What is a covenant? Here’s a definition from Theopedia: “A covenant is simply a binding agreement or compact between two or more parties; in legal terms, it is a formal sealed agreement or contract. Classically, covenants are between nations or other powerful groups (for example, 1 Samuel 11:1; Joshua 9:6,15). At the international level they usually involve an alliance between two unequal parties – the stronger one pledging protection and help to the weaker in return for some form of vassal status (as in vassal treaties). This is similar to the biblical picture of God’s relationship with his people, except that the inequality between the parties (Creator and creatures) is absolute. It is always made clear that the initiative is God’s – that He makes covenants with his people and not vice versa. God initiates, confirms and even fulfills (ultimately in Christ, both sides of) the covenant.”

The Three Covenants of Promise
There are several covenants mentioned in scripture. The three that are most important for understanding how the end times will roll out are often called the “covenants of promise,” because they are unilateral (one-way, from God to Man) and unconditional (God says he’ll do it no matter what). These are the covenants he made with Abraham and David, and the third called the New Covenant.

The Covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14-18; 17:1-8
It’s Eternal: Gen 17:7, 13, 19; 1 Chr 16:17

The main parts of the Covenant with Abraham:

• To make from Abraham a great nation and to multiply his seed exceedingly and to make him a father of great many nations
• To bless Abraham and make him great.
• To make Abraham a blessing to all the families of the earth.
• To bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him.
• To give Abraham and his seed forever all the land which he could see.
• To give him a sign of the covenant (circumcision)
• The promise of a national land
• The promise of redemption, national and universal.
• The promise of numerous descendants to form a great nation.

What it means for the end: Before it’s all over, the descendants of Abraham will occupy and rule the land of Israel, forever, as the source of blessing to the whole earth.

The Covenant with David
2 Samuel 7:12-16; Ps 89:3-4, 34-37; Ps 132:11-2; Jer 23:5-6; Jer 33:25-26; Luke 1:30-33;

What it means for the end: Before it’s all over, a physical descendant of David will rule over the descendants of Jacob (Abraham) in the land of Israel, forever.

The New Covenant:
Jer 31:31-34; Ez 11:17-20; Ez 16:60-63; Ez 36:25-28

The Main Parts of the New Covenant:

• Israel gets a new heart and God’s spirit in them
  Israel is put back in their land for good
  Israel is unified
  Israel’s sins are fully forgiven

What it means for the end: Before it’s all over, Israel will turn to God with all their heart, receive the Holy Spirit, and, as a nation, do God’s will—namely believe in Christ. They will dwell again in their own land forever. This will happen because God will remove their sin.

Putting the three covenants together:

If God is to be trusted to keep his promises, then we can say know some things about what is going to happen in the future: God will bring his blessing to the earth through the descendants of Abraham, dwelling in their land, under the rule of a king descended from David. This blessing will include forgiveness of sin, a new heart that loves God, God’s spirit inside of us, and ultimate defeat of death. This is how God will heal the earth, redeem humanity, and defeat the serpent once and for all.

Now see Psalm 72:1-17 – Here we see that God will mediate his blessing to the whole earth, through the blessed rule of David’s king son, over the people descended from Abraham.

Applications:

1. There is a definite shape to the way history is shaping up. There are some details we can know, and a direction we can understand. Everything that happens is happening according to God’s plan as revealed by his promises. We don’t have to worry that we live in a world with no discernible pattern.
2. History is not random or impersonal. Instead, everything about our world and our universe is essentially personal—it’s all about some promises that have been made and which will be kept. Everything is all about Someone who has the power to keep all his promises, actually working things out so that he keeps them.
3. God works through mediation. What I mean by this is that he doesn’t just dump out blessing on the world haphazardly or indiscriminately—he works through channels. By learning about the covenants God has made, we see the channels he is working through—Abraham’s family and David’s royal line. In all of history, people are judged based on how they relate themselves to these channels of blessing. If they submit themselves to the way God has chosen to work, and they come to these channels to receive blessing, they are blessed. If they decide they don’t like the channels God has chosen to bless the world, and they either resist God’s way of blessing the world, or they work to find some other way, they miss out on the blessing.
4. God’s chosen way of bringing blessing to the earth today is through the one descendant of Abraham and David, Jesus Christ.

What the Prophets Saw in the OT

The old testament prophets foretold that God would carry out his plans for the world and the end of our age by enacting two solution: First, they said that God himself would come and fix everything; Second, they said God would send a man who would fix everything.

What was crucial for us to notice was that, in all of these prophecies (for both of the two “strands”) the prophecies were given to show that God was keeping his promises that he made in the three “promise” covenants, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with David, and the New Covenant.

