Higher Aim With Dr. Curt Dodd

What’s so cool about Revelation 5 is that it’s a picture of what is happening in heaven. If we could join heaven right now, we would probably be living different lives and have a different attitude and focus. But even though that’s true, we also need to focus right now on the fact that the King is coming! He is coming back for His people, and the reason He is coming is because He owns it all. He is coming for you who know Him, and that means He will not leave you in the situation where you are forever. God has a plan, not just for eternity, but for right now as well. So as you strive to live out that plan you need to realize that His timing is perfect. And although we might not understand it, we can trust it.

One of the greatest gifts we can pull from the book of Revelation is the picture we get of heaven. I truly believe we would be so much better off if we wouldn’t get so bogged down with everything that’s happening in the present and instead fix our eyes on eternity. If we would get our focus right, and get aligned with heaven, the living here would be a lot easier. There will be more peace, confidence, and stability in your life when you are aligned with heaven. Regardless of what happens around you, you will not be shaken. And isn’t that what we all want? So this week, we’re going to continue looking at Revelation chapter 5 and see what we can learn about heaven from the Word of God.

The fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation are really one unit. And so over the new few weeks, we’re going to focus on their contents in hopes of gaining a clearer picture of what heaven is going to be like. It’s one thing to listen to what other people say about heaven and what they think it will entail, but it’s another to dive into the Word of God and look at what God reveals to us about where we will spend eternity as His children. Specifically this week, we are going to take a look at the scroll that John talks about in today’s key passages and what we can learn from reading about this scroll.

Today’s key passage speaks of the battle of Armageddon. Taking a step back, John sees it all happening before him. These are the verses he uses to describe where the forces of the Antichrist and the False Prophet bring the entire world together in battle. They meet Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is coming to take back His throne. We’re going to continue studying what Scripture has to say about this battle in today’s message. We’ll review what we talked about last week, and we’ll cover some new topics as well.

It is important to understand a basic truth. Before the worst of the worst is poured out upon an unbelieving mankind, we should grasp the reason for God’s wrath, and that is this: God is just! Many of us struggle with questions like, “Is it fair? Does it make sense? Why should I have to go through this?” The answer is simply this, especially for those going through the Great Tribulation, God is just! That truth is what we’re going to unpack in this message.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the Great Tribulation and all of the horrible and devastating things that will happen in the end times. But today, I want us to look at what we have to look forward to in eternity and all the wonderful things we can praise the Lord for!

As we read today’s key passage and continue our study of the book of Revelation, it is very clear that God is describing the judgment, the ruin, and the smashing of the World System, Babylon. It will all come down in one hour. The judgment of God will finally fall. This will be happening at the end of the Great Tribulation. As believers, we will not be here. Accordingly, while you are here, you can make a difference for the Kingdom of God before the judgment of God falls on this planet. This passage exists to motivate you, to give you insight and a mental picture of what will happen to our world. You can either say, “I don't believe that,” and find yourself at odds with the Word of God, or you can take this and realize that God's Word is true. God has always kept His Word and His Word now tells us what will happen.

You and I are caught between this world and heaven right now, but one day we will finally be home. Remember, according to Scripture, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a citizen of heaven. God already sees you seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus. With many of us, we wrestle with living for heaven and living in the world at the same time. This is exactly where we are going today. So let’s dive into what we need to remember as we wrestle with being in the in-between.

As we continue our study of the book of Revelation, we feel a sense of urgency to be prepared for Jesus’ second coming. The Lord could return at any moment; therefore we need to be living like we’re ready for Him to come very soon. With that in mind, we should be living as though this world is not our home, because it’s not. We are aliens here. We weren’t designed for this. We were made for something greater. We have so much to look forward to as followers of Christ. We have a better home to hope for, and that’s exactly what we’re going to dive into studying today and continually over the next few weeks.

As we continue our study of the book of Revelation, we are going to go further into the 17th chapter of the book and learn more about all that John saw when he was shown the end times. There are a lot of dark and heavy topics we need to discuss in the book of Revelation, but we’ll also see in today’s message that we can remain hopeful because Jesus is victorious in the end!

Not all churches are false or fake. Not all churches are decoy churches to lure people in and take them down spiritually. Not every church deceives them and sends them to hell rather than pointing them to heaven. However, we are living in a day when we are watching the unveiling of many decoys. Therefore, we need to have the wisdom and the discernment to be able to differentiate between false churches and churches that preach the Word of God. That’s exactly what we’re going to learn more about in today’s message.

