Revelation 11:16

Revelation 11:16

This part of the book of Revelation is briefly talking about the return of Christ to the earth. The return of the Messiah has been promised for centuries, and some day it will happen but not until after the period of the Great Tribulation, unless we are also talking about the rapture which will take place just before the Tribulation. When Christ does return, of course His return will be recognized by those with spiritual understanding as one of the best things that could ever happen to the earth. Those in heaven will understand the value and importance of the return of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Revelation 11:-16-17, "And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and wast and art to come, because you have taken to thee thy great power and have reigned."

Jesus will return and rule on the earth because of who He is. He is the all-powerful, eternally existent one. How can He not return and display His great power? How can He not take the rule that is rightfully His. "The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof." For a season God has delivered the earth to man. God has given man the opportunity to rule the earth. Humans will be held accountable for what they have done with their opportunities and responsibilities, but all of this power will one day be taken away from humans and given back to God in the person of Jesus Christ. When the time is right, when humans have failed finally and ultimately, when the world has gone through its greatest time of trial and sorrow; then Christ shall return not only as the Savior but also as the mighty King. "The government shall be upon His shoulder." He shall be known for what He is; the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

But before that happens, we must be told once again what is too often the common characteristic of mankind. The first phrase of Revelation 11:18 says, "And the nations were angry." It is one of the mysteries of the heart of man. Reason would tell you that human beings would think of the good things about God and would naturally and easily turn to Him, but such is not the case. "The heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things." Instead of surrender to the God of heaven, rebellion against God is more common. When human beings get saved by faith in Christ, one of the difficult struggles that they must often go through is getting past their own stubborn will and natural resistance to God, and being able to honestly say to Jesus that they will go His way and do His will.

It seems ridiculous that human beings would imagine that they could fight against God and win. Such an attitude has been common throughout the history of the human race, and will be even more common during the Great Tribulation. One thousand years before Christ the Psalmist wrote in Psalms 2:1-3, "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take council together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." But if human beings continue in their anger and continue to refuse to repent of their sins, Psalm 2:4-5 will see its ultimate fulfillment at the return of Christ. It says, "He that sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure."

The rest of Revelation 11:18 says, "…and thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and should destroy them that destroy the earth." Today we live in the time of the grace of God, but things will not always be like this. God is very compassionate and merciful and slow to anger. Some nations He has given hundreds of years to repent before His judgment came. The point to remember is that judgment will always follow the time of opportunity. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." You can view your life as an opportunity, an opportunity to see what you can accomplish and what you can become. Once the opportunity is over, you will be judged for what you did with the opportunity.

This is true individually and it is also true concerning the entire human race collectively. When God placed human beings on the earth, He gave humans the earth as a garden to tend. God made man as the most intelligent and the most capable of all the creatures. With opportunity comes responsibility. God expected that humans would make the earth a better place in which to live. In order to do so, it takes a well-planned, concerted effort on the part of many people. Instead of making the earth a better place, some humans are helping to destroy the earth. We are not just talking about pollution or war or murder, although those things are a part of the destroying of the earth. Think of the people who have gone to Hollywood and have sold their souls for fame and fortune. Not only have they lowered their own lives, but many have allowed themselves to be used as examples of sexual permissiveness and material excess, and have thereby helped to teach the young people of the world life styles that are destructive. Anyone who does not serve God is part of the total picture of what the human race is doing to destroy the earth.

But the day will come when God will allow the destruction to take place no longer. He will come not only to save people from their sins, but also to save the earth from destruction. He will come to destroy those who destroy the earth. The return of Christ will be a time of judgment. In Revelation 11:18 we are told several characteristics about the judgment that will take place when Christ returns to the earth after the Great Tribulation. It is called "the time of the dead, that they should be judged." If the dead are judged, then that means that there is existence after death. Death is not the end of existence. It also implies that reincarnation as taught by certain eastern religions does not take place. People will have the same identity after death that they had before it.

There are those who are judged who will face the wrath of God, because they did not receive the salvation that was offered them in Christ. That is why the believers in Jesus will so greatly honor Him and praise Him. The believers also deserved the wrath of God, but they escaped it, having Jesus as their Savior. In addition to those who are judged and condemned, there will also be those who are judged and rewarded. Several things are said about those who will be rewarded by God. If you are wise, you will pay attention to this. If you are wise, you will listen carefully to what it takes to be rewarded by the great God of the universe so that you also can be rewarded and so that you will not miss out on the many wonderful things that God is hoping to be able to give you. You will be in heaven if you believe in Jesus, but will you have rewards in heaven?

