Finding Christ in the Book of Revelation

Session 35 Finding Christ in the Book of Revelation Revelations 14:14-20 (NKJV) “Reaping the Earth’s Harvest” (14) Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. (15) And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” (16) So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. (17) Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. (18) And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” (19) So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. (20) And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs. (Reading: Isaiah 5-34-63; Joel 3; Mat.3-10-13-24; Luke 17&21; Heb. 13; John 5&15; Acts 10; 2 Timothy 3-4). Reap (GRK: θέρισον/ ther-i-son) I reap, gather, harvest; to remove the wicked inhabitants of the earth and deliver them up to destruction. Harvest (GRK: θερισμός/ ther-is-mos') a time of harvest: the act of reaping; figuratively-the gathering of men into the kingdom of God; figuratively- the time of final judgment, when the righteous are gathered into the kingdom of God and the wicked are delivered up to destruction. Reflections on Revelations “The Second Coming of Christ” Understanding these verses can be a daunting task as many opinions, doctrines and theories raise many questions as to what these events represent. What we can do is build a general understanding of what these verses tell us about the end of the tribulation and the start of the last and greatest conflict the world will ever see. Finding Christ here is simple, He is the final Judge, and He will determine at what time free grace for the lost will cease to be offered. Here we see the final aspects of the harvest on earth and some feel this is a picture into the culmination of the entire history of the church from the resurrection until the second coming. There are three main salvation harvests spoken of in the Bible, they are Barley, Wheat, and the fruit of the vine or Grapes. Barley is left out of consideration here because these events coincide with the harvest of grapes and wheat which were fall events. Barley was the first harvest, it came around the time of the Passover Celebration or in the spring of the year, this is significant as it is a sign that the first harvest, or the church being raptured from earth, has passed. Barley was the bread Jesus used to feed the 5000 and is an example of God’s provision to mankind, which we can see is now ending and since most agree that this is the case we will assume that these verses are describing events surrounding the restoration of the Nation of Israel and the second coming of Christ. Remember that in the entire Bible the wheat harvest was always a representation of those converted to faith in God, Grapes were always an example of relationship between God and his Creation, the vine and the vinedresser with Jesus being the vine that produced fruit and God’s Children being the fruit. The time for salvation has finished, and If the harvest is over then so is the tribulation and the Great Commission with it. So now Jesus turns the cleanup of the harvest over to His waring angels, the remaining work is the cleanup of the fields and the vineyards, and it involved pruning, cutting, clean up and burning. In the Bible Pruning was always a metaphor for God’s correction and this pruning is no longer about redemption or molding character, it’s about judgement. The chaff was always an example of those who refused salvation and ministry and are no good for anything but to be burned. This is associated to the unforgivable sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, or to reject the truth and deny the Spirit’s ability to save you. This is the cutting off of the dead branches and useless fruit to be cast into the fire, and the Spirit of God now has nothing to do with anything on earth. In Revelation chapter six we spoke of the martyrs from under the altar who wanted God’s vengeance, well the angel from the Altar now seems to be delivering on this promise, this signifies that God’s command to wait is over and it verifies His intentions to enter His Judgement. All is thrown into the winepress of God’s judgement and pressed with blood coming out, a symbol of a great battle. The reference to “outside the city gates” is symbolic of the place where all the unwanted thing were taken; they burned the beasts after the temple sacrifices there, and they also crucified Jesus there; now, Jesus is taking them there for the final conflict and judgement, I guess turn around is fair play. The furlongs are approximately 200 miles, this would cover most of the current nation of Israel and it is estimated that it would take nearly eight million deaths to create this much blood. As we saw in the past chapters, and will see in the coming chapters, God is now controlling everything with a rod of iron. (See Revelation 2:26-27/ Psalm 2:9-12