Mike Bickle discusses the significance of Revelation chapters 15 and 16, emphasizing that the straightforward nature of these passages is often obscured by misconceptions about the second coming of Jesus. He clarifies that Jesus is returning to stay on earth, merging the supernatural and natural realms, and that believers will be transformed to participate in this new era. Bickle highlights the importance of understanding the context of these judgments, which are part of a divine plan to establish God's kingdom on earth, and encourages listeners to engage with the biblical text to grasp the unfolding drama of the end times.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for this amazing passage of Scripture. We ask you for your blessing, and I ask you for inspiration on our understanding even now, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, Revelation chapter 15 and 16, in terms of reading it straightforward, is one of the easiest sections in the book of Revelation. It's just very straightforward. It means what it says and says what it means. But having said that, the difficulty with these two chapters is understanding the context in which this straightforward passage is describing. And the context is not immediately apparent right there in the passage, but the context is described in great detail in the prophetic scriptures, particularly the Old Testament prophets. And so there's a paradox. It's a very straightforward, easy passage, but the context is a challenge, and only for one reason. It's only a challenge for one reason, because really it's quite easy. The context, if you can get past one point, is that most people's paradigm or their perspective, the lens they're looking through, is that when Jesus comes, He not only takes us away, He goes away. And that's a completely wrong idea. I don't want to be arrogant about people who say that, because there's a lot of godly people I greatly respect who believe that. But if your paradigm is Jesus is coming to take you away and Him away, then the context is really hard to understand what's going on. The storyline gets all mixed up. But if you get the one simple point, He's coming at the second coming to stay permanently. And then you begin to understand that the events that are described are real earthy, earthy, earthy, not just earthly, earthy events, with real blood, real war, real fear, real excitement. It's on the earth. Now when Jesus returns in the fullness of the resurrection, the Bible's clear that He brings the two realms together. And though we're excited about the supernatural realm of the resurrection coming to the earth, what happens when we read the end time passages is that we often lose touch of the earthiness and the physicalness and the naturalness of the events. Because there's a supernatural realm, we would be tempted to assume the natural is just obliterated and done away with. So if you can get two points, the idea that Jesus is coming to stay and so are we, when we get translated and are at the rapture and get new bodies, we get transformed and mobilized to take over, not to go away. So if you get that point, He's coming to stay. And the second point, the two realms are coming together, the natural and the supernatural, the realm of the resurrection, and it's on the earth. If you get that clear, and that's really not so hard, then the context of Revelation 15 and 16 is quite easy to understand. If you don't have those two points, which, and I want to say this nicely, kindly, most people don't have those two points clear. They think they're going away and all that happens is mostly supernatural with very little physicality involved in the process. So He's coming to stay, and so are you. You're going to get transformed and stay, and there's going to be a physical and a supernatural dimension together. You get that, then you can understand this context really in a straightforward way. And I think the days are coming where it will be, maybe we're a decade or two out, but it will be normative for people to have those two points in place. Because it's normative to think we're going away, and all the physical realm just kind of passes away, and everything is supernatural that happens related to Jesus, because He has a resurrected body. Now, as we're going to read, I'm going to give a bit of a context, because it's the context that makes these two chapters dynamic. And once we set the context up, we'll spend about 90% of this session setting up the context, because the passage itself, and we won't cover all of it, but just give a little broad strokes, just a few minutes at the end. You get the context right, the passage becomes dynamic. It's like, whoa, what a drama, what an intense drama, you'll be able to picture it. You don't get the context right, this chapter will just seem like a disconnected, surreal information. We know it's right, because it's in the Bible, but it doesn't really have any, we can't really relate to it, because we don't have the context right. So I'm going to push your mind a little bit, and I'm going to declare statements that I have the biblical support in the notes here, but I'm not going to take time to prove it all for those that are listening to the CD at a later time. You have to get the notes and the Bible verses, and Revelation 15 and 16, I've taken in times past weeks at a time, I mean four, five, six weeks just on these passages. So my point is, even then we can't put all the Bible verses, just lay them all out in one session, because this document would be 20, 30 pages, and it's only six. And so I'm saying that, that as you're listening tonight, you're going to have to go away and look up the Bible verses. And of course my fundamental principle is, if you can't see it in the Bible, throw it away. Don't accept anything that I say, or anybody in this, in this leadership team says in a pulpit, don't accept anything that you can't see with your own eyes in the Bible. Challenge everything, just challenge it with humility. We want to embolden you to challenge everything you hear, just with humility, with an open Bible. Don't challenge it because it's different from what your Sunday school group taught you when you grew up. Challenge it because you can't see it in the Bible, not because it's new to you. Now this is worth, Revelation 15 and 16, it's worth getting your mind around. The context, again, the details are just so straightforward, it's really quite easy. But without the