After These Things (μετὰ ταῦτα)

“After these things” gives us an important anchor in Scripture concerning the timing of events. It is more important during prophecy, but also in other areas we are carried along within the timeline of events by the use of “after these things”.

The first “after these things” we find is with Jesus showing signs and gathering His disciples. After Jesus heals a paralyzed man He found Levi, a tax collector, and says to Him “Follow Me” (Luke 5:23). So we see Christ began showing signs to the Jews before gathering all His disciples.

Christ warning His disciples concerning the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. They are not to fear those who can kill the body but after these things has no authority, Luke 12:4.

While instructing the apostles, Jesus uses an example of a slave and a master. When the slave is finished with his work, he is not treated in a special way by the master who only after these things eats himself; rather, the slave has simply done what was required (Luke 17:8).

As the Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem and seeing the money changers in the temple, drove them out. The Jews, seeing this, requested a sign from Jesus where He states tear down this temple and in three days I will raise it up. After these things Jesus and His disciples went into the land of Judea. John 3:22.

While in Cana of Galilee a royal official requested from Jesus to come and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus stated to the official that his son lives, and the official believed Him. This was the second sign Jesus did in Judea and after these things He went to Jerusalem to the pool called Bethesda and healed an ill man there (John 5:1). After these things, healing this man, Jesus found him in the temple and warned him not to sin again of worse things would happen (John 5:14).

It was after Jesus had given a witness concerning Who He is, because they wanted to kill Him for healing on the Sabbath and making Himself equal with God, having crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee that He feeds five thousand men who were listening to Him speak of the Kingdom of the Heavens, John 6:1.

After Jesus explains to the Jews that He is the bread of life, which they could not understand and many disciples left Him, while Jesus was walking in Galilee because they wanted to kill Him in Judea, His brothers try to goad Him into going to Judea because of the feast of Booths and show His works to His disciples, John 7:1.

While washing the disciples’ feet in the upper room Jesus tells Peter that what He is doing he is not going to understand, but will after these things, which is referring to His death for sin, burial, and resurrection, John 13:7.

After Jesus showed Himself to the disciples and even Thomas believed, He manifests Himself again to disciples Peter, Didymus, Nathanael and two others who had decided to go back to their fishing business an instructs Peter to feed His sheep, John 21:1.

In the first proclamation by Peter to the Jews after the resurrection of Christ, Peter reminds the Jews that God said they would be mistreated for four hundred years and after these things He would bring them out to serve Him, Acts 7:7.

Having come to Perga, Paul and his companions went to the synagogue where the leader asked Paul if he had any words of encouragement. Paul stands up and begins to go through the history of Israel and after the land had been distributed, He gave judges until Samuel the Prophet, Acts 13:20.

In response to Jews coming from Jerusalem teaching that you must be circumcised to be saved, Paul and his companions held a council with the apostles in Jerusalem to discuss this. After hearing of all the things God was doing among the Gentiles, James stood up and reminds them of what the Prophets said, that after these things Christ would return and setup the Tabernacle of David and the Gentiles who are called by His name would seek Him; therefore, circumcision should not be forced upon them, Acts 15:16.

After Paul had tried in Athens to use the philosophy of men to explain the resurrection and was mocked for it, he left Athens and went to Corinth. It is later in Corinth that we see the impact of this failure to Paul who stopped trying to use philosophy and just focused on the truth of Christ. Acts 17:34; 1 Corinthians 2:2.

While explaining the seven-day rest the Church saint has, Paul showed from the Old Testament that if the rest God was speaking of was given by Joshua, He would not have spoken of another rest after these things, Hebrews 4:7.

After prophesying concerning Christ, the Old Testament prophets sought to know what person and time the Spirit was referring to concerning the suffering and after these things glories of Christ, 1 Peter 1:11.

The remainder of the “after these things” occurrences are in the book of Revelation and give important anchors for events so we can understand when events are happening within the timing of the tribulation period.

We start out with John receiving a vision from Christ explaining what is going to happen and instructing him that after these things that he sees he is to write them down, Revelation 1:19.

After the time period of the Church on earth, for Christ had just revealed to John the seven periods of the Dispensation of Grace, John is pulled into heaven where he sees the Church glorified, Revelation 4:1. The use of “after these things” here gives us a time anchor that the Church is not ruling with Christ until the Dispensation of Grace is completed, at which time the Church is removed from the earth.

After the 144,000 Jews are selected to take the message of the Kingdom of the Heavens to the earth, we see the souls of the saints who were martyred by the religious system (Babylon the Great Harlot), Revelation 7:9.

After the first woe, in which demons are released from the abyss and torment the unsaved causing men to seek death but death flees them, the four angels bound in the great Euphrates are released, Revelation 9:12. This anchors their release late in the second half of the tribulation because they will gather the armies together for the great battle of Armageddon.

After seeing a sea of glass mixed with fire and those who were victorious over the beast and his image singing the song of Moses, John sees the seven angels with the seven strikes given bowls of wrath, Revelation 15:3. It is these seven strikes that will fill up the wrath of God, placing the timing of the events near the end of the tribulation.

After the seventh angel pours out his bowl upon the air, we see the destruction of Babylon the Harlot, Revelation 18:1. This is important to note because it places the destruction of Babylon at the end of the tribulation.

After the destruction of Babylon the Harlot, we see Heaven rejoice, Revelation 19:1, and the reign of Christ beginning.

At the end of the Tribulation period, Satan is going to be bound for a thousand years. After this time, he will be released for a season to finish the dispensations and bring and end to the wrath of God, Revelation 20:3.

“After these things”, is important to pay attention to because it helps put events in their proper order, such as Christ began preaching of the Kingdom of the Heavens, which is a specific gospel to the Jews and their Messiah, but after the signs and wonders that He did and their rejection, He began speaking of the Kingdom of God, which is related to salvation. It also helps in Revelation, which jumps around in time as the future of this world, the wicked, the unsaved, and the new world are explained and laid out so we can understand what is coming resulting in the reader being happy, not stressed and confused. For after these things righteousness will settle down and feel at ease, Satan will be judged and cast into a place where he will never deceive the nations again, the wicked will received just punishment for their works, and the righteous will live, for the one doing the will of God abides into the ages.