Biblical Blueprints, Part 5 – The Future of the Church

Transcript

JRS 55
Biblical Blueprints, Part 5 – The Future of the Church
Ephesians 5:22-33
10/13/24
Jesse Randolph


I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians 5, specifically we'll be in verses 22-33 this morning. As you are turning there, I wonder if you share the awe that I am experiencing that 1995, according to Aaron Nicholson, is an oldie. But we'll be in Ephesians 5:22-33. God's Word reads, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So, husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one every hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the church because we are members of His body. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

We have had a spate of weddings recently. Praise the Lord for that, although I was told that you're not supposed to have weddings in the fall around here because they conflict with Husker Saturdays, but maybe that's from 25 years ago, I don’t know. But we have had these wedding services happening and more to come and of course featured prominently in these wedding ceremonies is the passage I just read for you, Ephesians 5:22-33. Those same words from Ephesians 5 are going to be prominently figured in this service, this morning's Sunday service, as we finish with this series titled Biblical Blueprints, God's Plans and Purposes for the Church. By way of a brief reminder, we've had our first four installments already which have been preached over the past four Sunday mornings where we've considered the Formation of the Church in Acts 2, we've looked at the Foundation of the Church in Ephesians 2, we surveyed the Function of the Church as we went through all three of Paul's pastoral letters (the two to Timothy and the one to Titus), and then last Sunday we looked at the Flourishing Church through the lens of I Peter 4:7-11, where we saw that the flourishing church is one that is full of members who not only serve one another but who do so in the right places with the right heart and with the right motivations. Then not only that, if you've been here on Sunday evenings, we've heard some really insightful workshop messages from Mike Otazu and Andrew Thomas and Gordie Coffin and Austin Rugh on the topics of sowing and studying and stewarding and serving, respectively. We have one more workshop tonight, as Aaron mentioned, titled Scattering. That brings us to our fifth and final Sunday morning message in this series which is titled The Future of the Church. Of course, we are going to Ephesians 5 which is all about wives submitting to their husbands and respecting their husbands and being subject to their husbands in everything and husbands loving their wives as they love their own bodies and even as they love themselves.

Does that make sense to you? Well, I hope we'll make sense of it by the time we get through with the message this morning. I think it will make sense and here is why. While it is true that Ephesians 5 is Paul at one level giving instruction on how a Christian marriage ought to function with husbands and wives fulfilling their God-given roles and in doing so glorifying God. As they live out His perfect design for marital union, lying beneath those instructions like the deep blue underbelly of a glacier or an iceberg are these profound and eternal statements of truth concerning the relationship that Christ has with His bride, the church. In fact, if we can just scan Ephesians 5:22-33 once more, note how prevalent the word church is in this section of Scripture. Verse 23, “The husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church.” Verse 24, “As the church is subject to Christ so also wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.” Verse 25, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church,” verse 26, “so that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water with the Word.” Note in that one the word “He” is capitalized, that's a reference to Christ, meaning the word “her” there is not a direct reference to an earthly bride or an earthly wife, but instead to the church. Now keep reading, verse 27, “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory.” Verse 29, “For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the church.” Verse 30, “We are members of His body,” that's another church reference. Then verse 32, “This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” That last one, verse 32, is really the interpretative key to this entire passage because Paul tells us exactly what he means by this mystery he is referring to here. He says it outright here. He is speaking of this relationship between Christ and the church.

Now biblically speaking a mystery is not a myth, a mystery is not what we think of when we think of a detective novel, you know, the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes or a mystery novel by Agatha Christie back in the day. No, a mystery in biblical terms is a New Testament truth not previously revealed in the Old Testament, a New Testament truth not previously revealed in the Old Testament. This language of mystery, especially when used in reference to the church as distinct from Israel, is rather common in the Scriptures that God moved Paul to write. For instance, if you go back to Ephesians 3:4 Paul here is referring to the mystery of Jews and Gentiles being united into one body. Ephesians 3:4, he says, “when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Paul uses a very similar expression in Colossians 1:26-27 when he refers to “the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations but has now been made manifested to His saints to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” Then when we study the Rapture and all the events that surround that event, including the resurrection of the dead who are in Christ and the snatching a way of living believers, that's all referenced as a mystery in I Corinthians 15:51-52. “Behold, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.” More on that one later. Then there is the mystery that we are dealing with here in Ephesians 25:22-33 of the church being the bride of Christ.