context, the details won't seem realistic. So it really, you really do want to bother with this. Why do we want to get the details? Because these, this is the section, chapter 15 and 16, in which natural history shifts to the age to come. Beloved, it's, you only have one earth you live on, and you only have one life, and it's now, and on the earth, very possibly in the lifetime of people in this room, you will witness this, and it's the earth that is part of your inheritance. You want to know the drama of what's going to happen on the earth. It's worth exercising a little bit of mental, vigorous, rigorous engagement, and I know the vast majority of you, you wouldn't be in this room if that's not the mindset you had, because you're going to be involved in this drama. It's not just a distant story far away, it's your story. It's the transition of human history in the generation that some of you will see with your own eyes. Now, if you can picture the end of the story, the end of the drama, and Revelation 15 and 16 gets you right to the end of the drama. I'm talking about the end of natural history. Now, I've said this before, I want to say it thousands of times, we don't believe in the end of the world. The world never ends. The age ends, not the world. The world will go on forever and ever and forever. People say, you believe in the end of the world, that's exciting. I go, no, I don't. They go, oh, you're kidding. I thought you were really into the end of the world. No, the end, the world will never end. The age changes, and the age means the way that the world is governed. That's what shifts. Not the world doesn't go away, but the way in which the, the world is governed. Right now, it's governed by men and women, inspired dynamically by demons. In a few minutes, the world's going to be governed by people inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the demons will be in prison. That changes everything. And the heavenly realm, the new Jerusalem, descends to the earth, and we have two realms together, and a whole different government. And in that sense, this, the age shifts. Now, if you can see the end of the story, you can picture it. The, I'm talking about the natural history, and which ends at the second coming, and the events right afterwards. If you can picture it, and in Revelation 15 and 16 will really help you out, then you can, in the, if the Lord actually comes in the, in the, in the decades ahead, and I believe that He is, two, three, four, five decades, who knows? Who knows? But I believe He's coming in the lifetime of people that are alive in this room. But if you get the, the end picture right, you will be able to process the events from a biblical point of view in the next several decades with a far better accuracy if you can see the end of the drama clearly from the Bible. If, a lot of folks I talk to, they go, I just can't get any of this. And so everything is just kind of like a maze of confusion. They, they, they can't get a grid of where things are going, because they don't have a framework. They, they love Jesus, they love the Bible, but they don't have a framework. They can't picture what this thing looks like. They know Jesus is in the sky, in the trumpet, that part they get. But all these, you know, 150 chapters in the Bible that are focused, there's 150 chapters in the Bible, Old and New Testament, of which the premier focus is the end times. They just can't make sense of those chapters. That's a whole lot of Bible to throw away. But if you can see the end of it, you can interpret the process with a far greater clarity. And if you can see the end of it, those 150 chapters, you can understand them a whole lot better. You get this piece clear that I'm talking about tonight. You get this piece clear. Jesus is coming to stay, and the supernatural and the natural realm are coming together at the second coming on the earth, and the, and the process is supernatural in the anointing, but it's earthy. You get that together. You get that context clear. These chapters, not only chapter 15 and 16 of Revelation will make sense, but 150 chapters. This is the missing piece to most people that I've talked to over the years, trying to get this big puzzle, trying to figure it out. This is the piece that most of them are missing. Paragraph A. Again, I'm going to spend a lot of time just creating the context, because the, we could cover the chapter in five minutes. Chapter 16 is where we're going to spend most of time. I'm going to create what's going on for this, for the events of chapter 15 and 16. Paragraph A. It's the fourth chronological section. Now the book of Revelation, the storyline, the battle plan, the drama, it has five sections that tell the story in chronological order. We're in the fourth section that's telling the, the battle plan and the storyline in a event by event way in chronological order. Now in this, in this section, what's happening is that we see the seven judgment events that Jesus will release on the Antichrist empire. Now here's the key. Here's the part that's new to some, to many. He releases these events at, not from the sky, but marching up through the land of Edom is its ancient name. And you'll see that in just a second. He's on his way to make a triumphal entry into Jerusalem, to go to the Mount of Olives and to be received king of kings over all the nations in Jerusalem. But he doesn't go to Jerusalem straight from the sky, but he touches down and marches up through the land and slays the Antichrist armies in route. And there's many passages that say this. And most believers that love Jesus, they're new at the end times. I mean, many passages that make this really clear. This is so baffling. They go, Jesus kills people on the way. Well, really? I go, yeah, yeah. There's lots of verses. They go, I don't ever know about those. I go, yeah. Once you get this context clear and you begin to see this part of the, of the drama, many passages of those chapters will open up to you. So Jesus is marching through Edom, say Edom. Okay. It's not a hard nation to learn. It's modern day Jordan. It's right next to Israel. It's the nation right next to Israel. He marches up through there to confront the Antichrist who's in Jerusalem, oppressing Israel. And he's been persecuting the saints for, for some time, for three and a half years in a really intense way, but even a little bit before that as well. And he goes through Eden. He's killing the Antichrist