God will come HIMSELF and fix everything:
• Judgment: Isaiah 24:1-3, 21-23
• Re-gather Israel: Jer 31:10-12, 23-36; Amos 9:11-15
• Rule & Bless Israel: Is 33:20-22, 40:9-11
• Rule & Bless the World: Is 2:1-4, 25:1-9

That is, God himself will fulfill the three promise covenants:

• To Abraham:
  He will bless his descendants, they will inhabit the land forever
  He will bless the whole world
• To David:
  He will establish the kingdom of Israel forever
• New Covenant:
  He will unify Israel as a nation forever

God will send A MAN to fix everything:
• Judgment: Psalm 2:1-12
• Re-gather Israel: Isaiah 49:1-7
• Rule & Bless Israel: Isaiah 9:6-7
• Rule & Bless the World: Isaiah 11:1-11, Jer 23:5-6, Zech 9:9-10

That is, God’s servant-King will fulfill the three promise covenants:

• To Abraham:
  He is his descendant, who will be blessed and will bless all the nations of the earth
  He will be over the nation, in the land of Israel, forever
• To David:
  He is the descendant of David, ruling on Israel’s throne, forever
• New Covenant:
  He will be the ruler of the unified people of Israel pleasing God

God will also fulfill the purpose for humanity stated in Gen 1:26-28: a human exercises dominion over the whole earth, which is now healed and cooperative with him.

How Does God tie these two strands together?
We have to turn to the New Testament to see that God makes sense of both of these predictions:
…In a man who is both: John 1:1, 14, Matt 1:1
…In a man who embodies all three covenants: Son of Abraham, Son of David, baptizing with the Spirit

Applications:

1. God is not far away. He’s personally involved, and will personally fix all the things everyone says he should. God cares about the things that are wrong with the world, and is doing something about it.
2. God is super committed to his promises. After he made the covenant agreements, he kept promising to keep them “to the T.” Mt 5:18
3. God is committed to humanity, and to this earth.
Nevertheless, our world is headed for a huge change—the one who made it is going to eradicate evil, and rule the world his way through his people. Everyone will have the opportunity to come under his new government and allow him to fix things his way—by judging sin and enforcing justice

1. Jesus is the one the Prophets wrote about:
Last week we saw that God promised to fulfill his covenants in two ways. 1: He would come himself and keep the promises, and 2: He would send a man to keep the promises. The Gospels answer the question which comes from the second strand of prophecy : WHO will be the man God will use to keep these promises? Their answer? Jesus of Nazareth.

See:
John 1:45, 5:46-47
Luke 24:25-27, 44-46
Matthew 1:1
Matthew 5:17-18
2. Jesus is the one who will fulfills the Covenants with David and Abraham
Jesus is the one who is the descendant of David and of Abraham, who will be the one to bring the fulfillment of the covenants to pass. Therefore—He will rule the children of Israel, in the land of Israel, on David’s throne, in an unending reign. Through that reign, he will bless all nations of the world, and his kingdom will extend over the entire earth and all people. Through his rule, from Jerusalem, he will heal the world and bring everything under the blessing and reign of God.

See:
Luke 1:30-33, 1:46-55, 1:68-79
Mathew 12:15-28
Matthew 16:13-17
Matthew 22:41-46
Matthew 28:18-20

3. Jesus is the one who fulfills The New Covenant
Jesus is the one who pours out the Holy Spirit. Since he will also rule on David’s throne, he will re-gather Israel. Since He’s Abraham’s son, he will bless all nations. But what we might have missed in the prophets becomes central for Jesus. Sins must be forgiven before any of this can happen. Once he saves his people from their sins, they will be able to enjoy the fulfillment of the other promises.

See:
Matthew 1:18-23
John 1:29-34
John 7:37-42
Luke 22:20
Luke 24:47

Summing it up:
How does God solve the world’s problems? With a person—a man named Jesus of Nazareth. He comes to be called “The Christ” since this means: the one God has chosen to fulfill all his promises and be Israel’s king over a kingdom that includes and blesses all people by forgiving all sin and then healing all brokenness. Jesus has the power to do this because he is not only David’s son, but Daivd’s Lord—God the Son himself in human flesh.

Parting Thoughts:

1. The only way to gain a deep, clear understanding of Jesus is by seeing the things the scripture says about him. One thing we need to know is that he is specifically described as the one who is keeping God’s promises contained in the covenants. For instance, he’s not just forgiving sins because he’s loving—he’s forgiving sins because that’s what the promise of the New Covenant said he would do, and he’s forgiving sins as the way to fulfill all the covenants of God.
2. If you want to know God, you have to know him through his solution to the issues the world faces: through this particular person, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Abraham, son of David.

Applying all this to the end times:

The point of Jesus’ life was NOT to show THAT God had fulfilled all his promises.
The point of his life was to answer the question of WHO the one would be who WOULD do all the fulfilling.

