Revelation 14
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the Book of Revelation we are in chapter 14 today so you can follow along on the blue Bible it's on page 599 and the blue Bibles it's at the back of the Bible but we are continuing to walk through this uh bit by bit we're in chapter 14 today uh Moses and the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy uh which is a second reading of the law before the people people of.
God go into the promised land in Chapter 30 he presents two very clear options to the people of God he says you can choose life and good or you can choose death and evil and in life and good is abiding by The Commandments the teaching of the law to live in Covenant relationship with their Covenant God by not worshiping the idols of the land that they're about to inherit from God so you can choose to worship God and God alone and you will have goodness or you can choose to reject.
God and chase after lesser things you can chase After idols and you will get death and you will get evil and that Clear Choice that's given to the people of God is foreshadowing of the rest of the history of Israel if you read the history of Israel things are good when they are worshiping God and God alone when they stray after other idols and they worship idols in the place of God it goes poorly for them but there's a clear choice between good and evil between worshiping.
God and rejecting him for idols and that choice is pulled throughout the whole rest of the Bible all the way into the Book of Revelation and this chapter that we're going to be into today so as we read chapter 14 we're going to see this very clear choice has two very different ends and the reality of Revelation 14 should be impressed Upon Our Hearts because it's the same choice we have today so I'm going to pray for us then we're going to walk through this together uh heavenly.
Father I pray that you would open our hearts to receive your word that we might have ears to hear and not walk away unchanged but by the power of your spirit through your word may you mold us and shape us into a people that Choose Wisely in Jesus name amen all right so pick up in verse one it says then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads all right.
So that's packed with a few different images and as long as we've been in this book uh and all the different things we've seen we got to do some recap from time to time back in the day the only option you had for watching a television show was waiting a week like you just couldn't hit next you waited a week and a lot of things happened during that week and by the time you got back to your favorite TV show if you want to.
See Jack Bower do his thing in the next hour you needed to know what happened the last hour because a lot happened that last hour and we got to do that a little bit with this book because it's just at times it's just packed with imagery and it's like we actually already encountered the 144,000 we we saw this back in chapter 7 uh and I'm not going to recount everything I'm just going to give you the quick recap of what we talked about.
When this number 144,000 came up Chad and I uh both read this as symbolic uh uh imagery of the Church the 144,000 is the picture of the entire Church over Church history the collective people of God when you break down that number 144,000 it is uh 12 * 12 * 1,000 so 12 in the Bible is a very symbolic number in the Old Testament it's the 12 tribes of Israel and all of the 12 imagery that came with that 12 Stones uh 12 bull sacrifices.
But also when you get into the New Testament you have the 12 disciples uh and their full number isn't complete when Judas betrays Jesus and meets his end when they have the 12 apostles they have to actually fill his slot so not everyone's accounted for until they have a 12th so 12th is this idea of fullness throughout the Bible of completeness of everyone being accounted for and as we talked about on uh that given week uh that this is the Church symbolic again like we like we've said throughout the Book of Revelation very debated people have different takes people in our own Church have different takes on this.
But the way that we preach this is this is the collective Church so this imagery then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb Jesus and with him 144,000 that's the Church who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads now if you remember from last week we saw the very last verse of last week in Chapter 13 was a different mark it was the mark of the beast it was the number 666 and Chad spent some time walking through what that is and a lot of the different takes in Church history of what that was viewed uh to be.
So I don't want to also have to go through all of that again but I'll just summarize that the mark of the beast the number 666 is bad you you don't want to be marked by the Beast you want to be marked by the father you want to be marked by the father and not uh the evil one so that you got two choices there you could be marked by the father belong to the 144,000 or you can be marked by the Beast and belong really to the kingdoms of this world there is no middle ground here you you're picking a jersey.
