A Glimpse of Armageddon

A Glimpse of Armageddon

“A Glimpse of Armageddon”

(Revelation 14:14-20)

Series: Understanding The Book Of Revelation

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Church, Henderson KY

11-5-06 (AM)

 

  • Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 14.

While you’re turning there, let’s remember where we are in our series.  We have been dealing with things the Lord says will happen during a future time known as the Tribulation.  You’ll recall the outline that God has given us for our study in this book.  It comes from Revelation chapter 1 and verse 19 where we read about the three main sections of the book.  John is told to write down the “things which you have seen,” (chapter 1), the “things which are,” (chapters 2 and 3) and the “things which shall be” (chapters 4 through 22).  In chapters 6-19 we have a prophecy about this time known as the Tribulation.  It is here in these chapters, 6-19, that we read about three series of judgments.  There are three series of seven judgments: seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.  And all these judgments, seals, trumpets, and bowls, take place during the Great Tribulation, chapters 6-19.

 

Now, remember what’s taking place during this seven year period known as the Tribulation.  There is a future world leader who will come on the scene.  He is the Antichrist.  He is a man, something of an incarnation of Satan himself.  With the help of his sidekick, the False Prophet, this man will rise to the political scene in Israel and will be very winsome and engaging.  He will do things that will cause people to marvel, miraculous things.  And then he will succeed in doing something no man has succeeded in doing yet.  He will broker a seven-year peace agreement in the Middle East with Israel.  The Jewish people will love him because part of the peace agreement will provide for their rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem.  All will be just wonderful.

 

But remember, this is the beginning of the Tribulation period.  Things will quickly turn dark.  And then in the middle of this seven year period, 3 ½ years into the Tribulation, the Antichrist will enter into the temple and will present himself as God, demanding the worship of the Jews and demanding the worship of everyone on the earth.  He will set up a one-world government, a one-world economy, and a one-world religion.  And it will appear that all is over for everyone.  The Jews and unbelievers of the earth who have rejected Christ will suffer.  Those who are Christians during the time of Tribulation will be persecuted for refusing to take the mark of the beast, the mark of Antichrist.  This terrible time of Tribulation will culminate with a horrible event known as the Battle of Armageddon.  This battle will occur in the plain of Megiddo in the holy land.  It is a battle that occurs under God’s sovereign control, a battle that occurs on earth in keeping with His judgment in heaven.

 

Now what we have here in these few verses we’re going to read at the end of chapter 14 is a glimpse of Armageddon.  It is something of a preview of what’s to come.

 

  • Please stand in honor of the reading of the Holy Word of God.

 

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.

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

I told you a moment ago that these verses are much like a preview of what’s to come.  These verses are kind of like a movie trailer.  You go to see a movie and you sit through a few movie trailers, or previews of coming attractions.  In a short period of time you get quick images and sounds that prepare you for a fuller story to come later.  And that’s much like what John gives us here in verses 14-20.  John is giving us a preview of something coming, a glimpse of Armageddon.  So I want to talk to you about three things we see that are “coming soon.”  First, we see:

 

I. The Heavenly Judge (14)

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.

 

John is describing none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.  The future battle of Armageddon occurs under the sovereign reign and control of the Lord’s judgment from heaven.  Jesus Christ promises to judge the earth and what we have in verse 14 is a glimpse of that time when the heavenly Judge will step out on a cloud ready to judge the earth.  He is referred to here as “One like the Son of Man.”  We recall that this designation originally comes to us from Daniel 7:13 where Daniel describes seeing “One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven.”  The phrase “Son of Man” was Jesus’ favorite designation for Himself.  It is used 84 times in the New Testament.  Jesus Christ is the coming heavenly Judge.

 

You see this picture of His coming to judge there in verse 14.  He wears a victor’s crown and He holds in His hand a sharp sickle.  Now that word sickle there, used no less than 7 times in these verses, is not as well known in our country as it was before modern machinery.  Today a sickle is one of those things a kid sees hanging on the wall at Cracker Barrel.  He asks his parents, “What’s that thing?!”  A sickle is that curved, sharp piece of steel with a handle used by the people in Jesus’ day to harvest their grain fields.  Some of you may have had experience using a sickle to glean a harvest of wheat.

 

Well in Bible prophecy the sickle is a symbol of divine judgment.  The sharpness of the sickle and the violent way it was used to thresh the field powerfully symbolized God’s swift and terrible judgment.  So verse 14 tells us that Jesus Christ is coming again and when He comes, He’s coming to judge.

 

The way Jesus is coming the second time is very different from the way Jesus came the first time.  The first time Jesus came He came in meekness.  The second time Jesus comes He’s coming in majesty.  The first time Jesus came He came in humility.  The second time Jesus comes He’s coming in victory.  When Jesus came the first time He carried a cross on His back.  When Jesus comes again He’ll wear a crown on His head.  The first time Jesus came He was judged by the world.  But when He comes again He will come as Judge over the world.

 

In this preview, in this glimpse of Armageddon, we see the heavenly Judge.  But not only do we see coming the heavenly judge.  We see coming:

 

II. The Harvest of Judgment (15-19)

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.

 

You see the picture in this preview?  You have Jesus coming as heavenly Judge and then an angel comes out of the heavenly temple and cries out to Jesus, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”  So the Bible says that Jesus thrusts in His sickle on the earth and the earth is reaped.

