The Arrival

Please stand in honor of God's word. The Old Testament reading is in Isaiah chapter 65, starting in verse 17.

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in which

I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

Nor more shall there be in it an infant who lives, but in a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days.

For the young man shall die 100 years old, and the sinner 100 years old.

They shall build houses and inhabit them, and shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build, and another inhabit.

They shall not plant, and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be.

And my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity.

For they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the

Lord. And their descendants with them. Before they call, I will answer.

While they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The lion shall eat straw, like the ox.

And the dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy, and all my holy mountain.

The New Testament reading for today is 1 Corinthians 15, 20 to 28. But in fact,

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order,

Christ the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God, the

Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.

But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he has accepted who put all things and subjected under him.

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him, who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

You may be seated. Take your

Bibles this morning and let's turn to Revelation chapter 11. Revelation 11, before we look into the word, just a few words here.

Dave's book, Seeking the City, you can get on Amazon. And he tells all the stories of our trips overseas, of Doro, Romanian pastor, and Elner, our

Azerbaijan friend. And it's great reading.

I'm Captain Oblivious, I don't know what's going on. And when you read the stories of what we did overseas, it's a whole lot more adventuresome than I remember.

But then, there's a part, for example, there's a part where we're sitting in this cafe in Azerbaijan and Elner says to us, see those guys over at that table?

Yeah, because they're radical Muslims. If they knew you were Americans, they'd kill you right now.

It's like, okay, I don't remember that. You know, that's just part of going overseas,

I guess. But it's really a good book. You get to learn a lot of the details of the trips.

And it's really cool to see how God worked in those times together.

Also wanna say, now, let's just look to the word of God, okay?

Revelation chapter 11, we'll begin reading in verse 15. You follow as I read our text for this morning.

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our

Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces, and worshiped

God, saying, we give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.

The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the Ark of the Covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and earthquake, and heavy hail.

Let's pray. Father, now we ask that you would open your word to us.

We're asking this day that you give us hope. We live in a world right now where we are tempted to lose hope.

We see that our being ostracized may turn to persecution.

We see injustice on a large scale all over the earth, and sometimes your people can lose hope.

I pray today that you would give us hope. Not that just so we'll be a more optimistic people, but instead we will be people of hope amongst people who are losing hope.

And we pray that our hope will be anchored in the truth of what we see today, and that that hope would motivate us to remain faithful.

So I pray, open your word to us now, in Jesus' name.

You know, yesterday, if you'll forgive me for saying this, my little girl left home, right?

I know she's not a little girl, but she'll always be my little girl. But I remember a time several years ago where Annie went to Spain, and she was there for a number of months.

And she was coming home, and I remember Becca and I going to the Columbus airport, and we eagerly anticipated that reunion.

I remember standing at the gate, straining to see Annie, and all the crowds of people here at Columbus.

You know, they come through that one gate, and I'm just straining to see my girl. And I remember the excitement when

I saw her walking toward us. You know, arrivals are like that.

We anticipate them, we look forward to them. It could be the arrival of a package, the arrival of your wife, who's been gone for several days, or the arrival of vacation.

I was talking to a man earlier, well, last week, and he was talking about when he decided he was going to retire, and he had only about two or three months left to work, but he was retiring.

He said, man, work was a piece of cake from then on, right? Man, it was just,

I didn't mind getting up and going to work then, because I knew in three months, I was retired.

Our text this morning talks about an arrival, the arrival of the end.

Now, let me set the stage here, so, I mean, for goodness sake, we're dropping here in the 11th chapter of Revelation.

So let me give you some context here so we know what we're talking about. This book describes the age we live in.

It's not talking about something far away. It's not talking about all the things that are gonna happen way off in the future, or even, as we might say, in the last days.

It describes the age we live in, the age from Jesus' ascension to his return.

And it tells us that story from different perspectives. And as you read this book, you see the perspective of this age first from the perspective of the seals, and then from the perspective of the trumpets, and then from the perspective of the bulls.

In fact, if you read through Revelation, there are seven cycles. And each one of those tells the story of this age.

It's not talking about some horrible things are gonna happen off in the future. It's describing the age in which we live in.

And here we have the seventh trumpet. Now, the same descriptive phrase is used at the end of every series to announce the end.

Look at the end of verse 19. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

This is at the end of every one of those, the seals, the trumpets, and the bulls, in order to announce, here's the end.