armies, literally killing them in physical combat. He is the greater David capturing Jerusalem. Never ever to lose it again. He's the greater David and he's the greater Moses coming up through the wilderness again to bring his people into the promised land. He's fulfilling the Moses role, the Joshua role, the David role, and a bunch of other roles all rolled up in one. Now this is your drama because you're going to be a part of this. You're a part of it now preparing yourself and the nations for it, but you will actually be a part of this. Okay. Let's look at one of the most significant second coming passages in the Bible. It's in the Old Testament, Isaiah 63. This is really a straightforward passage, very significant. This is the passage that John quotes in Revelation 19, the famous Revelation 19, where Jesus comes up. He's king of kings and the name and he's got the sword in his hand and he's got blood on his robe. John is quoting this famous second coming passage in Isaiah 63. Look what it says. We'll try to do this fast. The questions being asked all around the world. Who is this man coming up from Edom? It's Jesus they're asking about. His garments are dyed and we find out in a minute they're dyed red. They look red. The, the guy asking the question says there's this man coming up with red garments and he's marching through Edom on his way to Jerusalem. What's going on? He goes through Basra. That was the ancient capital. This one, he's glorious in his apparel. His clothing is amazing because there's a supernatural dimension to it. He is traveling. It's the same route that Moses and Joshua took right through the wilderness on the way to, to Israel. He's traveling in the greatness of his strength and it's this line here and it's, and this idea is repeated many times in the scripture. This is where he's at releasing the seven bowls of wrath against the antichrist army. He's traveling up the land in his strength smiting the nations. Now Jesus speaks up. I who speak in righteousness I am mighty to say and the guy interrupts him. Question before you go on mysterious man. Why are your garments red? It looks like you've been in the wine press stomping on grapes. It looks like the grapes have splashed up on you and you're all stained your clothing. It's, it's odd. Jesus says yes because I have been in a wine press. Verse three. I have trodden the wine press. He's talking about his end time judgments. In my anger I have trampled and we find out later the nations in my fury their blood is what is sprinkled on me. Now already that's a disconnect. People go wait a resurrected Jesus blood gets on him. No way. Way it does. And the reason, well there's a half a dozen reasons, but one reason Jesus wants us to know he is intimately involved in the process of transitioning the age and you're his bride and so will you be. Even with the resurrected body the physical dimension does not go away. That's just like wow. Well that could get exciting. Wow. You mean I'm not playing a harp on a cloud for billions of years. I'm doing things on the earth that change history. Yes. Well now that could get interesting. There you have it. I got you. Now 90% of you already there. He says their blood is sprinkled on my garments. I've stained all my robes by hand-to-hand combat or up-close battle. Let's put it that way. He is the greater David taking Jerusalem. Slaying all the enemies. Verse four. For the day of vengeance is in my heart but it's the year of redemption. He means the wrath is only a minute. It's only a minute but it's intense and that day is in my heart. But I'm producing something that lasts a year. And in this context he's he's giving the contrast the short vengeance but the long redemption is the idea. Verse six. I've trodden down the peoples and the word peoples is usually the word nations. I've trodden the nations down and he's trodding them down marching up through the land for this for the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He enters Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives coming up through the land with his armies with him. And he's liberating the captives because many of the Jews will be in prison camps literally literal prison camps and he's liberating them like he said in Isaiah 61. I will set the captives free. We can quote that for emotional captives but he's talking about physical captives actually in context. He's liberating them like Moses did liberating the children of Israel from Pharaoh and he's bringing them right up to the land of promise to live forever in his kingdom. Paragraph B. Now John quotes this passage this famous Isaiah 63 passage about coming up through Edom which is Jordan. John says verse 11. He's on the horse. I'm going to do this fast. He's making war. The blood is on his garments. Verse 15. He's striking nations. He's treading the wine press. He's just quoting nearly verbatim Isaiah 63 the passage we just read. Again one of the most significant second coming passages. Now David prophesied about this march up through the land and beyond. It doesn't when he gets to Jerusalem the the the conflict isn't over. When he gets to Jerusalem he captures the antichrist and throws him in the lake of fire. But there's still a couple billion people in the earth who don't like Jesus and they don't evaporate so there's still a lot of work to do even after the antichrist is captured and thrown in the lake of fire. It's like the the parallel of of World War II. When Adolf Hitler died still there were war criminals all over the world doing bad things. The day Hitler died there was still quite a bit of work to be done. But David describes the Messiah when he inherits the earth. Look at this. It's a strange passage. Verse 8. He breaks the nations and he dashes the nations. Can you imagine what it means for a man with his power to dash to dash nations? To dash them? Now what that means is not only is Jesus replacing all of the evil governments of the earth. He's moving the personnel out. He's taking, he's replacing them. But he's also going to destroy and dismantle all the infrastructures. Because the infrastructures of society will be rife with perversion and darkness. I mean all the infrastructures. I don't just mean the top government. The libraries. I'm talking about the media industry. The art industry. They will all be polluted with perversion at every level. And Jesus is going to literally dash the nations. He's going to break all of the