Overcoming Disappointment

Mark Finley: No more business as usual, no more pleasures as usual, no more Laodicean complacent Christianity, but a group of people transformed by the grace of Christ who believe that through His grace and by His power, men and women could live godly, obedient lives.
Guest (Female): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: Overcoming Disappointment. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com and stay with us for a free Bible study offer later in this program. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: A number of years ago, a Scottish preacher in a little country town had a parishioner that could not read. The Scottish preacher was really concerned about this parishioner because the man could not read the Bible. So he agreed that they would meet once a week and he would teach him how to read. It took six, seven, maybe even eight months, and finally that parishioner, that humble little man who was illiterate, was able to read. He was so excited when he was able to read the Bible. About nine months after that, the preacher met this man's wife on the street. She was out shopping, and the preacher began to talk to her and said, "I want to know, how's your husband's Bible reading going now? I haven't had a chance to ask him personally at church, but I'm really interested to know how the Bible reading is going since he's learned to read." The woman said, "Oh, Pastor, he's graduated from the Bible and he's reading the newspaper now." You know, there are some people that have the idea that the Bible is a group of myths and fables and it's kind of a pre-primer for children and they graduate from the Bible to read the newspaper. Can you believe that? But you, as you've been studying Revelation and listening to these broadcasts, you recognize that the Bible is a book that challenges our mind. It stimulates our intellect and it's the highest of all sciences when you study it. Particularly when you study the book of Revelation, it really stimulates your thinking, it really challenges you. Have you been breaking some brain cells as you have studied the book of Revelation with us recently? Have you been looking at the book of Revelation in a new fresh way? Wherever you start in the book of Revelation, it is Revelation 1:1, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So the book of Revelation focuses on Jesus. It focuses on His love, His goodness, His grace, His mercy, His power. Particularly the book of Revelation reveals the plans of God and unfolds His strategy for last day events, end time, and it unmasks the plans of Satan. So it reveals the plans of God, it unmasks the plans of Satan. Have you been sensing that God has been stretching you and stretching your thought patterns as you have studied the book of Revelation? We're going to turn to Revelation chapter 10 in this broadcast. Now we've covered the first nine chapters in the book of Revelation and you may be new to the broadcast, so let's review a little bit about what we've studied in the past to catch you up before we go to chapter 10. The book of Revelation according to its title is a revelation or an unfolding or an unsealing. It's not something that is sealed or hidden from us. The word "revelation" in the Greek is the Greek word "apocalypse" and it means the taking away of the veil. So in the book of Revelation, God takes away the veil regarding the future. He reveals His plans and unmasks the plans of Satan. This revelation according to Revelation 1:1 as I've mentioned, is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. In the first chapter, the book of Revelation talks about Jesus. It talks about Jesus who is eternal. He is the one who was, who is, and is to come. It discusses the Christ who according to Revelation chapter 1 verse 3 washed us in His blood. He provided salvation for us. He is the Jesus who in Revelation chapter 1 verses 4 and 5 makes us kings and priests to God. He is the Jesus who in Revelation 1:7 is coming again. So Revelation 1 introduces the Jesus. It introduces to this Christ who is eternal. This Christ who entered into human flesh. This Christ who walked the dusty streets of Galilee and the cobblestone streets of Jerusalem. This Christ who lived the life we should have lived and died the death that we should have died. This Christ who is our High Priest. This Christ who changes us and transforms us. This Christ who is coming again for us. In Revelation chapter 1, Jesus is also pictured as walking among the candlesticks or His churches. Revelation 1 talks about Jesus not sitting on His throne, not being distant from His people, but one who is very near. He walks amidst His people. The candlesticks represent the churches. He knows, He understands our heartaches and our sorrows. He is here with us in the abundance and joy of life. Then in Revelation chapter 2 and 3, we read about the seven churches, seven epochs of church history, and seven descriptions of the spiritual condition of God's