Revelation 11:15-19

• 15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
• 16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God,
• 17 saying: "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
• 18 The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great-and for destroying those who destroy the earth."

Note the series of sevens: Seven stars, seven lampstands, seven churches, seven spirits of God, seven years of tribulation, seven seals, seven trumpets, and soon seven heads on the beast from the sea, seven angels with seven plagues they pour on the earth from seven bowls. Remember that most of the things in Revelation are not meant to be taken literally. Seven is a symbolic number. It speaks of perfection, and it speaks of fulfillment and finality. Revelation is summing up the end of this era of human history.

Today we shall learn three facts about the Kingdom of God.

I. The kingdom of the world is about to become the eternal kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ.

In order to understand what Revelation 11 means, we need to first understand the word "kingdom." It is not a word with just one meaning, but many. If you have only one meaning in mind when you read the Bible, you will come away confused.

• 1. The universe is God's kingdom. He is the Creator. He is almighty. He rules over all. He guides the planets in their courses, and guides the galaxies as they swirl. Who knows what God may be doing on the other side of the known universe? That's one meaning.
• 2. Heaven and Hell and all the spiritual realm is God's kingdom. All the angels, all the saints that have died and gone to Heaven. They all worship Him. They all bend the knee and submit to His authority.
• 3. The nation of Israel in Old Testament days was God's Kingdom. The priesthood was ordained by God. The king of Israel had to be annointed by God's prophet. The Torah gave both the moral and civil laws for the kingdom.
• 4. Similar to number one but limited to this planet and human civilizations: the entire world is God's kingdom. He made it. He governs it. He decides who will be king of each nation, and guides human history. However, he guides from behind the scenes. He allows men to rule, and he allows Satan to rule in the empires of men. God is ultimately sovereign, but He is not exerting His authority and power visibly.
• 5. The visible Church is the kingdom of Christ. Jesus is our Head. Jesus gave instructions to ordain church officers, elders, deacons, evangelists and so on. Where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there. The visible Church at least gives lip service to the authority of King Jesus. It was this kingdom Jesus was refering to in the parable of the leaven, and the parable of the mustard seed.
• 6. The invisible Church is the kingdom of Christ. Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." In this sense it is just a spiritual thing, without a physical appearance.

In view here in Revelation 11 is number four. God has been allowing Satan and mankind to rule their own kingdoms and empires, and He has remained behind the scenes. That is the situation that we see now around us in the world.

This final establishment of the clear authority of God over the empires of the world was prophesied many times in the Old Testament, and Revelation is repeating and amplifying the OT message. For example, Daniel 2:36-45...

• 36 "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.
• 37 You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;
• 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
• 39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.
• 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron- for iron breaks and smashes everything-and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.
• 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.
• 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.
• 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
• 44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure for ever.
• 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands-a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."

Daniel even introduces the symbols of seven, and 3 and 1/2 that John continues in the Book of Revelation. In Daniel 7:21-27 we read this...

• 21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them,
• 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favour of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
• 23 "He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it.
• 24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings.
• 25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.
• 26 "‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed for ever.
• 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.’

We will say more about this fourth beast of Daniel when we come to the parallel passage in Revelation 13. But for now, just note that the kingdoms of the earth become the kingdom of Christ, and He will reign forever.

II. The kingdom of God will not be accepted willingly by mankind, but must finally be installed by violence.

We often hear from well-meaning people that "violence never solves anything." There is some truth to this, because we tend to be like the McCoys and the Hatfields. If a McCoy shoots a Hatfield, then a Hatfield must shoot a McCoy, which meanst that a McCoy must shoot a Hatfield, which means that a Hatfield must shoot a McCoy, etc. etc. etc.

Unfortunately, human nature is so sinful that God can only deal with us by power and not persuasion, and this is true both for those who are elect and those who are left to their own wills. In our generation we are offended by the idea that God would be violent or full of wrath. But the Scriptures tell us repeatedly that God will use violence against people who will not repent.

Consider Noah's flood; consider God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from Heaven; consider the plagues against Egypt; consider the battles of the Israelites to take the promised land. Consider great heros of the faith, who killed many people: David, Samson, Gideon, and so on.

You and I are God's children because we repented of our sins, and we believed in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But we did not do those things willingly. We did not leave our sins willingly. We did not believe willingly. Paul tells us so in I Corinthians 1:22-31 and 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 14....

• 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
• 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
• 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
• 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
• 26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
• 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
• 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are,
• 29 so that no-one may boast before him.
• 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
• 31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
• 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
• 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
• 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We did not come to Christ because we were wiser, better, more spiritual than anyone else. We came because God made us come. The great Christian writer Luke the Evangelist, recorded the story of Paul the Apostle in the Book of Acts. Why did Saul, who hated Jesus and who imprisoned and killed Christians become converted? Not because he was wise or spiritual. He was converted by God who knocked him off his donkey with a bolt of lightning, and who supernaturally changed his hard cold heart. He was saved by the power of God, and so are we.

But God does not supernaturally work in the hearts of all to bring about conversion. He has not chosen to save the whole human race against their will. And how can God set up His kingdom on earth amidst people and kingdoms who hate Him? He must do so by his power, by his wrath and violence. Revelation 11:18 tells us that the nations are angry at God, and that God will meet anger and rebellion with his own anger and power. Psalm 2 echoes the situation....

• 1 ¶ Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
• 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
• 3 "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters."
• 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
• 5 Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
• 6 "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."
• 7 ¶ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
• 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
• 9 You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
• 10 ¶ Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.
• 11 Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.
• 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

III. God's kingdom is characterized by Justice and Grace, and is all-embodied in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the King, our highest civil authority. Simultaneously Jesus is our High Priest and Prophet, the highest religious authority. God's kingdom also knows nothing of Democracy. Government in God's kingdom is not by the people, of the people and for the people. In God's kingdom government is by the Lord, of the Lord and for the Lord. God is a complete dictator in His kingdom. Fortunately for us God is perfectly just, perfectly good, and full of love and mercy and forgiveness.

• 19 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

The covenants of the Bible are often mis-understood. They are not agreements between God and man, as if we had any say in the matter. They are not bargains with God. We have never been able to keep up man's side of a covenant by our good works. We always fail. Mankind's side of each covenant is always lived up to by Jesus Christ. The covenants are divinely imposed relations between God and man. God sets the terms on both sides, and compels participation. All God's covenants are gracious, and are sealed by the blood of God Himself in the person of Christ. God takes the covenants very seriously, and is always faithful to His covenants.

Every Bible temple is a copy of God's temple in Heaven. God's throne is over the mercy seat, which is the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the Ark were the tables of the Law, the rod of Aaron that budded, and a bowl of manna. The Law is the law. The rod of Aaron symbolizes the Lord Jesus Christ, our ever living high priest. The bowl of manna symbolizes Jesus Christ, the bread of Heaven. The Ark simultaneously reminds us of the Justice and Law of God, and His grace and forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What have we learned about the Kingdom of God from this passage?

• 1. The kingdom of the world is about to become the eternal kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ.
• 2. The kingdom of God will not be accepted willingly by mankind, but must finally be installed by violence.
• 3. God's kingdom is characterized by Justice and Grace, and is embodied in Jesus Christ.