giv 2024 Week Three
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
If this is your first time with us want to welcome you my name is Isaac I'm one of the pastors here at mil City we're glad that you decided to join us this morning uh as Chad mentioned at the beginning in the announcements we are in what we call our give series um the every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas when uh the consumerism in our culture has taken it up three levels that we want to um not be conformed to this world.
But be transformed by the renewal of our mind and so we go to the Scriptures to see what does Jesus have to say about where we can find life even in the way that we approach our money and our stuff and so this morning as we start off what I want to do is I've got a couple quotes that I want to read from uh for you from some authors who have been reflecting on um our cultural moment and our approach what our money what our stuff is and seemingly what it has been doing to us.
And so this first quote it comes from an author named John Steinbeck this was found in a letter that he wrote he writes this a strange species we are we can stand anything God and nature throw at us except only plenty if I wanted to destroy a nation I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees miserable greedy and sick this next quote comes from Thomas Soul he was College economics professor he writes this the fact is is that the average person in the United States.
Today lives better than royalty did in past centuries kings and queens of past eras lived in smaller less comfortable homes without many of the conveniences that people today take for granted the average person in the United States has access to Modern Transportation Healthcare and technology that even the richest people of earliest centuries could not have imagined this final quote comes from a writer named Arthur Brooks he says this in many ways there has never been a better time to be alive fewer Among Us are poor fewer are hungry fewer children are dying and more men and women can read than ever before how strange.
Then to see such anger and great discontent in some of the world's richest nations in the United States Britain and across the European continent people report great une easiness about their own Futures that seems to border on hopelessness wow these are some startling quotes some startling thoughts when you begin to contemplate and realize that they're talking about the daytoday world that you and I live in that we have seemingly in this cultural moment built up such Prosperity but where has it gotten us have you not felt the anger have you not felt the discontent have you not felt the anxiety maybe you feel hopeless we need a different way to approach our money.
And so that's why we go to the Scriptures so a couple weeks ago Spencer taught on financial wisdom for eternity that we are forever creatures and so we want to approach our finances in light of such then we talked about financial wisdom for the future that we don't just live today there are days ahead and what we're going to do this morning is we're going to look at Financial wisdom for today that we do live in today so how do we approach our finances and our stuff in light of what the Scriptures teach.
So let me pray and then we will Dive In Father we thank you very much for your word in the way that it reveals who you are and what you're doing because left to ourselves we can't figure it out that we turn to silly things like money and trinkets and stuff to try to solve our problem but we need something bigger we need something better so would you reveal to us what that is this morning Jesus name amen so if this is where we are at.
If any amount of what these authors have reflected on written on is anything true then we need some kind of different approach to the way that we handle our money and our stuff in our everyday life and so let's turn to Luke 12 you can open your Bible and turn there we're going to start in verse 15 uh Spencer he preached on this two weeks ago and he was looking at it mainly from the perspective of Eternity we're going to go back through.
Look at this teaching of Jesus again and consider how does this apply to my everyday life so Luke 12 starting in verse 15 Jesus he's responding to a guy who shouted out from the crowd asking if he can solve some dispute between he and his brother and he says take care and be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions and he told them a parable saying the land of a rich man produced plentifully does that sound familiar and he thought to himself what shall I do.
For I have nowhere to store my crops and he said I will do this I will tear down my Barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul soul you have ample Goods laid up for many years relax eat drink be merry but God said to him fool this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared whose will they be so is the one who lays up treasure.
For himself and is not rich toward God so Jesus interjects into this man's question and he has this Punchy statement where he says be on guard against covetousness because life isn't found in the abundance of your possessions and then he tells this Parable uh to highlight this idea that there isn't life in all the stuff that we have and this idea of covetousness that Jesus is talking about here it's not anything new this wasn't the first time that this idea of covetousness has come up as a matter of fact this idea of covetousness this drive within us this inner desire to take what isn't ours and try to make it fulfill our deep inner longings.
It's been around since day one of sin right look back at Eve and the way that she took the fruit of the tree was it not born out of her seeing something that wasn't hers and she desired to have it well if we're honest Eve she had one tree that wasn't hers the rest of the garden was hers and Adams to tend to and take care of it was just one tree that she wasn't supposed to have that didn't belonged to her how many things have you scrolled past driven by walk down the aisle of watch some advertisement.
For that wasn't yours now I'm not making a one toone comparison between the fruit from the tree and the twinkie that's on the Walmart shelf no I'm making a onetoone comparison to that feeling that desire that began to swell up in Eve that is also within us and we are a thousand times more in a day inundated with things that are not ours that would pull our attention this is deep Heart level stuff Jesus is talking about real issues of belief on the line here and how easily do we just hit the buy.
Now with one click on Amazon when your friend comes walking in Rocking those new Nikes and you think oo those are shiny bright got to get me a pair of those how easy after uh your coworker comes walking in holding the latest iteration of the iPhone all of a sudden your phone's not good enough you got to reason 20 things long as the why it's the worst thing you've ever owned ever for those of you that know me you know I'm a I like tools I'm a tool guy I like to build things I like to uh fix things make things new and uh you got to have.
Well you don't have to have tools but tools are super handy when it comes to fixing things and uh uh if you're like me and you like tools maybe you found yourself watching some videos of some other guys that whether they be reviewing tools or maybe they're building a thing and inevitably if you're like that you'll come across some video and you'll see some tool that isn't in your toolbx and boy oh boy when that comes up you start to think wow that's a that's a cool tool and it's got you.
See that it's got that new design on there man that thing can you imagine what I could do with that I mean I'm not building a 10,000 ft house but if I were that tool would be great and then all of a sudden and me even just watching a simple video my heart is drawn trying to take a thing that's just a thing and trying to make it something that it's not because the tricky thing about it is that inherently there's nothing wrong with clicking the button on Amazon there's nothing inherently wrong with a pair of Nikes there's nothing inherently wrong with a new tool or a new phone.
So what's the problem the problem is us the problem is in my heart the way that I'm approaching all of this stuff we're we're so easily driven by making decisions out of covetousness it is our base mode of operation ation that we're so often not purchasing from a place of contentment but we actually believe we need this stuff let for a moment just to have a thought exercise I want you to ask yourself the question do I really need the stuff I buy.
So often I'm not talking about the groceries you have to buy so you can eat I'm not talking about the bills you have to pay you know what I'm talking about do you need the stuff you buy so often and if you answer no then what I would argue is that there's a follow-up question that you also must ask why do I buy this stuff I don't need so often and if you come to the conclusion well it's because I want to I would say you haven't gone deep enough search deeper in your heart ask the spirit of.
God to reveal your heart to you and what I would venture to guess is that what you will begin to find at the core is what Jesus calls covetousness what you will find in the depths of your heart what we so often find in the depths of our heart is that we're trying to find life in the abundance of our possessions but Jesus said it doesn't work that way and he doesn't stop there in his teaching he continues on and this honest reflection of our hearts and what we truly need.
So let's pick back up in verse 22 and he said to his disciples therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life what you will eat nor about your body what you will put on for life is more than food and the body more than clothing so Jesus he comes in and he gives a command that's directly born out of what he's just said that's what the therefor is is that he's tying what he has just said with what he is about to say.
So this idea that life doesn't come from the abundance of possessions is informing this command that he's giving of do not be anxious now if you're in the room this morning and you struggle with anxiety especially when it comes to your finances when you think about your bills then you might be thinking thanks I hadn't thought about that and you feel like I don't have control over my anxiety it's ruling over me it's the one in the driver seat Well Jesus he gives the command he only gives commands that are good that are lovely and true and he's going to help us out here he's going to start to give us reasons why this command.
Is good good and I think through it we'll begin to see and learn that maybe we have a little bit more say over this anxiousness in our hearts than we think we do Jesus continues on he says consider the Ravens they neither sow nor reap they have neither Storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them so Jesus he's talking to this crowd I'm sure there are many among in the crowd that are maybe a little bit worried about what money looks like things are tight Maybe some of them are worried about what food is going to be at the table that night.
Jesus says don't be anxious have you thought about birds and I think that can be our response we laugh what what are you do what are you talking about Jesus but let's be honest here Jesus he's a wise guy so let's consider what he has to say have you considered the birds have you thought about that little chicky that's perched on the tree branch outside your kitchen window as you do the dishes when that Cardinal comes and lands on the rose bush right outside your living room as you sit down have you contemplated that bird it's life do you know that it doesn't work it makes no paycheck do you know that it doesn't have.
A savings account for some bird emergency that might come up do you know that there's no health insurance for when that little Bird's Wing breaks and yet what does Jesus say God feeds them God cares so much for that little bird that you just saw and contemplated that as it's fluttering about not even worrying about working and toiling trying to get a paycheck month to month God feeds them he cares for the birds now get this Jesus says of how much more value are you than the birds this is.
So simple yet it's so profound we know it in our heads and it's even easy to say out loud with our mouths I am more valuable than a bird try it try saying it simple isn't it but how does it show up in the way that we are worrying about our finances has this truth really sunk into our hearts that our father cares for us that he loves us so deeply he loves us and cares for us more than the birds that he feeds every day.
Jesus continues and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his lifespan we don't even have the ability to add time to our days I'm sure there's some study out there that talks about being anxious actually makes you live less but if then you are not able to do a small a thing as that why are you anxious about the rest how great is it that Jesus considers out adding an hour of life just a small thing this is another Tuesday he he thinks he sees.
So far beyond what you and I do and he takes that lens for how to look at life and then he comes at us and he asks the question why would you worry you're not in control of all of this why when you open the Bank app on your phone three times a day does your blood pressure shoot through the roof don't you know that I provide for you when it's three days out from your next paycheck why do you frantically reconsider every life decision that you've ever made don't you know that I care.
For you do you know that the father cares for you deeply he loves you deeply and he tends to every need that you have Jesus he has one last picture to paint for us to help this sink in he says this consider the lies how they grow so we've thought about Birds now let's think about flowers they neither toil nor spin yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not a raid like one of these but if God.
So clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven how much more will he clothe you now I think this reference to Solomon is maybe a little bit lost on us because we're so far removed from the time uh but Solomon he was king of Israel when it was at the height of its economic Prosperity it was a great nation you know it had a lot of wealth and Solomon he would have been one of.
If not the richest man that ever lived in all of Israelite history now I'm not going to try I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to name some pop icons here in front of you but whatever movie star or music legend or somehow now on the list Tik Tock star that you can consider that has the most elegant of apparel it doesn't even compare to a lily a simple flower that our God cared so much that he would clothe a plant in such beauty do you not know that he cares.
For you our father he loves us he cares deeply for us he's providing for us this is why there is no need to be anxious Jesus continues oh you of little faith ouch that stings if we're being honest where was all this talk of him caring for us but I think it stings because Jesus has now gotten to the heart of the issue the word of Jesus it's just cut through flesh and Bone and what has it exposed it's exposed that we're placing our faith we're putting our trust in something other than the one that cares.