The message is NOT: “God has fulfilled all his promises by sending Jesus!”
It’s: “God has revealed that Jesus is the one who will fulfill all his promises. And he’s started to fulfill them now!”

Some people make it sound like, since Jesus is the one who fulfills the prophecies, and since he came already, then the prophecies are basically fulfilled. There might be one or two left, like his second coming, but basically, what we saw promised in the Old Testament has already happened.

This means that there’s not much left to expect, except what people call heaven, and whatever life is like then for eternity. Typically this makes people stop thinking about or studying what the scriptures say about the end times.

But this doesn’t take into account the way the scriptures speak of Jesus as being all about keeping the promises of God, specifically, the promises that are contained in the three promise covenants.

What we see as we study is that the Gospels clearly say, “Jesus is the one who fulfills the prophecies!” But we need to see that much of what the covenants promises and the prophecies predicted has not yet happened. It’s just that now we know that it’s Jesus who will do all the fulfilling. And we know how God will keep the first promise, of dealing with sin once and for all.

In other words, the coming of the messiah falls into two stages:

In the first stage, he revealed his identity, dealt with sin once and for all, provided forgiveness, poured out the Spirit, and demonstrated that he was committed to keeping all the promises made in the covenants.

In the second stage, he will fulfill the promises of the three completely.

This means:
1. We don’t just trust in what he’s done, but in what he’ll still do. We can know what he will still do by looking at the prophecies and the covenants which are still to be fulfilled. That’s why we study the end times.
2. We can read the Bible and get excited about all the things it promises: amazing things are coming for the earth!
3. We don’t have to let the news freak us out! For those who believe, all bad news is temporary!
4. We never have to lose hope! Whatever hard thing comes in to our life, it can be used by God as part of his good plan for us, and one day everything that troubles us is going to be swept away by the goodness of Jesus’ kingdom as it spreads healing over the whole earth.

Next week we’ll see how his first followers came to see this, and what they were looking forward to in terms of the end of all things.

The first Christians came to see that Jesus was the one who was prophesied to fulfill all the promises, especially in terms of all God had promised in the three covenants—he was the One who would reign as king over Israel forever, with a kingdom that extended over the whole earth, and all nations would be blessed under his rule as sin is forgiven and the Spirit is given to individual men and women. See: Luke 24:44-45 and Acts 1:1-8. They reasoned like this:

If …
1: you’re resurrected, and
2: the Spirit’s going to be poured out…
…Then we must then see the other covenants fulfilled…right?
Jesus’ Answer?: you don’t need to know when that’s going to happen. There’s work to do.

Acts 2:16-21 – The Spirit is being poured out. These are the last days!
Acts 3:18-21 – All things will be restored, look to the OT to see what that means

Point 1: After hanging out with Jesus, having him open their minds to understand the scriptures, and receiving specific instruction on the kingdom of God, they expected him to return and fulfill the things the prophets said which he hadn’t accomplished yet. (See also Acts 1:11)

Note: They thought this way, because Jesus talked this way.

Matthew 25:31-32 Jesus will sit on the throne and judge all nations, to kick off a kingdom.
Matthew 19:27-30 Jesus will distribute authority over ethnic Israel to the apostles.

Point 2: This became a major part of their preaching and teaching.

Waiting for him: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8, Philippians 3:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 2 Peter 3:10-13

Point 3: They lived in expectation, because they felt that all of this could happen at any time…Or better yet, since they felt that it already had begun to happen, they understood that nothing was stopping it from finishing up. (“The beginning of the end has come! The end of the end could happen at any time!”)

Application:

The Apostles lived with a sense that the end had already begun. Things had happened which set in motion an unstoppable chain of events: The messiah had appeared, the resurrection had begun, and the Spirit had been poured out. In other words, the Covenants of promise had begun to be fulfilled, because the son of David had come, the New Covenant had been initiated, and the nations had begun to be blessed through the seed of Abraham. They knew that, if the first events of the end had happened, this meant that at any time the last events of the end could unfold. This caused them to be people who lived always with a sense of anticipation and expectation.

What were they waiting for? All the promises to be fulfilled: for Jesus to come reign from Israel over the whole earth forever, making the world a place where God’s Spirit connected everyone to God. They were waiting for the kingdom.

We live in the same time as them. Being a Christian includes learning to live with this sense of eager waiting. See Romans 8:22-25.

The Prophet’s vision of the End: The Day of the Lord

See Isaiah 13:1-13; Joel 1:15-2:5, 3:13-15; Obadiah 15

What it is: The coming of the Lord to judge and destroy evil and remove those opposed to his rule.
Elements of the Pattern: Military conflict: Armies, sieges, battle. Divine judgment: cosmic signs, divine action, God appearing. Judicial sentencing on all evil is passed. It concerns Jerusalem, and then other cities (Babylon, Edom, Nineveh) and then finally all nations.

