more valuable it is so you know so far we got carat carat weight we've got cut that's the second see and then of course now we come in and we look at color the more clear it is the whiter it is the more valuable it is right and then the last one is clarity what's clarity does it have any inclusions or the little black spots in it if there's a little black spots and little things in there then you know it might be a what si - si 3 whatever so you would be able to write that but here's what's interesting he says it's the most valuable here and then he says clear as crystal now there's no such thing today as a flawless diamond I don't care what they tell you but this is a flawless diamond so this is what he calls a Jasper so now we go back to when he's talking about this and notice what it says he says that when he comes in he's like precious gemstones the Jasper what he's describing is a diamond so so what he's saying is that God is as brilliant as a diamond in a carnelian now how many of you know what a carnelian is a carnelian is a fiery red stone sometimes it's described as bloody red and because of that some scholars actually say that it's a ruby in fact if you're reading through the Jerusalem Bible they translate it as ruby because it means bloody red and and so these two stones are very significant because of what they represent the diamond for the Jews represented purity truth holiness and glory the Ruby or the carnelian represents sacrifice why because of his color it's bloody red so God who is pure true holy and glorious gave the ultimate sacrifice when he gave his son Jesus Christ on the cross to die for our sins and that's the best that John could do in describing God it's like I got up there and it was just brilliant it's true it's holy I'm telling you it's just blinding and there's just red bloody red there but what he's seeing is the purity the holiness the righteousness of God and is so brilliant you can barely see it but he's also seeing the sacrifice of God now you truly don't understand the sacrifice of God until you have children and when you have children and you make sacrifices for your children and your children disappoint you with the decisions they make but you still sacrifice that's when you know God and you understand God and John is up there and he sees this brilliance but there's one more thing that John saw he saw the glow of an emerald circling his throne like a rainbow like a huge halo because what's kind of interesting is the word for rainbow here in the Greek actually refers to something that's 360 degrees now when we see a rainbow what do we see 180 degrees it goes from you know the earth here over here to the horizon on the earth here but this is 360 degrees and it's green like an emerald because we know that an emerald is green so there's this huge green halo circling his throne now remember colors represent things to the Jewish people what does green symbolize for us it's life for Jews it's grace why well when we think green we think life in the springtime the green grass is growing the trees begin to put on green leaves you're driving down the road and all of a sudden where it was brown just a few weeks ago all of the sudden spring has come and it's green everywhere so we think of life when we see green but true life eternal life is only made possible by the grace of God so grace represents or so green represents grace the grace of God that brings us eternal life and that's what circling God's throne now this is just an unbelievable picture because when G or when John is raptured up into heaven and he sees God on the throne the brilliance and the glory of it is unbelievable but what he sees is purity holiness truth truth is the greek word aller thea and what it means is transparent did you know that it's kind of interesting that the diamond represents truth because it's transparent and he sees this brilliance but he also sees this red this bloody red color and it represents God's sacrifice for us now sometimes people have made sacrifice don't have any mercy some people who made sacrifice they make you pay for the sacrifice they had to make for you right that's not God because what's circling God's throne 360 degrees is a rainbow a halo green is an emerald symbolizing grace that's the kind of God we serve that's why when I teach and I preach out here I always preach that God is good I don't care what you've learned when you were growing up in church god is good all the time God is love when we see these quote acts of God that's not true acts of God that's acts of the devil God came or sent his son Jesus to give you life in eternal life but he also came to give you abundant life a better quality of life because God is good and that's what John C

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Keywords: revelation explained, revelations explained, the book of revelation explained, the book of revelation explained bible study, revelations explained bible, in depth study of the book of revelation, in depth study of revelation, how to study the book of revelation, the book of revelation, revelation 2021, end times 2021, when does the rapture happen, End Times Question & Answer with, pastor allen nolan, Allen nolan, allen nolan daniel, apostle john, the resurrection of jesus

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Length: 41min 14sec (2474 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019