We're at the end now. Now, why does God go through the trouble of giving us this book of a great vision describing the age that we live in and the end of it?

Well, he doesn't do it to satisfy our curiosity. He does it to equip us.

This book is about equipping the church. It's also a book written to give us hope in the age in which we live.

Now, look, the whole book is centered around this theme. This is a book, this is one letter written to seven churches.

Those seven churches are described earlier in the book. And this book is written to these seven churches who are facing two very dangerous things, persecution and seduction.

The book of Revelation is how you remain faithful in an age of persecution and seduction.

The seduction of the easy life, the seduction of material wealth, the seduction of all that's around us, the seduction of Babylon, which could be translated, basically, our

Western culture, where we have everything we could possibly want and entertainment, more than you can imagine, and material wealth that's unbelievable.

We're seduced away from faithfulness to Christ by that. And it's also to help the church remain faithful in the midst of persecution.

And so this book has been written to help us today resist seduction and stand faithful in persecution.

And so it's intended to equip us and it's intended to give us hope. And in this text, the one we read, he gives us a glimpse of the arrival of the end so that we will be strengthened in our battle against persecution and seduction.

And he wants you to be encouraged as you anticipate the arrival of the end.

And so the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, and John hears the voices of the multitude in heaven shout with loud voices, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our

Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. Now, what do those voices mean when they say kingdom of the world?

Well, first of all, let me just say this. He is saying to us in verses 15 and 16, be encouraged then because the kingdom arrives.

Be encouraged because the kingdom arrives. Now, what do the voices mean when they say this?

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

Now, the kingdom of God does not mean some kind of territory that God rules. The kingdom of God means wherever God reigns.

The kingdom is found wherever God reigns. It means the rule and the reign of God.

The kingdom is here. The kingdom is in Romania. It's in Azerbaijan.

It's in Mongolia. All right? There's where the kingdom is. Wherever God rules and reigns, there is his kingdom.

And so the kingdom of this world that stood opposed to God now willingly submits to the reign and the rule of God.

Now, someone here might object and say, but wait a minute. Doesn't God already rule?

Isn't he sovereign over the entire universe? I mean, come on, Pastor Tim. We talk tons around here about the sovereignty of God.

What does this mean when it says, now his kingdom comes and it reigns forever?

Well, in one sense, God ruling over everything is true. He rules from the germs to the galaxies.

Everything is under his control. In fact, one of my favorite passages is Daniel chapter 4.

You remember where Nebuchadnezzar is coming out of his madness imposed upon him by God.

And he says this, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me.

And I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion.

And his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.

And he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can say his hand or say to him, what have you done?

He's in control. He's sovereign. So let me put it this way. This is the kingdom where God controls his opposition.

He is sovereign over all. Nothing escapes his attention, all according to plan. But this is the kingdom where he controls the opposition to his rule.

But some might say, but then didn't the kingdom arrive when Jesus came? Over and over in the gospels, we read that the kingdom arrives with Jesus.

And the apostles take up that theme. For example, the apostle Paul in Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14 says, he has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So there's a kingdom in which we've been transferred. It's the kingdom of Jesus. He's already conquered the hostile powers.

So he can take whomever he wants to take into this kingdom. I would call this, this is the redeeming rule of Jesus, where God redeems some of the opposition and brings them under his rule.

So we have the kingdom of God where God controls the opposition to his rule. We have the kingdom of God where God redeems some of the opposition and brings them under his rule.

And then we have this kingdom that we find here. The kingdom of God and of his Christ arrived and it eliminates all his opposition.

From controlling to redeeming now to eliminating his opposition. There's no more opposition to his kingdom, to his reign.

All of creation now willingly submits to God's rule. Here's the answer to the petition.

When we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so this is the kingdom that comes, the kingdom that conquers all the opposition, eliminates it.

There's no more opposition, all of creation now willingly submits to God.

But then we read the 24 elders witness this. They fall down on their faces before God and thank him for who he is.

They thank him for who he is because the rule of God is directly connected to his character, all right?

They praise God for what? For his great power, right?

His rule is exercised because of his power. They say about him that he is the one who is and who was.

Now the kingdom comes not because all of the forces of history align themselves and God says, here's my chance, right?

Okay, it's looking good. Here we go. It's not that at all. You know why?

Because he's above history. He is the one who is and who was. He's above history.