So, yes, Paul is referring to marriage here in Ephesians 5 but there is something much deeper going on which transcends any earthly marriage, namely the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church. That includes Christ's headship, His rulership over the church. It includes His cherishing of the church, it includes His purification of the church, His love for the church, and getting back to our topic here for this morning, His future plans for the church.

Go back to Ephesians 5 and looking at verse 27, speaking of Christ's future plans for the church, you see it there, “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.” Stripping it down and simplifying it, that is the future of the church, what we see right there in Ephesians 5:27. The future of the church in the ultimate sense is not about which building projects are coming up next or what the plans are for Christmas here around the church this year or what the men's and women's conferences will be about next year, or planning for VBS next year. No, the future for the church in the ultimate sense is about Christ who is head of the church, who is the One who purchased the church, presenting the church to Himself in all her glory where she has, as it says here, “no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.”

Now to appreciate that statement fully about Christ one day presenting to Himself the church in all her glory where she has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, we have to consider the road that the church has been on since its birth at Pentecost leading all the way up to today. Turn with me if you would over to the book of Acts and Acts 5 specifically. The scene here is the church in its infancy, right after its birthday, immediately after Pentecost. You’ll recall that in those very first days of the early church the church was operating smoothly; it was functioning optimally. After hearing Peter's powerful sermon at Pentecost, we remember that the members of the early church were sharing all they had in common, they were devoting themselves to one another, they were devoting themselves to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. But then here in Acts 5 there is this sudden and dark shift in the narrative. Things had been humming along up to this point and now we hit the brakes. Let's read it together, Acts 5, it says, “But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge. And bringing a portion of it he laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold did it not remain your own? And after it was sold was it not under your authority? Why is it that you laid this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last.” So, Ananias lies, he lies to the Holy Spirit, and he is struck dead for it. Reading on, and it says, verse 5, “And great fear came over all who heard. And the young men rose up and wrapped him up and after carrying him out they buried him. Now there was an interval of about three hours and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, tell me whether you were paid this much for the land. And she said, yes, that much. Then Peter said to her, why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test. Behold, the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well. And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard these things.” So, Ananias first, his wife Sapphira next. As John MacArthur put it and I think rightly, “This was the day that sin entered the church.” I mean obviously and of course sin existed well before that in the Garden of Eden, but the first record of sin in the church is right here in Acts 5. The havoc which sin has wreaked on the church and in churches ever since this fateful day has been undeniable. Whether it has been bitterness in the church or jealousy in the church or rivalry in the church or pride in the church or anger in the church or sexual sin in the church or pastoral failure in the church or conflict between church members, the list goes on and on and on post Acts 5.

But let's drill down a little bit deeper on just one of those. We can't do all of them, but let's just look at one of those specific sins that has been a plague on the church since this time of Acts 5. Let's look at the one I just mentioned last, sinful conflict in the church. I read an article just this past week which cataloged several true stories of real conflicts which had truly arisen in real churches. I won't give you all of them, but I will list off a few. In one church there was a conflict over whether there should be a clock in the worship center, you know to put the pastor on a timeline, get them out of there for lunch in time. In another church there was a conflict over which picture of Jesus to use in the foyer. In another church there was a conflict over whether the music leader, the music pastor should wear shoes during his leading of worship. Now I'm not sure if Andrew is in here but we're a pro-shoe church. In another church a conflict arose over which type of green beans to serve at the potluck. In another church a conflict arose over whether the word “potluck” should be used to begin with or instead if it should be called a “pot blessing.” In another church a conflict arose over whether the church should allow deviled eggs on the church premises. In another church a dispute arose over whether the church should allow people entry who were wearing black t-shirts because black is the color of the devil. Then last, another church had a couple of deacons who took their disagreement over a church matter to the parking lot and proceeded to engage in a good old-fashioned fist fight.