For us that's what you and I at our base nature do we put our trust in something that does not care for us don't you know that life isn't found in the abundance of your possessions that don't have a mind enough to even consider you as a thing we've been living our lives with this idea that maybe some of this stuff in the world out there it can it can maybe resurrect what's dead inside of me we've been spending our money day in and day out thinking that there's life in the abundance of our possessions we've mistaken that high that we get.
When we receive a package with the Amazon logo as true Eternal Kingdom Life this isn't it and we need to know where to find this kind of life that Jesus is talking about well he's not done talking so let's keep reading verse 29 and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink nor be worried for all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need him he says don't go there stop buying things like that stop spending your money that way everybody's tried it it it never works stop instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you fear not.
Little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give give you the kingdom our heavenly father knows what we need he knows what you need it is his pleasure God finds so much joy in giving you his kingdom he's aware that you need to eat to have strength for the day he knows that he knows you need lunch after this he knows that you need clothes on your back to protect you as these days get oh so cold he knows that I need a massive jacket.
Because I can't take it he knows about that water bill that you have he knows about that rent check that's due at the end of this month after you've spent your money on presents and secret Santas and white elephants and stocking stuffers he knows about that $50,000 of student debt that you'd have and you don't know how you're going to make this next payment he knows do you know that he cares do you know that it is his pleasure to give you his kingdom that is his desire he loves you more than lies and more than Ravens he loves you.
So much that he gave you his own son he gave you his own life real true life that's what he's given us and so while we continue to look for the for look for life and the abundance of our possessions Jesus comes and he says hey it's not there life isn't there I know where life is it's found in me and the father loves and cares for you so deeply that he's tending to your every need and this is a beautiful wonderful encouragement who would not want to live in light of this truth.
But there's a question now that we have to ask what does this mean for me in my every day it's beautiful news that the father cares for us he's tending to us he loves us us but what does that mean for me and the way that I live out every day in approach to my money and my stuff surely it's got to mean something cuz all we've talked about so far is that you and I our Baseline Drive is toward covetousness and fear.
When it comes to our money and our stuff the things that most often rule our heart is covetousness and fear well we know there's no life there I know you felt the anger and the discontent and the anxiety and the hopelessness surely it's not where we've been looking for life so what we're going to do with the rest of our time is that first I want to walk through some practices some ways that we can participate in this life that Jesus is offering us.
And then we'll look at one final principle that Jesus closes with In this passage so practical thing number one for us in Hebrews chapter 13 the author writes this keep your life free from Love of Money and be content with what you have for he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you so we can confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what can man do to me so the author here he writes that the love of money is combed by being being content and the practical application that comes out of this I think is a little expli uh implicit rather than explicit he doesn't immediately come out.
Say what it is because if I were to tell you go be content you'd be like thanks but what does that look like what does that mean and there are two things that we do according to this passage we be content and then what's the other thing we can confidently say the Lord is my helper so the thing that we can do that we can engage in in a practical day-to-day basis to not put our hope our life in the abundance of possessions.
Because it doesn't come there is to rehearse the truth that the Lord is my helper that if you want to work to combat the covetousness in your own heart every day you get to rehearse this simple truth you ready for it Jesus is better than everything else assuming it won't be too hard for you to remember that cuz we say it enough times on a Sunday morning but it's a simple truth that we get to rehearse and as we sit in that remembrance that.
Jesus really is better and he's given us himself he's given us his life we begin to be washed with contentment and there's real life there so that's practical step number one that daily we get to rehearse the truth that the Lord is my hel that Jesus really is better than everything else number two now this one might sound a little outlandish stop buying things that you don't need to scratch and itch stop buying things that you don't need to scratch and itch how many of you have ever had poison ivy or maybe poison oak poison sumac I mean.
Look it can be any rash of any kind if you're not raising your hand you're lying everybody's had a rash what's the thing they tell you not to do when you get poison ivy or whatever asash don't scratch it oh but what do you want to do oh you just want to get in there you want to scratch it some of us we try to play it off you know I'm just just with my palm just a little bit with my palm.
But we want to scratch it the very thing that seems so right that we just want to do is the thing that is making it worse that's why they say don't do it and when it comes to the way that we buy stuff if we don't stop engaging in the things that drive us to covet why do we think that anything will change 100% rehearse the truth but if you just keep go going and buying everything that you can get your hands on to don't you know that you're scratching your itch don't you know that you're making it worse.
Jesus said that if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out and if your hand causes you to sin cut it off what do you need to get rid of to help you be content that's the opposite way of what we think we think what do I need to get to be content what do you need to get rid of to be content do you need to delete the Amazon app from your phone do you need to get rid of your Amazon account completely you'd be like one in a million do you need to be like me and you got to be careful what kind of entertainment you consume what kind of videos you.
Watch cuz it'll just drive you to covet you'll just want more of what's not yours and you'll think there's life there do you need to stop going to a particular store because there's literally not a single thing there that you need I I don't know what it is for you but if we can see this in terms of Heart level unbelief My Hope Is that the spirit would Empower us to take actual steps toward freedom in our life actual steps toward freedom from coveting.
And then we would sit in the freedom and the joy of contentment that's practical step number two stop buying stuff we don't need to scratch and itch number three in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus he's teaching on the model prayer the model prayer starts off by saying Our Father in heaven so first of all we're addressing the father who cares for us deeply and in the middle of the prayer Jesus says give us this day our daily bread so every day Jesus wants us to go before the.
Father the one who cares for us immensely and to ask him to provide for our needs now notice that Jesus didn't qualify it with whether you're rich or you're poor he doesn't qualify it with whether you're pantry is full or empty he doesn't qualify it with whether there's one pair of jeans or tin in your dresser it doesn't matter that every day we are to go before the Lord and say father would you take care of me today would you put food on my table.
Today would you put clothes on my back today that every day we can rehearse this truth over and over that we can go before the Lord and pray asking that he would tend to us now you take this teaching from Jesus on prayer and you combine it with what Paul says in Philippians chapter 4 he says don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving make your requests known to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ.
Jesus that if you're here this morning and you are anxious about your money that you are worried about the bills that you have due go before the Lord and pray and everything will work out for you no beyond your understanding beyond my understanding because maybe our situation won't change a lick the peace of God will become ours that is this third daily practice in the way that we can find Life as we approach our money and stuff is that we can pray to our.
Father asking that he would tend to us because he cares practical step number four for us in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 the author writes this everyone also to whom God has given given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil this is the gift of God everyone here has stuff H maybe you got more maybe you got less but the wisdom from the author here is that we should accept what we have.
Because it's a gift it's given to us from God we should rejoice and be thankful for what God has given us because every good and perfect gift that exists in your life has come from him that's what the Scripture teaches us that whatever it might be for you a house a car meals vacations job random knick-knacks whatever it is the day-to-day wisdom of how to approach this is to be thankful to go to God and thanks for what he has given this and it's also beautiful here.
Because I think we can maybe begin to be driven by guilt as we consider all this stuff but the author says that we can enjoy it because it's come from him we're coming up on Christmas you know all the little kids that get gifts and they're just full of joy that Mom and Dad have given them something you can't help but just play with it and it brings you such Joy it brings joy to our father that we would enjoy the things that he has given us.
But the heart posture is one of thanks recognizing that it's come from him not because we've managed to work enough to get it so with these four practices that we've talked about we rehearse the truth that Jesus is better than everything else that we stop buying things we don't need to scratch and itch that we go before the Lord in prayer asking that he would tend to us and that we we give thanks for the things that he has given us to enjoy there's one final principle that we have that.
Jesus talks about In this passage in Luke so let's go back to Luke chapter 12 pick back up in verse 33 this is right after Jesus has just said that it is the Father's good pleasure to give you his kingdom so what does he say after that sell your possessions and give to the needy provide yourself with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fade where no Thief approaches and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is there will your heart be also when we live in such a way that our treasure is bound up in our possessions when we're living selfishly we're living in greed we think it's about us but what does Jesus offer instead he says give to the needy Jesus says that participating in true life is participating in generosity that's where true life can be found this is how Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 he writes as for the rich in this present age which what I've learned up to this point is that's me as.
For the rich in this present age charge them not to be huy nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy they are to do good to be rich in Good Works to be generous and ready to share thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life did you see it Paul just told us where we can find True Life where we can take a hold of true life and it's not through the Amazon button or the stuff that we've managed to jam into our closets it's in.
Our generosity it's in the way that we would give and give and give so there are two final practical ways in which in our everyday life we can approach our money and our stuff in a way that actually produces life in US so using a language from this passage in 1 Timothy we are to be rich in good works that's another practical step for us and it's such a good play on words be rich in good works that desire in us that drives us to seek after wealth should be the same fervor that drives us to participate in good works that's what Paul says that's what it means to be rich in good works.
Now we don't have time this morning to talk about every way that you could participate in Good Works the Bible is full of them Paul writes all about them in his letters whether be hospitable helping the weak being patient helping the widows and orphans living peaceably with others forgiving one another bearing one another's burdens on and on and on the list can go you can go read it for yourself and I don't know what it would exactly look like for you.
Today tomorrow the next day for you to participate in one of these kinds of works that the father has laid before you in your day but you can participate in it and when you do you'll start to experience real life when it's no longer about me and about what I can get but about what I can give to help others to support others to build others up all of a sudden there's life there there and lastly we are to be generous Paul says we are to be ready to share this means that we should be people that give our money and our stuff away that should Mark our lives that we would give our money.
And give our stuff away if you want to come back that the greed that's buried in your heart cuz you've come to the realization that Jesus is right and there's no life there be generous give your money away somehow there is life there donate to the local Church donate to overseas missionary work like 1040 hope donate to relief organizations like Oliver Gospel Mission or to Providence home donate to our give project and help house a family donate to help widows or orphan care help pay the water bill of that person in your group that's been saying money is.
So tight right now give to your coworker who's worried about the amount of food that their children are going to have at the end of the week give and give and give and as you give experience the life that is found there that Jesus is giving to us because he has given us life in his generosity I'll close with this aw toer he writes this he says materialism has become the enemy of the spiritual life in craving what we do not have we lose sight of the.
God who provides for our deepest needs we don't live in a world that helps us to practice trust over anxiety we don't live in a world that helps us to practice contentment over covetousness and we don't live in a world that helps us practice General generosity over greed so we must be vigilant and recognizing our need for deep Heart level change and then when we see it begin to rear its ugly head that we would confess it that we would turn to.
Jesus and say would you forgive me at the cross you have given for given me yourself please forgive me and then we would get to actually walk in the new Resurrection Life that Jesus is giving us every single day as we approach our money and our stuff this new life that Jesus offers it's not theoretical it does not just exist in the way that we talk to each other it does not just exist and the way that words are coming out of my mouth right.