Type and Fulfillment: Historically happens at several times, revealing a pattern that leads up to a final climactic set of events which will be final end of all evil and opposition to God’s rule.

Daniel gives us the time period: The 70th Week

Daniel received all kinds of info about “the time of the end.”
Dan 2:42-45 – There will be a succession of kingdoms, until God smashes them all and sets up his own.
Daniel 7:23-27 – Right before it’s all over, there will be a terrible king, and he’ll make things very difficult for 3.5 years. (see more about him in Daniel 8:23-27; 11:35-12:13)
Daniel 9:24-27 – Daniel is praying about what he read in Jeremiah 25—that God would keep Israel in exile for 70 years, and then they’d come back to their land. But Daniel gets an even more complete future history of the nation. There would be seventy “weeks” of seven years each which would transpire, in order to fully finish the history of the nation of Israel. After 69 of those weeks of years, the messiah would be killed. A final group of seven years would then be left to transpire, when everything is finally finished. A coming prince would set up an “abomination” in the temple in the middle of this last seven year period, and then destroy both the temple and Jerusalem.

Jesus teaches more: Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24:1-3, 15-22, 29-31) (Also Mark 13 and Luke 21)

Jesus integrates the day of the Lord prophecies with Daniel’s time of the end to show us that they are the same thing. The point? Jesus says that the day of the Lord prophecies, and Daniel’s time of the end, refer to the same thing—the sequence of events that, like birth starting with labor, begins with troubles, includes God’s pouring out of his judgment, and climaxes with the appearing of Christ in the sky. (“sorrows” = “birth pains”)

John receives more detail: Revelation 5-19

John sees the same pattern given in the Day of the Lord prophecies, Daniel’s “time of the end” prophecies, and Jesus’ Olivet Discourse: Judgments on all nations, Antichrist, 3 ½ years of trouble (Revelation 11:2-3 and 12:14), God doing battle, God’s appearing, final victory.

The Point: The three covenants must be fulfilled: God must establish his kingdom on earth and heal and bless the world. The way that kingdom comes in is called the day of the Lord. It is a sequence of events that include the intensifying of evil on the earth, and the process of God judging that evil, and then finally sweeping it away as he comes. This day of the Lord is prophesied to include a full seven year period, and is manifested in the final opposition of one evil king, who desecrates the temple in Jerusalem in the middle of the seven year period, which divides the seven years into two halves, and the second half is the most intense time of trouble the earth has ever seen. It is a time of exceptional trouble for God’s people, specifically, the nation of Israel, who is the focus of the events in that time. Jesus taught on this same subject when the disciples asked him about the end, weaving together what the prophets said about the day of the Lord, and the details Daniel used to describe it. John saw visions of even more details, but with the same structure—an evil king, whole-world judgment, 3 ½ years of exceptional trouble, Israel at the center of things, the final defeat of evil, a new kingdom set up. This Seven year “Day of the Lord” is what we often call the Tribulation.

What we’ll see next week is that, in the letters to the Thessalonians, Paul promises deliverance to those who believe from this Day of the Lord.

But for those who do not currently acknowledge Jesus as their savior, there is good news. The evil that we hate, God hates it too. He will not let it run on forever. He’s going to sweep it away in one climactic set of events, and then appear himself to set things straight. Judgment on all evil is coming. It is called The Day of the Wrath of God. But right now, it is not that day. Today, anyone who turns from the evil he’s coming to judge, who repents and turns to trust Jesus to rescue (save) them from this coming judgment will be a saved.

Because there is another Day spoken of by the prophets: The Day of Salvation.  See 2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2.

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says (in the book of Isaiah), ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’

“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the Day of Salvation.”

The Rapture: When, What, and Why

WHEN: Before the Day of the Lord, at any time.

1. Before the Day of the Lord
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 “The day of the Lord” cannot “be present”, because these two things aren’t happening.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 “delivered from the wrath to come” (as in Malachi 4)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11
4:13-14 — Their problem: fearing that those who had died would miss the coming of the Lord
4:15-17 — Paul’s response: no, when the Lord snatches us away, they will have risen first to be with him.
5:1-2 — But you don’t need me to tell you about when this will happen, since you know this: The day of the Lord is going to come as a surprise. What does he mean by “Day of the Lord”?
5:3 — The Day of the Lord will break on everyone like “labor pains”—unexpectedly. These “labor pains” are exactly how Isaiah describes the Day of the Lord (13:8), and Jesus uses the same imagery (Mt 24:8). In other words, Paul taught the Thessalonians what the Old Testament Prophets and Jesus taught about the Day of the Lord. He expects us to define what he means by “Day of the Lord” by using the definition of it we saw in the OT and Olivet Discourse—a seven year period with a series of events culminating in the appearing of Christ to rule on the earth.