Okay this is not you know House Divided where you've got really classy Garnet like stitched in with really tacky orange you choose a side here that's it's one of the other okay and that's what's being presented here you can belong to the 144,000 you can be marked by the father or you can belong to as we're going to see the kingdoms of this world be marked by the Beast so picks up that language of 144,000 and then in verse two it says and I Heard a Voice from heaven like the Roar of many Waters like the sound of thunder the voice I heard was like the sound of harpus playing on their Harps and they.
Were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth and I just a theme that I did not expect in this book it's a sub theme is uh is singing like you just see it all over this book the song we just sang comes out of Revelation chapter um four and five and it's just there's just singing and I just love this that the people of.
God singing worshiping God and it just even has this language of it's a no one could learn the song except the 144,000 there's this special song that we get to sing uh years ago I was I was waiting in line to get into a show to see a band that I liked it was a band called uh Switchfoot and they uh are a band they're not really a Christian music artist but they are Christians and their music if you listen to it you can actually pick up some of the themes that they're U that they're writing about.
But I was in line and there's a guy in front of me and and he was talking to his buddy and he said yeah I think this band like I heard that they're like a Christian band and the other guy was like no dare you to move which was like their big song of the time he's like it's not a Christian song at all and I just listened to that I was like I know that song and that song is very much about salvation I had ears to hear it.
Because I I Bel at that point I belong I just became a Christian I belong to Christ I could pick it up and listen to it and that's just there's something about the people of God know this song they they worship and delight in God I love this picture that we see throughout this book and then it continues in verse four it is these who have not been defiled who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins it is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes these have been redeemed from mankind as.
First fruits for God and the lamb and in their mouth no lie was found for they are blameless and the image we get here is the language of Purity and the language of Purity here is about faithfulness to God and God Alone this is the language that really flows throughout the prophets in the Old Testament into this book right here of faithfulness to the one true God not spiritual adultery by Chasing After idols but faithfulness to the one true God this is the Church that.
God has gathered and saved and redeemed and set apart so this is who you can belong to if you choose Christ and to be marked by the father then we get three different messages from three different angels and we're going to pick up with the first angel in chap in verse six then I saw another Angel flying directly overhead with an eternal Gospel to Proclaim to those who dwell on Earth to Every Nation every tribe and language and people and he said with a loud voice fear.
God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made Heaven and Earth the Sea and the Springs of water so this first Angel comes and proclaims the Gospel over all the Earth every tribe it's a picture of the Gospel going forward to every tribe Every Nation every tongue every people before Christ comes back every tribe Every Nation every tongue every people is going to hear the Gospel that the new Heavens the new Earth it will be every tribe Every Nation every people every tongue it's a picture of this and it proclaims the Gospel the summary of The Gospel here is fear.
God and give him glory fear God give him glory worship Him and th this is this is the hope of the Gospel it it's not just that we love God and we do we love God because he loved us so much that he gave up his son for us and his son was crushed for our sins that we might have life with him and have our sin paid for it's that also God is powerful he's fearful I mean if you ever been in a storm where you didn't have shelter and just felt exposed at the power power of lightning and crashing Thunder that's a small tiny glimpse of the power and the glory of.
God that's we should fear Him and and it poses really the question why and the answer here is because the hour of the final judgment has come the hour of the final judgment is near so fear Him worship Him oh you Saints worship Him this is the God who's worthy of worship second Angel comes along verse 8 another Angel a second followed saying Fallen Fallen is Babylon the great she who made all nations drink the wine of The Passion of her sexual immorality.
So Babylon if you read the Old Testament what you're going to see uh is this nation that is great and as powerful that God raises up to ultimately bring judgment upon his people for rejecting him for Idols so Babylon led by uh King Nebuchadnezzar comes into Jerusalem destroys the temple completely and takes the people as captives and brings them into Babylon and they live as captives for 70 years and readers of the Bible these people who are receiving these letters are hearing this and they they they know the story of Babylon Babylon is an ruthless powerful Empire that enforced power upon the people and also it's a an Empire that enforced its idolatry upon the.
