Revelation 14:14–20 - Removal Before Renewal

Often, when new construction is done, it’s preceded by the removal of old structures. You can find a lot of this going on around Florence right now. Buildings being demolished, land being cleared, old pavement being broken up. Someone has a vision and a plan for something different and, in their opinion, better.

This is not entirely unlike God’s plans for the world He created long ago. Without a doubt, our world needs renovation that only the triune God can accomplish. God has given a role to humans in His plans. We are unique in His created order. He made us and commands us to subdue the earth and have a degree of dominion over it.

But the earth doesn’t belong to us; it never has. In fact, we don’t even belong to us. Psalm 24 says, “The earth is the LORD’s and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell therein.” In other words, you and all you have belongs to God.

Have you ever seen demolition or land clearing going on and wondered, “What are they going to build? What are their plans?” What is God’s plan for all that belongs to Him?

The apostle Peter describes the plan in 2 Peter 3. He says that according to God’s “promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” A new universe. After the return of Christ, God’s people will live not in heaven, but on a new earth. Everything has been touched and contaminated by sin, but God has a plan for the removal of sin and the restoration of righteousness. It’s a renewal. Both the Old and New Testaments state this.

But before God renews the Earth, He will do two things. These final verses of Revelation 14 symbolically describe them. Notice the outline in your WG. Before God makes all things new, Christ will gather His elect to eternal life and gather His enemies to eternal death. Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and He will deal justly with both groups. A great renewal will follow, and the result will be much better than what we see and know now. So let’s look at these together.

In the middle of Revelation 14, John sees angels warning people everywhere to repent. The warnings go out to all the whole earth throughout the last days. Now, in these verses, John sees a vision of the Last Day. John’s words are rooted in both OT prophecy and the words of Christ during His earthly ministry. As with the rest of Revelation, the Bible itself is our source for interpretation.

John sees “one like a son of man” seated on “a white cloud.” This is Jesus Christ. Daniel 7 describes Christ in this way, and Jesus called Himself “the Son of Man.” He has “a golden crown” on His head. This is a victor’s wreath, but it’s golden. It’s a sign that the Son has won.

And He has “a sharp sickle in his hand.” A sickle is a metal blade for reaping a crop. Then another angel says, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”

Now, why would an angel be giving instructions to Christ? This angel is simply bringing the message from God the Father to God the Son. The last days (in which we now live) are filled with warnings – but here, the warnings are done. It’s harvest time. And in verse 16 that harvest is reaped. The crop is gathered.

Matthew 9 in the NT says that as Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, He taught, and proclaimed the gospel, and performed healings, and “when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Christ was moved with love and pity as He saw people in their trouble. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Jesus was referring to all who would yet believe in Him. That’s what he meant by “harvest.”

That’s what “harvest” still means to us today. That harvest is still plentiful. The need is great and the work isn’t done. This is why we pray and we proclaim Christ.

Do you notice that as you shop and go out to eat, it seems like there’s a shortage of workers? I’ve spoken to many business owners over the years, and they all have one thing in common: they struggle to find and to keep good personnel. Good workers are hard to find.

Work for the kingdom of God is not different. Good workers can be hard to find. Why would that be? Well, just looking at the church, we’re very busy with our lives. We have careers and families and activities. We have property to manage. We want to travel. We’re making memories with family and friends. We want to enjoy various experiences. We want to make the most of our lives. Also, dealing with people can be a challenge. Often, we would rather just get away from them, especially if they believe differently than we do. And perhaps more than ever in our lives, it seems that people are against Christ and the gospel.

Is the harvest no longer plentiful? No, it’s still very plentiful. But those who will pray fervently, and proclaim Christ boldly with their words and lives, and those who will support that work and make sacrifices for the work are few in number. There’s just so many other things to do.

Where is God calling you to proclaim Christ? You should pray and ask God to show you. Where and when is God inviting you to more fervent prayer? This time in which we live is very important, and it’s relatively short, actually. None of us knows when our time will be up. The harvest is plentiful.

But you should understand that the harvest described here in Revelation 14 is different. When Christ reaps this harvest, there will be no more preaching the gospel. There is no more prayer; no more ministry being done. What’s happening here is referred to by Jesus in both the gospels of Matthew and Luke. He describes some scenarios at the time of His return. He says,

“Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.”

“Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.”

“There will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.”

Jesus said that this is how it was in the days of Noah. At that time, God judged the people of Earth for their wickedness, and by His grace He preserved Noah and Noah’s family. One aspect of those days was unawareness. Jesus says that the people “were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.”