people in every age. We began with Ephesus, a pure church powerfully impacting society. We ended with the seventh church, Laodicea, the church of the judgment hour. Here's a principle in the book of Revelation, a principle many people miss and so they misinterpret Revelation. Revelation in its sequences always starts where the prophet is. It takes you down the centuries of time and ends with the coming of Christ. We looked at Revelation 4 and 5. There were two songs, two oratorios: the oratorio of creation in Revelation 4 and the oratorio of redemption in Revelation 5. In Revelation 4, we look through an open door into heaven and there we see beings on the throne of God, cherubim and seraphim. We see them worshipping the one who created us. That introduces us to the great controversy theme in Revelation. In Revelation, there's a controversy between true and false worship, worshipping the Creator and worshipping the beast. And God's people in heaven are worshipping the Creator. He's worthy to receive worship. Why? Because He created us. I love Revelation 4:11. "Thou art worthy, oh Lord. Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive blessing and glory and honor because You have created all things." In Revelation chapter 5, we again look through the open door in heaven. And there, as we see that open door in heaven in Revelation 5, we see a Lamb that was slain, a bloody Lamb in heaven. That surprises us because why would there be a bloody Lamb up in heaven? Because the center of heaven is the cross of Christ. And if you miss the cross in the book of Revelation, you miss the whole theme of it. So in the great controversy between good and evil, Satan has declared that God is unfair and unjust, that He doesn't love us. The book of Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus that reveals Christ in the midst of this controversy as the one that lives for us, as the one that died for us, as the one that intercedes for us, and the one that's coming again for us. That moves us to Revelation chapter 6 and again, we see the unfolding of history. We see how the Christian church started pure. We see the opening of the four seals: the white horse, the black horse, the red horse, and the pale horse. We see Christianity going forth with power, but Satan persecutes the church in the red horse period. And then there's spiritual death. Then in the fifth seal, the souls under the altar, that is the blood of the martyrs that was slain, not literal immortal souls. But we see the blood of the martyrs crying out, "Lord, how long?" It's just like Abel's blood cried out from the grave. It is a symbol describing that these martyrs are saying how long. And in seal 6 and 7, we see the answer to that question. Judgment will come. The wicked will be condemned. Christ will return. He'll return to this earth. And then we studied the trumpets, the judgments of God, and the seven judgments of God that come. These judgments come on Jerusalem, God's city and whose spiritual leadership in the Jewish nation rejected Him. The judgments fall upon Pagan Rome and they come upon Papal Rome. They come upon the Western and Eastern empires. We see the Muslim invasions in Revelation chapters 8 and 9. But all, again, all this prophecy ends with Jesus on His throne and Jesus judging His people, Jesus triumphant. Now with that background, we come now to Revelation chapter 10. Let's look at Revelation chapter 10 verse 1. The scripture says, "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven." Where is the angel come down from? Heaven. "Clothed with a cloud." Now in the Bible, clouds represent angels, but clouds also represent the presence of Christ. And so here, this angel comes with the presence of Christ. He has a rainbow upon his head. When's the first time in the Bible you read about a rainbow? Shortly after the flood. And the rainbow indicates, of course, justice and mercy. God is a God of justice. Sin must be dealt with, but He's a God of mercy. His face was as it were the sun, his feet as pillars of fire. The Bible describes this mighty angel that comes down from heaven who represents God's justice that's tempered with mercy, tempered with grace. Remember, God saved Noah and his family, they went into the ark. And this angel that comes from the presence of God, iridescent with the glory of God, clothed with the clouds of God's favor, with the rainbow upon his head. Again, just as God preserved Noah, grace, just as the wicked world was destroyed by the flood, so likewise, this divine being, this angelic being whose face is like the sun, his feet like the pillars of fire, he's burnished with the glory and majesty of God. Again, he reaches out to mankind at end time with mercy, with grace. He invites us to enter in by faith through the open door of heaven's sanctuary and find refuge and security in Jesus, find salvation and eternal life in Jesus. Now notice what it says in verse 2 about this angel. "And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth."