The key? We are speaking here about how this period will begin. It will begin unexpectedly, like the onset of labor pains. (This imagery of “birth” is appropriate—a series of events which culminate in someone’s appearance.) Now notice—

5:3-11 Introduces us to two groups of people:

1. “They” —non-believers who do not escape this sudden onset of a process of God’s wrath being poured out (2, 3). THIS COULD HAPPEN AT ANY TIME.
2. “We” —believers who will not be overtaken by this day and caught up in this wrath. (4, 9, 11) So the beginning of the Day of the Lord introduces a division among these two groups of people—one group who will suddenly enter in to this time of judgment, and one who will not.

How does God make this division?
v. 9 – “salvation” = “deliverance” or “rescue”
v.10 – “living together with him” whether we’re dead or alive
1:10 – “deliverance” from the wrath of the Day of the Lord.

This deliverance must be the same event as the “catching up” described in 4:17.

Therefore, this give us the timing of 4:17’s “Catching up.”  Why? This catching up to be with the Lord happens in order to remove believers in Christ from the world before the onset of the “labor pains” which signal the beginning of the Day of the Lord and the pouring out of his wrath. It is the rescue of his people from a world he is about to judge. This “catching up” is what we usually call the rapture of the church, and here we see that it happens before (or as the first part of) the tribulation.

Paul tells the Thessalonian church that the Day of the Lord will overtake everyone on the earth in a time of outpouring of God’s wrath. They shouldn’t listen to anyone who tells them that they’re in it, or that they’re going to go through it, because there’s a clearly defined pattern with certain unmistakable events which identify the Day of the Lord. This pattern, and these events, were foretold by the prophets and the Lord himself. And Paul is clear that those who trust in Christ won’t be overtaken by these things. Instead, he says, we should be comforted by the expectation that we will be delivered from God’s Day of wrath by the Lord himself, who will descend from heaven to catch us up to be with him forever.

Other Hints: Isaiah 26:19-21, Zephaniah 2:3, Luke 21:29-36, Lot in Sodom.

2. At Any time (Imminent) – Because there is nothing from stopping the day of the Lord from beginning.

WHAT: The Catching up of Believers to meet the Lord in the air, as they are given their new bodies, and commence eternity with the Lord.

1. Believers will be “caught up” to meet Christ. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
2. Believers will be transformed—given their eternal, resurrection bodies. (1 Corinthians 15:50-52, Phil 3:20-21, 1 John 3:2-3)
3. Believers will then always be with the Lord. (John 14:1-3)

WHY: Removal, Revealing, Reassurance

1. To remove those who are forgiven from the outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth. Since Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath for us, we will not drink any part of it.
2. As a current source of comfort.
3. As a current incentive to holiness.
4. To precipitate the “apostasy” Paul speaks of—to reveal the true state of earth without the “salt” preserving it, thus revealing God’s judgment even more righteous.
5. As a sign of encouragement to those who get saved during the Tribulation: God can defeat evil and raise the dead?

Any prophecy about the second coming of Christ and how it applies to believers is helpful,
since it is all “his coming.”

The Day of the Lord is how God brings in the fulfillment of the three covenants. It includes the purifying of Abraham’s seed, and the sweeping away of all rebellion to his rule, so that David’s son can set up his kingdom in Israel and extend his rule over the whole earth. But those who have taken advantage of the day of salvation get to skip the day of wrath.

Since we have already begun to enter in to the fulfillment of those covenants, we don’t need to go through the preparation the rest of the earth will. We simply experience the complete fulfillment, beginning with our own bodies and our fellowship with Christ, and leading on to our participation in the kingdom.

The good news for those who don’t currently believe in Christ? The coming wrath has an escape hatch. Believe and be saved. (Revelation 22:6-12, Acts 17:30-31)

What happens during the Tribulation

Dan 7:1-8, 15-25 The Rise of a new global superpower
Dan 8:23-24 The rise of an individual leader of that power
Dan 9:27 This leader initiates a seven year covenant with Israel
Rev 6:1-8 Divine Judgments in the form of political and sociological upheaval
Rev 11:1-13 God has two witnesses
Rev 13:1-17 This leader is an economic dictator and religious head
2 Thess 2:3-12 This ruler is the Man of Sin
Rev 8:6-13 Divine judgments in the form of signs and wonders are poured out
Rev 9:20-21 Many do not repent
Rev 7:9-17 Many do repent
Rev 7:1-4 Israel Center Stage
Rev 14:6-8 Angelic preaching
Rev 16:12-16 Demonic activity, armies gathering for battle
Dan 11:36-12:1 Wars with the world leader
Joel 3:9-14 nations gathering
Zech 14:2-4 All nations gathered, the Lord comes
Mat 24:29-31 Jesus comes back
Rev 19:11-21 Jesus defeats all the armies

The Second Coming: The Great hope of all Mankind

See Ps 96:10-13, Ps 98; 2 Peter 3:1-9, 14-15

What’s the point?