Now lest we think that conflicts like those are new phenomena, we just have to remember what the Scripture teaches, which is that conflict has been a reality of life for followers of Jesus Christ and therefore in the church from the very beginning. Paul and Barnabas had their falling out. Euodia and Syntyche could not agree in the Lord. The church in Corinth was full of all sorts of fighting. Then we remember the words of James in James 4:1-2 where he says, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel.” Quarrels, conflicts, fighting, you see these words and you hear these words. Quarrels and fighting and conflicts sadly are not foreign to the church. Rather, quarrels and fighting and conflicts have been with the church and in the church since its very inception. Quarrels, fightings and conflict exist in the church because sin exists in the church. Our hearts, even as redeemed sinners, are still sinful. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can know it?” Sin still clings to the heart of individuals who make up the church, not only of the church at the local level but the church at the universal level. Positionally, no doubt, every true member of the church, those who are truly in Christ, are justified. Thanks be to God for the precious gift He has given us of salvation through His Son. But practically we are yet sinners, we are still sinful. The result is no matter how clean the windows or how straight the ties are or how many hours we have logged in this or that ministry, every church, this one included, is an impure church. But not forever. Not forever. No, God who is holy chose us. If we are in Christ, we have been chosen. That's the biblical doctrine of election, Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” God then sent His Son, the Holy One of God to die on our behalf and if we have trusted in Christ, Hebrews 10:10 says we have been sanctified, meaning positionally made holy, righteous, “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” So, Christ came to save. Titus 3:7, “We have been justified by His grace, we become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” and for that we are immensely grateful. But Christ also came to sanctify, to purify us, to make us holy individually and as a church. Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,” that's justification, “instructing us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires we should live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,” that's sanctification. Though the church is not holy now, remember all those examples of church conflict I gave you; the testimony of Scripture is that Christ will one day present the church to Himself as holy. That's exactly what we see in our text, Ephesians 5:25-27. “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she would be holy and blameless.”

That brings us all the way back to our topic for this morning, The Future of the Church. See, a future time is coming when the church will be presented to her Savior in splendor, radiant, glorious, without taint of sin or any other blemish. In the words of Ephesians 5:27, “having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” What will that entail and when will that happen? Well, let's get into it as we go through sort of a mini survey of future things, future things for the church, an eschatological jet tour of future things for the church. A lot of this is going to be review for you who are long-timers where you've been taught extensively and faithfully on future things. But for some of you who are newer, and this will be good review for those who are older, here is the basic biblical flyover of what the Bible teaches about the church's future.

First of all, the next planned event on God's future timeline, His eschatological timeline, according to what is laid out for us in His Word, is the Rapture of the church. The Bible describes the Rapture as this imminent event, meaning it could happen at any moment, even during this church service. Come quickly, Lord Jesus and it is also a signless event, meaning it is not going to be preceded by any signs or warnings. Nor is its occurrence conditioned on the further fulfillment of any other biblical prophecy. It doesn't matter if a Democratic President is elected in 2024, it doesn't matter how many hurricanes or abortions take place in the next five years. The date of the Rapture has already been predetermined by God, the clock has already been wound, the sands of the hourglass are already filtering through. Where do we see the Rapture mentioned in the Bible? I'm glad you asked. Turn with me over to I Thessalonians 4, we'll start here as we do a brief survey of the biblical doctrine of the Rapture. I Thessalonians 4:13, it says, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” This passage, I Thessalonians 4, is the one which very clearly identifies the reality of this coming event known as the Rapture where believers in Christ are caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. Now there are doubters, some will say, in fact some have said that the word Rapture doesn't appear in this text, so is the concept of the Rapture legitimate? Is it biblically supportable? The answer of course is yes, of course it is. See, here in I Thessalonians where it says that believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, verse 17, the Greek word for caught up is harpazo. In the passive form of that verb harpazo it means to be snatched up, to be snatched away, to be caught up. When the Bible was translated into the Latin by the old church father Jerome, that Greek word harpazo was translated in Latin to raptura and then the English translators took that word and just created the word Rapture, or used the word Rapture and the term has stuck ever since. The concept is biblical, it's plainly biblical. If there is any confusion, it rests on the fact that we have held onto this old Latinism to describe this event. Now whether a person calls it the great snatching away or the great catching up or the Rapture, that's secondary. The important thing to note is that what the Bible teaches is that there is a coming day when the church will be snatched away to meet the Lord in the air with those believers who are already deceased at that time, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, it says, going up first and then living saints being translated or carried away to heaven to meet the Lord in the air.

