5/13/2017 THE REAPING
Revelation 14:13-20
Laying in my
bed early one morning a little over a week ago, Father started running
‘reaping’ past me. Now, anyone who’s
been around long enough discovers the concept of reaping and sowing – if we
would like the Lord to bless us we know that we need to sow into other lives or
do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
Seeking the
kingdom of God first (Mat. 6:33) is learning how to care about others, do those
things to help them (Rom. 14:19). In so
doing, we do it unto God (Matt. 25:40).
BUT, that’s not what we talking about today.
Today, we’re
going to talk a bit about ‘final’ spiritual reaping, the eternal destination
type.
I’m going to
paraphrase the following verses from Revelation chapter fourteen a tad:
Revelation 20:11-12 I
saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face earth and
heaven fled away and there was no place for them to hide.
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and
the books were opened. And another book
was opened which is of life. And the
dead were judged according those things, their works, written in the books.
This sets
the stage for the next seven verses. We
ARE and WILL BE held accountable for what we say and do in this life. Notice the ‘books’, plural and the book which
is of life, singular. There’s a lot
written about the unsaved, every act, every deed, every word. Thank God we who are in Christ don’t have to
worry about everything that we’ve ever done or said beings brought back up for
us to see. We are cleansed by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ!
Revelations 14:13-16 I
heard a voice from heaven say to me write blessed are they who die in the Lord
from now on. And the Spirit says that
they may have rest from their labors and their works will follow them.
I looked and saw a white cloud and He who sat upon it was
like the Son of man and wore a golden crown and held a sharp sickle.
Another angel came out of the temple, crying with a
loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud saying thrust in you sickle and reap for
the harvest of the earth is ripe and ready.
And He who sat upon the cloud, thrust in His sickle and
the earth was reaped.
When we are with Jesus Christ in heaven, we all shall have a crown of life (James 1:12), but this precedes that event, so ask yourself ‘who is wearing the golden crown?’ I can think only of One. How about you (Matt. 25:31-33)? And so Jesus reaps the earth and we ask ‘who or what is He reaping?’
Matt.
25:34-40 gives us a hint – the sheep.
And the sheep are those who served Jesus/God in this life. As we have done for the least in the kingdom
of God, we have done it unto Jesus (v40).
And what is the end of these sheep?
But the righteous (enter) into eternal life (v46)
We know, as
Christians, Jesus encourages us follow Him and keep our eyes focused on heaven
for the gate into heaven is narrow (Matt. 7:13-14), so we should keep Jesus’
commandments as He kept the Father’s (John 15:10).
We should
run the race expecting to win it – give our utmost effort (1 Corinth. 9:24-27)
through yielding ourselves to Jesus.
We show our
faith BY our works, not the other way around (James 2:14-20). Remember that the devils also believe and
they know (Matt. 8:29) who Jesus is. They also know who operates in the power of
the Lord (Acts 19:13-16).
Yet we need
to keep alert for Satan can show himself to be something good (2 Corinth.
11:14) so we need to be aware of deceivers (Matt. 7:15-20) who try to turn us
astray from the original gospel of God (Jude v4 – only one chapter), even
people who have done things in Jesus’ name (Matt. 7:21-23) may have a problem that
without repentance (Acts 3:19), they will not enter in. All that glitters is not gold.
But we need to endure to the end (Matt. 24:13)
so that we may be reaped into the kingdom of God. When we are founded in Jesus Christ, we are
like gold, silver and precious stones, receiving an appropriate reward. Even when we are weak in our works but our
faith remains steady, we ourselves enter in, our rewards just aren’t as good (1
Corinth. 3:11-15). And we enter into the
New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21:1-4). Read the last two chapters in Revelation and
see what God has in store for His children in eternity.
This angel
wearing the crown (Jesus) is reaping souls into everlasting life. He is gathering the saved! Those who endured until the end for Jesus! Eternal fellowship with the Father through
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Now, let’s
look at the flip side of this coin.
Rev. 14:17-20 And
another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven and he had a sharp
sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, which had
power over fire, and he cried to him who had the sharp sickle “Thrust in you
sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for her grapes
are fully ripe.”
And the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and
gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great winepress of the
wrath of God.
And the winepress was trodden outside the city and
blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horses bridles (as deep as) for
a distance of 1600 furlongs (@200 mi.)
The first
angel with a sickle reaped those who are in Christ Jesus, but look at what
happens with this second reaping. The
fruit (souls) of this reaping are crushed like grapes and life is utterly
crushed out of them.
We can
compare this to the “great white throne judgement” where those who were not found
written in the book of life but were rather judged on their ‘works’ were cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone.
This is the second (v14), eternal death.
Let’s take a
look at some who will face this final destination:
The goats (Matt. 25:41-46) stand before the
Son of man (Jesus, Matt.25: 31) and are held accountable for what they didn’t do. They didn’t feed, give drink, house strangers,
clothe or visit the sick or incarcerated. Again Jesus attests that because they didn’t
do it to the least of the kingdom, they didn’t do it unto Him. And He tells them “Depart from Me, you
cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
(v41) And even though the goats thought
they were headed to heaven, they just didn’t care enough about anybody else to
assure their eternity. They were too
concerned only about themselves. I’m OK,
therefore I’m ‘in’. N-O-O-O-OT!
