But really, if you read the book of Revelation, it's very logical and very chronological as
you go through it.
You start out in chapter 1, you've got John on the Isle of Patmos, the Lord Jesus Christ
appears to him and is going to give him this revelation.
In chapters 2 and 3, you have special messages to the churches at that time, to the churches
that were existing in John's day.
So he gets those messages out in chapters 2 and 3.
In chapters 4 and 5, you have a scene in heaven just describing what it's like in heaven before
the throne of God, talking about the things that are seen there.
Then in chapter 6, you really begin the events of the end times, the future events that the
book of Revelation tells us about.
In chapter 6, of course, he goes through the six seals.
And in those seals we see wars, we see famines, we see pestilence.
And it's very easy to see that the events being described in Revelation 6 are the exact
events being described in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and so forth.
And those events are called the Tribulation.
And that Tribulation, the word Tribulation, trouble or affliction, that time of Tribulation
that's described in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 is laid out in Revelation chapter 6.
Then after the Tribulation, and if you read Matthew 24 and Mark 13, this is very clear.
After the Tribulation, the sun and moon are darkened at the end of chapter 6.
Then in chapter 7, God clearly says that He's not going to hurt the earth or the trees or
the sea.
He's not going to damage the environment, as it were, of the greenery and the plant
life and so forth.
He says, until we've sealed the servants of God in their foreheads.
And He seals the 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel.
Then right after that, there appears in heaven, out of nowhere, in chapter 7, a great multitude
of people that no man could number of every nation, every kindred, every family.
This huge multitude appears in heaven and John says, where do these people come from?
And he says, these have come out of great Tribulation.
And they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
After that great multitude of people appears in heaven that was so big that no man could
number and it was of all nations, all kindreds, then beginning in chapter 8, He begins to
pour out His wrath upon the earth.
And God begins to pour out His wrath with the seven trumpets.
And those involve, of course, horrific things and I'm going to get into that a little bit
later in the sermon, but turning water into blood, burning up all the trees and sending
these locusts from hell and so forth.
So He starts to pour out His wrath.
Now the mistake most people make is they think that the Tribulation is the time when God
pours out His wrath.
Well, that's not true at all.
Because during the Tribulation there are wars, there are famines, there are pestilences,
and there's great persecution and affliction of God's people who are being persecuted for
not worshiping the Antichrist and so forth.
But God doesn't pour out His wrath until after the Tribulation, then the sun and moon
are darkened, then He begins to pour out His wrath.
And it's very clear at the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7 that God
has not started pouring out His wrath at all.
He has not done any of these cataclysmic things to the earth.
And the day of His wrath does not come until the end of chapter 6 after the Tribulation.
So God pours out His wrath in chapters 8 and 9.
Then in chapter 10 we talk about the angel that's going to blow the 7th and final trumpet
of God's wrath.
And then in chapter 11 that trumpet's going to be blown.
And then at the end of chapter 11 He says, the kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever.
So so far we've been in relatively chronological order, I mean it makes sense.
It lines up with everything Jesus taught in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John.
It lines up perfectly how there's going to be a time of Tribulation, then the sun and
moon are darkened, then of course Matthew 24 teaches Jesus Christ will come in the clouds,
the trumpet will sound, and those that are dead in Christ, the asleep in Jesus, will
be caught up into the clouds with those of us that are alive and remain.
Most people call that the rapture, the Bible calls it the first resurrection.
We're all going to be caught up together, that's the great multitude that appears in
heaven in Revelation 7, then God pours out His wrath, then comes the millennial reign
of Christ.
But when you get to the end of chapter 11 something interesting happens, because in
chapter 12 all of a sudden we take a huge leap backwards.
So basically chapters 1 through 11 are in perfect chronological order, then all of a
sudden in chapter 12 you're at the birth of Christ.
And then He basically goes through the whole chronology again.
The book of Revelation is not that complicated once you understand that He goes through the
whole thing twice.
He goes through the whole thing up to chapter 11, and God wants us to understand the Bible,
that's why He makes it real obvious that He's jumping back in time in Revelation 12, because
all of a sudden He starts talking about the birth of Christ right away.
Well obviously we know that happened thousands of years ago, and then He starts to tell the
story of the Tribulation again, then in chapter 14 Jesus comes in the clouds and reaps the
earth of all the believers in chapter 14, and then in chapter 16 He pours out His wrath,
and this time it's described as the seven vials of God's wrath.
He pours out His wrath on Babylon, and then we have the battle of Armageddon, the millennial
reign of Christ, and so forth.
So that's just to give you a quick overview of the book of Revelation.
Now if you look at the seven year period that's described in the book of Revelation, which
involves first the Tribulation and then the pouring out of God's wrath, there's always
a natural dividing of that seven year period into two, three and a half year periods.
I mean if you're reading the book of Revelation you will constantly see this number coming
up at you over and over again, 42 months, or it'll say three and a half years, or it'll
say 1260 days, or 1290 days.
You'll see these numbers that are all approximately three and a half years, because there's an
event that takes place at the midpoint of the week that's known as the abomination of
desolation, where basically that's where the Antichrist declares himself to be God, declares
himself to be Jesus Christ, and that's where the very intense persecution of God's people
begins.
And then very shortly thereafter is where the rapture takes place.
So roughly the first half of the seven years, and I'm not saying exactly, I'm saying roughly
a little more than three and a half years, the first half is the Tribulation, and then
a little bit less than three and a half years, but roughly the second half is God pouring
out His wrath on this earth.
And we're not here for God's wrath, we're going to be here throughout the Tribulation,
most definitely, but we're going to be gone during the period of God's wrath.