People you this this great Babylon language is directly out of Nebuchadnezzar's mouth at one point if you read the book of Daniel you'll see Nebuchadnezzar boasting about his great Empire this great Babylon and if you also read the book of Daniel you'll see that that uh at one point he sets up an idol and he forces all the people including the Jews to worship and bow down to the idols to the idol that he set up and Shadrach Meshach and abedo decide no we will worship the one true.
God we will not bow down and then you read the rest of the story they're thrown into the fiery furnace God Saves them but Babylon for the reader for the hearer of this draws your mind to an Empire that is both powerful ful with its sword with its economic power that all the nations had to uh serve and also its idolatry and that's the language here the the language of passion of infidelity it's not uh literally sexual sin though that would be included in the idol worship the primary picture here is the language of Old Testament prophets it is Fidelity to the one true.
God and this Babylon with its power and its influence uence and its sword and its economy that have forced upon the Nations also this idol worship so those are the two kind of things where Babylon sticks out now throughout Church history Babylon in the Book of Revelation uh was seen as this uh great power and when you think about from the context of the hearers of this letter remember chapters 2 and three of The Book of Revelation these seven churches that were reive this letter.
When they hear Babylon undoubtedly what they are hearing is Rome that Babylon is an example ultimately of what Rome is because Rome embodied all of the same problems that Babylon did it was a powerful dominant Empire they controlled all the land for miles it was a dominant Empire that economically controlled uh every rule every every everyone that it ruled over it was a very like Babylon very rich culture it was prosperous uh it was uh consumeristic that was built into uh the economy of Rome.
So much so that um there's a u in Rome today there's a there's a Hill Called Mount tachio and and that Hill actually is an artificial Hill it's not real dirt it's actually made made of pots Pottery over time because what they did back in the day is they were so prosperous at their time they could take pots of oil used the oil and instead of like everyone else was doing reused that pot they just threw it on the hill so they just collected over time that's how rich they were you couldn't do that back.
Then they didn't have that kind of wealth but they did and they they were a a a a powerful economy that also infused idol worship that's what we saw when you read chapters 2 and 3 you saw that if you wanted to participate in those local city economies if you wanted to participate and what it meant to be a full Roman citizen you need to go to the temple and commit um idolatry which would include sexual immorality but you you see this this picture that they Infuse sexual sin at the service of their Idols you saw.
If if you read Roman history you'll see some of the Corrupt Practices they did they they practiced widespread in fantasy where if you had a baby that was born with defects or was born with the wrong uh gender if you didn't want that gender or if it was uh born out of wedlock say ah no they would go and they would set those babies out in the cold and expose them uh for death the Christians were known at the time for being the people that would come in and scoop those babies up I you go on the list I mean this the Roman culture was uh widely Pagan and lost and these hearers would be.
Hearing Babylon be thinking oh I know exactly what he's talking about he's talking about Rome that one day Rome is going to Fall Fallen Fallen is Rome the great now as we read this and as the rest of Church history reads this we see that yes Rome certainly is a great example of Babylon but it's not the only one that over time you know Rome Falls over time this is a picture of all the kingdoms on the earth that do this they both have great power and force that power upon the people and also lure people and force people into the worship of idols and what we've seen kind of in this book that's specifically.
Here that this is moving towards one day a great Empire that will do just this that just before Jesus returns there will be a Babylon type Empire that is so powerful that enforces it power upon the people and also lures people into worship of idolatry so this is a foreshadowing of what's going to happen when we're going to about later in the Book of Revelation so it's picturesque of all the kingdoms that do this but also one day there will be a kingdom that does this that embodies.
So much of Babylon so much of Rome and that is coming and the the the choice here is that you can belong to the 144,000 you can belong to the Church you can belong to the Church of Jesus Christ and be marked by the father or you can belong to Babylon you can be marked by the beast but you cannot have it both ways as the second Angel comes in third Angel verse 9 and another Angel a third followed them saying with a loud voice.