Guest (Female): We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers. If you want to learn more about the Bible, check out our free Bible series at globalbibleschool.org. That's globalbibleschool.org. Discover answers to your deepest questions straight from God's Word. And now, back to Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: According to the Bible, the sea or waters represent peoples. We find that in Revelation chapter 17 verse 15, "The waters which you sawest are peoples, nations, tongues." The land, which is the opposite of the sea, would represent unpopulated areas. So here the angel is pictured as having a universal message for all mankind, the populated and the unpopulated areas. He has something in his hand. What's in his hand? It's a little book. Is that little book open or is it shut? The book is open. And he says, and he cried with a loud voice as the lion roars. When a lion roars in the jungle, every creature in the jungle wakes up. As when the lion roars, and when he cried out, seven thunders. What are the seven thunders? What does the number seven represent in the Bible? Perfection. So here's a perfect thunder. Well, that's a little strange. Why would you say perfect thunder? When you read about thunder, what do you read about? John chapter 12 verse 37 to 41. You see, the Bible explains the symbols of the book of Revelation. When we get in trouble in Revelation is when we try to privately interpret the book of Revelation and don't let God's word interpret itself. So here John chapter 12, verse 27 to 31 says this: John 12:27, "Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, that's the cross, of course. For this cause I came unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then there came a voice from heaven saying, 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it.' The people therefore that stood by heard it, said that it thundered. Others said an angel spoke to him." Let's see if we can learn what this thunder means. What does it mean when the Bible says it thundered? Remember how that text is introduced. It is introduced with Jesus desiring to glorify the name of the Father. When the voice of God spoke to Jesus before the crucifixion and this voice thunders, can you think of any other time that the voice of God speaks and it thunders? Well, of course, that was at Mount Sinai. When you read about that thunder, you're reading about the voice of God. When you read about seven thunders, you're reading about the perfection of God's declarations to mankind. Now that's very critical to understand chapter 10. This is God's declaration to humanity. The angel comes down from heaven. He has a book in his hand. The angel has the favor of God. The angel stands with one foot on the sea and the other on the earth. The angel that comes with the favor of God has a message for all humanity. And the angel roars with a loud voice, he cries with the perfection of God's thunder. The voice thunders through the earth with a message for all mankind at end time. Now when the seven thunders uttered their voice, as I was about to write, I heard a voice from heaven utter and said, "Do not write them." There's a certain portion of this message that God said it was for better for humanity not to understand at that time. You and I could spend this program and multiple future programs speculating on what these thunders represent. We could try to speculate. But I wonder, if God says don't utter those thunders, I give God credit for making plain what's most important. You know the Bible says in Deuteronomy 29 verse 29, "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God." There are some things in the message that God told John that are not for you and me to understand. But God has made most important what is for us to understand. First, we understand something about the little book. What's this little book in the angel's hand? That's a key point. Is there any book in the Bible that was once sealed, but would be open at end time? It says this is a little book that was once sealed, closed, shut up. Do you see it here in Revelation 10? In Revelation 10 verse 2, it says he had a little book open in his hand. But there would be a little book open in the hand of the angel for a people at end time that was once sealed. Well, is there a prophetic book that is a companion book to the book of Revelation that the Bible says was once sealed, but it has prophecies about end time? If you go to Revelation chapter, rather Daniel chapter 12, Daniel chapter 12 and you read there in verse 4, "But thou, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until what time? The time of the end." So Revelation would unfold the prophecies of Daniel that would be shut up until the time of the end. If you look at Revelation, rather Daniel 12 verse 9, he said, "Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are what? Closed up and sealed until when? The time of the end." And if you let your eyes drop down to the last verse in the book of Daniel, Daniel 12 verse 13, "But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot when? At the end of the days." So the book of Daniel is the little book that was closed at the end of time. God's people would study the prophecies of Daniel. They would study these end time prophecies, studying these prophecies that have to do with the judgment and the final cleansing of earth and the final return of Christ. God's people would be thrilled, they'd go out and proclaim God's last day message. Now what portion of the book does the angel say would be sealed till the time of the end? We don't have to guess. Revelation 10 verse 5, "The angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand unto heaven." Now when you an angel, when you have an angel that is one foot on the earth and one foot on the sea denoting a universal message, and when that angel lifts up his hand to heaven in solemn oath, when you have an angel that comes from the presence of God thundering with the declarations of the voice of God, lifting up his hand to heaven in solemn oath with a universal message, it is a message to pay attention to. It says he sware by Him that lives forever and ever. When you have an angel that comes from the presence of God and he's taking a solemn oath and he's swearing in that solemn oath about something, what does he say in the solemn oath? He's coming as a representative of the one who lives forever, who's eternal, the one who created the things that are in heaven and the things that are in