1. The Bible predicts the future. Prophecy is a verifier of the truth of scriptural claims.
(See Isaiah 41:21-24, 46:9-10, 48:3-5)
2. We may look at current events to see if they are leading in the direction prophecy points. Now, it is very common for people to express disdain or boredom with those who watch current events to line up with prophecy. Of course, this may be done wrongly. People may get more excited about news feeds than the bible. But we should ask ourselves this question: If the things the bible predicted were really going to happen, and if we were getting close to those things occurring, we would expect to see global events “positioning” themselves in the direction they’d need to go if the prophecies were going to come true, right? So, do we currently see…
• the world ripe for, and already experiencing, major social upheavals…
• conditions needed for the existence of a world-wide state being prepared…
• a global yearning for strong, capable leadership to deal with the world’s problems…
• geo-political lines and alliances being drawn up according to what the bible says…
• increasing interest in the demonic (whether explicit or implicit), and actual demonic activity…
• increasing animosity towards Christ…
• Israel in the land, in possession of Jerusalem…
• Heightened animosity towards Israel, such that they would welcome a peace treaty and someone with the power to enforce it…?

3. Is your life woven into the world system in such a way that you would be lost if it changed or was ruined? (see Gal 1:3-4, 1 Thess 1:9-10)
4. Believers: Is this knowledge in you? see Colossians 3:1-7

Recapping where we’ve been so far:

1. God has promised that he will fix the world by destroying sin and evil, and establish an everlasting kingdom.
2. God has promised to do it through the people known as Israel.
   a. Abrahamic Covenant: this becomes the promise of global healing
   b. Davidic Covenant: this becomes the messianic promise
   c. New Covenant: this includes forgiveness of the root of sin
3. Jesus presented himself as this king God would use to fulfill all these promises.
4. He accomplished part of that work in his first coming: the sacrifice for and forgiveness of sins.
5. He promised to come back and finish fulfilling everything that had been promised.
6. At any time, this process could begin: The Day of the Lord will set in like the first contraction of labor. Over a seven-year period, God will judge the world’s evil, finally sweeping it away in advance of the inauguration of his kingdom.
7. Those who believe in Christ will be spared this time period, having been rescued before the Day of the Lord begins.
8. During this time period Israel takes center stage as a nation again. Through this period they are prepared as a people to be the center of the fulfillment of the promises—in other words, they are readied to receive the fulfillment of the covenants God made. They will turn to Christ and thus receive the Holy Spirit (Rom 11.) As they see the New Covenant fulfilled in them as a nation, they will then be readied to receive the fulfillment of the other covenants: their King from David’s line restoring their kingdom, and the restoration of their central status as a source of blessing to the whole earth. (see Revelation 12:6, 12:13-17)
9. The climax of this period is when Jesus personally returns to the earth to win God’s victory. (see Revelation 19:11-21.)
10. He had foretold this event many times. And taught on what would happen then (see Matthew 24:31 & 25:31-34). People who have come to faith in Christ (mainly the nation of Israel?) enter the kingdom.

The Millennium (see Revelation 20)

1. Revelation 20 simply clarifies and adds some detail to what the Old Testament, and Jesus, had already predicted.

• This returning ruler is Jesus Christ, coming as the messiah who was promised. (Dan 7:13-14)
• The throne he takes up is the throne of David (Is 9:6-7)
• He re-gathers Israel (Acts 1:8, Isaiah 49:5-6)
• From his throne in Jerusalem, he extends his rule over the entire earth.

In other words, we already know what to expect when Jesus returns from the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Lord: Global healing, all the nations brought under God’s rule, Israel re-gathered, and Jerusalem as the center of world blessing. This happens on our planet, as the culmination of history. This is exactly what John sees in his vision, with much less detail. Evidently he expects us to supply detail from the older prophecies.

2. The new information Revelation supplies:

• This time period will last 1000 years.
• Satan will be bound and shut away during this time period. His influence will be gone.
• Those who are Christ’s will share his rule over the earth. (Rev 19:14, Rev 5:10, Rev 2:26, Dan 7:27)
• Those who trusted Christ during the Day of the Lord (the tribulation) and suffered martyrdom will be resurrected and share in the rule with those who came with Christ. (20:4-6)
• It ends with a Satanically inspired rebellion and final victory for Christ (20:7-10)
• It is followed by the final judgment. (20:11-15)

Some Applications :

1. God will fix everything and rule the world his way.
2. God’s way is not to do things without people, or without humanity.
3. God keeps his promises. He’ll keep them to Israel, and by keeping those promises to Israel, He’ll bless the nations. Since we have the guarantee that he’s going keep his promises to Israel, we can trust him to keep his promises to us (that is, those of us who are gentiles). Therefore, we can trust him to keep his promises to us individually.