infrastructures and start over again. All of them. I don't mean just the top ones. The water systems. The agricultural systems. The educational systems. The libraries. Everything. Think of every social institution. He will break them and start over again. And this is going to take a quite a bit of time. Of course with his supernatural ability. Fully God. Fully man. And his wisdom. But still he's going to do it in the combination of the anointing of the Spirit and the natural processes as well. He's not going to just wave his hand over a city and all the rubble disappears and buildings are created. He's getting the buildings will be fixed building by building just like they are now. But there'll be a different environment of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And all that goes in and the devil's in prison. And so it's different. But I mean a lot different environment. But I want you to get this. When Jesus comes up through the land. And that's what the seven bulls of are about. He's dashing the nations. But I want you to get that clear. Jesus is coming to dash nations. Like I thought he was going to blow a trumpet and we were out of here. No. He's going to blow a trumpet. We're going to be caught up to the air. We're going to get a transformed body. We're going to be given our rewards. We're going to be mobilized. And then we're going to come with him to take over the earth with physical, material, resurrected bodies, physical bodies. You will eat food. You will drink. You will learn. You'll have friends. You will do work and you will have a resurrected body. You're on the earth forever. The new Jerusalem is coming down. Heaven's coming down to the earth. But when Jesus blows, when the angel blows the trumpet, we get captured up in the sky. All the governments, the announcement, they're all going to be taken over. It's like Jesus could say there's so much work to be done and I'm not doing it by myself. I could, but I don't want to because my father and I have determined we're going to do it with our people, for our people, and through the process of the natural realm of human process with the anointing of the spirit involved in it and the resurrected bodies. Paragraph D. Isaiah said when the messiah comes he'll strike nations. He'll strike them. So you can use the word dash or strike. But this is what's happening in Revelation 16. Jesus, in seven very strategic strikes of judgment, he is dashing and smashing the nations because what he's releasing as he's marching up to the land has a global impact. And the saints are with him. We're with him in the process. Matter of fact, I don't have this on the notes, but Revelation 2 verse 27, he tells Jesus with his own lips, he said to the saints, if you overcome, you will dash nations with me. You go, yay overcome, yay with you, dash nations? No, what, what do you mean? I want to overcome and I'm going to be with you, but dash nations? Yeah, he goes, you will dash nations with me. Like, yeah, intense. And again, most believers, their mind is far away from that concept. They're like, I thought we were playing a harp on a cloud. What do you mean dash nations if we overcome? What nations will there be when we overcome with a resurrected body? And why will they need dashing? Because the nations will be a mess when Jesus appears. And they're going to be reconstructed, the cities and the governments, brick by brick, line by line, issue by issue. And it will take time. It will take years and years for it all to get right. Matter of fact, the thousand-year millennial reign is that, that's how much time it takes to get it all right and tested and mature in righteousness. It's not a thousand years because it's arbitrary. My theory is it's a thousand years. That's as soon as Jesus could do it using people in the human process. It's as quick as he could get it done without violating people's free will. He wants it to be all about love. Paragraph E, Habakkuk. Now it's, now Habakkuk 3 is like Isaiah 63, the passage we started with. This is got, this must be one of your top three second coming passages. I mean, it has to be up there. Habakkuk 3 and Isaiah 63 and Isaiah 42, they have to be your top three. Well, you can pick any ones you want, actually. But Habakkuk 3, note to self, Habakkuk 3, where's Habakkuk? Well, I want to inform you, it will be, once you figure this out, you one of your absolute favorite Jesus passages in the Bible. Well, Habakkuk 3 describes him, verse 4, in the brightness like light, rays of light flashing from his hand. Verse 4, 5, he's releasing pestilence and fever as he's marching up through the land. He's releasing pestilence and fever. I thought we went on a cloud somewhere. Yeah, we go up in the cloud for a few minutes to get transformed and mobilized to come back down to work with him. The cloud thing is just a, is a very functional thing that's part of the process. And the pestilence and the fever, these are the issues in Revelation 16. These are the bowls of wrath. Habakkuk 3 is describing the bowls of wrath of Revelation 16. You compare these chapters, it's dynamic. Verse 6, I like this, Jesus startled the nations. That's a little understatement. He startled the nations. Habakkuk, wow, you could have said that a little stronger than that. He gave it to me. He startled the nations, I think. Verse 12, now look at this. And again, there's, there's a quite a few passages on this. Verse 12, you marched through the land in indignation, you trampled nations. He's on his way to Jerusalem because once he gets to Jerusalem, he's not going to run around trampling nations, but he's trampling nations on his way up. To Jerusalem. We don't know where his touchdown point is. I have an opinion. I don't need to go there right now. But it's, it's around the nation of Israel. But he marches up, trampling nations, defeating the armies that are mobilized around the, the Armageddon campaign. And just because it's important to understand, it's not the battle of Armageddon. And I appreciate people saying that, that's okay. It's not the battle of Armageddon. It's the Armageddon campaign. The Armageddon campaign is a series of battles from, it's from the, the plains of Armageddon, Megiddo. It's from Armageddon. That's the staging area. There's many battles from that staging area. But the, the main battle at the end is actually the battle of Jerusalem. But the armies are mobilized in Armageddon, but they're there for three and a half years, the