Revelation 11:18 says that God will reward His "servants the prophets." One of the main requirements to be rewarded by God is to be one of His servants. Everyone serves someone or something, but only a few people serve God. Because so few serve Him, there will be great rewards for those who do. In the history of the human race, every person has had to make the decision of whom they will serve. Joshua said, "Choose you this day whom you will serve; as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Jesus warned people to be very careful whom they served. He said, "No man can serve two masters. You will love the one and hate the other."

Those who decide to serve God will be rewarded. Notice that He will reward His "servants the prophets." A prophet is someone who speaks forth the Word of God. Perhaps the most important work of God is the spreading forth of the Word of God and the teaching of the truth. If you are a servant of God in some way you will be involved in the spreading of God’s Word in the world. If you do everything imaginable to serve God, but have no part in the spread of the truth of the gospel, then you are probably not serving God. God’s servants, those who speak forth the Word of God, will be rewarded.

Revelation 11:18 also says that the saints will be rewarded. It is important to know how a person becomes a saint. Every true believer is a saint. The word saint comes from the same word as the word holy. You are not called a saint because of what you do for God, but you are called a saint because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. An important part of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ is to realize that righteousness and holiness are credited to the account of believers freely through Christ. Such a standing is not earned or merited: it is given as a free gift. Rom. 3:24 says, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Once we have become saints freely by grace through faith, God expects that we will grow in grace and grow in faith so that we will actually perform good works. There are many pitfalls that can keep a believer from growing in Christ and accomplishing the works of God or the will of God. For those who fight a good fight of faith, there will be rewards.

Revelation 11:18 says that God will reward the saints and that He will also reward those who "fear" His name. To fear the name of God means to honor and respect His name. Remember that one of the Ten Commandments says, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." The name of God should be honored because the name of God stands for who He is. If you honor His name, then you also honor who He is and what He stands for. When Jesus taught us to pray, He said to pray, "Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name." There are many people in the world who do not honor the name of God, but if you do then there are things that you will say and things that you will do that will prove it. After the tribulation when God judges the world, those who have feared His name will be rewarded.

Where can we find these people who will be so greatly rewarded of God? Where can we look to find the servants of God, the prophets of God, and the saints of God? Where can we find these who will be so greatly rewarded by God at the judgment? According to Revelation 11:18 we are told that both "small and great" will be rewarded by God. The emphasis is on the equality with which God treats the human race. God is not a respecter of persons. God invented equal rights before human beings invented the word. Everyone will be judged according to the same standard. Everyone has been given the same basic opportunity and challenge to live by faith in this material world. When we all stand before God, small and great, none of us will have material possessions. We will have our character, we will have the life that we lived, and we will have the spiritual victories that we won or lost. Remember that Jesus said that "a man’s life does not consist of the things that he does possess."

We have been told quite a few things about those who will be rewarded by Jesus at the judgment. At the end of Revelation 11:18 we are told one more thing about those who will face the wrath of God because they opposed Him and refused His salvation. The Bible says that "God will destroy those that destroy the earth." God will reward those who serve Him, but He will destroy those who destroy the earth. Those who do not serve God are actually having a part in destroying the earth. Jesus said, "He that gathers not with me scatters abroad." God is the Creator, He is the giver of life, and He builds up. Those who are the servants of Christ are used by God to build up good things. But remember that earlier in the book of Revelation the devil was called the destroyer. Those who resist God and refuse to go God’s way have done the same thing that the devil has done, and they join the devil in some way in being a part of that which destroys and tears down.

John saw that Jesus will come to judge the earth. John saw that there were great promises for those who will be rewarded, but a horrible judgment for those who are not. After seeing certain things about the judgment of those on the earth, John was shown something in heaven. John wrote in Revelation 11:19, "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail."

John saw the ark in heaven. Remember that there was an ark built during the time of Moses. The ark was built of wood and covered with gold, but the Bible does not tell us what happened to the ark. Perhaps the ark was taken to heaven, or perhaps the ark that John saw here in Revelation Chapter 11 is different from the one spoken of in the Old Testament. At any rate there is a close relationship between the ark of God and the judgment, because one of the things inside the ark was the tablet on which were written the Ten Commandments. The commandments were the ten great rules given by God to man. The commandments were the instructions from the very hand of God telling human beings how they ought to live. When God comes to judge the world, He will judge the world based upon these Ten Commandments.

The problem is that no one has kept the commandments without failure. Everyone is in danger of judgment because of their failure to keep the commandments that are in the ark. The blessedness of salvation through Jesus Christ is the fact that through Jesus you can have forgiveness for your failures to keep the commandments. The choice is yours. You can face the judgment of God based upon how well you have kept the Ten Commandments, or you can find free and complete forgiveness of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

___________________________________________________