First, let’s look at: Rev 20:11-15

• v. 11 The dissolution of the Old Creation: See 2 Peter 3:7, 10-11. 
• v. 12-13 “The Dead.” These are all killed in 20:9, and “the rest of the dead” mentioned in 20:5. Since “dead” Christians have already been raised and stood before Christ’s judgment seat (see Romans 14:8-9 and 2 Corinthians 5:8-11)
  “the books” provide the basis of judgment for each individual. They are judged “according to” their works.
• v.14 The end of death. See 2 Corinthians 15:20-28
• v.15     “The book of life” corroborates “the books” of works. See Philippians 4:3 where Paul says “the rest of my fellow workers…names are in the Book of Life” and see also these verses in Revelation: 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 21:27, 22:19. The Book of life records those appointed to life: i.e., those who have trusted Christ and received. All who are judged according to works and not found written are thrown in lake of fire.

The Meaning of this Judgment:

1. It’s Part of the Christian Proclamation
It’s been an essential part of the Christian message since the Apostles first began preaching. See verses like these in Acts:
In Acts 10:42-43 Peter says, “He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
In Acts 17:30-31 Paul says: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

By including the truth about the final judgment in our sharing of the gospel, we remind the world of what they have forgotten about God’s judgment on sin, and we continue what Jesus preached, and we proclaim him as Lord. (John 5:24-29, 12:48)

2. It vindicates the claims of Christ
He claimed to be judge of all men. He claimed to have all authority over all people. He claimed that everyone would finally be judged by how they oriented themselves towards him. The final judgment fulfills all these claims.

3. It vindicates God’s justice
The final judgment displays the full verdict on all evil. This is the final explanation for how God can allow evil in the world—in the end, he doesn’t. Its existence is temporary. Also, the justice of God is shown by the fact that the judge is the One who walked in our skin (Jesus, both God and Man). He is fully aware of our condition, and can judge on the basis of a shared experience. The final judgment is also God’s final vindication of his followers who have suffered evil at the hands of opponents. (This is a major theme in Revelation, see 6:9-11; 11:15-18, 17:6, 18:20, 24.) 

4. It shows the true significance of all history.
Everything that happens matters, and has significance, whether for good or evil. From the standpoint of God’s kingdom, everything that is evil ultimately undoes itself and dissolves into insignificance. What has significance in the kingdom is that which is written in the Lamb’s book of life.

5. It validates the meaning and significance of each life, and of all actions
Every action of every individual life matters, and has significance, whether for good or evil. In fact, since nothing we do can be undone, every act has eternal significance. When a life has sin and evil in it, which is all written in the books, it taints and ruins everything else. Everyone is judged in line with the things they do, which show they were far from God and had not accepted his offer of Mercy through the death of Christ. So since every action is all significant, they suffer the consequences, and in that sense, their lives become meaningless in terms of the kingdom. In the lamb’s book of life though, good actions are gathered up and given a significance and meaning that endures forever in terms of the Kingdom. This is what the New Testament calls “rewards.”

Read Rev 21:1-16a, 22-27; 22:1-6

Seven Things that Are True of the New Creation:

1. New (Different)
2. Physical (Continuity)
3. Pure (Holy, no sin)
4. Spiritual (God is there)
5. Joyful (Community, Meaning/Work, No Sickness/Pain, no fear)
6. Eternal (Never ends)
7. Coming.

1. New:

• What is Old has passed away. (Isaiah 24:4-6, 51:6, Mt 24:35)
  No More Sea (21:1); No More Sun and Moon (21:23); No Night (21:25)
• New Creation: Mentioned in Isaiah 65:17, 66:22, and 2 Peter 3:13
• A tired, ruined earth is remade, or replaced.
• What humans have done in ignorance or sin will not be final. All mistakes and evil will be undone.
• This does not make our actions meaningless for ourselves, since they impact us and our personal destinies eternally. If God has to undo what we have done, then we ourselves are undone. What it does mean is that we cannot undo God’s purpose.
• No evil finally triumphs. No work of ruining or breaking will last forever. Every old thing will be replaced and remade by the new.