enemy armies. And so people say, well, at the very end, the battle of Armageddon. Well, technically that's not right. It's the battle of Jerusalem, but it's the Armageddon campaign. The whole mobilizing is from Armageddon, that vast plain up in the north. Roman numeral two. Well, we took a long time getting that context, but I have to admit it, I enjoyed it. I want you to really read this. And there's many passages that we're skipping on this, on this first page. I mean, passages we could have put on there. It's exciting. Okay. Now John is getting to the context. He sees what's happening in the heavens. Verse one, Revelation 15, verse one, I saw a sign in the heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues. For in them, the wrath of God is complete. In terms of the wrath of God in natural history, the lake of fire is still going to happen, but the wrath of God in terms of natural history being confronted in a global way. Verse two, I love this. Now catch on verse two. I want to stir up your holy imagination. I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire and the people that had victory over the Antichrist are standing on it. Verse three, they're singing and they're singing love songs and songs of majesty and praise. So John sees a sea of glass, this vast sea, and he sees the people that overcame on it, worshiping Jesus on that sea of glass. It says at the end in verse four, for all the nations will worship you. The second coming has just happened. Now what's happening in Revelation 15? What is the event right before Revelation 15? The event, what's the minute before Revelation 15? It's the seventh trumpet. If you understand the chronological order of the book of Revelation, by the way, we're going to be looking at this tomorrow morning at FCF. I'm going to give an overview of the book. We're going to get ready for the One Thing Conference because we want to, we want to get a bunch of young people's minds engaged in the battle that the Holy Spirit is focusing on, and it's a battle that's going to unfold for some decades before it comes to a culmination. It's what the prayer movement's being raised up for, to be engaged in the battle, to shift things in history to prepare for the second coming events, but that's for tomorrow. So I'll stop and get back to this. Let's go to paragraph B. Let's look at this sea of glass is curious to me. Now what most commentators say is that the sea of glass is in heaven because we know that's where it's at, but the difference is that Jesus is returning and He's bringing the new Jerusalem with Him to the earth. So where the sea of glass is exactly, I don't know, but I know one thing. The seventh trumpet has just sounded. All the saints have been raptured and resurrected. Everyone's been rewarded and every, all of the saints are with Jesus and Jesus is on this sea of glass and He's about to touch down on the earth. So I don't know where that sea of glass is, but there's a dynamic connection to this sea of glass and the events that unfold in the seven bowls of wrath. My, in Revelation, I mean Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel saw what I believe to be the sea of glass. He called it the firmament, the new, the new American standard and the NIV calls it the expanse. He saw Jesus on a throne and before Him was a vast expanse like awesome crystal. Sounds like the sea of glass to me. Jesus's throne is there and this awesome crystal is before Him. Now here's the issue. Jesus's throne is coming down to the earth. It's called the throne of glory several times in the gospels. That's what Jesus called it. He's bringing His throne with Him and with His throne comes the sea of glass. Well the New Jerusalem is 1500 miles high, so you know it could be anywhere in the arrangement, but the saints, my opinion, this is only opinion, I'll tell you when it's clear biblical doctrine and where it's an opinion. It's an opinion. That's why I'm gonna give you an opinion now. I think the sea of glass is before the throne of Jesus. Of course that's true from Ezekiel 1. We know that. That's biblical. We know His throne is coming down to the earth. There's 15 verses that say that real clear, but now I'll move on to the opinion part. I believe this is not just the martyrs because all the saints have been resurrected and raptured. The trumpet has been blown. I believe all the saints are there and the whole complex is coming down with Him and I don't know exactly where it is, but we're all in that vast amphitheater watching everything unfold as well as many being participating in it actually on the earth with Jesus and others are in that what I call that vast amphitheater as all the transitional events are taking place and the heavens are open and the whole sea of glass company all the saints are there and it's all coming down and it's connecting with the earth the heaven and the earth come together at the second coming so I know I left it a little edgy there you thought well you didn't quite say it the two realms are converging and I think the sea of glass company is not only martyrs because all the saints now have the resurrected bodies but I think that whole complex of the throne of Jesus is descending to the earth and who knows what that really means in its implications but we're all there and we're all a part of it and I believe many of the saints will be involved in the events on the earth I mean literally touching the earth and others during the transition time will be in that what I call that glorious amphitheater the cloud of witnesses watching it all unfold with an open heaven on the sea of glass praying not cheerleading not go Jesus go go Elijah go praying and declaring and worshiping some will be on the sea and some will be on the land with him and who knows who will be where but it will be one continuum it won't be two different realms it will be one open reality together because the new Jerusalem is descending to the earth and Jesus is about to march through the land to remove all of the physical enemies that are standing in the way of him becoming king over Jerusalem paragraph c now I realize I lost a few of you three minutes ago and others of you 10 minutes ago that's okay stay with it because it's not just a bible class this is the history of the world unfolding and it's your world and it's your story and you want to be a part of it and you would not I mean you're going to be a part of it as a boarding and believer but you want