Last time, as we discussed Revelation chapter 15, we saw the wrath of God being described. In today’s chapter of focus, this final barrage, seven bowls of wrath are released upon the planet. This wrath is released upon all of the inhabitants, all at the same time. Nothing is held back; all of it happens immediately. Can you imagine all of this happening at once by the hand of God? This is sobering indeed! So as we study this chapter, we learn a lot about what is going to happen in the end times in regards to God’s wrath.

It is important to understand a basic truth. Before the worst of the worst is poured out upon an unbelieving mankind, we should grasp the reason for God’s wrath, and that is this: God is just! Many of us struggle with questions like, “Is it fair? Does it make sense? Why should I have to go through this?” The answer is simply this, especially for those going through the Great Tribulation, God is just! That truth is what we’re going to unpack in this message.

In our culture today, we don't understand God’s wrath. We would rather focus on God’s love, but Scripture balances the God of love with the God of justice. You need to understand that His love is also balanced with His wrath. If you emphasize one of the characteristics of God without looking at the other characteristics of God, you are not seeing a clear picture of God. In today’s key passage of Scripture, we are speaking of God's wrath and aiming to understand how that balances with His love.

Our world has fallen so far, and oftentimes we don’t even realize how far we’ve fallen. We live on a sin-filled, broken planet. It’s as sad and simple as that. But thankfully, because of Jesus, that’s not where the story ends. We aren’t stuck like this forever. Because of Jesus’ work on the cross, there is victory to be claimed! That’s what we read about in today’s key passage as we continue our study of Revelation. This final book of the Bible is filled with a lot of heavy content about the end times, but it’s also full of hope because it reminds us that in the end, Jesus is victorious, and because we are on His team, we are victorious too!

Revelation chapter 20 gives us a majestic view of what God will do in the days to come. Earlier in the book of Revelation, John saw that the evil one was behind the dragon, antichrist, and false prophet. Now he is seeing the visions and pictures of the Lamb. He assures us that we will get to see the Lamb's Victory. So as we dive into this chapter, we’ll see that these 20 verses will be full of all kinds of pictures and images. Allow them to seep into your heart and mind and understand that through these small visions and images, we can have a broad picture of what is to come.

As you know, we are taking one step after another to unpack the Book of Revelation. Today, above all days, your eyes will be opened. Today, we are looking at Chapter 13. It will literally catch you off guard, but it should open your eyes as never before. You will realize how close we are to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us that the Second Coming of Jesus is twofold. First, there is the Secret Coming of Christ for His Saints; that is called the Rapture of the Church. We will immediately be with Christ at that moment in time. There will be a vacuum in this world when believers leave this planet. The Great Tribulation will last for a period of seven years. The first three and a half years will not be as bad as the horrible and disastrous last half of the Great Tribulation. That second half is what we’re going to dive into today.

We are now in the 13th Chapter of the Book of Revelation. Today, we will look at the last half of Chapter 13. It will introduce us to the false prophet, the second beast. The Bible speaks about him over and over again, as one who survives a fatal head wound. It is important for us to understand that. He has one agenda and it's the agenda of the dragon, Satan, who empowers him. He literally wants to conquer the world. He will be given authority to do that for 3 1⁄2 years. That is half of the 7-year Great Tribulation period.

At this particular moment of time in the Book of Revelation in Chapters 12 and 13, we have seen several things. We have seen that the woman is Israel. We have seen Michael the Archangel. We have looked at Israel's remnant, those who will be saved. The male child, who is Jesus; we have been introduced to the male child (who is Jesus). The dragon is Satan himself. We need to keep these characters in mind as we see this vision story that John is telling us, while he unfolds the picture. The Bible tells us that the devil is going after the entire world. Because he knows his time is short, he is extremely angry. Clearly, Satan will turn up the heat. So let’s look at what we need to do to understand better what’s ahead for this world in the end times.

We are in a spiritual battle. John saw it correctly; he saw a war in heaven. Does that sound odd to you, that heaven (which should be a place of peace) is at war? Does that sound out of place? Today’s key verses provide a great perspective on history. They also provide a great perspective on the reality of what is happening now. When we get this right and put it in order, we will be able to make sense of what is happening right now in our culture and in this world. Let’s look at what John had to say about the war going on in heaven when he wrote this chapter of Revelation.