 

Now this is a reference to the harvest of judgment, God’s judgment to come upon the earth.  When Jesus was here during His earthly ministry, He promised that this time of judgment would come.  He shared with His disciples the parable of the wheat and the tares, or the wheat and the weeds.  He tells them that a man goes out and sows seed in his field, but while he sleeps, the enemy comes in and sows tares, weeds, in the field.  The grain produces a crop, but the weeds grow up, too.  One of his servants says, “Do you want us to weed out the tares?”  The man says, “No, the wheat and tares are so close together you might accidentally uproot the wheat.  Leave them both till harvest time.  At harvest I will say to my reapers, “First gather together the tares and burn them up.  Then gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:24-30)”

 

Later, Jesus explains the parable to His disciples.  Let me read it to you, Matthew 13:37-43:

 

37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

38 “The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.

39 “The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

40 “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.  41 “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,

42 “and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

43 “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

 

It seems pretty clear that Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares, a prophetic parable He says will be fulfilled “at the end of this age,” is a reference to the coming battle of Armageddon, a time when Jesus’ judgment coincides with the Antichrist’s devices.  The Lord will judge the unbelievers of the world, those who have followed the enemy, the one who has sown the seeds of the tares, those who have received the mark of the beast, those who worship and follow the evil one, those who worship the Antichrist.  We see a glimpse of what’s to come here in these verses.  We see the heavenly judge and the harvest of judgment.  Jesus will come again and judge the unbelievers of this world.  Now this judgment theme escalates in verses 17-19.

 

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 (this fire is probably a reference to the fire of the heavenly altar), 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.

 

Here again is a reference to the harvest of judgment.  Verses 14-16 seem to picture a grain harvest, whereas verses 17-19 picture a grape harvest.  God’s judgment is symbolized in the throwing of a vine of grapes into a winepress to be pressed into juice.  The winepress is described as “the great winepress of the wrath of God.”  The harvest of judgment.

 

God does not reap the harvest until the harvest is ripe.  We see the extension of His grace before judgment comes.  Remember 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”  God is a loving God, a God of grace.  But He is also a God of justice, a God of wrath, a God who will judge the evil of wrongdoers.

 

So we see coming the heavenly judge and the harvest of judgment.  Now I want you to see the final thing here in this glimpse of Armageddon, in this preview of what’s to come.  Not only do we see coming the heavenly judge and the harvest of judgment, but we also see:

 

III. The Horror of the Judged (20)

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.

 

The judgment of the unbelievers is pictured as a vine of grapes thrown into a winepress and trampled underfoot.  In Bible times men would harvest the grapes by throwing the grape vines into a big, winepress comprised of an upper and lower vat connected together by a channel.  The grapes were thrown into the upper vat and then crushed so that the juice flowed into the lower vat.  The way they crushed those grapes was by literally trampling upon them.  Men would take off their sandals and climb up into that upper vat.  Now, I’ve always wondered whether they washed their feet first.  I hope so!  But they climbed up into that vat and they trampled the juice out of those grapes.  Now get the picture in your mind: men trampling upon these grapes and the red juice of the grapes splattering everywhere, splattering red upon their ankles, upon the sides of the vat, upon the ground around the vat.  The Bible says the splattering of that red juice symbolizes the splattering of blood when the unbelievers are judged.

 

“The winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles (that’s about 4 feet), for one thousand six hundred furlongs (or about 200 miles).”

 

Here we have the clearest glimpse yet of Armageddon.  We’ll be reading about this war to end all wars in the weeks ahead.  We’ll read about the battle of Armageddon in chapters 16 and 19.  But we get a glimpse of it here.  The Bible teaches that this war will be waged by the Antichrist and his soldiers, some 200 million people according to Revelation 9:16.  The battle will take place “outside the city,” 60 miles north of Jerusalem, in the Plain of Esdraelon, near Mt. Megiddo, a place we know as Armageddon.

 

The valley of Megiddo is the battlefield where Gideon defeated the Midianites.  It was in the valley of Megiddo where King Saul was slain and King Josiah was killed.  Napoleon is recorded as having said that the valley of Megiddo is “The world’s greatest natural battlefield.”  And it will be here in this valley and beyond, stretching about 200 miles, that this war to end all wars will take place.  So horrific will be this war that millions of unbelievers will be slaughtered.

 

The blood that comes out of the winepress of God’s wrath, blood that rises up to four feet and flows through the valley of Megiddo, is probably to be understood as hyperbole.  The Jewish historian Josephus, for example, when recording the events of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, writes that the blood that flowed through the city was so great that it extinguished the fires of many houses that were burning.  The point is that blood will be everywhere.

 

This horrible time of judgment is prophesied in the Old Testament, perhaps nowhere more clearly than in Joel 3:11-16.  Let me read it to you:

 

11 Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O LORD.

12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow — For their wickedness is great.”

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness.

16 The LORD also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the LORD will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.

 

The wrath of God’s judgment upon the unbelievers of the world, the horror of the judged.

 

Earlier this morning in Baghdad Iraq, Saddam Hussein and two other men were convicted and found guilty for crimes against humanity, specifically the 1982 killings of 148 people.  The verdict was read and judgment rendered as Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging.  As horrific as that judgment sounds to us, it will be nothing compared to the judgment to come to the unbeliever during this future battle of Armageddon.  The horror of the judged.

 

Conclusion:

 

We see the coming heavenly Judge, the harvest of judgment, and the horror of the judged.  The good news is that the Bible teaches that just when all appears to be over, Jesus comes again.  He will defeat the Antichrist and his armies and usher in a 1,000 year reign of peace.

 

Stand for prayer.

 

The future peaceful millennial reign of Christ won’t take place until the unbelievers are judged.  And until that time, we all stand in judgment right now if we refuse to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.”

 

  • Pray with me.

 

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