Do you know why the United States won the War of 1812? And some of you here right now are saying to me, the

War of 1812, what was that? I won't get started on history here, okay?

We fought a war with Britain in 1812 through 1814. Do you know why we won that war, the second war we had with Britain?

Is because their great forces, their best military guys were fighting in Europe against Napoleon.

That's why we won, okay? That's why we won that war. All the forces aligned just right, so we had the victory.

God's not that way. The kingdom's victory against its opposition does not depend on the events of history.

God is the God who is and who was. He transcends history. He is sovereign over history, not subject to it.

He is the God who is and who was, sovereign over the course of history.

And the kingdom arrives because of God's power. How is he addressed here? As almighty, all his power is now engaged to bring his kingdom to rule.

For you have taken your great power and begun to reign. What does that look like?

You know what it looks like? It looks like peace. When everything submits to God, that is peace.

You know, peace is not the absence of conflict. The biblical concept of peace is simply this.

Everything is operating the way God intended it to, okay? It's not a negative thing.

There's no more conflict. It's a positive thing where everything is moving and acting and interlocking and reacting in the way it was always intended by God.

I love that concept. It's the biblical concept and it makes me think that it's not just going to be,

I'm not going to fight with anybody anymore. It's going to be, we're going to be interacting with each other throughout all eternity in the way

God always intended human beings to act toward one another. So it's not just,

I'm not going to fight with you anymore. It's, man, we are going to enjoy an unbelievably great relationship.

You see, all of, and again, so you all know my view on this.

The new earth where we will live forever, where everything, where everything will operate the way it was supposed to.

No more, no more wrenching our existence out of the soil and out of everything around us.

Everything's going to be operating the way it should. That's the peace that arrives. The kingdom arrives with peace.

Now notice this. Be encouraged because judgment arrives, verse 18. Judgment arrives as well.

The nations raged, but your wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and those who fear your name, both small and great.

And for destroying the destroyers of the earth, judgment arrives. Now what comes here is the third woe.

There are three woes within these trumpets and seals and so forth.

This is the third woe. And it's called that, verse 14, you see that the second woe is passed.

Behold, the third woe is soon to come. It's now arrived. The third woe, it is called that because judgment arrives on all mankind.

This is worse than the other woes, which are plagues. This is judgment.

This is the ultimate woe. Here we step back for a moment to ask, how does this conquering kingdom arrive?

It arrives with the wrath of God. It arrives with the wrath of God.

Here is the horrifying spectacle of God's final and unalterable expression of anger.

Century after century, millennia after millennia, the nations have raged against God.

John says, they stood opposed to him, they fought him. And now at last, the time of reckoning has come and God unleashes his fury against all those who have opposed him.

Now keep in mind, this wrath is not some irrational, excessive explosion of anger.

It's not an irritable spasm of cruelty, right? God never flies off the handle.

It is the righteous expression of anger against all those who have defied him.

The greatest good in the whole universe has been defied for all these centuries.

And now God finally says, okay, enough, judgment. I love

William Gurnell, a writer from the 17th century when he wrote this.

Listen to this, now listen carefully. This is a wonderful expression of the anger of God. When I consider how the goodness of God has been abused by the greatest part of mankind,

I cannot but be of his mind that said, the greatest miracle in the world is

God's patience and bounty to an ungrateful world.

If a prince has an enemy that gets into one of his towns, he does not send them in provision, but lays close siege to the place and does what he can to starve them.

But the great God that could wink all his enemies into destruction,

Bears with them, and it is at daily cost to maintain them.

Well, may he command us to bless them that curse us, who himself does good to the evil and unthankful.

But think not, sinners, that you shall escape thus. God's mill goes slow, but grinds small.

The more admirable his patience and bounty now is, the more dreadful and unsupportable will that fury be, which arises out of his abused goodness.

Nothing smoother than the sea, yet when stirred into a tempest, nothing rages more, nothing so sweet as the patience and goodness of God, and nothing so terrible as his wrath when it takes fire.

You see, God maintains, he feeds, he gives them good things, and they spit in his face.

And he does it for the course of people's whole lives. There's coming a day when that abuse of his goodness will find judgment.

The time for wrath has arrived, as we see in our text. It is time for judgment.

Justice must be served. All the dead of mankind are now summoned to appear before the judge.

