The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE SEAL JUDGMENTS (Revelation 6:7-17)

The Bible tells us in the Book of Revelation that a period of massive cataclysmic events is going to occur. We call this the Tribulation Period, or The Great Tribulation. Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew that they will be events unlike anything that has occurred in the past, and unlike anything that will occur ever again. There will be great earthquakes that are felt all around the world. The sun will go dark and the moon will hang in the air like a clot of blood. Wars will occur, famine, and pestilence. There will be great persecution of the anyone who refuses to worship the Antichrist. The death toll will be overwhelming. Billions of people will die from all of these events. But the good news is that you do not have to be here to endure these events. There is a way out, and it is the way up, and His name is Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on the opening of the seal judgments during the Tribulation Period as we continue our verse-by-verse study of The Book of the Revelation.

THE FIRST THREE SEALS ARE BROKEN (Revelation 6:2-6)

We are at a point in our study of the Book of Revelation where the Tribulation Period is beginning. The church has been taken out in the rapture, the restraint of the Holy Spirit has been removed, the world is in chaos, and into this chaos, Satan’s superman, the Antichrist will step onto the scene. The Scriptures tell us that there is some day going to arise an individual who will be the embodiment of all Satanic power. He will be known as the willful king, because he shall do according to his own will. He will have no respect for sacred things or places. He will allow the Jews to rebuild the temple, and then he will betray them by erecting a throne in the Most Holy Place and seat himself upon it. He will proclaim himself god, and men will be commanded to worship him. Satan will give him his power, his throne, and great authority.

When the Antichrist begins to go forth, everyone will proclaim that a savior has come to bring world peace. Indeed, at that moment in time, the world will be ready for the devil’s messiah. And he will take full advantage of his hero status. The world will worship at his feet. Little children will speak his name with reverence. Men will lay down their lives for this man. He will personify all of the Caesars, Napoleons, Hitlers, and Stalins rolled into one, and he will have sinister plans for military conquest.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on the opening of the first three seal judgments of the Tribulation Period. The Antichrist will come, war will follow just as surely as night follows day, and then, as a result of the war, worldwide famine will spread across the world.

DANIEL'S SEVENTY WEEKS (Daniel 9:25-27)

Daniel’s prophecy about the Seventy Weeks is imposed upon the Jews for its sin and rejection of God. The purpose of the judgment was to make Israel recognize Christ as the one whom they had pierced, and to refine and purify them from the iniquity that had followed them for their entire history.

Click on the link to hear a sermon on why this prophecy is important to helping us understand why God would bring such great tribulation upon the Jews, and what is left of the world’s population after the church has been removed. It is the reason why the events occur during the period that we will be studying in chapters 6-19 of the book of Revelation. If you want to understand why the Tribulation period occurs, then you have to understand Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.

WHY BRING TRIBULATION (Revelation 6:1)

Our lesson today begins in chapter 6 of the Book of Revelation, and what we will see in this chapter is that the world is on a collision course with judgment by God. That may not be a socially acceptable message, and some of the more sensitive of our society are probably running for their safe spaces right about now, but it is certainly true.

So, when I say that the world is on a collision course with judgment by God, what does that mean? Many people think that judgment only involves the active stance a judge takes when he delivers a sentence to the guilty person. But a judge can also take a passive stance, letting the chips fall where they may and allowing the consequences of one’s behavior to serve as the judgement. This passive stance is how God will judge the world in these next few chapters. There will come a time for God to take the active stance of condemning those who have rejected Him. But first, God will simply let the world have its own way.

Think about it. How hard has the world been trying to deny the existence of God? How hard have they rebelled against God’s morality, and divine truths about right and wrong? How hard have they persecuted Christ’s followers trying to eradicate them from the face of the earth? How hard have they tried to deny that Christ is the Son of God, that He was born of a virgin, and that He died on the cross for the sins of the world? That He was buried and rose, bodily, from the grave, and then ascended into heaven, promising that one day He would return to reign in power forever an ever? How hard have they tried to prove that none of these things are true?

One of God’s methods of judging the world during the Tribulation Period will be to simply let the world have its way. Ironically, when the world gets what it wants, it will not want what it gets. Jesus describes the Tribulation Period as containing such horrible events beyond anything that has happened in the entire history of mankind.

So why would a loving God allow such horrible things to happen?

Click on the link below to learn that the answer to that question is to bring God’s chosen people, the Israelites, back to Him, and to restore them to their position in His Kingdom. The Tribulation Period is about the Jews, not the church.

JESUS IS WORTHY OF MY WORSHIP (Revelation 5:6-14)

God has placed into the hands of men the decision as to whether or not they will accept Christ as Savior, but the decision as to whether or not they will acknowledge Him as Lord is not theirs to decide. The supreme tragedy of a lost eternity will be to know that there, shut out from the glory of heaven, sentenced to spend eternity in the burning fires of hell, all those who rejected Him as Savior, will still have to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord.

He will be praised at the center of heaven by the sinless sons of light and by the redeemed of all ages with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And He will be praised from the depths of the lake of fire by every damned and outcast soul with sobs and tears and choking cries.

Isa 45:23
23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
KJV

Click the link to hear a sermon on how Jesus Christ is exclusively worthy of our worship. There is none other. He is exceedingly worthy because of Calvary, because of creation, and because of conquest. He is eternally worthy forever and ever.

JESUS IS EXCLUSIVELY WORTHY (Revelation 5:1-5)

Let me begin this post with a few personal questions.

1) Do you have a cause worth living for?

2) Is what you are living for, worthy of Jesus’ dying for?

3) When you get where you are headed, where will you be?