Physical:

• “Heaven and Earth” — the idea is a completion of the circle: Genesis 1 (old) to Rev 21 (New).
• Not alien, or “Ethereal.” Not clouds and harps. Continuity with this world, to the extent that John could recognize what he was looking at. A total fixing and restoration of what God made.  From God’s perspective: God wins. He gets the earth, full of people, forever, never to be ruined.  From Our perspective: We know in some sense what we’re looking forward to. Our ideas of what we want aren’t out of whack. Our future hope is something we can really look forward to. It will feel like home.
• Continuity: “Heaven & Earth” (Universe); River (22:1); Trees (22:2);
• City: Walls (21:12), Gates; Foundations (21:14), it is “laid out” (21:16); Streets (22:2)
• We “serve” him (22:3) – There are things to do in this city, and in this earth. (Rev 14:13) “This tranquility is not inaction, but unfettered vitality. The quality of life is raised, not lowered in spiritual energy, being free from sin. It is more a rest of singing than sleeping, more a life of praise than sloth.” (Thomas Oden)
• The final state is physical. The physical is affirmed and made eternal. Jesus’ body is there with us (3, 23)

Read Rev 21:1-16a, 22-27; 22:1-6

Six Things that Are True of the New Creation:

1. New (Different); 2. Physical (Continuity); 3. Pure (Holy, no sin); 4. Spiritual (God is there); 5. Joyful (Community, Meaning/Work, No Sickness/Pain, no fear); 6. Eternal (Never ends); 7. Coming.

3. Pure

• God is There. His presence is totally holy. (21:3, 22-23, 22:4)
• God’s Holy people are there. (21:3, 22:3, 4, 5)
• No pain, because the causes of Pain are gone.
• No cowards, only overcomers (21:7-8)
• None of the sinful states listed in 21:8 are there. Unbelieving (suspicious of God), abominable (morally polluted), murderers (destroy life), sexually immoral (selfishly twist the physical and use others for pleasure), sorcerers (spiritually evil), idolaters (lovers of unreality and other Gods), and all liars (those who deceive)
• No more curse (22:3) (the consequences of sin) see also 21:27, 22:14-15
• Those who love sin won’t love the city, and can have no access to it. It would consume and expel them.
• A Question: Do you want to go to a place where there is no sin and everyone is perfect?

4. Spiritual

• God is there: (21:3, 22-23)
• Nearness: (21:4, 22:4)
• River of Living Water/ Holy Spirit: (22:1, 21:6)
• God’s Presence (21:22); glory (21:23) & light (22:5); Throne (22:3)
• Knowledge of God in everything: Isaiah 11:9, Habakkuk  2:14 (as waters cover the sea) see also Acts 17:28, Jeremiah 23:24
• Not opposed to the physicality of the new creation. Integrated. Spiritual indwells and enlivens the physical.
• “Worship” elevated to all of life. All of life elevated to worship.

The vision of the New Earth chows us God’s full and final intention for his creation. Even the Millennium was only a “pointer” to this—a fully real, fully physical, fully spiritual existence where humanity lives fully aware and in experience of God’s presence everywhere, in everything, and all things are permeated and indwelt with his glory, purity, life and light. We were never designed to live apart from Him, and in the new earth, we won’t.

Challenges:

• Are you destined for this place? You are now if this world has begun to grow in you: 2 Cor 5:17, John 7:37-39, Col 1:9-10. Are these things true of you?
• Christians: Are we growing on this road now on our way to the final reality? Are we letting these things capture our thoughts? Col 3:1-4, Phil 3:20-21

Scriptures: Rev 21:1-16a, 22-27; 22:1-6

Seven Things that Are True of the New Creation:

1. New (Different)
2. Physical (Continuity)
3. Pure (Holy, no sin)
4. Spiritual (God is there)
5. Joyful (Community, Meaning/Work, No Sickness/Pain, no fear)
6. Eternal (Never ends)
7. Coming.

5. Joyful

No Pain: all the causes of pain gone: (21:4, 22:2-3)
Community: City (21:9-22:3, John 14:2))
Meaning: 21:7 (inheriting), 21:24-26 (bringing glory and honor into it), 22:3 (serving), 22: 5 (reigning)

All the things which ruin joy will be undone, and gone for good. All loneliness will be gone, because we will be together as a huge family, and nothing will be there which causes breakdown in relationships. We will live lives of activity and significance, with everything full of meaning. Everything we do will be done with each other, in the presence of God and with God, and ultimately, as an act of worship and service to him. All of life, all together, all to God.

6. Eternal (22:6)

Nothing can ruin all this goodness, because we will always know that it will never end. This is what we were made for (Gen 1:26).  See Ecclesiastes 3:11– “Eternity in their hearts.” See also Isaiah 51:11.

7. Coming See Rev 22:8-13, 20; 2 Pet 3:1-18

Finally, here are some great exhortations along this line, from our very first study in this series:

Matthew 25:1-13    A feast is coming. Be prepared, you don’t know when He’s coming.
Luke 12:35-46        Be like men waiting for their master.
Titus 2:11-13            Grace teaches us to be looking
1 Thess 5:1-7            We shouldn’t be asleep, or in the dark. We’re children of the day.
1 Thess 1:9-10         Getting saved is starting to wait.
Isaiah 25:6-9          This is what we’ll say one day.