He comes to destroy the destroyers of the earth, those who sow seeds of greed and suspicion and corruption and hostility that seduce human beings into resisting

God and his Christ. And do not think that God is unfair, for he arrives to make sure that all accounts are squared, that his justice prevail to all the corners of his universe.

Right now, what's one of the big discussions going on right now? Here it is.

Will we ever be able to bring Putin to justice? Will we be able to indict him on war crimes, try him, and convict him?

No one knows the answer to that. Will he be brought before the International Criminal Justice Court?

No one can answer that. If he doesn't, then what? All around us, people will say, he's escaped justice.

But the point is, he won't. He will not escape justice.

Neither will that soul, Russian soldier, who all alone at night kills a woman who's walking down the street of a village in Ukraine.

No one knows. And even though he may never be called to account for that atrocity, he will stand before the judge of all, who will have seen all of it, and he will pay.

The issue is not, no one, folks, no one will escape

God's justice. Now, don't think that God's just going after the heavy hitters here. How many of you, how many of you did things when you were teenagers?

You're in your 30s now, right? And your parents don't know anything about it, never did, and never will unless you tell them, right?

What about that? What about the harsh words that have been spoken in an argument?

That won't escape the justice of God either, right? And then there's the sins of omission.

People aren't doing what they should do, right? God sees it all, and this punishment serves his justice.

This punishment serves his justice. But please note, there's something else that goes on here.

There's also reward when judgment arrives. There's also reward when judgment arrives.

Notice what he says here. And it's come, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great.

There's a reward. I believe it's the reward of vindication, the reward of vindication.

The oppressors of God's people will be punished. And his people will be vindicated before them.

Look over at 1 John for a moment. Flip over a few pages to 1 John chapter 3.

This is what the apostle John says. The same guy who wrote Revelation is the one who wrote this epistle.

He says in 1 John chapter 3 verse 1, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God, and so we are.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are

God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Notice, the world, we are children of God now, but the world doesn't know it.

We say we're children of God, and the world says, what, you? Give me a break.

Do you remember Mark Twain? Maybe you've read this book. You remember the book Mark Twain wrote called The Prince and the

Pauper? If you haven't read the book, there's been two movies made about it. It's about Edward VI and a little boy named

Tom, who look exactly alike. One's a pauper, the other's a prince, the son of Henry VIII. And they meet, circumstances are that they meet, and they switch places.

You remember? And you remember, Edward is in all among the common and the low.

And they're mistreating him and telling him just how an idiot he is. And they're beating him, and he keeps saying to them, stop it.

I am the Prince of Wales. And they all laugh at him and everything else.

And then at the end, you remember, they're brought together again, and this little pauper boy is seen to be who he really is, the

Prince of Wales, the son of Henry VIII. That's what John's talking about here.

I mean, think about it. Listen to what's going on around us. Who are the perpetrators of evil today?

Who are the perpetrators of evil? Those wicked people who say marriage is intended for a man and a woman.

Who are the evil people of this age, the evildoers? The persons who say, no, no, no, you're responsible for what you've done.

You can't blame anybody else or anything else. Who are the wicked?

Who are the wicked people today? Those who say, no, homosexuality is wrong.

Transgenderism is wrong. You evil, wicked, narrow -minded bigots, right?

We are seen in our culture today as wicked, evil people.

We're saying, hey, we know God. No, you don't. God is tolerant.

You are not. Am I right? Someday, someday, we will be vindicated.

And before the whole throng of those who have called us wicked, God will call us his children. They will know.

They will know that what we said was indeed right. When judgment arrives,

God's people will be vindicated as God's people. And don't think, again, don't think that God's going to vindicate just the heavy hitters.

Notice what the text says, both small and great, right? John MacArthur, who stood against the feminists who protested in the church parking lot, right?

Albert Mueller, ridiculed on Larry King Live, but you as well, where people have run you down at work because of your faith, or all the mean -spirited things they said about you.

And the ridicule, you'll be vindicated too. I remember one time being in a situation where I was trying to help.

The police had arrived. The police would not let me in into the situation where I thought

I needed to be. And I was standing outside, along with another group of people. A group of people were standing outside this place, and I was trying to get in and be the shepherd that I was supposed to be.

And these people were talking, and someone mentioned my name. Someone standing there said, who did you say?

And they said, Tim Pasma. I said, that's me. And this guy looked at me and he said, you know what,

I think you're nothing but I won't finish the sentence, okay?