earth. Here the eternal Creator sends an angel with a message for all humanity. And the angel raises his hand in solemn oath and he says before heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, that there should be what? Time no longer. In other words, prophetic time would run out. The angel comes to explain the message of Daniel and the angel comes to say that the time prophecies of Daniel, the longest time prophecy of Daniel would run out. There would be no more delay that God's judgment hour would begin in the last days of earth's history. So that's God's last day message, it would go to the ends of the earth. Daniel's prophecies focusing on the judgment, focusing on the second coming of Christ would be opened. And as they were opened, humanity would sense that we are living in a special time of earth history. Revelation 10:6 says time no longer. The clock would struck strike the hour. You see the word for time there, it is the Greek word "chronos." What English words do we get from our word chronos? We get our word what? Chronology. So chronos is not a date in the point of time, but it's a length of time. In other words, the longer time prophecy of Daniel would run out. And what is that prophecy? What's the longest time prophecy in the Bible? In Daniel 8:14, that's chapter 8 verse 14, it says, "Unto 2,300 days shall the sanctuary be cleansed." So in 2,300 days, you know, there were many who began to study these prophecies in the late 17th, early 1800s. In fact, if you study American history, there's a great spiritual revival. Up until that time, people thought that the coming of Jesus would be after a thousand-year millennium on earth. But as they began to study the prophecies, Revelation 1:7, He comes with clouds, every eye will see Him. They began to study Matthew chapter 24, the signs of Christ coming and that as lightning shine from the east even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. They began to study Psalms 50, for example, that says, "Our God will come and not keep silence." They began to sense that Jesus would come not after a thousand years, but rather that His coming was near. When they studied the prophecies of Daniel and they studied this 2,300-year prophecy, they discovered that it began in 457 BC, that it would run out around 1843, 1844. These were Baptists, these were Methodists, these were Catholics, these were atheists. In fact, many atheists accepted the message of God. But as they began to study it, this multi-denominational group, this was not something that was done only in America. You had Edward Irving with 300 preachers of the Church of England that was preaching Christ is coming soon. You had Johann Bengel studying these prophecies over in Germany. You had Manuel Lacunza who was a Jesuit priest who actually began to study the prophecies of Daniel down in South America and he recognized, he began to teach that Jesus was coming soon. So you have this worldwide phenomena in the 1800s, tens of thousands of people studying the prophecies of Daniel. Now they misinterpreted the sanctuary. They thought that the sanctuary was earth and that Christ was coming to cleanse it by fire. But what does the Bible say here in Revelation chapter 10? Revelation 10:8, "And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again and said, 'Go and take the little book.' What's the little book? Daniel. 'Which is open in the hand of the angel which stands on the sea and upon the earth,' a universal message. And I went to the angel and he said, 'Give me the little book, give me the book of Daniel.' And he said unto me, 'Take it and eat it up and it shall make your belly bitter and it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.'" The prophecies of Daniel were sweet to those that studied them. They thought Jesus is coming, He's going to cleanse the earth by fire. But yet, I took the little book out of the angel's hand, verse 10, and ate it up and it was in my mouth sweet as honey, but as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. Why? Because these early seekers, these early men and women looking for the second coming of Christ thought Jesus was going to come. They saw those 2,300 days or years fulfilled and they were bitterly disappointed. They wept and they wept and they wept because Christ didn't come. But somebody says they should have known, didn't Jesus say nobody knows the day of the hour and weren't they mistaken? I want to take you back to another great disappointment. Let's go back to 31 AD, which is also incidentally part of Daniel's prophecies in Daniel 9. These early disciples believed that Christ was going to come to set up His kingdom on earth. When He was crucified on the cross, bearing the sins of humanity, and when the nails were driven through His hands and blood ran down His wrists, and when they put the crown of thorns upon His head and blood ran down His face, and when they took the bruised, bloody, broken body of Christ off the cross, the disciples were bitterly disappointed. In fact, they cried out, "We thought that this is the one that was going to save Israel." But out of the disappointment of 31 AD, the resurrected Christ raised up the New Testament Christian church. It was born out of disappointment, born out of sorrow, born out of crucifixion. Out of death came life.
Guest (Female): You've been listening to Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you enjoyed today's message and that it increased your faith in God and His Word. If you'd like to learn more, Pastor Mark invites you to visit globalbibleschool.org for an inspired, interactive Bible study experience. That's globalbibleschool.org. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark.
Mark Finley: A group of people that would be passionate about taking the gospel to the ends of the world. No more business as usual, no more pleasures as usual, no more Laodicean complacent Christianity, but a group of people transformed by the grace of Christ who believe that through His grace and by His power, men and women could live godly, obedient lives. Would you like to see Jesus? I want to be one of your men, one of your women in these last days of earth's history to share Your love with others. If that's your desire, bow your head with me in prayer. Father in heaven, thank You for Your grace, thank You for Your goodness, thank You that Jesus is coming again. Thank You that we can look to Your sanctuary and be transformed by Your grace, changed by Your power. May we be changed, in Jesus' name, Amen.