This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day four together of our look through Revelation chapter 16. As we were
walking through the judgments of God yesterday, we read a verse that may have
shocked you. It's one of those verses that doesn't seem like it belongs where
you're reading it.

We were reading along about the judgments of God and then all of a sudden in
verse 15 This verse, verse 15, has just dropped into this chapter on judgment.
Why? It's there to remind us of hope.

To remind us that judgment is not all there is. To remind us that Jesus is
coming again to set everything right. This is Jesus speaking in verse 15,
"Behold, I come like a thief.

" And John is recording what Jesus is saying. This description, "I come like a
thief," is one of the descriptions that Jesus gives of his second coming. In
fact, this is a good moment as we're walking through this to remind ourselves of
some of those descriptions that we see throughout the New Testament.

Jesus, as he says, "I'm coming again," he describes it sometimes, he says, "I'm
coming like a bridegroom. " Sometimes he says, "I'm coming, it'll be like the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. " One time he says, "It's like the flood of
Noah.

" And then he also says in his teaching that it's like a thief in the night.
Let's just walk through these. Jesus says, "I'm coming like a bridegroom.

" The weddings in Jesus' day were different than the weddings in our day. For
the bride, the arrival of the bridegroom was this anticipated event, but also a
surprising joy. She didn't know when the bridegroom would arrive at the house in
order for the wedding to begin.

She knew he was about to arrive, but she didn't know exactly when he'd arrive.
An experience that you and I have that something like that is waiting for a baby
to be born. The signs certainly tell us that the birth of the baby is getting
closer and closer and closer, yet we're often not sure exactly what day it'll
be.

That's like the bride waiting for her wedding or the parents waiting for her
child to be born. And you and I, in seeing that, need to realize that we want to
have this attitude of joyous anticipation as we wait for the return of Jesus
Christ. That's what's being talked about here.

Another time Jesus pictured his return as being like the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah. In Luke 17, 28-30, he says, "It was the same in the days of Lot.
People were eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and
building, but the day that Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from
heaven and destroyed them all.

For the evil people in Sodom, the destruction that came was the last thing that
they expected. They may have said that it came without warning, but the truth is
they ignored those warnings. " And Jesus reminds us of that here as he talks
about a thief in the night.

In another place, Jesus says that my coming will be like Noah's flood. In Luke
17, 26-27, when the Son of Man comes again, he says, "It will be as it was when
Noah lived. People were eating and drinking and marrying and giving their
children to be married until the day that Noah entered the boat.

Then the flood came and killed them all. " And here in Revelation 16, he gives
us this picture of the thief in the night. Jesus had talked about that in his
teaching.

In Matthew 24, 42-44, Jesus says, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know
what day your Lord will come. But understand this. If the owner of the house had
known what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch.

He would have not let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready,
because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. " All of
these pictures, the bridegroom, the destruction of Sodom, Noah's flood, the
thief in the night, they're all a picture of an unexpected arrival.

And the question in all of these pictures is, what are you doing as you wait? In
Revelation 16, Jesus says, "Blessed is he who stays awake and who stays clothed.
" If you're asleep when the thief comes, you're in danger.

If you're not clothed and you're chased into the street because of some danger,
you're embarrassed. You're ashamed. But if you follow the words of Jesus, then
you'll be awake to the presence of God, and you'll be clothed with the
righteousness of God.

And because of that, when Jesus comes again, you'll rejoice in the presence of
God and who he is. As you and I wait for the return of Jesus Christ, that's what
these verses are about. We are waiting for hope.

But depending on our personality, we wait in different ways. Picture it this
way. Let me just walk you through this for a few minutes with a picture.

Because this is a verse that allows us an opportunity to talk about the return
of Christ. Whether it's his return to rapture his church, whether it's his
return to put everything right in this world, this is a picture of what's going
to happen. And we are waiting.

And right now in this world, we don't see what's going to happen yet. And
sometimes we may doubt, is it going to happen? In your mind, picture this as
one, this whole world, as one big, huge airline terminal.

And we're all waiting together at one big, huge gate. And there's this news that
Jesus is coming again, that his plane is coming. You know, up on the board, it
doesn't say some city, it says Jesus.

And he's the one that's arriving at that gate. But he hasn't arrived yet. You
ever been in an airline terminal when the plane is coming but it's not there
yet?

And people have to wait for the plane to come. And maybe they have to wait
longer than they expected. The plane isn't coming exactly at the time they hoped
it would come.

If you've been in that situation, and many of us have, you've noticed how human
nature, human personality comes out. In the airline terminal of life, there's a
lot of people sitting here waiting. And you see different personalities come
out.

You see the pushers, you see the doubters, you see the players, you see the
users, you see the pushers. You've seen this in airline terminals. They're
always pushing for information.

They're right up there at the desk saying, "When's the plane going to be here?
I've got to know when the plane's going to be here. " They are demanding
information as if knowing the information is going to cause that plane to fly
faster.

You know people like this. Maybe you are a person like this. They are the
pushers.

In this airline terminal, there are also the doubters. They're sitting down in
defeat. The plane will never come.

Jesus will never come. The plane will never come. If it comes, there's going to
be something wrong with it.

We're going to have to get another plane. It's never going to be here. We know
people like that.

There are also people that I call the players. They're the people who say, "The
plane's late? Well, let's go down to the bar and play some cards.

As long as we're having to wait, we may as well have some fun. " There are a lot
of people in the world like that. There are also the users.

There are those who would turn the discomfort of others into an opportunity for
themselves. They're out there selling seat cushions for the wait. In this
airline terminal of life, there are also the sleepers.

They're over in a corner of the terminal somewhere. It's sacked out. They're
thinking, "The plane's never going to come, but if it does come, maybe I'll wake
up.

" Then there's another group of people. As you're waiting, as you're waiting for
hope, as you're waiting for that plane, there are the encouragers. There are the
people, as you wait for the plane, who say, "It's going to arrive.

I've been here before. I know we can trust this airline. It's going to arrive.

Just be patient. It's going to be okay. " When it comes to the second coming of
Jesus Christ, waiting for Him together, there are the encouragers.

They're telling everybody they see Jesus is on the way. We don't have an arrival
time yet, but He is on the way. This airline, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
airline, has never let me down.

I guarantee you the plane is on the way. Don't worry. Don't be afraid.

Be certain. Be sure. While we live in this world, in the great airline terminal
of life, I want to be an encourager.

I want you to be an encourager. It's easy to find a reason to doubt. It's easy
to use other people.

It's easy to focus on myself and try to get what I want out of life. I want to
be an encourager. We have this great hope in Jesus Christ.

Who could you encourage today with that hope? Who that already is a believer in
Christ that may be losing their hope needs to be reminded, "Hang on. God is
patient with you.

You be patient with Him. " Who that's not yet a believer, do you need to
encourage today and let them know, "I know this world is not all that it should
be, not all that you want. " That's because there is another world to come.

There is a place that you and I are going to spend eternity with Him in. Who do
you need to encourage today? Let's pray together.

Our Father, we thank You for encouraging us, encouraging us with the truth of
the hope that only You can give, the life that only You can give. Thank You,
Jesus, that You are coming again and help us. Help us to be awake, help us to be
clothed, help us to be aware.

But not only that, help us to encourage others to be awake, to be clothed, to be
aware. Help us to encourage hope in the lives of people we see today. Jesus,
You've given us hope.

You've said to us, "Don't be discouraged, don't be afraid. " Trust in God, trust
also in me. Help us to encourage someone with those words today.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, join us tomorrow. We're going to look
together at the all-important words that God says at the end of these judgments.