What is the Point?: Discovering Life's Deeper Meaning and Purpose (20 page)

At the end of the story in Revelation 21–22 the bride is in the garden of God communing with her Bridegroom. That is how the story ends. That is the destiny of the redeemed. Communing is not all we do, but it is our primary life purpose both now and forever. It is friendship with the Trinity. All else flows from this living, vibrant relationship. It is the secret place of power for Christ and the church in this age and in eternity. In the Book of Revelation we see that this age ends the same way it started—God with man. From the beginning He has made His intentions known, and we can see His story line culminating even in our world today.

We know that the story of humanity has a happy ending, but we also know that there is a great battle and war for the hearts of men that lead up to that happy ending. This battle will reach its fullness in the generation that the Lord returns. It will be a conflict between two houses of worship, because it will be a war fought for the passion of the human heart.

Scripture describes two global worship movements at the end of the age. Many in the nations will worship Jesus (Ps. 72:11), and many will worship the Antichrist (Rev. 13). Jesus will return to this earth and complete what He has started. His plan will not fail. The Father will have a family, and He will give Jesus a prepared, equally yoked bride (Rev. 19:7). Yet we know that the Scripture says that glorious day He has been waiting for is in the context of a great shaking as He transfers the affection and allegiance of the world from that which harms them to He who keeps them. This transfer doesn’t happen easily because men love wickedness, and they love the lie (2 Thess. 2:10–11). Those who resist the kingdom of His love will be removed (see Matthew 13:30) because Jesus wants righteousness, beauty, and true peace to be on earth, even as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10).

He wants to restore the world to the Garden of Eden reality. This includes the hearts of men, their physical bodies, creation itself, and the governments of the earth. He is coming as a king to set up a kingdom. He is coming as a judge to remove all that hinders love and to cleanse the earth of wickedness. And He is coming as a bridegroom to give those who love Him His name, His throne, and eternal access to His heart in unhindered communion.

This communion with His heart is already happening, in part, today. The kingdom of heaven starts within (Luke 17:20–21), yet one day it will also come in fullness in every sphere of society and creation. Today, for the most part, the kingdom is in the heart and in the church, although we see a measure of the kingdom’s influencing in all aspects of society and culture. We see this in part, but there is coming a time when the kingdom will be on the earth in fullness. The work that we do today that is truly built on Jesus and His kingdom will not be shaken. The things that are built on humanism, greed, lies, wickedness, and sin will be shattered like a clay pot under a rod of iron in the hand of Jesus (Ps. 2:8–9; Heb. 12:26–28).

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At His second coming Jesus will come as Bridegroom, King, and Judge. When He comes to judge the world, He is coming to remove all that hinders love, because as Creator He created this world for Himself and for His pleasure (Rev. 4:11). As we have seen, His desire is to be loved and to love. He wants a kingdom of love; therefore He must remove everything that gets in the way. Wicked men who are arrogant and resist Him will be cast into the lake of fire because He cannot let love be defiled.

Mike Bickle says, “Jesus will use the least severe means to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest level of love.” When we read the Book of Revelation, it is hard to grasp that it is the least severe means needed to wake up the multitudes of the nations because we cannot comprehend where the earth is going if we remain in darkness.

Even before the day when He appears in the sky, the earth will enter into birth pains that will cause great shaking (Matt. 24:4–8). It doesn’t take a prophet or a pessimist to see that we are at the beginning of this shaking even now. We could be many decades away from the appearing of Jesus, but even in these decades leading up to that time, we see the hand of the Potter taking the globe and shaking it, turning it upside down. There are several aspects to the shaking, and not all of it is directly from His hand, but it is ultimately under Jesus’s control.

1. Creation’s groan

One aspect of the shaking is creation’s groan (Rom. 8:18–22). Since the fall of man creation has been groaning for the restoration of Eden and for Jesus to come to the earth and reverse the curse. Creation has been under the curse of sin, and much of the shaking that we see is a result of this groaning.