But another aspect of those days was removal. Before God judged the wicked, He removed His people from harm’s way. That’s what John sees here in Revelation 14. It’s a pattern that we see in the Bible. The days of Noah aren’t the only example. God did this at Sodom and Gomorrah as well. Before He poured out His wrath on a wicked place and the wicked people there, He moved His covenant people to safety.

But before the renewal of the Earth, Christ will graciously remove the true church. This is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. However hard-to-imagine it might be for you, the action will be as easy for God as was the creation of the universe. It will be as natural as the speaking of all things into existence by His powerful, divine Word. Christ will gather His elect to eternal life.

But after that, the removal still won’t be complete. Look at this next section.

Verse 17 brings another angel into view, who also has a sickle for harvesting. And then yet another angel “who has authority over the fire.” What is this altar and fire? It’s an OT reference to the fire on the altar that would consume a sacrifice in worship. In ancient Israel, the fire symbolized the judgment of God. The people were to trust in God’s grace – His wrath for sins poured on the lamb instead of them. This angel has authority over the judgment of God for sins.

When the angel gives the go-ahead, the final judgment begins. But there is no more sacrifice to absorb God’s wrath against sin. There’s no substitute. Instead, the angel says, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” God says something very similar to the OT prophet Joel. In Joel 3, God says, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.”

That is the prophecy of judgment on the nations. And that’s exactly what it’s being depicted here in Revelation 14. In fact, John says as much in the next verse. He writes that the angel commanded that those who remain after Christ gathers His elect are to be thrown “into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”  

The wine press was a space like a large hole in which grapes were put. The grapes would be crushed underfoot, and the juice would flow down to a lower place. Those who crushed the grapes would get the juice on them.

Repeatedly in Scripture, Christ is described as One who crushes His enemies beneath His feet. In Genesis 3, God tells the serpent that the offspring of the woman “shall bruise your head.” We understand that to be our first glimpse of the gospel. Christ crushing Satan. Psalm 110, the Father says to the Son, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” In Romans 16, Paul writes “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” – a reference to the victory Christians have in and with Christ. And perhaps the most vivid reference is in Isaiah 63, where God says, “Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?” “I have trodden the winepress alone…I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel.”

The wine press is a symbol of God’s wrath against His enemies.

Notice verse [20] “And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.” As usual, these are symbolic numbers. 1600 stadia would be about 184 miles - a huge area, farther than the eye could see. Using the key biblical numbers of 4 and 10, there are multiple ways to get the number 1600. 4 symbolizes the whole earth (four corners); 10 symbolizes completion. Scholars see this as further proof that God’s judgment is worldwide and exhaustive.

All those who are not saved by faith and gathered by Christ to eternal life must endure this. And John gets even more vivid, stating that what he sees coming from the wine press isn’t juice, but blood. And the blood flowed “as high as a horse’s bridle.” It’s a sea of blood, deep and wide, so expansive that you can’t see from one side to the other.

Christ will remove His people so that we won’t be caught up in that grotesque scene. We learned in the previous verses of Revelation 14 that hell is everlasting. In verses 10 and 11, the third angel says, “the wine of God’s wrath” would be “poured full strength into the cup of his anger” and those without Christ “will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night.”

Before He makes the world new, Christ will gather His enemies to eternal death.

I said it earlier, but let me say it again: Where is God calling you to proclaim Christ? Where and when is God inviting you to more fervent prayer? This time in which we live is very important, and it’s relatively short, actually. None of us knows when our time will be up. The harvest is plentiful. This imagery is shocking, and it’s obviously supposed to be. Hebrews 10 in the NT says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

But as we go to the Lord’s Table this morning, we find a different picture of blood that flowed. We have a different view of payment for sins. It’s a payment made by One who was crushed for the sins of His people. There’s an old song that says,

“There is a fountain filled with blood / Drawn from Immanuel’s veins
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood / Lose all their guilty stains.”

If you do not trust in the blood of Jesus, your own blood will be demanded. And an infinite ocean of it could not pay for sins. But by one sacrifice, Jesus paid it all. You cannot make yourself clean before a holy God, but Christ the Lord can make you clean. This is the comfort and hope of the Christian. Christ is enough. I heard author and speaker Rosaria Butterfield say earlier this week that in Christ, we can hate our sin without hating ourselves. We can repent and rest in Jesus.

Will you trust in Him today? God will one day remove sin and renew the earth. May the judgment you deserve fall on Christ and not on you.

Let’s bow in prayer.