If anyone worships the Beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand he also will drink the wine of God's Wrath again if you align yourself this what chap was getting out last week if you align yourself so much with this Kingdom of this Earth if you do this hear the language of judgment he will also drink the wine of God's Wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger and he 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 these worshippers of the Beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name and if you align yourself with the kingdom of this Earth this picture of judgment is what awaits if you bear the mark of the beast this is the picture of judgment and the image is I it's heavy it says you will drink the wine of God's Wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger tormented with fire and sulfur and the presence of Holy Angels in the lamb the smoke of their torment has no end I mean this is fierce imagery of the wrath of.
God poured out on those who reject him and when we encounter language like this if we're honest language about hell language about this eternal suffering the wrath of God it's uncomfortable and there's an instinct that just says can we just move on from this but burying our head in the sand and not embracing the language of what the Bible talks about here is foolish nness because these Vivid terrifying pictures of an ending wrath on those who are marked by the beast on those who align themselves with the kingdom of this world with those who align themselves with Babylon over the kingdom of.
God is a reality which should make every reader in every age of Church history who comes across the Book of Revelation look at this letter and go what what kingdom do I belong to every person that's ever lived under a king or a prime minister or a president should ask themselves am I aligning myself with this kingdom is this Kingdom that I'm is this is my kingdom like babyon and I think it would be foolish for us to read this and start thinking is it China is it the New China Russia Iran superpower can it it would be foolish.
For us to outwardly just assume that it's going to be something like that and not actually do the humble reflective work and ask what are the similarities between Babylon and our country now listen I feel like I live Between Two Worlds because actually I love our country when Fourth of July hits I'm game like I just Toby ke on repeat I go hard I just because I do I do very much I do love the the nation that I live in I think my love.
For the nation I live in sometimes blinds me to the reality of the similarities between our own country and Babylon our own country and Rome because there are a lot of similarities we like the Romans have dominated the world old economy for 80 years since World War II I mean it's us the dollar and and we're the ones that are in control largely some similarities some parallels there that's something we preach about all the time the idol of the American dream we hit this over and over again.
Because it's something that we so easily are it's so normalized in our culture that you would just worship the idol of the American dream and go hard and serve that and make every choice in line with leveling up and being comfortable in this culture and it's very similar to how Rome was I mean goodness the the greed and materialism is W so woven so much in the fabric of our culture that in the very way that we culturally celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas is.
So stained by it so we talk about a gift series every year we lose our dagam MS every year around gifts around around Christmas because we're so bought into consumerism and and and and it's I mean goodness y'all they had Mount tachio which was some pots we have landfills for days all over that are filled with things you bought six months ago and we think that's normal and in the age of over time it's not normal compared it's not it's not and we we buy into this we like the Romans worship pleasure and we have a celebration and almost Evangelistic Joy of all forms of sexual sin we like the Romans have our own version.
Of child sacrifice on the altar of prosperity and having the choice to preserve your future and your ability to have sexual exploration that you want our abortion is very similar to their child in fanton and I I you can make parallel after parallel after parallel after parallel between us and Babylon our country is fallen and is Earthly just like every Kingdom that has ever existed and I would rather live in this Fallen Kingdom than anywhere else CU I so appreciate freedom of religion I.
So appreciate freedom of speech that allows me to preach and proclaim the Gospel without retribution I so appreciate the ability and the rich history of this country and churches that have flourished and proclaiming the Gospel and sending missionaries all across the world but thankfulness for living here does not mean that I align my primary Allegiance here Not For a Moment thankfulness for for for being born chosen by God to live here geographically does not mean I line myself with a red white and blue over King.
Jesus Not For a Moment because the enemy of this world the devil pulls the strings here in this country just like he pulls the strings in every country that has ever existed the prince the power of the air has power of the principalities he has power over every Kingdom he is at work from Rome all the way to here and blind to that reality is foolishness because here is my fear my fear is is that if we are so blind to this reality.