So that's one place in Scripture where we see the Rapture, I Thessalonians 4, but it's not the only place. We have time, I think, go over to I Corinthians 15:51. It says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.” Or John 14, Jesus Himself says there, “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places, if it were not so I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am there, you may be also.” Whichever passage you turn to: I Thessalonians 4, being caught up to meet the Lord in the air; I Corinthians 15, being changed in the twinkling of an eye; John 14 where Jesus says He will receive us to Himself—the thing to remember in the context of our series here on Biblical Blueprints, God's Plans and Purposes for the Church is that this event known as the Rapture will result in the official end of the church age. The church was born at Pentecost and the church age with it, but the church age will end at this moment, at the Rapture.

Now continuing on in this little mini survey of the church's future, when we as believers in Jesus go up to meet the Lord in the air, what happens next? Well, there are so many details I could fill you in on but we're going to go wide angle here this morning. There are really two ways to look at that question. When the church goes up, what happens here? The two ways to look at that are the earthbound perspective and the heavenward perspective. What happens here on earth after the Rapture is dramatically different than what will be happening in heaven.

Let's start with the earthbound perspective. The earthbound perspective post-Rapture of the church is one of judgment, it's one of doom. The fear of being left behind is a legitimate one for those who don't truly know the Lord, when we consider the severity of the judgment which God is going to mete out upon this earth after He takes the church out of the world at the Rapture and pours out His wrath on those who are left. See, sitting here today there are times when we as believers, as Christians, as those who are part of the church living in the current church age, though we've received God's Word and we have His Word and it has these promises about what God will do in the future, we can find ourselves sometimes wondering if not outright asking when is God finally going to act. When is He finally going to do something about all the sinfulness and the wickedness that we see all around us? Will He do something about it? The answer to that question, of course, is yes. Yes, He is going to deal with it and He is going to start unfurling His judgment on this wicked planet in the Tribulation, that's when it begins. The Tribulation will be this period of seven years, a period that was predicted all the way back in the Old Testament, going back to Daniel 9. It will be a period in which God's judgment, His wrath is poured out on sinful humanity after the church has been taken out of the world. It's a period whose details are spelled out with great detail, great specificity in the book of Revelation 6-16.

You can turn with me to Revelation 6. We're not going to get into all of this today, we will cover this in much greater detail when we go through Revelation in our evening services next year, Lord willing. But let us take a little bit of a peek behind the curtain of some of the details of the tribulation. Let's see what is going to come upon this earth during this period known as the tribulation, and as we do so let's remember that the church, meaning the called-out ones, those who have repented of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ, what He did on the cross, we won't have to go through any of this. “Jesus,” I Thessalonians 1:10 says, “delivers us from the wrath to come.” Praise the Lord for that truth, that Jesus when He comes for us will rescue us from the wrath to come, specifically from the tribulation that we see revealed here. But for those who reject Jesus, for those who go through the tribulation, this scene is absolutely nightmarish as God judges the people of the earth on account of their godlessness.

