Revelation 7x7
Lesson #4 – The Church Defined
Instructions:
1. Read through the outline below.
2. Where it says Read, go to your Bible and read the scripture indicated.
3. When you’re finished, answer the questions at the end of the lesson.
Vision #2 - Chapters 7 & 11 – “The Church Defined”
1. This vision defines the church in 3 different ways
2. And ends with the opening of the 7th and last seal – The return of the Lord
3. Just as all seven (7) visions do
4. Three (3) sets of symbolic pairs are used:
a) The 144,000 and the Great Multitude (Rev. 7)
b) The Temple Within and Without (Rev. 11:1-2)
c) And the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:3-12)
5. Let’s take them one at a time:
6. The First Symbolic Pair is the 144,000 and the Great Multitude
7. The 144,000 are called “tribes of Israel” (Rev. 7:4-8)
a) But, I don’t believe they are literal Jews
b) I believe it’s symbolic of the church - Spiritual Israel
c) Let me give you 3 reasons why I believe that:
d) First: one of the things we’re told about them is that –
1) They will have the “seal of God in their foreheads” (Rev. 7:3)
2) Since a seal indicates “ownership or belonging”
3) The 144,000 will “belong” to God –
4) He will seal them to Himself
5) But, it will not only be Jews that belong to Him
6) He will seal all of His people:
7) Jew and Gentile alike who believe in Jesus as the Christ
[Read: Rev. 22:3-4 – “his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face…and his name shall be in their foreheads”
8) This is when it all over - and we’re in the paradise of God
9) And, it won’t only be the Jews that “see his face”
10) Or have “his name in their foreheads”
11) It will be all of His people
e) Second: the numbers that are used are symbolic
1) John speaks of twelve thousand out of each of the twelve tribes being sealed
2) But, I don’t believe John is talking about exactly 12,000 Jews
3) Out of the “tribe of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin,” etc.
4) Twelve is simply symbolic of a religious group of some sort
5) And the thousand represents a large number
6) So, by the time you get to 12 x 12000 - or 144,000
7) You simply have a large symbolic number of people I n a religious group
8) The church: Spiritual Israel
f) Third: Paul speaks of the Spiritual Israel that came in with Christ
1) He says the literal, fleshly Jew is no longer Israel
2) Those who believe in Jesus as the Christ are Spiritual Israel
[Read: Rom. 9:6b-7 – “they are not all Israel, who are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham”]
[Read: Rom. 9:8 – “They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God”]
[Read: Gal. 3:28-29 – “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed”]
8. The second half of the first symbolic pair is:
9. The Great Multitude
a) No man can number them (Rev. 7:9)
b) They’re from “all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues” (Rev. 7:9)
c) They indicate the persecution of the church:
1) They “come out of great tribulation” (Rev. 7:14)
2) They “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14)
10. The Second Symbolic Pair that defines the church is:
11. The Temple Within and Without
[Read: Rev. 11:1-2 – “measure the temple of God…and them that worship therein…but the court which is without leave out”]
a) This passage tells us a simple truth:
b) There are those inside the temple of God - and there are those outside
c) Those inside are the believers
d) Those outside are the non-believers
12. And the Third Symbolic Pair is
13. The Two Witnesses
[Read: Rev. 11:4 – “these are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks”]
a) They symbolize two men (trees)
b) And the church (candlesticks)
c) Trees are used in the Bible to symbolize men
1) Psalm 1:3 - a godly man is “like a tree planted by the water”
2) Isaiah 61:3 – godly men are called “trees of righteousness”
d) Candlesticks symbolize churches
1) Rev. 1:20 – “the seven candlesticks are the seven churches”
e) The two men are apparently spokesmen for the church
f) And will have great power
1) I believe there is a time of great miracles coming
2) And I believe it will be in the time of the Two Witnesses
3) In the second half of the last seven years
4) After the Antichrist is revealed
5) And the Mark of the Beast is set up
6) The battle will really get under way
7) As the devil turns loose his demons – and evil increases (Rev. 9)
8) God will turn loose the church – and demonstrate His power
g) The Two Witnesses –
1) The two men and the church
2) Will “smite the earth with plagues, as often as they will” (Rev. 11:6)
3) Jesus says that we will do the works that He does –
4) “And greater works than these shall (we) do” (John 14:12)
5) Daniel says “the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” (Dan. 11:32)
[Read: Joel 2:7-11 – “They shall run like mighty men…And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army. For the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?”]
6) This is the church defined: The Army of God on earth
7) The Overcomers
8) Because only the Overcomers
9) Those that “endure unto the end”
10) Will be able to “abide the Day of the Lord”
14. And, when it’s all over
15. When this vision – Vision #2 – ends, the Witnesses are resurrected and Jesus takes final control
[Read: Rev. 11:12 & 15 – “Come up hither. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord”]
Questions
1. According to this lesson, what are the two groups in Revelation 7 that make up the “first symbolic pair” that defines the Church?
2. According to this lesson, what are the two words in Revelation 11:1-2 that defines the Church?
3. According to this lesson, in Revelation 11, what does the Bible call the two “trees” and “candlesticks” that define the Church?
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