Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #38 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are going to be reading Revelation14:14:

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

This one that is seen is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of man.  He is sitting upon the white cloud and that indicates He is ruling in the Day of Judgment.  That is why He has on his head a golden crown.  God likens the Day of Judgment to “harvest,” so He also has in His hand a sharp sickle. 

We had been looking at “clouds” and what they represent in the Bible, especially, what it says in Numbers 9:18:

At the commandment of JEHOVAH the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of JEHOVAH they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.

This is just a small example in that chapter of how God ties together the “cloud” and His commandment.  It was upon the movement of the cloud that Israel journeyed and when the cloud stood still, Israel ceased to journey.  It was all “at the commandment of JEHOVAH” and, of course, that word “commandment” would point to the Word of God.

It says in Luke 21:25:

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

Here, God is speaking of the time immediately after the Tribulation and notice that He says that what is happening with the sun, moon and stars are “signs.”  Elsewhere He says, “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven,” and, yet, they are only “signs” of Christ coming in judgment.  Of course, if these things literally happened, it would be far more than “signs,” but it would be evidence of actual destruction at the end of the world.  But, since the Lord is speaking of a spiritual occurrence, it is a “sign,” because that is the only sign the Bible will allow: the “sign of the prophet Jonas” is a sign that can only be understood in the Bible, because that is the only place we can read about Jonah.  God will not give physical signs where you can look up into the sky to see it.  The Bible says that only an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after that kind of sign.

Then it goes on to say in Luke 21:26-27:

Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Then shall they “see” and this word “see” is the word we also find in John, chapter 1, in a passage where Christ speaks to Nathanael and Nathanael quickly believes that Jesus is the Messiah.   It says in John 1:50-51:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

“Angels” are “messengers” and there is only one way this passage can be understood.  You can search the rest of the New Testament and the entire Bible and you are not going to find any other reference to angels of God that are “ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”  It just did not happen.  We do not read about this happening even one time and, yet, Jesus said to Nathanael, “Hereafter,” and this means that from now at this time, you will see heaven open and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.  It is only when we remember that Jesus spoke in parables (and without a parable He did not speak) that we are able to understand what Jesus said to Nathanael.  He was telling him that when the Lord saves someone, they are spiritually sent up instantly to the heavenlies to be seated with Christ Jesus, but because God had a task for them to do on earth, they are immediately dispatched back to earth.  That is why God only saved the souls of individuals and not both the body and the soul at once; they had to retain their physical bodies (even though they were sin-cursed) in order to blend in and operate on the earth with everyone else.  The one that God saves has something very much in common with everyone else, the sin-cursed body.  So this new “messenger of God” could now share the Gospel with his family, friends, neighbors and people in the far reaches of the earth.  This is what the Lord meant when He said to Nathanael, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”  Did Nathanael see that literally?  No, he did not.  Did Nathanael “see” anything happen when Christ saved people?  Or, after the Lord went back to heaven, did he “see” something when the Gospel went forth to save people?  Yes, he saw the spiritual meaning with eyes of spiritual sight; he saw it worked out from that point on, by faith.   

This verse in John 1:51 should teach us that we have to be very careful when the Bible uses the word “see.”  It often does not mean to “see” with physical sight.  Let us go to Matthew 26 and read a couple of verses that relate very strongly to the idea of Christ “coming in the clouds,” as the Gospel accounts proclaim and as we read in Luke 21:27.  It says in Matthew 26:62-65:

And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

God is the one that gave us this Scripture.  The Lord Jesus is the one who made this statement, just as He made that statement to Nathanael.  These kind of statements have been read by theologians and students of the Bible where they read, “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory,” and it is the same Greek word as used in Matthew 26:64, but they do not take into consideration what Christ said here.  Let me read it again, in Matthew 26:64:

Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power…

And this word “sitting” is the same Greek word and the same tense as our verse in Revelation 14:14, where John beheld one “sitting upon the cloud” like unto the Son of man.  Then it goes on to say, in Matthew 26:64:

…and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Now let us consider what He just said.  Jesus is speaking to the high priest of Israel and He says that “hereafter” or “from this point,” you shall “see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.”  So this means he is not going to see it just once, but it is going to be an ongoing occurrence that the high priest (who probably representing all Israel) will see the Lord at the right hand of power, coming in the clouds of heaven, in an ongoing manner. 