When you put our short, mortal, lives in the context of eternity, many of us are shoveling smoke and plowing water. When this world is done, much of what we have done will make no difference whatsoever. Think about it, how much of what we have worked so hard for in this life, will extend beyond the grave, or will even exist after Jesus Christ destroys this world and creates a new heaven and a new earth?

Years ago, Reader’s Digest had an article that said in order for a person to have a meaningful life, they need three things. First, they need someone to love. Second, they need something to do. Third, they need something to hope for. I think Reader’s Digest is right, but they did not say who or what that something was. That something is Jesus Christ. He is the One we love, the One we serve, and One in whom we hope. Jesus Christ is the only One worthy of my love, my life, my all, and yours.

The fifth chapter of Revelation talks about the One who is worthy, Jesus Christ. And it brings home the fact that each of us will never have satisfaction and fulfillment, or understand why God created us, until we come to worship Him.

Click on this link to hear a sermon on just one of three things that this chapter says about why our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is worthy of our worship.

GOD'S THRONE, GOD'S JUDGMENT (Revelation 4:3-11)

The last couple of weeks, our emphasis has been on the rapture, and what a wonderful event that will be for those of us who are prepared for the coming of our Lord Jesus. With the beginning of chapter 4, we turn the page from the things which are, meaning the church age, to those things that are to come. The thing that is most prominent in the rest of this book, is the judgment of God. God has said that vengeance, or judgment, is His, and we are about to study a whole series of judgments where God will judge all of humanity that has lived from the creation of Adam and Eve to the last born person before the consummation of all things. God will judge the earth, and all of His creation. He will judge Satan, and all of the fallen angels, the antichrist, the false prophet, and all of the demons of Satan. He will judge both the saved and the lost of humanity. No one, and no thing, will escape the coming judgment. God’s judgment is real and it is coming soon.

Heb 10:30
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
KJV

In chapter four of the Book of Revelation, the Lord is setting the stage for the multiple judgments that are coming, and the very symbol of God’s judgment, is God’s throne.

Click on this link to hear a sermon on the throne of God and how His judgments will be viewed by all who kneel before Him.

WHO IS THE RAPTURE FOR? (Revelation 4:2-4)

Certainly, the word rapture is full of meaning for Christians today. The single event that declares the church age has come to an end, is the rapture of the church. The church is defined as all those who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior during the church age, or that time from Pentecost until the rapture occurs. The rapture is that event when, at the midnight cry, Jesus will come for His own. But the question that many ask is who is in that select multitude that will be taken up in the rapture?

Our churches are filled with those who look religious, act religious, pray religious, and even teach and preach religious, but they are lost. As you look across the worship service, there are those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and there are those who only say they do. As we look at the whole crowd, they all look the same, but if we had the eyes of Christ, we could look into every heart and see a completely different picture.

And that is what separates the saved from the lost, those who are ready for Jesus Christ to come, and those who are not. At the rapture, the person sitting next to you at the dinner table will go and you will remain. Or you may go and that person will remain. Two will be sitting in church. One will be taken and the other left. There is a select multitude, and the deciding factor in whether you will go or not, is whether you have been twice born as a new creation in Christ. Only the saved will be going. If you want to be one of these select multitude, then make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior today, and then you can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on who the Lord is coming to get at the time of the rapture. Listen to what the Word of God says about who the rapture is for. Amen.

WHAT IS THE RAPTURE (Revelation 4:1-3)

If I were to ask you to describe the rapture in two words or less, how would you respond?

For me, it would be heaven-bound. At last, I am heaven-bound. That is what the rapture means to me.

The single event that declares the church age has come to an end, is the rapture of the church. The church is defined as all those who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior during the church age, or that time from Pentecost until the rapture occurs. The rapture is that event when, at the midnight cry, Jesus will come for His own.

Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and are still living, will be miraculously transformed with glorified bodies and caught up, or raptured, into the air to meet the Lord. Those whose bodies sleep in the earth will be raised from their sleeping place to meet their heavenly spirits that are coming down with the Lord, and they will be joined together in the air. Each New Testament believer, dead or alive, will rise up to meet the Lord in the air. This is the event that is called the rapture.

The Bible calls this the blessed hope. And you need to be ready, but you don’t have to be fearful, about the coming of the Lord to catch us up in the rapture. Remember that sorrow looks backward, worry looks all around us, but hope looks upward. We are on a collision course with destiny, and we cannot afford to be ignorant.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on what the rapture is and when it will occur. Jesus is coming again, the question is, are you ready? Amen.

A CHURCH WITH AN OPEN DOOR (Revelation 3:7-13)

What is a church with an open door? Is it a church that opens its doors to all people? Certainly, in today’s vernacular, that would be the meaning most of us thinks of. However, if the Lord told you that He was setting before your church an open door, what would that mean to you? Would it still mean that He was putting an open door that would welcome all people?

In 1915, Dr. R. A. Torry conceived of a church that was to be non-denominational, but evangelical. Its purpose was to reach the lost people of the city of Los Angeles, and it was called the Church of the Open Door. The name was chosen based on words from these two verses:

Rev 3:8
8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
KJV

John 10:9
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
KJV

The Church of the Open Door is still alive today, although not in its original building. Some of its famous pastors have been Dr. Louis Talbot (1932-1948), and Dr. J. Vernon McGee (1949-1970). The church was known for its iconic sign that stood on top of the building, that said “Jesus Saves”, and could be seen from across the city. During the time that Dr. McGee was pastor, several thousand people attended the church, and if you know anything about Dr. McGee, you know that it was a church that focused on the teaching of the Word of God.

Click on the link below to hear a lesson about a different church that the Lord told, because they were faithful, He would set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. It is the church of the city of Philadelphia, in Asia Minor.