2. Man’s sin

The second aspect of the shaking is man’s sin. When the Lord gave the dominion of the earth to man, He literally gave it to them, and humans have had authority to make real decisions that affect the earth. Isaiah prophesied that men have tried to change the laws of nature and have resisted even the natural order that the Creator put in place (Isa. 24:5–6). God has allowed sinful men to freely act against His laws, but creation reacts to these decisions, and it causes the earth to reel to and fro like a drunk man under the weight of transgressions, tottering like a hut in the wind (Isa. 24:19–20). Man has chosen sin, and sin has blossomed with severe consequences that are the result of this distortion.

In the generation of the Lord’s return man’s sin will reach heights we cannot fathom (Dan. 8:23; 12:10; Rev. 14:18; 18:5). Sin is not ripe until it is acted out consistently with sinful deeds, and it will be ripe in the decades to come. We cannot fathom where this is going. One reason Jesus is letting it happen is so the true nature of man can be seen, and we will see His justice and His mercy in light of the truth of iniquity. We cannot rise up and accuse Adam for choosing sin and causing all men after him to fall. We cannot claim that God was too severe in His judgment of sin, because when we see the full-grown tree that began as a seed in Adam’s heart, we will understand why God has such zeal against it. What seemed small to us, when looking at Adam eating of that tree and opening the door for sin in man, is a much greater crisis than meets the eye. It will blossom into such a tree of evil that we will understand the zeal of the Lord and will never again accuse Him of being too severe in His judgments.

It is also in the context of the sin of man reaching its fullness that those who are righteous will shine the brightest (Matt. 13:43). It is in the midst of this darkness and conflicting forces that the true love will be refined. We need the conflict and we need the fire (Mal. 3:1–6). It will be in the midst of the wheat and the tares growing side by side that the great harvest will come in. Men will see wickedness for what it really is, and they will want the light of righteousness—not all of them, but many of them. The darkness gets darker and the light gets brighter. The great harvest of souls will come into the kingdom at the same time that the harvest of sin matures. The wheat and the tares will mature together at the end of the age. (See Matthew 13:30.)

3. Satan’s rage

The third aspect of this great shaking is Satan’s rage. We know from the Book of Revelation that Satan has a sure end where He will be thrown into a prison and will no longer be free to act in the heavenly or earthly realm (Rev. 20:1–3). He is enraged at the idea of going to prison, and as we get closer to the appearing of Jesus, his fury will increase (Rev. 12:12). He will be cornered and will spew out all of the trickery, lies, deceit, and wickedness that he can. As his rage comes to fullness, he will try to execute a plan to keep Jesus from returning. The Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles, and Jesus Himself gave us insight into some of his plans. But we also know that Jesus is ultimately in control, and Satan can do only what Jesus allows him to do. Satan is like a magician with smoke and mirrors. Jesus is not at all insecure about the coming increasing conflict with Satan. He is looking forward to this day because it is the day where He will eradicate evil. This day of confrontation and vengeance is in His heart (Isa. 63:3–4).

Isaiah describes this time period. He shows how confident Jesus is concerning it. Jesus sits above the circle of the earth, inhabiting eternity, and looks down upon the nations who are raging against Him. They are just like little grasshoppers bouncing around (Isa. 40:22–24). He takes the ocean and measures it in the palm of His hand. He spreads the galaxies like a curtain. He is not intimidated by the nations, like a drop in the bucket, or by Satan, being the liar that he is (vv. 12–15).

In Psalm 2 the nations are seen raging against Him, infused by Satan. They don’t want Him, His Father, Israel, or the Bible. They want to get rid of God, and they actually have the tenacity to war against Him, just as Lucifer did in his arrogance many years ago. It’s the same lie working from the same liar, Satan. King David declared that God laughs at the idle threats against Him by the kings of the earth (v. 4). He laughs because it is a ludicrous ambition for grasshoppers to overcome their Creator.