Now no this life exists in power for freedom to live apart from sin and as it relates to our money and our stuff well this power can show up in the three principles that we have talked about this morning that we can be content not Covetous that we can be faith filled not fearful and we can be generous not greedy and as the band comes up I would just remind us of the daytoday practices that we have talked about because it shows up in every day.
Remember it's not just ethereal it's real stuff it shows up in our actual lives that we can can give our money and our stuff away that we can stop buying so much stuff that we don't need to scratch an itch that we can participate in the good works that the father has laid before us and we can give thanks to God for how he has taken care of us and given us things to enjoy we can petition before the father every day.
Father would you take care of my needs today and we can rehearse the simple Gospel truth that Jesus really is better than anything else that this life has to offer because there's no life in this world apart from Jesus and when we do these things when we slowly begin to engage in this kind of Lifestyle we are participating in the Eternal Kingdom of life that Jesus has brought that's what it looks like so let's go before the Lord now and praise him and exalt him to rehearse the truth and to go before him and ask would you take care of me.
Today.
giv 2024 Week Two
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
But that forms the basis for our approach to money but the Bible also has very practical things to say about how to think about tomorrow throughout the Proverbs throughout the Scriptures there's different passages that help us see how to think about tomorrow in light of Eternity and that's important uh because a lot of times we don't think about that and there are consequences for that I heard a story recently uh about a couple that was meeting with uh Financial planner they were meeting uh to talk about retirement uh and and they're in the early ' 70s and and they you know the a lot of the the money they had saved over the years the.
The financial planner was talking with them and saying hey at some point you you know you should retire this is an ongoing conversation that was happening uh every year as they met together to talk about their plans and finally uh after many years of doing this the planner just looked and said hey like you you really should like you see what you've got your fine and then they responded by saying well we we'd like to we just want to make sure that all of our debt is paid off before to which the planner said what debt they had not ever disclosed that they had debt.
So he began to do some digging and upon further investigation looked that they had actually lots of debt that they had uh 13 credit cards with high outstanding uh uh uh uh loans on those that were gaining upwards of 35% interest that they had a uh a construction loan that had not been paid off they had an HVAC loan that had not been paid off they had a loan for a mattress a fancy bed that had not been paid off.
When all of this was pieced together it became abundantly clear that they had way too much debt and he had to say no actually you're you're right you're you're you're not going to be able to even have think about retiring until you're in your mid late '70s until all of this gets addressed and that reality set in upon them now some version of that story happens over and over and over again there's far too many people far too many Americans far too many Christians that aren't prepared.
Because they're not thinking that far ahead so we want to be a people that are financially wise and we do think about that our hope and our riches are in the life to come but that doesn't mean that that we bury our head in the sand that doesn't mean that we're not thinking about the very practical implications of what it looks like to think about tomorrow and that's what I want to do today is I want to just get very very practical.
Look at what the Scriptures have to say about this so I'm going to pull out four different principles of financial wisdom for tomorrow four different principles that we'll look at and God willing if we can begin to learn from the very practice practical teachings from the Scriptures on this we can be a people that both balance what it means to have our minds and Eternity to set our hope in riches and The Eternity that is to come with Christ while also not being foolish in how we think about our money here.
For the days that we have here on Earth so let me pray for us and then we'll walk through this together heavenly father I pray that you might help us be wise be wise in a way that changes the way that we live that changes the way that we think about money that changes the way that we plan for tomorrow but in order to do that you have to work in our hearts so we might not just be hearers of the word.
But we might also be doers of the word so we ask this in Jesus name amen so in planning for these four principles I talked to Raz Bradley he's one of our uh pastors he is actually just say hey man do you want to teach this because this is what he does he he does retirement and and life insurance he's he's a he's a lay Pastor here so he's not on staff here I said do you want to teach this and he said no I can't my job does allow me to do that.
So I lean on him a little bit and trying to put this together so his thoughts will be here scattered throughout but he won't get in trouble with uh the SEC and all the things he's got to report to so four principles of financial wisdom for tomorrow starting with the first the wisdom of savings the wisdom of savings I uh my wife and I we got married we moved to Louisville Kentucky uh where I was in seminary I worked at a coffee shop she taught dance at a studio.
So we were not uh financially killing it we were paying our bills or paying our way through Seminary uh but uh our budget was very very tight and in the first couple years I remember we had a major medical bill hit and it was like $1,000 which was like a a a lot a lot a lot a lot of money it's a lot of money anyways it was a lot a lot of money then because it was like man we we don't make anything how in the world and I panicked and I freaked out and she needed her husband in that moment to be subber minded needed to be uh uh faithful.
But was just like I don't know what we're going to do just just like and she's just like oh this isn't good and some version of that has happened like 15 times uh well not the panicking part but the some some version of a of a of a Big Bill hitting like it's all of a sudden it's a medical bill all of a sudden the car broke down all of a sudden some version this happened 15 times throughout our marriage which just keeps happening over and over again and I am no longer surprised.
Because that's life I'm I'm not surprised by anymore I've grown to be like no that that's stinks let's let's pray let's think let's strategize but we're going to be okay because it happens over and over and over again and one of the things we had to learn early on was we need to build some emergency savings that was important for when things happened that it's foolish to actually spend everything that you make Proverbs 21:20 says precious treasure in oil are in a wise man's dwelling.
But a foolish man devours it and this we see a lot Proverbs this this General proverbial teaching on it's wise to have some stuff stored in your house because if you spend everything that you get that is foolish that you will not have things for when the day of trouble comes uh when you read Proverb 6 which is the proverb about uh that Solomon uses the example of uh The Ant and how hard the ant works that's the main teaching of that is that you should work hard be like the ant.
But one of the things that that the example of the ant does is that it stores up it gathers for for when it when things are going to be difficult down the road this is an example of we should be thinking in the immediate future we should have stuff saved up because things are going to hit like I I I've I've said this I know this is a common saying but it's like man I feel like every time we get ahead something else happens and it just hits again and it's it's like we should no longer be surprised you we should not be caught off guard that.
When something finally hits and you watch your savings do this again that's life unless unless you're in a in an an exceedingly High tax bracket that's that's always going to hit and it's going to affect you you you you've got to be prepared for these things preparation is not seen as a bad thing it's seen as wise I mean goodness the whole Narrative of of Genesis 41 of Joseph and Pharaoh the main the main picture of that is God's ultimate Redemption story that's happening through Joseph preserving the life of his brothers.
But buried in that is the very wise thing that when the seven years of famine happened the Lord prepared them for that and that's very practical Proverbs 21:5 says the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance but everyone who is Hasty comes only to poverty that you get this picture of those who are diligent in their planning and their foresight well they're going to be okay but anyone who's Hasty anyone who just spends what they get anyone who makes quick decisions.
Well that's foolishness and that only results ultimately in poverty you need to plan diligently which means that you need to say no to things all the time because there's so many things things that culturally VI for your for your wallet so many things that you can spend your money on and we have to learn to say no so that we can be diligent in planning ahead and be wise otherwise poverty is at the door and it will come 44% of Americans cannot pay.
For a $1,000 bill in an emergency 44% of Americans do not have $1,000 saved up an emergency savings when a bill comes that's a problem and it's a problem that's common we should be thinking ahead we should be diligent and saving for when that comes that's why people like Dave Ramsey who Dave Ramsey is a big uh is a Christian Financial uh Guru who gives wisdom on this I don't buy into everything Dave Ramsey says but I I I think a lot of it is very very wise and he's adamant about getting your emergency savings up to $1,000 as fast as you can.
And then from there he expands it out to 3 to six months of living expenses what you should have for emergency savings and think about that 3 to six months of of your spending of your monthly spending and budget that's easily $10,000 for a lot of Americans and that is easily the price of an HVAC unit these days right it's how quickly this can come so we can't be Hasty we must must be diligent must plan we must begin to grow what it means to actually uh have savings.
For when stuff happens the Scriptures are very practical on this and the second principle I want to look at is the wisdom of counting the cost the wisdom of counting the cost Luke 14:28 Jesus is teaching and buried in his teaching he says in verse 28 for which of you you Desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the costs whether he has enough to complete it now that isn't about that that main teaching in Luke 14 is not about uh counting the cost of building a tower it's about the cost of discipleship.
Jesus simply gives an example about a builder it says surely a builder is going to count the cost before they build a tower you should also count the cost of what it means to follow me because if you follow me you're going to suffer it's going to cost you but the very practical piece of wisdom that he uses is no Builder should build a tower without counting the cost it's very similar to Proverbs 24:27 which says prepare your work outside get everything ready.
For yourself in the field and after that build your house this is IDE idea of you should count the cost you should think ahead in counting the cost before you do a thing before you make a decision it's wisdom that was important thousands of years ago it's wisdom that's important for any person that's going to build something today but it's a principle that we should expand out towards everything that we do you should consider the costs before you make any purchase.
So why we're not Hasty that's why we're slow that's why we're diligent that's why we're thoughtful you should consider consider the cost before you purchase anything that is wise one of the things that I joke regularly about is owning a Prius and it's for obvious reasons it's very low hanging fruit it's a comical car it's it's not nice especially the one that I have it's very it's older and it's yeah it it it should be made fun of but the reality is is that I'm thankful that we have it.
Because it it's very helpful practically for our budget like it's very practical one of the values I have is I want my wife to always drive something nicer than me it's not a law but I just like the idea of her serving her in that way for it has something nicer than me but the reality this this car is so low maintenance the cost of ownership is so low I'm not proud of it I was in a parking lot once drop it off my kid and a guy who drove the exact same year make model in color Prius came up to me and started geeking about his car and I was like how why are.
You not ashamed of yourself why are you talking to me I don't want to talk to you we should never ever talk about this ever again like this is not a thing that should ever come up but the cost of Shame is worth it to me it just is because we live in a time where the American dream sells you on you should have an upgrade to the new or nicer vehicle and it's just I mean the amount of car debt that we have in this country is insane and it's.
Because it's just the expectation of living here that you should have something that's newer and nicer and I don't think people count the cost that's involved in doing that I think they may at some level consider yeah okay well it's going to be about I don't know three four 500 bucks a more on a monthly payment and I'm going to you know that that that that's tight for us but you know I deserve this I've worked hard for this and then they go and purchase it and all of a sudden it's like I don't know.
If we have room in our budget it's like yeah because that wasn't the only cost I mean a lot of it's I mean people don't even think about this but it's I mean sometimes they upgrade to a bigger truck and it's like those tires cost a lot more now don't they they don't think about the fact that you that you maybe you bought something that requires more gas and that's an annual cost at the end of the day you don't think about the the premiums on your insurance just shot through the roof you went from owning a a vehicle that was like $5,000.