Again, as we search the Bible, we do not find that the high priest witnessed this physically.  We do not read that the high priest saw Christ at the right hand of God or coming in the clouds, literally.  But, we do find that it is a Biblical fact that the Lord did go to heaven to be seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of God and God did bring judgment (as the “clouds” can represent judgment) through His Word upon Israel, from that point.  Shortly after this statement was made, Christ went to the cross and the veil of the temple was rent in twain and Israel would be divorced from God and from that point the Word of God would bring judgment upon the corporate entity of national Israel; they were no longer God’s holy people; they were no longer His representative and the high priest was no longer the high priest of God’s kingdom.  In this way, what was being said to the high priest and to Israel was fulfilled.  For instance, we read in Mark 16:19:

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

Following the resurrection of Christ, this happened.  His resurrection, in a sense, was also a “thorn in the side” of the nation of Israel and the authorities because it was a testimony to the truthfulness of the things the Lord had told them: He was the Messiah; He was “God in the flesh,” and He was in the heavenlies seated at the right hand of God.  After the Lord spent forty days giving proof of His resurrection, He ascended up to be seated in heaven at God’s right hand.  It says in Acts 2:34-36:

For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, JEHOVAH said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Notice how God connects the statements, “JEHOVAH said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,” with “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  This was not happening in a private residence somewhere.  Peter and the others were speaking in foreign languages to all the visiting Jews and proselytes from many nations.  It was the Day of Pentecost and it was a very public declaration of who the Lord Jesus was and three thousand souls would become saved on that day.  Certainly, the nation of Israel did know, as Jesus had said to the high priest, “From now you will see the Son of man coming in the clouds.”  The Word of God was proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah and that He had been exalted and raised up to the right hand of God and the nation of Israel was finished as the people of God.  They were no longer God’s representatives and God would now be working with the churches and congregations that were being formed.  So what Jesus had declared to the high priest was being acted out on a daily basis as the Word of God was being declared and God’s people shared this information.  Let us look at one more passage in Acts, chapter 7, when Stephen was giving his testimony, in Acts 7:54-58:

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

Here, the witness of God’s people was that Jesus was at the right hand of God and this is the witness that has never ceased to be declared today, even almost two thousand years later.  There is still the witness of the Bible and the witness of true Christians that proclaim and declare that Christ is risen and at the right hand of God and that Israel is no longer God’s holy people.  But the holy people are those God has saved of every tribe and nation and tongue.

This is what is in view when we read the account in Matthew, chapter 24.  We know that the darkening of the sun, moon and stars is spiritual language, but if one understands that, then why would God switch to something physical?  It says in Matthew 24:29-30:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

We are “seeing” as Nathanael saw the messengers ascending and descending on the Son of man, and “seeing” as the high priest of Israel saw Christ seated at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds, in the sense of judgment coming upon Israel, with the evidence of Scripture and the evidence of God’s true witnesses as they declared Jesus to be the Messiah.  Likewise, immediately after the Tribulation the Bible will witness and testify that Christ has come in judgment; God’s people will recognize that witness and testimony and they will also share it.  Therefore, they “shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”  It has to do with reading the Bible, understanding the Bible, discerning “time and judgment” and “seeing” with spiritual sight.

Let us go back to Luke 21, in closing.  Again, it says in Luke 21:27:

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

God has just said in the previous verses that there are signs in the sun, moon and stars, with all this terrible language, and then He says, “. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”  Notice what is says in Luke 21:28:

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Redemption draws “nigh” or near.  We can understand this in reference to redemption, once we read Romans 8:23:

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

So when God says, “your redemption draweth nigh,” He is talking about the physical body and the time of the resurrection when our bodies will be redeemed; just as our souls were saved at the point of salvation, at the conclusion of all things on the last day; it is the time of the salvation of the physical body and we will be given a new spiritual body.  But notice the placement of this verse: “And when these things begin to come to pass,” it is the time when the sun is darkened and the moon does not give her light and the stars are falling and you “see” the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  When these things begin to come to pass, then you are to look up and lift up your heads, and then everything is done, right? There He is and everything is over and done with, right?  No, it is not, because now it says, “for your redemption draweth nigh” or it draweth near.  I am sure you would agree that if the sun was literally dark and the moon was literally dark and the stars had fallen from heaven and Christ was literally coming in the clouds, you are not going to “be encouraged” that your redemption is coming near.  You would know this was it and you would be correct, because the world could not continue for another moment if these things were happening literally.  But, if they are happening spiritually, as they have been since May 21, 2011, then there is reason for hope and encouragement.  There is reason to lift up the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet and to “look up, and lift up your heads,” for the redemption of our bodies draweth nigh.  There is great hope that October 7, 2015 will be that day of redemption.