If we just blindly go along with all the cultural norms because we think we're great and we're awesome we will miss we'll miss what's truly at stake my fear is that there's so many self- professing Christians who especially in election Seasons like this put their hope in the future of this country so much that if one day a leader comes along and demands they participate and whatever that Mark is going to be what the mark of the beast is going to be that Christians that are undiscerning or or self-proclaimed Christians that are undiscerning are just going to go along with whatever that is and will have eternal regrets.
For doing so now more than ever we need to fear God and his wrath and accept the picture that is being painted for us of what is going to happen so we might not blindly follow anyone or anything we might put our allegiance to Christ and Christ alone because if you are not careful you will become a citizen of Babylon one day and you will have eternal regrets for doing so now that's a sharp warning just like we've seen throughout this book it's t it's filled with sharp warnings.
But buried in that sharp warning is actually an encouragement It's actually an encouragement for those who align themselves with the kingdom of God those who are being persecuted for their faith those who are being ostracized and set outside the cultural norms because of their faith this is actually an encouragement to endure and that's where this goes in verse 12 it says in verse 12 here is a call for the endurance of the Saints those who keep the Commandments of God and their faith in.
Jesus and I Heard a Voice from Heaven saying write this blessed are the Dead who die in the Lord from now on blessed indeed says the spirit that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them this is meant to if you live in a Babylon likee land if you're being persecuted if you're feeling any form of of heat for aligning Your Allegiance with Christ in a way that makes you look different this is an encouragement for you to endure.
Because one day you will have something greater one day you will be somewhere greater if you endure if you don't fold if you hold out if you cling to Jesus if you're marked by the father and then you don't accept the mark of the beast that we're holding out for something greater years ago I was in Cape Town South Africa and I got to go to Robin Island which is the uh an island off the coast of uh Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was held.
For 18 years of his 27e imprisonment and I got to go visit and we walked through the the prison uh that he was in that those political prisoners were in we went to the Limestone mines where we got to we where they were forced to mine uh work in these mindes so much so that Nelson Mandela's sight was his his tear ducts were permanently damaged uh from the work that they did day and day out there now during his imprisonment they told Mandela they said you can go free.
If you actually just recant your political activism against the apartheid government which at that time was a racially segregated government that black South Africans couldn not participate in the government like white South Africans he said if you just if if you just recant your political teachings if you recant your activism you go free you don't have to be in the prison anymore you don't have to work in the minds anymore just give up and he didn't because he was working for a better reality.
For South Africans he was working for a free South Africa where everyone was equal that so he rejected that false idea of freedom because he was holding out for a better version of Freedom a better reality and he persevered and we as Christians have a so much better hope that awaits us our hope is so much greater the new Heavens the new Earth the 144,000 the Church of Jesus Christ worshiping the Lord but we have something so much greater so much more powerful.
So much more wonderful it is worth our endurance it is worth our perseverance it is worth rejecting the the calls of our present cultural moment to fold to accept morality that is not okay to reject the Gospel no we should endure that this this this is a shot in the veins for us to see there is a day coming that is ultimately better there's an eternity that is coming that is ultimately better therefore we should endure because one day before the new Heavens is the new Earth and everything we're going to Delight in.
When we get to Revelation 20 21 and 22 there is a day coming where there's going to be two harvests and that's the last thing we see in chapter 14 that we should endure because Harvest is coming let's look at the first harvest verse 14 then I looked and behold a white cloud and seated on the cloud one like a son of man with a Golden Crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand and another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud put in your sickle and reap.
For the hour to reap Has Come For The Harvest of the earth is fully ripe so he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the Earth and the Earth was reaped that is the first harvest and the first harvest is Christians this is the language of Jesus the son of man coming on the clowns Daniel 7 language this is the language of Jesus harvesting the people of God this is Matthew 13 the parable of the wheat and the tears the wheat and the weeds the wheat is the people of.