Now it's $30,000 and your insurance premiums now are higher your property taxes on a car are much higher now and property taxes on vehicles in the state are pretty high comparison to other places you don't think about that was all of a sudden I mean you don't think about the fact that the maintenance on that vehicle now just went through the roof because now I would know this but V cars now have like sensors in them like computers and they like think about things and you can they have a car that you know that that that tells you there's a car coming in the lane beside you.
Well that that all every single one of those is a little tiny little computer thing part now it's in the mirror and the side mirror gets hit and it's no longer a $50 fix it's a $500 fix and all of a sudden you didn't count the cost and now you're wondering why you're behind on something like that and I could take that example and expand that to how's I can expand that to so many other things we don't regularly consider the cost before we make hasty decisions and we live in a in a culture that just feeds us materialism it feeds your soul with you need this you need this you need this you need.
This and we just think I deserve this I've earned this I need this I mean some of you are like I I have counted the cost and I can afford this and it's like well but should you is the question that's the bigger question with a lot of this is that should you have the newest and nicest all the time everything is Case by case on these type of decisions I would make a blanket rule on anyone for these types of decisions.
But the reality for many of us is ultimately it's going to be a sliding scale somewhere is that if I spend more on this thing I spend less here which might be savings which might be generosity and we're making these decisions sometimes quickly and sometimes not counting the cost and we're moving this all over the place and the more that we get pulled into the American dream the more we get pulled more into materialism the more we get pulled more into I got to upgrade and and keep up with my neighbor and do all these things the less we have.
For savings generosity the things that ultimately are very important and eternally matter but a lot of these decisions are are made much worse wiser if we actually will consider and count the cost before we make decisions that's the second principle we should heed from the Scriptures is counting the cost the third is the wisdom of debt-free living the wisdom of debt-free living debt is not your friend it's not main uh teaching from the Scriptures on this is prbs 22:7 the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender that.
When you take a loan from anyone any company that ultimately you owe them and you are not free now there's a lot of debate and off often sometimes heated debate on this passage and the application of it because you get some that'll say see it's foolish or even sinful to ever have debt of any kind and this will be more on the Dave Ramsey side of things has more a little more Nuance position than that but it's just this that it's always always always bad and another side is going to say no this is a little more no this is proverbial the point here is that you shouldn't uh you should be mindful about the.
Debt that you take on you should be M like listen there's there's and I'm not going to solve that debate at all uh today but make no mistake wherever you fall in this debate here it's like you need to understand that regardless when you take on a mortgage and I would argue personally taking on a mortgage is a good thing that's a good way that's one of the easiest ways to build uh long-term wealth in our country so I personally think it's.
Okay to take on some debt like that but even make no mistake the moment you sign a mortgage note you you are not free that will hang over you until it is paid off doesn't changed the wording on this at all the bar is a slave of the lender there's a claim against you until you pay it off you are not free and debt is not your friend that couple I talked about the very beginning that into their 70s they have this burden upon them and it's there and they are not free that every night.
When they lay their head on a mattress that is fancy and great to sleep on they're not free and that's the reality for many of us many of the things that we own are not free that that we're slaved to the lender that we owe something on it y'all it is almost never wise it's it's rarely I would say wise to to owe credit card debt that you can not immediately pay off it's just unwise and yet Americans are about $1.17 trillion dollar in personal credit card debt that's not even we're talking about the government debt there personal American finances over a trillion dollars right.
Now in credit card debt and y'all know the 20 25 30 35% interest on that stuff I'm I mean it's it's a noose around the neck I did B vacational I did Real Estate and pastoring for years I still have my license I don't do as much real estate anymore but one of the things that used to I just boggled my mind was in real estate uh The Lending limits uh you could borrow up to for your primary house you could borrow up to a.
Third of your gross monthly income to purchase which means that if you have um if you make $3,000 gross every month so that's not that's not net that's $3,000 before taxes so before Uncle Sam takes any money if you made $3,000 a month you could borrow money for a house that costs you $11,000 a month that's the that's the Freddy May Freddy Mac that's the lending limits that's insane that's insane that that's allowed like that makes no sense at all I mean what I mean $3,000 Uncle Sam takes it you're getting closer to $2,000.
Now you're $1,000 out of monthly payment and you got $1,000 to pay for health insurance you got $1,000 to pay for food you got $1,000 to pay for everything else that's insane y' our whole system is built on debt it's insanity and it's foolishness and we're so used to it we're so fine with it we we we we we deal in debt all all the time and the Bible says it's foolishness that you make yourself a slave to someone else you are not free.
When you make the decision over and over and over again and I would plead with you that if you are in debt right now you need to get out of it that 2025 it needs to be the year where you aggressively tackle your debt now the good news is is we're offering a financial wisdom class starting in January that Shar Atkins is going to uh teach this and it's going to be extremely practical and I would encourage you to sign up.
For this because it's gonna and and up even beyond that we have a financial care team that comes out of that that's going to help that will sit down with you that will look through your budget that'll help form a budget if you don't have one that will help you tackle an aggressive plan to be able to get out of debt so that you can be free we care about this as a Church and we want to walk alongside you but the.
First part of the problem is diagnosing that you have one and heeding this third principle fourth principle the wisdom of preparing the wisdom of preparing and specifically what I mean by preparing is for retirement the idea of retirement doesn't explicitly show up in the Scriptures and the reason it doesn't is because it was completely different time and culture that in their time you had family land and you had lots of kids which were your Social Security you had children that would take care of you.
When you were older you had the same trade the same land you worked that together and when you got older and you could not work anymore and an honor-based culture your children were absolutely going to take care of you on that same piece of land with that same family trade now that does still happen in other parts of the world today that is why in other countries they have lots of children still because that is your Social Security but we are very different very different culturally very different time all of that.
So what do you do with that because we don't live in the same time and culture as the Bible how do you defend the idea of saving large amounts of money for retirement I would argue it is the summation the summary of these three principles that we just walked through if you I I if if having when you build savings for when Trouble Comes when a uh when a major medical bill happens that's wise but if you're not building savings for.
When Trouble Comes when you are in your 70s and 80s and 90s if you're lucky if you're not building for that you're not thinking ahead head because that is a trouble that is coming that we should count the cost and what we purchase but we also should count the cost on what it takes to live in our later years and shouldn't just assume I'll be all right I have so security if you want to talk to some of our older wiser Saints in our Church it's not that simple that you should count the cost that we uh should be a people that are aggressively getting rid of debt and by the time that're older we.
Debt should be way far behind us that if we're thinking about those first three principles and then thinking about our own Culture The Logical next step is planning ahead for in the final years of our life we should be a people that are thinking like this and I'm going to give some additional on with those uh principles I'm going to give some additional Scriptures that help us think through this and how to uh think about this wisely Proverbs 1211 says whoever works his land will have plenty of bread.
But he who follows worthless Pursuits will have plenty of poverty now the very direct teaching there is is that it's good for you to just work hard at what you've been given to do and there will be abundance you'll be fine that's the general proverbial wisdom there work hard don't cut quarters and and chase after foolish Pursuits because what can happen is is is you might be in your 50s and go oh no I'm I don't think I have a month I don't think I have enough built up.
For retirement and then you might go and choose risky Endeavors to try to make up the Gap that you should have been thinking about all along no work hard prepare think ahead be diligent and put away a little bit at a time a little bit at a time another nugget of wisdom that we get from the gospels is one of these teach that Jesus has that's buried in a teaching when Jesus is teaching on the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 which is about a bigger thing that he's teaching in that he makes a very obvious example in Matthew 25: 27.
When the master responds to a man who buried his money in the ground out of fear he says then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest now again there's bigger teaching that's going on there but buried in that is the very obvious example that Jesus gives here that you you could at least instead of burying your money in the ground have put it in something that gains interest and that's where like financial advisers like Raz get really excited like they just I think they go too hard In this passage they just love it love it love it love.
It love it so if you're a Christian and you do financial planning like this is the this is it right here you PR this thing on pillows and put in your office or whatever it is they do but this is this is it like it's like it's it's just very very easy wisdom on the surface right there to be thinking about how can I actually choose wise Investments how can I think about interest and compound interest and all these things these are things you should be thinking about as you think ahead.
If you have children you should be thinking about them in this as well Proverbs 13:22 says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children children's children but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous and that very general proverb is just this General picture of leaving something to your children is good it'll bless their children and their children's children this is the idea of generational wealth but if you don't be laid up for other purposes that aren't good and it's like there's a whole lot of ways that can be misapplied and misunderstood you certainly can leave your kids way too much and it be be bad.
For them but it's this idea of forward thinking ahead and building something for the rest of your days now I think those principles that we talked about earlier do give the foundation for retirement I think these passages help us think wisely about that but here's the difficult thing as Christians as you take everything that we've said about building savings and all of this and you hold that against everything that we said last week which is says do not store up riches here on Earth and it's like man how do we do both how do we walk wisely in the principles the Scripture gives us to think about this.
While also not building storehouses that we talked about last week how do we do this wisely in heed 1 Timothy 6:17 which says As for the rich in this present age charge them not to be hauy nor to set their hopes on the and certainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy it's like man H how do we not love riches so much and trust God for daily provision as we think ahead how do we he what we looked at last week Luke 12:15 and he said to them take care and be on your guard against all covetousness.
For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions it's like how do I hold these principles and the wisdom here while also having the heart that says I don't want to store up riches here on Earth I I want to invest in the Kingdom that is to come that's the difficulty of Christian Living and and wisdom and I would say it is walking open handedly before the Lord in all of this that is practicing these wise things open-handed that.
If God looked at you in your later years and says I want you to give up this amount of dollars from the nest egg that you've been building the question is would you respond with yes or would you tightfisted go I don't know I I don't know if I can heard another story about a financial adviser who was meeting with this uh woman who's in retirement and they're looking at her monthly uh budget based on her retirement and and she was spending a lot and they were talking with her saying Hey.
Listen I I think that to be mindful of this because you're spending a lot but the the truth of it was she wasn't spending it on herself she was actually spending it on generosity that upwards of about 35% of her budget was was being given away in her retirement and they're trying to teach her and say tell her and said listen I you need to be careful here if if you continue this pattern you might run out of money we might need to re consider you know good thing you're being generous.
But you might need to reconsider some of this and the woman looked at them as serious as could be and said I will cease to give when I cease to live I will cease to give when I cease to live I will die before I stop being generous because that woman knew what her her life was ultimately about that's it y'all that's how we should that's that's it we should be a people that wisely handles our finances in a way that is forward-looking.
But it's so open-handed in how we look ahead that we would be so growing in generosity that at the end of our life we'd still be giving as much as we could away because we understand that ultimately the kingdom of God is more important ultimately investing in missions ultimately giving to the local Church ultimately investing in adoption care ultimately investing in Eternal things is more important that's it we should have the mindset that says yes I will walk wisely but I will cease to give.