Let's start in Revelation 6 as we see God's unfolding of His program of judgment during the Tribulation. It says, “Then I looked when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, Come. Then I looked and behold, a white horse and he who sits on it had a bow. And a crown was given to him, and he went out overcoming and to overcome. And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. And another, a red horse went out, and to him who sits on it, it was given to him to take peace from the earth and that men would slay one another. And a great sword was given to him. And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. Then I looked and behold a black horse and he who sits on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like the voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, One choinix of wheat for one denarius and three choinix of barley for one denarius. And do not harm the oil and the wine. And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come. Then I looked and behold a pale horse and he who sits on it had the name Death, and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the witness which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, How long, oh Master, holy and true. Will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And a white robe was given to each of them, and it was told to them that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also. Then I looked when He opened the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the great wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come. And who is able to stand?” What is being depicted here isn't science fiction, it isn't mythical. This is prophecy, this is yet to be fulfilled future prophecy. Just as the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem would be fulfilled and in fact was fulfilled, so too will this prophecy one day be fulfilled.

Skipping ahead to Revelation 8, the scene continues with the opening of the seventh seal of judgment. Look at Revelation 8, “When He opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them and another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censor and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints and the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints out of the angel's hand before God. Then the angel took the censor and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth, and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

Those are the seven seals, and after the seals are opened come the blaring of seven trumpets in Revelation 8, 9 and following. With the blaring of these trumpets, we see things like hail and fire mixed with blood in Revelation 8:7. We see a great mountain burning with fire being thrown into the sea in Revelation 8:8. We see a third of the sea becoming blood in verse 8. We see a great star falling from heaven, burning like a torch in verse 10. We see a third of the waters on the earth becoming wormwood and many men dying from the waters because they were made bitter in verse 11. We see a darkening of the earth in verse 12 as a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars are struck. Then in Revelation 9:2, we see this pit of the abyss being opened and the smoke of that pit like the smoke of a great furnace darkening the sun and the moon and the stars even further. As if that weren't terrifying enough, next come the locusts which are described in Revelation 9:10. “They have tails like scorpions, it says, and stings and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months.” It's no wonder under these conditions that it says in Rev 9:6, “In those days men will seek death and will never find it. They will long to die, and death flees from them.”

One of the most disturbing things I've ever witnessed, and I'm sure many of you can relate, is what I saw on the TV the morning of September 11, 2001, as the events of that horrific morning unfolded live, right in front of the world's eyes. One of those images that will be forever burned in my mind was that scene of those people on the top floors of the World Trade Center jumping out of the window to their sure death on the street below because they were so desperate to escape the heat and the flames and the anguish that they were experiencing up on those top floor offices. Those who jumped on 9/11 sought death and found it. But there is something worse than that from an earthly standpoint which is to seek death as a way to escape unbearable pain but not being granted that escape. That is what's happening here in the Tribulation. Those who weren't taken up in the Rapture, those who rejected Christ, they'll seek death, and they won't find it. Instead, their suffering will be prolonged. It's a terrifying thought.

Well, the next several chapters of this section of Revelation highlight many different figures we'll study next year—the woman, the child, the dragon, the beast, the 144,000, all of those—but for our purposes today let's skip ahead to the end of Revelation 15 where we're going to see another aspect of God's judgment during the Tribulation, as now bowls of judgment are poured out. We see seals being opened, we see trumpets being blown and now bowls being poured out. Revelation 15:5, “And after these things I looked and the sanctuary of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened. And the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the sanctuary, clothed in linen clean and bright and girded around their chests with golden sashes. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power and no one was able to enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.” Chapter 16, “Then I heard a loud voice from the sanctuary, saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. So, the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. And it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who have the mark of the beast and who worship his image. And the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became blood like that of a dead man and every living thing in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous are You who is and who was, oh Holy One, because You judged these things, for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it. And I heard the altar saying, Yes, oh Lord the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to it to scorch men with fire and men were scorched with fierce heat. And they blasphemed the name of God who has the authority over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkened. And they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. And they did not repent of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. Then I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs, for they are spirits of demons doing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty. Behold, I am coming like a thief, blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments so that he will not walk about naked, and men will not see his shame. And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air and a loud voice came out of the sanctuary from the throne saying, it is done. And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there was a great earthquake such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it and so mighty. And the great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the wrath of His rage. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And huge hailstones about one talent each came down from heaven upon men and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail because its plague was extremely severe.”