Well, you know what my attitude was at that time was, well, I must be doing something right, somebody hates me, right?

But I also know this, I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to worry about what people think of me, right?

The day of vindication is coming. It's not a burden I have to bear, God will make it right.

Same is true with you, the heavy hitters and the small fry, they're all going to be vindicated.

So then judgment arrives with justice. The last thing you want to see here versus verse 19 is that you need to be encouraged because God arrives,

God arrives. Now, look at the last part of verse 19. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, heavy hail.

These sorts of things are supposed to remind you of the Old Testament. And these are the sorts of thing you would see like when

God descended on Mount Sinai, these sorts of things were there. He's talking about the theophanies, theophanies.

If you don't know that word, T -H -E -O -P -H -A -N -I, yes, okay, got it? Theophanies, that means

God making his appearance. And when God makes his appearance in the Old Testament, oftentimes, it's accompanied by these things.

When he arrives on the scene, you read of these sorts of phenomena. So God has arrived on the scene for good, but this isn't just a local occurrence, this is cosmic in appearance.

He arrives universally all over this globe. God has arrived.

That's the point, God's arrived. And then John sees something else, the

Ark of the Covenant clearly visible in the temple. The producers of Raiders of the

Lost Ark are wrong. It's not in a warehouse somewhere, all right?

But it's not in heaven either. Remember, this is a vision. And remember, when you read the book of Revelation, it's symbols, not photographs, okay?

So it's a symbol showing the Ark in heaven.

Now, what is the Ark? The Ark of the Covenant was that box on the poles who had a gold cover on it with two angels facing one another and their wingtips touching at the top.

And you remember that it was the place where the cloud would settle on that covenant, on that Ark of the

Covenant. And it was the meeting place between God and man. It was the place where God made his presence visible.

And once a year, the high priest would go in and sprinkle blood on that cover, which was called the mercy seat.

Because there, when the blood was sprinkled, God would remain with his people for another year, all right?

He would remain with his people for another year. So the Ark stands for the presence of God among his people.

And for atonement. And he's saying all believers, small and great, can now enjoy

God's presence in a greater manner than they have ever experienced before. What you see here is there's no veil.

You can see it sitting there. No one could see that sitting in the Holy of Holies. We can. He's saying it's there.

God's presence is with all his people. And so when God arrives, he arrives with his joyful presence.

So I ask, what arrives on that last day, on the day when the angel sounds the seventh trumpet?

What arrives? God's kingdom arrives with peace.

God's wrath arrives with justice. God's presence arrives with joy.

Peace, justice, and joy arrive. When that day arrives, what will you experience?

That's the question you need to ask. What will you experience? Not everyone's going to experience peace and joy.

That is reserved for those who have already faced the justice of God in Christ, where God, in his justice, did not overlook any of our sins.

He's never overlooked our sins. Please understand the gospel is, God says, hey, it's no big deal, I forgive you.

This God is a God of unalterable justice. He cannot overlook one sin.

Not one, not one. That little piece of five -cent candy you stole from the store that no one knows about, even today,

God knows. And you gotta pay for that. And I'm not talking about the five cents.

God is so holy that even that deserves his judgment. And he cannot overlook the least to the greatest of your sins.

His justice demands payment. See, here's the beauty.

You face that justice in Jesus, right? He died in your place.

If you've entrusted yourself to him, he's died for you so that God can forgive you and still be just.

Some of you here, I cannot help but think some of you here have never faced the justice of God in Christ.

You will face his justice on that day. Please, you know what I say to you? I say don't, don't, don't go another day without running to Christ so that your satisfaction for your sins will have been paid in him.

And you are free. And you can look forward to that day when

God arrives. Believers, listen to me, you can be encouraged.

Your hope is anchored in the future. It's anchored there, there when you know that justice will be served, when you know you will be vindicated, right?

When the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his

Christ, that's where your hope is. There's no need to lose hope.

There's no need to lose hope, be encouraged. Father, thank you for your word.

Lord, I ask that you would help us of all people to be a people of hope.

Would you help us to be that way? And Lord, give us hope as we look to the arrival of your kingdom, of your justice, and of you yourself.

Lord God, we are beginning to live in difficult times and because of what we've experienced all these years, we're not prepared for it.

So help us, equip us now with hope, knowing that your kingdom is coming.

And all opposition will end. Give us hope, we pray in Jesus' name.