When I cease to live I will plan for tomorrow but I will live for eternity that is how we should walk as Christians as we plan for tomorrow with our hope in eternity the band's going to come up and I want us before we take the Lord's Supper today I want us to consider this because in reality many of us have not heeded the wisdom of the Scriptures on this that there are some of us have are are continually racking up debt and and and and it's just there some of us are spending everything that we get and we're not thinking wisely some of us have saved Lots.
But it's been the danger of storehouses and it's not been entrusted to the Lord in a way that is seeking to be open-handed with our finances all of us undoubtedly have failed in this area but the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus meets us in our failure he meets us in our shortcomings here that when we take the Lord's Supper we come we take the bread and the juice and we're reminded in the night that Jesus was betrayed took bread and he broke it he said this is my body that was broken.
For you that as often as you eat and drink you so you Proclaim my death until I return so as Christians yeah sometimes we stink at this and yeah sometimes we've been foolish but Jesus pays for fools with his blood and we come receiving the Forgiveness that we have in Christ but we also come asking him to change your hearts so that we might not be fools for very long that we might be thinking about eternity and also planning for tomorrow in a way that brings him honor and Glory.
So yeah we some of us have really messed this up but that table is for messed up Sinners and we come and we come in Repentance and we come enjoy worshiping him so when you are ready as a Christian come to the table if you're not a Christian please do not take part in this this isn't for you we want you to take part in faith in Jesus so you can understand some of these teachings that we're trying to apply to us as Christians.
But when you are ready come and take the Lord's Supper there's glutenfree in that back corner over there let me pray for us heavenly father I pray that you might help us heed the wisdom of the Scriptures so that we might be a people that walk wisely about our finances that we might be people that our hearts are so firmly fixed in the eternity but we might also be wise about tomorrow and that will only come through your work in our heart.
So we pray that you would and we ask this in Jesus name amen.
giv 2024 Week One
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 so we are not in the Book of Revelation uh we are taking a break for that uh from uh The Book of Revelation of the next few weeks we'll jump back in in the new year to finish out that book uh every year around this time we do what's called a give series it is an opportunity for us uh to in a season where the birth of Christ gets co-opted by our culture in a way that is materialistic and um consumeristic and uh and really detracts from what we're supposed to be celebrating we get to re-evaluate our heart's posture.
When it comes to money and generosity so we have a give series and then we also will have a give project which Isaac will come back and announce later what this year's give project is but that is a practical way for us to live out the implications of the Gospel and what it means for us in practicing generosity so this year specifically uh we're going to be looking at Financial wisdom in this gift Series so in uh week one so this week we're going to be in financial wisdom.
For eternity uh in week two we're going to see Financial wisdom for tomorrow so what does it mean to to plan and think ahead uh wisely and in week three we'll talk about financial wisdom for today how to have a daily mindset when it comes to a daily wise mindset when it comes to finances today we're going to be in the Book of Luke 12 so you can go ahead and flip there we'll get to that in a moment uh a few years ago I read from uh the.
First page of a novel called The Testament by John Grisham uh in a sermon and I wanted to bring it back because I find that first page and how it grabs you and brings you into the story I find some of the things that are said in this unbelievably helpful especially for what we're going to talk about uh today uh but this is a billionaire and he's talking and he says I own the tall glass building in which I sit and 97% of the company housed in it below me and the land around it half a mile in three directions and the 2,000 people who work here and the other 20,000 who do not I.
Own the pipeline under the land that brings gas to the building for my fields in Texas and I own the utility lines that deliver electricity and now least the satellite unseen miles above my head from which I once barked commands to my Empire flung around the world my assets exceed $1 billion I own silver in Nevada and copper in Montana coffee in Kenya coal in Angola rubber in Malaysia natural gas in Texas crude oil in Indonesia steel and China my company owns companies that produce electricity and make computers and build dams and print paperbacks and broadcast signals to my satellite I have subsidiaries with divisions and more countries that anyone can find.
Let me pause there this man is rich obviously right Warren Buffett Rich Elon Musk I mean this is the kind of person that culturally is put forth as these are the wise Financial gurus these are the ones in magazines they get invited on podcasts these are the ones that you should look to for financial wisdom he continues I once owned all the appropriate toys the yachts and jets and Blondes the homes in Europe farms in Argentina an island in the Pacific thorough breads even a hockey team.
But I've grown too old for toys the money is the root of my misery I have three families three Ex-Wives Who Bore seven children six of whom are still alive and doing all they can to torment me to the best of my knowledge I fathered all seven and buried one I should say his mother buried him I was at of the country I am a strange from all the wives and all the children they're Gathering here today because I'm dying and it's time to divide the money.
So that's the first page and I I love John grisham's description here because it pictures Well precisely what Jesus teaches that having all the things and making all the money ultimately looks foolish in in the end and yet those are the kinds of people who have that type of success that we look at as the financial sages of our time that we look at and say oh if I could be like that person if I could make Financial moves like that and the Bible says that this is a fool the culture says this is wise and the Bible says this is foolishness and it's.
So clearly when you see a man at the end of his life who's experienced all of this and is devoid of any bit of joy and it's so clear in what we're going to see today what I want to help us see is that if you want to be financially wise you must have an eternal outlook on your money on your things because if you don't you will be a fool let's pray heavenly father I help pray that you would help us.
See this so clearly from your word today God we desire to be financially wise people but we need to hear your word and then do your word do this in Jesus name amen all right so we're in Luke 12 Jesus uh is doing what he's doing he's teaching and then all of a sudden in chap 12: 13 it says someone in the crowd said said to him teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me but he said to him man who made me a judge or Arbiter over you.
So if you don't read the gospels enough you'll miss moments like this because moments like this it just I love it Jesus is just awesome because at this point in his ministry Jesus is a traveling Sage he he's a he's he has wisdom and people are coming to him and asking him about anything that's on their heart the most pressing thing on their heart they want Jesus to speak into their situation and this man in particular the most pressing thing upon his heart is that his brother is going to get the line share of The Inheritance or all of it and he wants.
Jesus to tell his brother tell him tell him to share this inheritance and Jesus says no which I think is awesome just says no who made me a judge and arbiter over you and you could look at this and think oh is Jesus being dismissive here and he's not he's not being dismissive at all because what he's doing is he sees this man's heart and he redirects what is more important to be addressed here and it's not the fact that he's going to get the inheritance it's.
Verse 15 and he said to them take care and be on guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions so Jesus this this man he he has the chance to ask the Living God In the Flesh of infinite wisdom he could ask him anything he has his ear his direct ear he could ask him anything and the most pressing issue on his heart is things it's money it's an inheritance and Jesus sees his heart and he says no you must guard against this covetousness.
For your life does not consist in the abundance of possessions so that's the main point that he makes here this man brings this concern he addresses that concern he says your life is more than accumulation of things and then Jesus Takes that truth and he builds upon it with a parable verse 16 and he told them a parable saying the land of a rich man produced plentifully which the beginning of this parable already a rich man with plentiful land in their time they would have understood this oh this is someone who is wise this is someone who we should learn from.
If a man has a plentiful producing land and he's prosperous this is one of the ones that we should go to our culture is the same these are the people that get invited on podcasts and invited on TV shows to discuss their wise financial management strategies so Jesus takes the land of the rich man produce plentifully verse 17 and he thought to himself what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops this man is so wealthy he has run out of places to store his grain he's like I don't have nowhere else to put this my barns are filled I've got enough.
For my family I've got enough for planting next season I've got enough uh to sell I don't know what to do with all of what I have and then he has an idea Verse 18 and he said I will do this I will tear down my Barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods so he thinks the problem here is the barns they're not big enough I don't have big enough storage for all that I need.
So that's what I'll do I'll tear these down I'll build bigger Barns and therefore when I get more and more and more I'll have room for all that I have and he's excited about this plan and then he goes to assure himself in verse 19 and he says and I will say to my soul soul you have ample Goods laid up for many years relax eat drink be Mary and he just he just looks at a situation and he's just like oh with this plan I'm set I I'm good.
For the rest of my life I can store all the grain I'll never have to worry about grain again I could have a famine and I'll Breeze through that and we'll eat and we'll drink and we'll be merry now other than the agricultural context which we may not be familiar with and the language here of speaking to your soul which we do that we're not familiar with that language but that's assuring our inner self okay I'm going to be okay all of this is very familiar.
Because this right here literally is the goal of the American dream this is it you want to be able to make it to a place where you have so much in abundance you don't have to worry about money anymore that we don't have to worry about things anymore that we can get to a place where we've have we've accumulated so much that we can rest and we can relax and we can eat and drink and be merry for all of our days all you need to do is level up you can get a bigger house you can build a Bigg garage you can get a different property it's all you need to do and you.
Finally will be okay you will live The Good Life that is so pervasive and so uh universally understood in our culture this is how you should live but this is not a good plan and then verse 20 it says but God said to him fool this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared whose will they be so it is the one who lays so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward.
God and the title of this Parable is commonly referred to as the rich fool he says fool you're going to die you're going to die and who is going to have your stuff not you and then you get that final point so is the one who lays up treasure for himself so the point of this at the end is to critique this idea that's so ingrained in the in a human nature and is also pervasive in their culture but also in ours that storing up Treasures here and not being rich towards.
God is foolishness and not just foolishness foolishness that receives judgment because it is a shortsighted view it lacks the wise Eternal Outlook that we are supposed to have because the aim of our life should not be maximizing Joy here it should be maximizing joy in eternity but our minds are so fixed here now the next 10 verses Jesus addresses uh anxieties that we have about daily living and we're going to skip that we're going to come back to that in a few weeks this idea uh that uh needs to be ingrained in our soul.
For daily living to be financially wise daily but when you skip down to verse 32-34 this is all big one chunk of teaching that flows together and you're going to see the concluding thoughts that Jesus gives here verse 32 it says fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom sell your possessions and give to the needy provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail where no Thief approaches and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is there will your heart be also okay what I want to do with this passage is I want to work backwards from verse 34 back to help us see what Jesus is trying to help us understand so that we can be financially wise with this eternal mindset so he starts or ends with verse 34 for where your treasure is there your heart will be also so that's the big concluding thought we have a treasure problem we have a that's a value problem what you value that's where your heart's desire is is where you're going to ultimately spend your resources it it reveals your spending reveals what your heart wants.
So we have a treasure problem so you need to ask yourself what are you treasuring what are you dreaming about what are what what consumes your thoughts regularly this is revealing the heart this is revealing what we're actually beholding over the Lord so verse 34 for where your treasure is that your heart will be also so working backwards says provide yourself with bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail where no Thief approaches and no moth destroys.