Now let's just refocus for a moment, if we may. We are in the middle of this series on the church and today's message is titled The Future of the Church so why am I up here reading way too fast sections of Scripture related to the Tribulation? Why am I having us lay our eyes on these texts that deal with the coming Tribulation when the church, having been Raptured, won't go through the Tribulation? I'm actually doing so I have done so to highlight that very truth that as the church we are going to miss all of it. If we are part of the true church, meaning if we are in Christ, putting it even more simply, if we have been saved a part of our future is that we won't be there for that. Rather, we will be with the Lord.

Let's explore that further. We've just looked through the earthbound perspective of what happens after the Rapture, namely the Tribulation on the earth. Now let's consider the heavenward perspective. While all of that is happening on the earth during the Tribulation, the church having been Raptured will be where? In heaven and doing what? Strumming harps, right? Floating around on clouds? Looking back down on earth to see how our loved ones are doing? No. We'll be doing a few things. We'll be worshiping, we'll be singing words like those portrayed in Revelation 4:8, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, the Almighty who was and who is and who is to come;” or Revelation 4:11, “Worthy are You our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things and because of Your will they existed and were created.” We'll be singing songs like that in praise to our God forever and it will be glorious. We'll also be receiving our reward after the Rapture. That's when the issuance of Bema Seat rewards will take place as recorded in II Corinthians 5:10, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” That occurs after the Rapture.

Then third, we'll be enjoying what is known as the Marriage of the Lamb. See, we as the church, we've seen this over and over in this series, are Christ's bride, and the moment we put our faith in Him we became “betrothed to Him.” Those aren't my words, those are Paul's words in II Corinthians 11:2 where he says, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” That's part of the mystery that Paul is revealing in our passage, Ephesians 5:32, that when we are saved, when we become saved, we become betrothed to Christ. But this future day is coming where Christ will then take His bride, the church, to Himself. He'll do that at the rapture as He snatches the church out of this world, as He rescues the church from this world, delivering us, I Thessalonians 1:10, “from the wrath to come.” Then He'll take us with Him to heaven, to this Marriage of the Lamb. That is described this way in Revelation 19:7, it says, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the Marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” That's describing a time at which Christ and His church will become united. No more spatial separation between Christ and the church like we see today. Right now, we're on earth, He's in heaven. No more after the Marriage of the Lamb. No longer will this physical union or this being together with Christ become this anticipated reality. It will be a true reality at the Marriage of the Lamb. Not only that, we will be a bride, the church, who no longer at that point has any blemishes but instead is a bride who is pure and righteous and holy.

All of that will be in fulfillment of what we saw earlier, Ephesians 5:27, as Christ who loved the church, who gave Himself up for the church will now “present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.” It will be at that point, and this is where our eschatological jet tour starts getting really fast, that Christ will take the church further into the future as God's plans for the end unfold in their entirety. It will be with His church, His holy and blameless bride that Christ will return at His Second Coming. It will be with His church along with repentant Israel, that's a whole different sermon, that Christ will reign on the earth during this thousand-year long period of peace and prosperity known as the millennium. And it will be with His church that Christ will dwell forever in His eternal kingdom with those who have believed upon Him, those who are the true children of God. They will all enjoy eternity with the Lord, experiencing no more pain, no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears but instead this unending period of unmingled blessing and joy.

That's the future of the church, and what a wonderful future that is.

Well, I think a fitting way to end this series would be to read from a hymn which I think encapsulates much of what we've covered over the past five weeks as we've looked at The Formation of the Church, The Foundation of the Church, The Functioning of the Church, The Flourishing of the Church and now The Future of the Church, and that would be The Church's One Foundation. It goes like this:

The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
She is His new creation by water and the word.
From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride,
With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.

Elect from every nation, yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation—one Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses with every grace endued.

'Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war
She waits the consummation of peace forever more.
'Til with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

Amen.

Oh, for that day that we will be the church at rest.