Jesus is not intimidated by the rage Satan puts in the hearts of evil men. Though this rage of Satan will affect the earth for a short time, it will not end there. We will feel the shaking of Satan’s rage, but he is already a defeated enemy (Eph. 1:20–22; Col. 2:15). Even if we lose our lives, we have the victory because death has been conquered. Though the rage of Satan will be intense and many believers will lose their lives in the midst of it, it will be this context that the great witnesses will come forth, loving not their lives even to death. They will overcome by the word of their testimony and by the blood of the Lamb, even to the end (Rev. 12:11).

4. God Himself

The final aspect of the shaking is God Himself. He wants to pry the fingers of the people of the world off of worthless things, and He wants to cause them to cling to Him, as they were created to be one with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). Today, in the Western church, as soon as you start talking about Jesus the Judge, people grimace and often don’t want to talk about it. Or they have the wrong picture in their mind and think of His judgments in terms of His being angry with them, even though they are sincere believers. Others have theology that says He won’t judge the earth, and I believe that these arguments need to be resolved by what the Scripture says.

As a Bridegroom who is the Creator, He has great zeal to bring forth humanity into their original created intent, and that is to be one with Him in the fellowship of the Trinity. He is zealous to remove all that gets in the way of this. He also has much patience and wants anyone who is willing to come to Him to come freely (2 Pet. 3:9). He has not made it too mysterious, but it is so simple that all who want Him can reach Him. Yet it is so simple that the arrogant never will, and He cannot let the wickedness prevail.

There are many reasons Jesus is coming as judge, and there are not simple answers to why He is shaking everything that can be shaken even before He appears, but we know that He is judging for the sake of righteousness, humility, and truth (Ps. 45:3–5). He is judging to bring down the proud and the haughty of the earth who oppress the poor, the widow, and the needy (Ps. 94). He died for love, and now He will fight for love.

We must be people who understand His heart and trust His leadership, not blindly but out of true agreement with Him. Think about it; what kind of God of love would let wicked men prevail and rise up to oppress those under them? What kind of God of love would let lies and darkness erode the world when He has the power to stop it? What kind of God of love would let perversion, murder, Satanism, demon worship, and all manner of evil go on and on without addressing it?

Even today there are more than one million women and young girls and boys each year being trafficked across international borders as sex slaves. They are oppressed and helpless. What kind of God of love will let this go on and on? What kind of God of truth would let people believe lies, even beautiful lies that look like unity, peace, and safety, when those same lies will lead them to eternal damnation? How can He not step in and address it while there is still time?

Oh, beloved, His judgments and the shaking that leads to them are great mercy and compassion. As Love Himself He is pleading with humanity to come to Him, but many will choose the darkness and love the lie (2 Thess. 2:10).

He will bring an end to the wickedness of man. He will confront the greatest dictator and oppressor that the world has ever seen, the Antichrist. He will shatter all of the infrastructures that will have been permeated with the filth of the harlot Babylon that will have filled the earth (Rev. 17–18). He will rule with a rod of iron, and He will dash the wickedness of the nations and their kings who are against Him to pieces. He will rid the earth of wicked leaders, and in their places the meek will inherit the earth (Dan. 7:27; Matt. 5:5).

I realize that I am making several big statements that must be backed up in Scripture in a responsible and thorough way. This book is not meant to be a comprehensive thesis on Jesus the Judge. I am confident that anyone who seeks to understand what the Scripture says on this will find an abundance of passages that provide clarity on this important subject. I challenge you to search the Scripture, without any preconceived ideas, have an open heart and a sincere desire for truth, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the heart of the Bridegroom to you through His zeal as a judge. There are more than one hundred fifty chapters in the Bible that have the end times as their primary subject. If you would like this list of Bible passages, or if you want more resources on this subject, go to
www.mikebickle.org
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There you will find many free resources on these subjects that relate to Jesus as Bridegroom, King, and Judge.

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At His first coming Jesus was silent by comparison. He came as a Lamb to redeem the earth, and at His second coming He comes with a shout, as a Lion to finish what He has started (Isa. 42:13). There is a moment when the Father will commission the Son to return as a warrior King to use His mighty sword against the oppressors in the nations (Ps. 45:3; Rev. 19:15).