So the problem is is that we are treasuring things that do not last we're not treasuring ultimately him we're treasuring created things that do not last which is something that we need to have so ingrained in our understanding that everything that you work for everything that you strive for all of the Blood Sweat and Tears in this life that you put into to purchase things every one of those things will eventually rust will eventually be destroyed almost everything and likely everything that you ever will buy will end up back in the ground I mean think about that the things that we get.
So anxious about the things that we so fix our minds upon the things we so deeply desire the things that we leverage all of our efforts for all of that will end up in the ground the new truck that you so want because if you think if I can just get this truck if I can just get to this right here this full size but just get here I'm going man life will be better in just a short amount of time that will be in a junkyard it'll be sold.
For parts it eventually will end up back in the ground the house that you want I'm tired of where I'm living I'm tired of this situation if I just get this I'll arrive I'll be okay that two is going to end up one day back in the ground it will be torn down something else will be built in its place all of the things the newest gadgets that get thrown at you right now if you just have this watch or this phone or this 3 four years gone forgotten the newest clothes fill in the blank everything that you work.
For all material things all of it goes back to the ground rust it destroys it fades away and yet so much of our heart's desire is those things and so much of our efforts are for those things it's a treasure problem it's a value problem and we value the created far far too much and that's why Jesus addresses this and it's not just here it's all over the gospels because people will say man they just say I like Jesus but I don't really like the Church cu the Church just they seem to care and talk too much about money and I say.
Well I don't think you like Jesus because if you read what he says you'd see that he too talks about this and the reason that Jesus talks about this is because money reveals what you want most in this life that that money reveals ultimately what we worship in the place of God that's why he tackles it so much you can be the kind of person that never lives generously but doesn't buy a bunch of stuff just saves it and stores it into an account over and over I mean just keep and it builds and it builds and it builds and it builds and it builds and what that reveals about your heart is that you.
Value security here as opposed to trusting the Lord with your security as opposed to when you get more to be able to give more no storing up of riches in an account somewhere as a means of controlling as opposed to yielding control to the Lord may be the kind of person that all of your paychecks go to toys they go to vacations they go to experiences they go to things and what that reveals about our heart is that we find comfort in those things that we find comfort in created things as opposed to finding our comfort in the.
Lord I'm not saying that all of those things are bad what I am saying is if that becomes the chief aim of our life is to gain that vacation is to gain that object then what we have revealed is that ultimately our comfort is found in those things and not the Lord do you see how this works it it reveals what's happening in our heart so how do we not gain money bags here that will fade but store up treasure in heaven working backwards in.
Verse 33 it says sell your possessions and give to the needy so if we can identify the problem of our hearts and realize what we're worshiping in the place of God and realize what we're actually treasuring over Christ then we can start to first ask God through faith and repentance to change our heart's desires and then begin to take actions steps that lives out that Faith through works and the works here are sell your possessions and give to the needy the problem with the man in the parable is that nowhere in his calculus.
When he has too much grain is he thinking you know what I could do I could take the excess here and I could look at the people in our town that don't have enough and give to them nowhere in this calculus says oh you know what I could do with the excess that I have is not build bigger barns but actually give more to the temple he is nowhere in his mindset the idea of generosity and it's because his life is bound up in the accumulation of things and that's the lesson.
For us as well that generosity is an action step to kill the desire for things here that when you give generously you are making making a statement of faith that says I trust the Lord because what I could do with this is I could store up things for me so that in the day of trouble I will be okay as opposed to saying you know God I I want to live open-handed here and give to this here and if that day comes I will be.
Okay because I will be with you and you walk with me you'll provide for my needs not all my wants but you provide for my needs that there are actions steps that we get to take as Christians to say I don't love things I love God my flesh does my heart is is wicked and deceitful and it loves things but you've created in me a new heart and I'm changing and I Belong To You therefore I don't want these things I want you Christ.
So yes I like just take my rip my hands open and give me a heart that actually wants to give away that takes the margins of what you've generously given to me because every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father lights James 1 everything comes from the Lord and what we have been given we say I want to in faith entrust to you I want you to help me give I want you to give Church family before me that I can give to that is in need I want to give to the local Church I want to give to missions I don't want to love things I want.
To give the orphan care I don't want to love things over you God will you help me see what do you want me to be generous towards so that we don't fall into the same trap as the man who said you know what I will build bigger storehouses that's the action step that God gives us and when we do this continue to work backwards verse 32 we live for a better Kingdom he says fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom that we get to live.
For a better Kingdom when we've been given much and we entrusted to him we say I'm I I belong elsewhere I mean an 18-year-old who gets a trust fund or inheritance they get a sizable chunk of money and they go off to college and say you know what I'm going to do with all of this money I'm going to have the sickest dorm room on campus I will go hard in this dorm room it is going to be amazing it's going to be better than anything that anyone has which I didn't even know that was a trend apparently.
Now when people go to college like they just they take pictures of these Swanky dorm rooms and I'm like that is not how it used to be it was survive with a mini fridge like I mean it was it was not but but if it how to see him go spend all of his money to have this really awesome dorm room and then in four years he graduates and he can't take it with him and the and the stuff that he could take isn't even new anymore everyone looks at that and says what a fool how dumb.
For you to spend you had all you were given all of this and you spin it all in a dorm room and the irony of even having that posture realizing it's exactly what we do in this life this life is here for a moment it's a vapor it is here it is due in the morning and then it is gone and we say I will maximize all of the joy right here right now to build a kingdom here because I don't believe that the father's kingdom is actually better that's what we do and my hope is is that as we approach this that being in the Book of Revelation will have set us up.
Well that being in the Book of Revelation for as long as we've been if helps us stay in this eternal mindset week in week out we've seen over and over again the end is going to come Jesus will return judgment day is going to happen there is a kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness and we've seen the Eternal implications of that over and over and over and over again and my hope is is that that Eternal reality will be.
So impressed into our heart that we will actually begin to look at our finances and go oh I get it actually I I now more than ever get it this none of this is going to last that I I want to leverage everything that I have that I can for the kingdom that is to come for riches that will never fade I hope that helps us here because the problem for us undoubtedly is that if all of our finances were laid bear.
If we brought forth our budgets if you combed through the spreadsheets of our spending if you look through the credit card statements the bank statements the cash receipts if you looked at all of it my fear is that it would reveal that we value things over God we value and treasure created over the Creator we value and treasure building kingdoms here as opposed to Living For The Kingdom that is to come that it would reveal glimpses of building storehouses I mean some of you are going into you're racking up mountains of debt to build a life here that will not last some of us are building literal storehouses like I a few years ago we.
I was like we man I just we don't have enough room in the garage and we built this this little shed in the back and was putting the lawnmower and stuff in it and I just felt it I was like oh man I'm literally building a storehouse in my backyard I just felt that I was like I this has got to be enough right some of us are losing sleep regularly over thinking about how to protect the things and keep the things that we've got in this life right.
Now some of you are consistently scrolling through Instagram and you're looking at people's lives and you're seeing all the things they have and the vacations that they go on and covetousness is brewing in your soul in a way that makes you so discontent right now brothers and sisters we cannot be financially wise we cannot be financially wise if the very things we leverage our lives for are temporary because Jesus calls that foolish you can live a life where you manage your money.
Well according to the world and at the end of the day you'll still be a fool you could stroke the largest check to this give project and still not address the problem of your heart or be blinded to the reality that we have elevated created above the Creator and my hope is is that after months and months of spending time looking at the end of The Book of Revelation that we would begin to finally practice this in a way that helps us.
Look at the American dream and say with a resounding Force no I don't want that I want you Jesus that we look at the imminent return of Christ and we'd say no I'm living for that return in that day and not for the here and now and when we get back to the Book of Revelation part three we'd look at the section that we'll finish him which is the new Heavens the new Earth and we'd see it with new eyes I know that you what you more than anything want right.
Now is to get more of the Book of Revelation vation so I'm going to sneak it in right here cuz I want to show you just a glimpse of where we're going in Revelation 21: 18 and 19 this is a glimpse of the new heavens and the new Earth the city of God that comes down it says in verse 18 the wall was built of Jasper while the city was pure gold like clear glass the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of Jewel some of the most valuable objects in this life some of the things they put in museums some of the things that we.
So would love to have are literally concrete and 2x4s in the city of God you catch that that everything that we could possibly think is the most treasurable thing is just Pavement in the city of God if we want to be wise our mind must be there not here and we need to ask Jesus to change your hearts be oriented towards that reality as opposed to the one that is right here I'll close with this the missionary Jim Elliot once said he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
If you understand that every material thing you could have in this life you're not going to keep you're not a fool for giving it away that if you ultimately realize and believe that the Eternal Kingdom that is to come that will be here for 10,000 years forever more that we're investing in that you haven't lost anything and that's the hope that we would have as we do this gift Series this year that we would believe that and have our minds so fixed on the Eternal things of.
God that would actually begin to help let truly live generously and be financially wise people the band's going to come up we're going to sing a song called my worth is not in what I own and I hope that if you're unfamiliar with it just sit in the truth of the words of the song If you're familiar with it Sing Sing even if it's a confession like I don't believe this because I do I think I think I really do believe that my heart is bound up in the things that I have that I own that we come to Christ who was crucified.
For our greedy Covetous hearts and we say Jesus cleanse me change me that I might not worship things over you that I might believe not my own power but by the power of the Holy Spirit that my worth really isn't in the things that I own that it's bound up in you and you alone but may this be a song of confession may be a song of wor worship for some of you maybe a song of repentance and maybe for some of you a a a song that leads you to Faith in believing.
For the first time that our only hope is Christ it is the only Solid Rock to build upon then God willing we can walk that out Faith living out Works to be financially wise.
Revelation 19:11-20:15
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here if you will grab a Bible and go to ma oh goodness Revelation chapter 19 I don't know I want to go to Matthew all of a sudden I go to Revelation chapter 19 maybe I'm maybe uh some of you were we're really excited for a second you're like we're done in Revelation no we're not today is the last day we will be in the Book of Revelation for the year um and we will go into our GI series next week.
And then we will pick back up and finish out Revelation in January Lord willing uh but we're going to be in Revelation we've reached the part as Spencer told us last week in the Book of Revelation where Jesus rides in on a white horse defeats the dragon and rescues his bride the the beautiful part of so many stories we tell is playing out in the story of humanity and God is at work to rescue and to redeem his people we're going to go through a decent amount of text this morning in in chapter 19 and 20 and there is a lot in chapter 19 and 20.
And so I I want to take a second to kind of frame up how we're going to approach some of this this morning in the book made to stick they recount a story of a uh teacher who's teaching a journalism class to high schoolers and it's one of their first days and he's trying to talk to them about writing a headline or the the lead line of a story where you you basically get the gist of the whole story in one line you help boil it down in one line this is the way prior to clickbait this is the way that newspapers worked they didn't just get go something crazy happened click here to.