to be actively involved in understanding it and praying about it even in the preliminary events that are necessary for the second coming events to happen all the events related to the second coming revelation 11 here's the event paragraph c that has happened just the immediate event before the sea of glass company his eyes in revelation 11 the seventh angel sounded the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our lord the nations are angry all the saints get the rewards jesus is going to destroy the people who destroy the earth and next event is the sea of glass coming down with jesus in the throne of glory now jesus in matthew 24 gives us the same events from a different angle there's i don't know the real number but i'm just gonna say 10 or 20 one of these days i'll count them but there's about 10 or 20 real significant passages like this where they tell the events from different angles jesus here in matthew 24 is telling the seventh trumpet the blowing of the seventh trumpet event from a cosmic point of view in other words what's happening in the sky when paul tells the event of the last trumpet he talks it from a personal view our bodies get transformed in the twinkling of an eye and that which is mortal puts on that which is immortal he tells the same event but from a personal one john tells it in revelation 11 not from the cosmic or the personal the nations of the earth are all being taken over he takes it from a political point of view of what's happening in the governments of the earth because the son of man is the king of the new government of the new king of the governments so these passages are describing the same time frame surrounding the seventh trumpet but from different angles and there's about 10 or 20 of these passages and each of them have a different lens a different look into the same diamond so this is jesus's view of it he knows the whole story he could have told the isaiah 63 marching up through the land he could have told it all i mean the miracle of jesus well there's so many it's what he didn't say i mean he was sitting there these guys are so wild and he's going if you only knew i'm not telling you even the beginning of the beginning it is going to blow your minds which translates you're going to be lovesick worshipers when you see this verse 30 jesus will come and he'll give a sign in the heavens now that no one quite knows what that sign is i think that sign and the sea of glass they're all connected somehow but everybody's kind of like wild something happens in the whole sky that unbelievers see and they don't get saved i mean some can get saved still they can still get saved many though if they've taken the mark of the beast they can't but there will be millions that haven't done that yet they're not believers but they're not worshipers of the antichrist i call them the unsaved resistors of the antichrist they haven't said yes to jesus but they haven't taken the mark of the beast and those are the people that continue to populate the earth after the second coming verse 30 jesus said there's a sign that will appear and all the tribes will be really sad when they see it oh lord what's that sign oh i'll tell you more later you know i mean that's what the lord would probably say to me if he was saying it out loud lord it's across the whole sky uh-huh it's not the sign isn't you because it's the sign of you because jesus appearing is is the glorious event itself but there's a sign first and when the nations see it and they see him the nations are really sad they go oh no because he is going to dash the nations when he comes they're very sad we get raptured we're happy the resistors that resist the antichrist and they're not saved yet they're confused they're going i don't get what's going on everybody seems to be calling fire down from heaven these days there's so many things happening what is going on and there will be some millions of them maybe hundreds of millions i don't know but the vast majority will be the ones lining up with darkness they will be very sad and now verse 31 the seventh trumpet and the rapture and all jesus is telling this this whole story and we end up on that sea of glass somewhere we i don't quite know where it's at i think i think it's part of the sign i think it's all there's a bunch of missing parts that are working together paragraph d jesus paul makes it clear it's the last trumpet well the last trumpet's the seventh trumpet that's when it all happens paragraph e now this is a new piece of information but it's could be uh it's biblically substantiated and because it's new don't throw it away because it's new but the second coming he doesn't appear in the sky and go away the second coming i call it a second coming procession there's a a series of events that take place in his coming of which dashing the nations is a very significant part of the second coming events because he comes to take over all the governments of the earth in partnership with us we're working with him in the overthrow it's the great eschatological revolution of which all the governments are turned over for real but the point is this the second coming procession i talk about it in three stages of course you can break it up and you can put it in different definitions if you want i call it three stages jesus comes across the sky and every eye sees him then he comes up through the land and he tramples the nations and and strikes them then the third stage he enters into jerusalem and he's received as the king of glory in the city and establishes his throne there and then it goes on from there so across the sky stage one that's the part what most people think when they think of second coming they think of the across the sky part they end it there but then he walks up through the land we don't know where his touch point is for sure there's hints but you can't you don't want to build a doctorate on a hint that's the second part and then the third part is he marches up i mean second part to the land that he enters into jerusalem and it's the marching up through the land part that he releases the seven bowls it's a 30-day period and i'm not going to break it down here but we have uh information on the internet on it and it's it's not so hard to understand but i don't want to take time because i'm out of time and i want to just read the other passage just a half a minute but just study the 30-day part out well i'll just say it this way it says it eight