God and Jesus is coming and he will gather his people once is fully ripe once every tribe Every Nation every tongue has heard the Gospel and there's he's going to gather his people for they'll be spared the final judgment which is the second harvest let's look at the Second Harvest verse 17 this we'll close with today then another angel came out of the temple in heaven and he too had a sharp sickle and another angel came out from the altar the angel who had had authority over fire and he called the loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle put in your sickle and gather the Clusters from the vine of the Earth.
For its grapes are ripe so the angel swung his sickle across the Earth and gathered the grape Harvest of the earth threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God and the wine press was trotted outside the City and blood flowed from The Wine Press as high as a horse's Bridal for Stadium the Second Harvest is a harvest for those who have rejected Christ For Those Who Bore the mark of the beast for those who align themselves more the kingdom of this world than the Kingdom of Heaven and the language of this judgment is graphic and violent the language of Christ judging the Earth it's grapes red grapes that are trampled in.
A trotten pressed in a wine press and the juice is Flowing out and you know what that imagery is that is the imagery of the Nations who have rejected Christ the peoples who have rejected Christ being crushed and their own blood so high that it flows for six 1600 stadia that's 200 miles at the height of a horse's Bridal that's about this High a river flowing for 200 miles like that it is intense Judgment of a real reality because a harvest is coming one where the Saints of.
Jesus Christ will be gathered and one where judgment is coming and that judgment will involve blood and the choice for us is witch blood you can stand in your own blood you can align yourself with the kingdom of this present world you can enjoy everything this culture has to offer you can say I want a little bit of Jesus but I actually want the world as well you can try to earn your way to God on your own good works you can live a life that is not surrendered to the one true king.
Jesus and one day you will stand in your own blood and your own judgment but the good news of the Gospel is you don't have to because God the Father loves you so much that he sent Christ to have his blood spilled for you because the choice that you have is Christ that's what's offered to you that you can choose Jesus that you can choose to have your sin placed upon the lamb who was slain for you you can choose to have his blood speak.
For you to have your sin covered but that's the choice that we have it is God in Christ or it is this world it is good or it is evil and our plea throughout this Series has been please choose Jesus please choose the lamb do not have eternal regret as you face the Judgment of Christ for living a life that was not surrendered to the one true king choose Jesus Brian's going to come up he's going to start to play for us as we get ready to take the Lord's supper and my hope is you would take a moment to let that Choice bear upon your soul there are some of you here that have.
Been around you've been thinking about the idea of Christ and Christianity been thinking about the idea of of throwing your life before Christ and giving yourself to him or maybe for the first time God is making it clear that you've not done that and the choice is yours right now don't come to the table come to the lamb Jesus blood was shed so that you might have life in him for eternity so that you might belong to the 144,000 to the whole full Church of.
Jesus Christ so you might Worship in the new heavens and the new Earth for eternity that offers for you but you have to come you have to confess your sin you have to confess your belief and the and the lamb who was slain for you and the lamb who walked out of the Tomb and conquered death for you that offer is for you but you have to take it and believe if you are a Christ Chris the reality for us is that we have both loved.
Jesus and we have loved this world we have so put our hope in this culture in ways we should not have and you have the moment right now to reflect and to repent that we can sit in a moment and recount the ways in which we've trusted in ourselves we've loved this culture we've loved this present age we've loved the consumerism and all the things of this world and we we get to not shamefully but joyfully come to the table and we get to take the bread and dip it in the juice and we get to.
Look at the the grape of the grape as a picture of both Jesus thank you for dying for me and thank you for not one day pressing me in judgment in judgment that I deserve so you get to joyfully solemnly come to the table reminded of your sin reminded of your savior and reminded because of nothing you have done but only because what Christ has done you will be spared judgment the choice is ours.