See if you're going to die they didn't do that they told you exactly what happened at the top and then the lead line was exactly what happened and then you got more information the further you went but if you only read a little bit you got the gist of the story and so he was teaching them how to do that and he put this on the board Kenneth L Peters the principal of Beverly Hills High School that's the school they were at announced.
Today that the entire High School faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods among the speakers will be the anth will be Anthropologist Margaret me college President Dr Robert Maynard Hutchins and California governor Edmund Pat Brown put that on the board he said okay students write the headline write the lead line you're you're writing for our school newspaper write it out well they had a general understanding of who what when where why they're going to write the lead.
For this most of them just rearranged the information trying to stuff it all into one coherent sentence he takes up all the papers he reads through them sets the papers down and goes no this is the headline there will be no school next Thursday that's going to sell your paper that's the conclusion at the end of that if the entire faculty is gone y'all don't have to be here and there's a danger in Reading Revelation 19 and 20 because there's so much wildly interesting things in it.
And so many details that we can divert ourselves into those details and miss the headline miss the main point and so uh everything in Revelation is worth studying and there is much that could be spent studying and going through chapters 19 and 20 we could actually spend as much time as we've spent so far in the Book of Revelation going through chapters 19 and 20 but we are not we're going to zoom over and get the the big conclusive picture this morning.
Jesus is Victorious that's what we're going to see he is utterly and completely Victorious and we're going to see how and against whom and there's going to be a lot of very interesting things that maybe you'll be excited that we don't spend a lot of time on or maybe it will hurt your feelings I don't know but we don't want to miss the point so if if we don't know how all the the the um faculty is going to make it to Sacramento we don't know who's car pulling with who or what what they're going to have.
For lunch we're just going to land on there's no school next Thursday and that's some of what we're going to do in this text as we see how Victorious Jesus is so let's pray and then let's start in chapter I mean in verse 11 Lord we pray that we would honor you well that we would see you clearly that you would help us to rejoice in your coming complete Victory in Jesus name amen uh this is not to say that these details aren't important it's just that we wanted as we studied the Book of Revelation to help our Church family not read Matthew to Jude.
And then stop and start back over in Matthew but to actually have the just understanding the big picture of what is happening in the Book of Revelation what is going on and there are a lot of times where people focus in on smaller details and miss the point we don't want to do that so Revelation 19:1 this is John seeing a vision and writing it down a prophetic picture of the future then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse the one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes War it's a white horse the one sitting on it is faithful and true he judges and makes.
War in righteousness in Chapter 13 those who worship the Beast said who is like the Beast and and who can fight against it they're about to find out who can fight against the Beast because he makes War it says his eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written that no one knows but himself he is clothed in a robe dipped in Blood and the name by which he is called is the word of.
God this is Christ this is Jesus riding in on a white horse crowns on his head fire in his eyes a robe dipped in blood to make war and to judge now there's a question here as to if he's riding in to make war why is his robe already dipped in Blood and I think there are two pictures here that may be give us some some clarity on what is going on one is I think it's his blood I think we.
See throughout this that he is a lamb who was slain that he is covered in his own blood and that it is by his blood that he gains Victory those behind him are riding white horses and they in clean white linen which we're told in Revelation chapter 7 that the Saints have washed their clothes and made them white in the blood of the lamb and so that he is the one who is marred he is the one who is come humbled in his own blood.
But there's also a reference to Isaiah 63 the the back part of Isaiah chapter 60-65 have a lot of overlap with the Book of Revelation and in chapter 63 there's someone who has a robe covered in blood and Isaiah asks who are you and he says he's the one who has tread The Wine Press of the fury of the wrath of God and that he's covered in the blood of his enemies and we're told in this chapter in verse 15 we'll read it in a moment that.
Jesus is going to tread The Wine Press of the fury of the wrath of God and so we have this dual picture here of Jesus who has shed his own blood but that ultimately is the one with the authority to judge and make War and who will tread the wine press that we saw in Revelation 14 where they were reaped and placed in a wine press for judgment and we need to see Jesus in both ways so often I think when we picture.
Jesus or when other people speak of Jesus we refer to the way he came to us the first time humble Meek we're going to celebrate that at Christmas that he was born in in a stable in a barn he was placed in a Manger that he was humble and meek that he was humiliated on a cross that he was in so many ways conquered executed but he is no longer when he returns he came once in humility he comes back in Victory he came to us.
First in meekness he comes back to us with fierceness that the whole world has to reckon with if we know him in his humiliation we need to know and love him in his exaltation and as Christians we ought to celebrate and Delight in both that he is kind and humble that he rides in Humble and seated on a donkey that he's coming to rescue his people as a slain lamb but that he also rides in on a white horse as a Victorious King who is king of kings.
Lord of lords and will rescue and redeem the world and we need to see him and know him and love him as both verse 14 and the armies of Heaven arrayed in fine linen white and pure were following him on a white horse I heard a pastor say one time that if someone tells you to meet them for a fight and they show up wearing all white they have some expectations about how that fight is going to go he shows G Christ is wearing a robe dipped in Blood and those who follow him are in fine linen white and pure from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the Nations.
He will rule them with a rod of iron he will tread The Wine Press of the fury of the wrath of God the almighty on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written king of kings and Lord of lords this is the Glorious conquering exalted Christ who is coming to set things straight verse 17 then I saw an angel standing in the Sun and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead come gather.
For the great supper of God to eat the Flesh of Kings the Flesh of captains the Flesh of Mighty Men the Flesh of horses and the Riders the Flesh of all men both free and slave both small and great uh as I was studying this I came across a quote from um uh a a comment a commentator named barlay who says this is a bloodthirsty picture far more in line with Old Testament apocalyptic expectations than with the Gospel of Jesus Christ reads this passage and says this doesn't seem to fit this seems like it doesn't fit with the New Testament basically takes issue with this passage as.
If it is somehow in congruent with the Gospel but this is actually a part of the proclaimed Gospel that we have heard over and over again there is wrath coming there is Judgment for sin John 3 where we get for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life it goes on to say this right after that whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not.
See life but the wrath of God remains on him or Colossians 3 when it lifts off sin and rebellion and it says on account of these the wrath of God is coming or Romans 59 since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God Jesus saves us from sin and saves us from the wrath of God the just wrath of God on sin and this picture of Jesus conquering and judging is not in congruent with the Gospel it is what makes the Gospel.
So gloriously beautiful that we deserve destruction that we deserve to be destroyed and crushed struck and that Jesus was crushed and struck that Jesus is the one who paid the penalty of sin so that we might have hope and we might be saved from the wrath of God there is wrath coming and those who trust the son will be saved but he is coming with wrath to judge and to make war verse 20 uh verse 19 and I saw the Beast and the kings of the Earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army we we saw this.
When we were looking at the bowls now it's been some weeks but I don't think it's been much time in the Book of Revelation we're in the day of the Lord we're in his judgment being poured out and we saw that the people of Earth are not remorseful they hate him they've gathered to make war on him that it's obvious that he's revealing himself and their response is not begging for mercy but Waring against against him and so they've gathered to make war and he's come to make war.
Verse 20 and the Beast was captured and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image now we've talked about this a good bit the Beast is a representation of all the king kingdoms of Earth that exalt themselves against the glory of God and the false prophet is the false religions and the soft power and the love of money and all these things that exalt themselves against the glory of.
God it does seem like there may be a full culmination personified at the very end but the Beast and the false prophet are captured these two were thrown alive into the Lake of Fire that burns with sulfur and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse and all the birds were gorged with their flesh he has an army behind him but he's the one who slays here's the headline the Beast and the false prophet are defeated.
Jesus is Victorious all of the full culmin culmination of the glory of humanity that raises itself against the knowledge of God all of our love of wickedness all of our Rebellion all of our systems that that we've set up to to glorify ourselves and to rebel against him all of our governments all of our power all of our wealth all of it all of our false worship is destroyed is removed and all those who have followed and trusted in that are slain they have risen against Christ and been utterly defeated.
But he's not done he keeps going then I saw an angel coming down from heaven okay now it it is unclear when we're in the Book of Revelation some what is sequential and what is sometimes it's not what happens next it's what he sees next now it's quite possible this is sequential and he's just seeing this and it's actually playing out in time it's also possible that he's being seen he's seeing different things that are happening at different times but he says.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain and he seized the dragon that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the Nations any longer until the thousand years were ended after that he must be released for a little while it's a couple of things we need to touch on one I want you to.
See that the two times that Satan has been he was cast out of Heaven once by Michael he's thrown into a pit once by another angel I think sometimes we have in our mind that Satan is somehow on the level with Christ he is not he is not he does not find his is equal in a member of the trinity in the Son of God he does not when he is grabbed and taken places it's it's accomplished by Angels he's bound and placed in the abyss in the pit.
For a thousand years and it's sealed over him now this is where we get the idea of the Millennium people will talk about the thousand year reign or they'll talk about the Millennium Millennium is just this word uh translated into English we spent some time on this if you're suddenly very very excited we spent some time on this in our uh Revelation training weekend and we did that because we didn't want to read passages like this and not talk about them.
But we also didn't want to spend a ton of time on it on a Sunday morning so if you're interested in the Millennium and views on the Millennium our training weekend is recorded and online and I will also happily talk to you about it actually very excitedly talk to you about it because I'm thoroughly enjoying studying The Book of Revelation and going through all of this I will not excitedly talk to you about it this morning because I want to make sure we.
See the main parts of what's Happening Here I will tell you that there are several views on the Millennium that are faithful to the Scriptures that are held by people who love Jesus who are taking the Bible seriously there's premillennialism which says that Christ returns prior to the Millennium and the Millennium is a literal 1,000-year Reign on on Earth there is a millennialism pre meaning that Christ comes before that's where pre comes from a means no amillennialism just means there is no literal Millennium they're going to read this as uh a spiritualized picture of what is happening a recapitulation which we've seen a couple times in the Book of Revelation it's not out of sync.
With the text it does not take this as literally as premillennialists take it they're going to basically say that Satan is bound at the cross and that he used to have control over all the nations and the Gospel now he's been bound in such a way that the Gospel can spread to all the nations it used to just be the Jewish people and everybody else didn't believe now the Gospel can spread to All Nations so they're going to hold that he's Bound in some ways.
But not bound in other ways and that this Resurrection is taking place when people place their faith in Jesus that it happens spiritually and then later it'll happen physically then there's a thing called New Creation millennialism which is trying to bridge some of the gaps on some of the difficulties between some of those interpretations we're going to read a little more I will point out a few more things about those as we go but we're not going to spend a ton of time on those.
