COME UP HERE

Revelation 4:1 begins, “After these things.” This is exactly the phrase that is used in Revelation 4:19, giving the outline. It refers to a specific time, namely, after the church age. So, after the church age, John says, “I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven.” This reminds us of three very important things. First, Jesus Christ is the door and identifies Himself as such (John 10:7). What kind of a door is He? He’s an open door to heaven. Second, Jesus Christ opened the door. We see that in Luke 23:45, where He cries out in the agony of separation from the Father and says, “the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom,” signifying that the way into God’s presence is now open. The veil symbolized the fact that there was a barrier between God and man which was removed on the cross. Finally, the “door” reminds us that He has opened to us a door for evangelism. Remember, with the Church of Philadelphia, He said that He “would open for them a door that no one could close (Revelation 3:8).” You also see the apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 6:9 asking the Corinthians to pray for him because he said, “a great door for effective service has been opened to me and there are many, many adversaries.” So, the open door is significant because it all centers around the finished work and victory of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Revelation 4:1 says, “I saw a door open in heaven.” I should point out to you that the verb here is perfect. The door opened in the perfect hands, and means it opened in the past, with the result that it remains opened in the present. Jesus Christ opened the door in the past through the work of the cross, and it remains open to the present time. When John saw the door standing open in heaven, he “heard the first voice that he had heard.” The first voice that he heard was the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, he’s hearing the voice of our Lord speaking with him like the sound of a trumpet. This voice, like the sound of a trumpet, gives him a command, and the command is “COME UP HERE.” Now, it’s significant that at the end of the section dealing with church history, John should hear the command, “Come up here,” and he hears it in a voice of a trumpet. You’ll remember in 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18, we are told that “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we are alive and remain will be caught up together in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Also, in 1st Corinthians 15:51-58, the Apostle Paul talks about how, “we shall all be changed in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.” That trumpet, I believe, is the very voice that John hears in Revelation 4:1. And what that voice says, what is said there. When the rapture of the church takes place, believers are going to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same manner. You might just read through John Chapter 5, because in His explanation of the resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “the hour is coming, and now is when those who are in the grave will hear his voice and they shall arise.” So, I believe that the voice that brings the dead in Christ from the ground and catches up those who are living is the very voice that we hear right here. What this portrays in verse one is the rapture of the church. Let me just point out again that while the term “church” and “churches” has been used 19 times in the Revelation Chapters one to three. You will not see the word “church” occur again until Revelation 22:16. Not until God’s plan is finished. Not until we’re in the eternal state is the church mentioned again. What we find in the interim is symbolic language in Revelation Chapters 4 and 5 in heaven. In Revelation Chapter 6 through 19, the section dealing with the tribulation period, the emphasis is all on Israel. Why? Because that’s annual 70th week. We looked at that last time. That’s the time when God is finishing His work in the nation of Israel.
“After these things” is used twice in Revelation 4:1. This is emphasis and very Hebrew. It’s a very Hebrew thing to speak something twice for the purpose of emphasis and to display perfection.
Believers are going to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. A voice that brings the dead in Christ from the ground and catches up those who are living. This is the very voice that we will hear, “COME UP HERE.”

Gene Cunningham - July 26, 2022

Three Questions

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As always, it is crucial to get the contextual setting. Jesus “departed from the temple” (Matt. 24:1). But this follows His most terrible message to Israel in Matthew 23, in which He announces eight “woes” to the nation for their rejection of Him. He concludes this message with the warning, “You shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’” (Matt. 23:39). Jesus never entered the Temple again. This departure was a fulfillment of the vision of Ezekiel (Ezek. 10:18–19), where he saw the “glory of the LORD” depart from the temple. The disciples’ comment on the buildings of the Temple (Matt. 24:1) results in Jesus’ prophecy of its ultimate destruction. This, in turn, causes the disciples to ask three questions. These questions are vital to all that follows. Jesus’ response is a prophetic overview of future history. Jesus’ Prophecy of the Temple, Matthew 24:1–2 Although this prophecy certainly anticipates the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D. (dealt with in Luke 21:20–24), we know that not “every stone” of the Temple was thrown down at this time. The very existence of the western or “wailing” wall is proof of this. Jesus had in mind the total destruction that would precede His Second Coming (Rev. 16:17–21). The Questions of the Disciples, Matthew 24:3 The three questions are related, yet they address separate issues: 1. “When will these things be?” This question has to do with time. The question is answered in the Tribulation portion of the message (Matt. 24:9–28). 2. “What will be the sign of your coming?” This specifically relates to the Second Coming of Christ (Matt. 24:29–31). This does not refer to the Rapture, which is at this time part of the unrevealed “mystery” of the Church Age (Eph. 3:1–10). 3. The final question has to do with “the end of the age,” which I take to mean the “Age of Israel” since the disciples did not yet know about the Church Age. We now know that the Age of Israel has been interrupted by the Church Age (an intercalation). The final seven years of the Age of Israel is the Tribulation period, also known as Daniel’s 70th week (Dan. 9:24–27), which is divided into two portions of “1,260 days,” or “42 months,” or “three and a half years” (see Dan. 12:7; Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5).

From Series: "Jesus' Roadmap for the Future"

The Olivet Discourse -- Jesus' Roadmap for the future, is one of the three major discourses (sermons) of Jesus. They include: 1. The Sermon on the Mount/Galilee Discourse (Matthew 5–7) 2. The Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21 3. The Upper Room Discourse (John 13–17) Each of these messages is aimed at a specific period of history, which we call a dispensation. They lay out God’s dispensational plan, like a road map, from the time of the crucifixion to the end of time. The Sermon on the Mount was directed to the generation in which Jesus lived and was His platform as King—if Israel would receive Him. Obviously, they rejected Him as their King. However, this will be the basis of Jesus’ administration during the 1,000-year Kingdom Age (Millennium). Then, the Olivet Discourse was aimed at the consequences of Israel’s rejection of Jesus as Messiah, and anticipated the destruction of the nation (70 A.D.) and the final Tribulation period. Remember that the Church Age is an intercalation—meaning an insertion, like a parenthesis, into the Age of Israel. This means that with the Rapture of the Church, the Tribulation picks up where 70 A.D. leaves off. This is why the Church Age is called a “mystery” (Rom. 11:25; 16:25; Eph. 3:1–13; Col. 1:26–27), which is a graduate course to “the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10). Finally, the Upper Room Discourse was directed toward the Church Age, which began at Pentecost and would continue to the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:13–18). The uniqueness of this Age is summarized by Paul’s phrase “in Christ,” and all of the elements involved in what we call “positional truth”—our total union with Christ and the indwelling of His Spirit in us, which occurs nowhere else in history. With the removal of the Body of Christ, the Church, Israel would again become the focus of God’s working on this Earth (Romans 9–11; Revelation 6–19).