different times that the saints are going to be persecuted and protected and they're going to be prophesying for 42 months says that eight different times eight different times we're either prophesying we're protected divinely or we're persecuted it's a combination of all of them but the anti-christ worship system which is called the abomination of desolations that's a fancy term it boils down to meaning the anti-christ worship system when you see abomination of desolation say to yourself anti-christ worldwide worship system because what it means is he is doing he's committing an abomination by calling himself god and telling everyone to worship him or he kills him god calls that abomination and it leads to the desolation of his whole empire that abomination that he commits by claiming to be god and demanding at the pain of death that everybody worship him that abomination leads to desolation god judges him in the seven bowls of wrath here and others beside so when you read the abomination of desolation don't go oh no that's confusing just say anti-christ worship system well here's the point on the 30 days it's clear that the anti-christ worship system functions for 43 months but the saints are protected and persecuted and even prophesied for 42 months there is a 30-day period that the anti-christ is here running his worship system but we're gone it's just really clear in the pat and the book of daniel the anti-christ his system continues for 30 days more than after the rapture we're gone but he's still going that's the transition period of which i'm talking about right now you could look it up on the internet and put all the passages together and it's not so hard to understand it's really pretty straightforward but it's so new to most people that you know the word abomination of desolation kind of confuses them but if they just say worship system of the of the anti-christ well there you go it really that's really what it is it's his abomination that creates desolation for everyone who says yes to him now roman number three paragraph a immediately after the sounding of the seventh trumpet and we're raptured the saints are gathered on the sea of glass they're worshiping jesus king the next thing that happens is right here in revelation 16 1 and these seven bowls are just so straightforward i heard a voice from the temple and the voice said go and pour out the bowls but the saints have already been raptured at the seventh trumpet the event before and we've already are with jesus when this takes place because it's clear that we're together with him at the last trumpet roman numeral four the seven bowls the first bowl painful sores the first angel went forth and it's at the command of jesus and in concert with the prayer movement these things will not happen separated from the prayer movement and the angel poured out a foul and loathsome sore on the anti-christ empire now it's not pouring out on the saints because we're already raptured second bowl the angel poured out his bowl on the sea it became blood my opinion i can't make this doctrine i think it's the mediterranean sea not the pacific ocean because most of the the whole prophetic drama in the book of daniel is focused around the sea and it's always the mediterranean sea and john and daniel are prophesying in such uh unity in the same symbols the same points the same emphasis and so my opinion is the sea that becomes blood is the mediterranean i don't think it's the pacific and the atlantic paragraph c the next thing that happens is the poisoning of the fresh water it turns to blood now most of these that happen happened with moses in the ten plagues of egypt most of these bowls and trumpets actually happened through moses but now it's not moses against pharaoh freeing the people of god but it's the greater moses jesus against the end time pharaoh who's the antichrist but it's the same judgments and they're released the same way through the prayers of the saints because when moses stretched forth his rod he was giving prophetic declaration he was praying in the act of stretching forth his rod the stretching forth of his rod was in fact a form of prayer he released those judgments through his prayers and the end time church will do the same the fourth bowl scorching heat the sun became hot it scorched men with great heat paragraph e you can read a little bit details later and we'll have a a course in the spring we have a course planned the saturday night we're going to take the 12 weeks on the seals the trumpets and the bowls 12 weeks on these 21 events that's not enough to go in depth but it's enough to at least get your mind around it why do you want to get your mind around it when you get clarity about what god says he's going to do you can see the big picture even a little bit we don't see it so clear but a little bit many things between now and then come into focus because we know where it's going and many of the of the bible passages the prophetic ones they get become clear where you when you see where it's going you really do want to know this it is your story the fifth bowl darkness fell on the antichrist empire this darkness is has demonic power in it now darkness fell on egypt too you know what's amazing darkness fell on egypt but the children of israel in goshen had light in their dwellings i mean how does darkness fall on a whole nation but one group still has light how does the dark light thing work in the same neighborhood i don't know how that works but i believe the bible darkness is going to fill the earth now look at paragraph f you know the famous verse isaiah prophesies arise and shine isaiah 60 your light has come for behold darkness deep darkness is going to cover the people or the nations whenever you see the word people or peoples often in prophetic literature in the prophetic passage it means the nations because the word translated peoples gentiles and nations is the same word and so the translators kind of have to guess which is the best one there's the coming the day when darkness deep darkness will cover the nations the people isaiah was prophesying about the fifth bowl he wasn't just talking about moral darkness for sure he was he's talking about physical darkness that has pain in it because when this darkness came on men they felt pain in it because there was heightened demonic activity in the darkness it's not just the absence of light but there was a realm of darkness that moses wrote it could be felt