IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
Clouds, Crowns, and a Throne
Jesse A. Quiroz, Senior Pastor

April 21, 2024


Series Intro: It doesn’t take much to see that we are living in what the bible calls - The End Times. With every world news event or report, it’s like bible prophecy is being fulfilled in real time. But, what do we do with this information? How should we be responding to it all as believers? And where exactly are we in the timeline of the end of the world? This series will serve to take us on a biblical journey through the book of Revelation that greatly detail the events, timeline and purpose to the End of the World as we know it and help us understand it with great sobriety, faith and encouragement.


The Timeline of the Book of Revelation

  • The Age of the Church (Revelation 1-5)
  • The Tribulation Period (Revelation 6-16)
  • The New Beginning (Revelation 17-22)

The Age of the Church

  • The Authority of Jesus (Revelation 1)
  • The Command of Jesus to the Church (Revelation 2-3)
  • The Rapture of the Church, The Judgement Seat of Christ and the Introduction of the Great Tribulation Period (Revelation 4-5)

REVELATION 4:1-10 NLT
Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.” 2 And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it. 3 The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones—like jasper and carnelian. And the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow. 4 Twenty-four thrones surrounded him, and twenty-four elders sat on them. They were all clothed in white and had gold crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold Spirit of God. 6 In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like crystal. In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. 7 The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. 8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.” 9 Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever), 10 the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, 11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”


Scriptural Evidence for a Rapture


1. There is no mention of the church (as a whole) in and during the Great Tribulation Period described in Revelation 6-16.

2. “Come up here” in Revelation 4:1.

3. There are 24 Elders around the throne in Revelation 4:4.

4. The church is seated, robed and crowned in Heaven in Revelation 4.


EPHESIANS 2:6 NLT
For he…seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.


There are 5 Crowns available for believers to receive in Heaven…

  1. The Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8)
  2. The Crown of Rejoicing (1 Thessalonioans 2:10,19)
  3. The Crown of Life (James 1:12)
  4. The Crown of Glory (1 Peter 5:1-4)
  5. The Crown of Eternity (1 Corinthians 9:25)

REVELATION 4:10-11 NIV
…the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, 11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”


5. “Twinkling of an eye…”

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51—53 NIV
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

6. “Meet the Lord in the air…”

1 THESSALONIANS 4:15-18 NLT
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.

7. “Trumpet” “Taken”

MATTHEW 24:39-42 NIV
That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

8. “He who restrains is taken out of the way…”

2 THESSALONIANS 2:6-8 NLT
And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes. 7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back is taken out of the way. 8 Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming.

TITUS 3:5 NIV
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit…

9. The Judgement Seat of Christ

2 CORITHIANS 5:9-10 NIV
Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:9 NLT
For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.


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