Also, the
ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). Ten virgins
were all waiting for the bridegroom.
They all knew that they had ‘salvation’ wrapped up. The five wise virgins trimmed their lamps and
took extra oil so they would always be prepared for the bridegroom. The five foolish virgins trimmed their lamps
but did not take extra oil, figuring they had plenty. But the bridegroom lingered in coming and
their lamps went out. They tried to
borrow from the five wise virgins, but no go and while they were out trying to
buy more oil the bridegroom came, leaving them ‘out’. Note those five foolish virgins knew where
the bridegroom lived and knocked on His door but what did He tell them “Truly,
I say to you, I don’t know you.”(v12).
And they weren’t allowed in. They
didn’t care enough continue living in Jesus and became slack along the way and
didn’t do what was necessary to stay focused for eternity. We don’t know when Jesus is returning, so we
have to be ready at all times.
We know when
our names are written in the book of life, our sins are covered by the blood of
Jesus and we won’t be judged at the great white throne (that is only for those
who died in their sin).
But we do
stand a judgment. We are not judged for
our salvation, but having accepted Jesus into our hearts and ‘hangin’ in there
with Him, our names are written in the book of life, but we do stand what is
referred to as the ‘judgment seat of Christ”.
Not a salvation judgment, but, if you will, a rewards banquet. We are judged for the works we did for
Christ. If we did no works for Jesus, or
what we did wasn’t worth much because of doubt or whatever, yet because we
continued to believe on Him, we enter in to the kingdom of God. We just miss out on what blessings Father may
have had in store for us. Those who did
works for Jesus (like the sheep), will be rewarded accordingly with whatever
God has decided to bless us with. (1 Corinth. 3:11-16)
So we see
two reapings in Revelation chapter fourteen.
One for the saved and one for the unsaved. We’ve seen a contrast on the fate of each and
we should have a reasonable idea of what qualifies for each. It hasn’t happened yet, so why are we
concerned?
Today, we
are dealing with two seasons. One has
already started (Jan. 2015) and the next is yet to come. Both are for seven years. Seven years represents resurrection,
spiritual completeness or Father’s perfection.
This season is preparing a host for the resurrection of the dead and the
lost. The next season is for ‘bringing
in the sheaves’, that Spiritual explosion we’re starting t hear about.
This current
seven years, Father is preparing His children for a Spiritual explosion such as
the world has never seen before. The
prophet Haggai speaks of the latter house being greater than the former (Hag.
2:9). Theologians have translated this
as in reference to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. We read in the book of Acts how the Holy
Ghost worked through the apostles and the early church. And we must admit that the church hasn’t
acted like that in a long time. But this
Spiritual explosion (Ezek. 36:27) will make those days look like child’s play
in comparison. Much of the church will
come to know, beyond any doubt, that God is THE God, Creator, Savior, Eternal
Father (Jer. 24:7) and that we are His children and we will know this so deeply
in our hearts that it can’t be shaken.
AND we will live and act like we know it (John 15:12-14)! And Father is using blessings, restoration of
things lost and restitution of things stolen to encourage all of us (believers)
to come into an active role in this event so we can move boldly and effectively
in the next season.
Man is man
and because of pride, or whatever, the apostate church (those who function like
the Pharisees of 2000 years ago, the goats, the foolish virgins) and much of
the unsaved will remain so. Nonetheless,
God will work His work and those whose lives He touches, will know it and live
it abiding in God’s power becoming effective soldiers in the next season.
Father is preparing
His church, His children to serve, to prepare new believers and to reconstitute
the current church back into His principles of life (Ezek. 37:1-14 – dry bones).
For six
seasons He has been preparing us and we are now in the seventh season (for
this, a season = @100 years, beginning with Wycliffe’s 1st English
translation of the bible so the common man would have something to read – not
in Latin). As the prophet Ezekiel said
that the bones gathered together, attached by sinew, covered with muscle and
the skin, the church as gone through growth from getting a bible the common man
can read to the Protestant Reformation, the Holiness Movement, the Pentecostal
Movement and through the Charismatic movement so the church can look something
like what Father intended His church to look like! And now?
Now He has been, and continues to infuse His Holy Ghost into our lives,
bringing us up out of our graves, bringing us into our own land, our proper
place in His scheme (Ezek. 37:1-14) so that we can know that He IS our God and we are His people (Jer. 32:38).
It’s not our
job to ‘just know what’s comin’ down’, but to be ready when it does happen for
we don’t know exactly when He’s returning (Matt. 25:13). Think about it, Paul, Peter, John, Matthew and
the rest looked for Jesus to come back in their lifetime and today, we are
still waiting. So we need to be and help
others be ready! (Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:8).
Will all of us become worldwide
evangelists? No. But Father does give us own sphere, no matter
how small or how great, to be a testimony
for His love.
There will be a reaping
When the Lord calls us all home (1 Thess. 4:16-17 – the Lord
shall shout with the voice of an arch-angel, the trump of God and the dead
shall rise first, then those who are alive on the earth shall be caught up in
the clouds with them)
Or when He takes us (personally) out of this world (Luke
23:43 – today, you will be with Me in paradise)
To where
will people be reaped
The lake of fire and brimstone?
The New Jerusalem, the new heaven
and new earth?
We don’t know when the reaping shall
occur. We just need to always be ready
for His call.
Amen
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