because darkness is more than the absence of light it's a realm of demonic activity the light's gone but the activity is it's more than just dark creates pain now you'll notice and i in this chapter revelation 16 we're coming to the end here you'll notice three times in this chapter it says when these judgments hit that men blaspheme god now not everybody but multitudes they said we hate you we hate you we hate you now here's the theory now here's the part that you and i struggle with but knowing where this is going really helps us we get troubled by jesus his wrath we're trying to reconcile the jesus of christmas and the jesus of armageddon they seem like two different people but they're not the jesus of christmas that brings goodwill to men and the jesus of armageddon that drives away evil demonized leaders is the same jesus doing it for the same reason for love but here's the problem that you struggle with and the problem i struggle with we think it seems real severe jesus of christmas it seems like really severe now what the bible says is you have no idea how much millions really hate me you have no idea you have no idea you think they don't hate me and so do they but i'm going to create a circumstance an environment of the earth where what's in their heart comes out raging and you will see in that day where everything on the inside comes out then you will see why i'm confronting it so fiercely so what happens is we easily get on the wrong team and we put jesus on trial and jesus would say let the truth of man's heart emerge before you decide i'm a little overdoing it get all the information first it's better if you just stay on my team because i am a god of love i'm not doing anything that does not need to be done and the blasphemy in these three times that come out when his judgments come they don't say have mercy i'm sorry they say we hate you we hate you we hate you we want the other king the anti-christ we hate you and jesus said that's why i'm confronting this with such fierceness because i will not violate their free will and they won't change and human beings don't just evaporate they live forever you know it jesus can't you figure out a way to wave your hand they just evaporate no because they're created in miami's they'll live forever the people in hell will live forever if you've got a human spirit you'll live forever god can't uncreate a human spirit in his image it's eternal and he won't make them love him well can't you just have like a really long talk and like box them in and just like have a time out and talk to them forever and tell them hey he goes no what you don't know is they will hate me more as time goes on not less how could that be possible you'll get it all when you see what i see so the more i understand these passages the more that my spirit gets aligned with truth because there's a lot of humanistic sentiment sentimentality rooted in humanistic darkness that's in the church accusing jesus the one that's driving the man a hundred times more evil than adolf hitler driving him off the planet in a confrontation well the sixth bowl intense we'll skip that one really intense no like really intense you read that on your own we'll cover it in the in the in the spring in the course i mean the sixth bowl is really intense let's just read just a moment on the seventh bolt and the seventh bowls poured out verse 18 there's a great earthquake and a whole lot of things happen verse 21 great hell falls from heaven a hundred pounds jesus is dashing all the nations of the earth he's burst he's busting all of the infrastructure because he wants to start from scratch again i'm talking about the farming industry the civic infrastructure the educational they're they're all rooted i don't know about all of them but let's put it this way the parts that are evil are being dashed because i believe there will be breakthroughs of righteousness i believe there will be areas where there will be righteousness and there will be a continuity in our labors in those areas to jesus's kingdom in the age to come so i don't want to say all the areas because that's actually not true we're believing god and you need to in your area believing god for a breakthrough of the power of god of righteousness that we have a whole region i don't know how big that is as big as we can get it hundreds of miles thousands you know lord the more we can get we can get in prayer where there is a zone of god's glory and righteousness a part of the earth that doesn't have to be dashed to pieces because it's already in agreement with him when he comes and i and there there will be labors we're doing now it matters what we're doing now because if it's righteous it does not get dashed it goes on with continuity into the age to come but this hell these hell stones are dashing infrastructures can you imagine what 100 pound hell stones are like and one of the reasons paragraph e that the hell stones are coming because god said this to moses he said if somebody is an idol worshiper and satan worship will fill the earth i mean there'll be many who resist it because there'll be a great prayer movement filling the earth too but uh satan worship antichrist worship is idol worship jesus is going to stone the earth because of idol worship that's what these hell stones are about he is fulfilling his word and he's driving idol worship off the planet forever and it will never ever happen again then what happens the next event you can just read it on your own there's a parentheses there's an angelic explanation coming in a minute but the chronological storyline picks up in chapter 19 where jesus is going right through the land he marches right into jerusalem at the triumphal entry we'll look at that next week amen let's stand now i realize that if you're this is your first time here or maybe second you know like now what's that part of we're staying now go over that again no i'm just trying to tell you i understand it's it's it's a little heavy duty information if you're brand new at it but uh but lest you get overwhelmed three or four times of hearing this and talking it through you'll have it it's not like five years from now you'll have it in three or four dialogues with somebody who understands that you'll go oh it's not so hard it's just new it's not so hard it's in the bible and don't accept anything you can't see with your own eyes in the bible let's stand for more free downloads from mike bickle please visit mikebickle.com