And if you're interested in like I said are some of you have already glazed over some of you are annoyed that I'm not going to keep talking it is what it is then I saw Thrones this is verse four and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed that's all it says about them so you might say well who are those who who's that those to whom the authority to judge was committed that's what the text tells us there's some speculation that we won't talk about there are there are Thrones and he sees those to whom the authority of the judge was committed also I saw the souls of those.
Who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshiped the Beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years the rest of the Dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended this is the first Resurrection blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection over such the.
Second death has no power but they will be Priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years now there's a whole lot of things that we could look in at that but Jesus Christ resurrects his Church those who belong to him are brought to life this is what he says in John 6 that anybody who believes in him he'll ra raised them up on the last day that he raises up the Church this is what we read together that the perishable will put on the imperishable I don't know.
If you've noticed this but your body isn't the best I know it's weird for me to have to be the one to break that to you but it fights you it falls apart it doesn't hold up the way you want it to there are things about yourself that don't work properly could be your eyesight your Mobility your digestion I don't know but you've got some problems recently I got btis in my elbow which is it's just from using my elbow it's it's like I was using my elbow to do stuff.
And then my elbow was like don't like that I'm going to make you pay for it it's like what is that have you been talking to my knees did they get you in on this but it's so far beyond that sort of stuff y'all our bodies war against us and our flesh Wars against us such that we desire sin so that we spend our days fighting against our own desires so that we can try to keep our heart close to the.
Lord that we try to keep in step with the spirit that we are at war against ourselves and and against Decay and against the work of sin as far as the curse is found that it's run through existence and there is a day when we'll hear the trumpet and the voice of our King and we will rise and in in a moment in the twinkling of an eye the perishable will put on the imperishable and we will reign with the King that all that we've struggled against all that we've failed in all that we've fallen short in will be gone in a blink.
Jesus Christ the Victor raises his Church to be victorious with him verse 7 and when the thousand years are ended Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the Nations that are at the Four Corners of the earth Gog and Magog which is a direct reference to Ezekiel chapter 38 that's where Gog and Magog come from to gather them from B for battle their number is like the sand of the sea and they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the Saints and the Beloved City.
But fire came down from heaven and consumed them and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the Lake of Fire and sulfur where the Beast and the false prophet were and they will be tormented and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever okay real quick if there's a literal Thousand-Year Reign on earth like a new Eden as the premillennialist would hold and they have Credence in the text to do that one of the questions that comes to them is.
Then who are these people that come wage war against the Saints and they have to try to answer that and they give some answers but that's one of the tensions that they have in this text the amillennialists don't have this tension they just say this is a recap of what we just read where he fights against the beast at the in chapter 19 that he's bound and then at the end of all things the the control that he has he's released back out to lie and to cause problems.
But the problem they have is that he is both deceiving and not allowed to deceive at the same time which is confusing they also have a problem with the fact that they're going to T say that Resurrection earlier is spiritual not literal but everywhere else it's used in the Bible it's literal they're also going to say that came to life the first time it's mentioned means spiritually and it came to life the second time it's mentioned means literally and I recently read someone who was interacting with that idea and they said it's the exact same phrase with the exact same words.
And if you want me to believe it means this here and and something else down here then words have no meaning throw your Bible away which I thought was an aggressive way to argue against that but they were just saying there's some problems with how you're interpreting this text New Creation millennialism says there actually is a creation and that when Satan is released from the abyss so are all those who have been placed in the abyss and that is who comes with him to wage war which is interesting.
But it's a new idea and people are trying to try to see if the next holds that up and we'll bear that weight but as you can see there are things that are good and uh that each one of those views has to answer I have one that I lean towards but you can hold different views here and still be faithful and I would encourage you to go check out our um training weekend on it but to get in all of that is to miss the point.
But did y'all hear what just happened they marched up over the broad plane of the earth Sur rounded the camp of the Saints the Beloved City but fire came down from heaven and consumed them it wasn't even close they're gone in half a verse and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the Lake of Fire and sulfur where the Beast and the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever Satan is defeated Jesus is Victorious and as a pastor I sit with people who are under spiritual assault who are being lied to who are walking in fear as the enemy has been at work to harm them.
And there's a day when he doesn't get to do anything anymore except for suffer there's a day when his power is broken his lies are gone his influence is gone his authority is gone and he is subject fully in torment before Christ and His glory that all the fullness of the rebellion of humanity is destroyed and Satan himself is crushed he who has been the enemy of God since the beginning since the garden and who has worked to ruin everything and to take as many captive as possible he is torment Ed day and night forever and ever to the glory and the Conquering King Christ to his exaltation and his Praise.
Jesus is Victorious but he's not done verse 11 then I saw a great white throne and him who was Seated on it from his presence Earth Earth and Sky fled away and no place was found for them what picture that for a moment he sees a throne and then he just says and everything R it just ceases to it runs away so that at this moment the only thing that exists the central existence the all existing one is the throne and him who Seated on him everything else is just it's him reality has come to bear and I saw the dead Great and Small standing Before the Throne and books were opened the dead Great.
And Small kings queens famous people wealthy people powerful people people all the popes AA the Hun Jeff Bezos every big famous person and then every person who tears ticket stubs was enslaved nobody knows her name nobody pays any attention to him all all the dead Great and Small are before the Lord and books were opened so then now there's books then another book was open so we have books and we have another book it's it's going to be real pertinent here in a minute books were opened with a lot of books.
And then another book that stands out as distinct from those books then another book was opened which is The Book of Life this is referenced several times it was referenced uh earlier in Book of Revelation as the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain Revelation 13 the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain so there's the Book of Life the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain and so there are books and the Book of Life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done and the Sea gave up the Dead who were in it death.
Hades gave up the Dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done so the books declare the Deeds of all those great and small we'll come back to that in a minute verse 14 then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire this is the second death the Lake of Fire so earlier it said those who were resurrected in the first resurrection the second death has no hold over them they will not taste the.
Second death which is eternal destruction in the Lake of Fire eternal torment forever and ever but did y'all see what just happened Jesus through his authority and his victory and his power kills death conquers death death and Hades are thrown into the Lake of Fire death is no more the rain of death is gone in the past month in my family and our Church family there's been death in your life and in your relationships there's been death your entire life life the shadow of death clings to you like your own shadow it's.
So much of what we choose to do or not do is because death lingers on the periphery so much of how we interact with other people how we live how we treat our children is because death is somehow always just at the edge of our sight and every time death comes near there's something in us that says this isn't how this is supposed to be and there's something in us that hates death and can I tell you that Jesus does too and that one day death is destroyed death is conquered death is brought into full subjection into under him who is life that death has no more sting and no more Sway and no more.
Hold and no more power that death might get me unless Jesus returns death will but that as Christians we can face death and we can say you might get me but he's going to raise me up and then he's going to get you death is destroyed Jesus is Victorious and that is glorious wonderful news and for all of us who've tasted the bitterness of death there's a hope of a conquering King who rides in on a white horse and Justice is served.
But I want you to see verse 15 and I want us to consider these books as we finish up our time verse 15 says this if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life he was thrown into the Lake of Fire so the Lake of Fire which is reserved for the devil and his angels the Lake of Fire where the Beast goes where the Prophet goes where Satan goes where death goes everyone whose name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life is thrown into the Lake of Fire.
So there are books and then there's another book which is The Book of Life which means that in all the other books there was not found anything sufficient to save all the other books hold your deeds and your Deeds this you'll be there by the way I don't know where you'll fall on the greatness or the smallness scale but you'll be there and all the books that will record and display your Deeds are sufficient to condemn but not sufficient to save.
If you'll think about it and you'll think about your life that makes perfect sense if someone followed you throughout your days just to see if you broke US law eventually they have enough evidence to convict of some infraction if your mom followed you around to see if you broke her rules eventually she would find evidence to convict but God who oversees the entire world and has put in place things like truth and beauty and goodness and love we have effectively in our rebellion and our sin and our lack of faith given all the data we need all the evidence needed to condemn.
But nobody using those books is saved so there are books that record your deeds and if you know your deeds and understand that yes if God were to open that up and you were to stand before the king of kings in his glorious might as he is Seated on the throne and your Deeds were to be read you know the feeling of Shame and regret and fear that you would feel good there's a greater danger for you which is the danger the Pharisees were always in which is to long.
For this day and say I can't wait till he reads the book and sees how great I am oh I can't wait till that day comes and he reads the books of my deeds and he he applauds me and says how wonderful I am Jesus tells them there in far greater danger that Pride before the Lord is much more dangerous that they would they would believe that they are sufficient in themselves so for us to look at this and go if my Deeds are read I'm in trouble yes and you need to know that.
If you think you aren't you're in more trouble but y'all there's another book that's not about what we've done but about what he's done there's a book called The Book of the life of the Lamb who was slain and it and only it and him and only him are sufficient to save so they read your deeds and then they just see do you belong to Jesus then none of it sticks because the debts been paid there is no condemnation there is no judgment that befalls those who are in Christ and everything bad becomes untrue there is no more human human rebellion and false worship there is no more enemy there is no more death there.
Is joy and salvation and hope with Christ because of the work of Jesus and the lamb that was slain Jesus is Victorious he conquers all our enemies 1 Corinthians 15:20 says this but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for as by a Man Came Death by a man has come also the resurrection of the Dead for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order Christ the first fruits then it is coming those who belong to Christ then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every Rule and every Authority and power for he must Reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet The Last Enemy to be destroyed is death for God has put all things in subjection under his feet amen let's pray Jesus we thank you for your Victory we praise you as the supreme ruler over all things you are king of kings.
Lord of lords and may we rejoice in the hope of the victory to come and may we endure in the hope of the victory to come all praise to your name amen the band is going to come we're going to sing and we're going to take communion where we celebrate as a foraste what Jesus has accomplished where we celebrate that his blood was shed for us that he came in humility and we long for the day that he returns in Victory We Stand between those two moments in history Jesus's sacrificed.
For us and Jesus's coming exalt a and rain and if you have not placed your faith in Jesus if you not trusted in him if you know that you would stand before him and those books would be read and they would just be sufficient to condemn but your name would not be in the Lamb's Book of Life because you have not surrendered and asked for mercy and help and I would say do that now ask for Grace now ask for Mercy.
Now ask for hope now ask for salvation now if you know some of the things that would be in the book of your Deeds that would condemn you ask Christ to cover them by his blood so that on this day you might Rejoice with the Saints in new life rather than stand in rejection of God's salvation and carry the weight of your own condemnation but for those of us in the room who've trusted in Christ may we joyously celebrate that his blood covers Us that his body was broken.
For us and that we have a hope hope and a future held secure in him and then may we sing together as we fix our eyes just for a moment on what is to come.
Revelation 19:6-10
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Is Spencer and I'm one of the pastors here we are been moving through big chunks of the Book of Revelation uh like last week we went through two chapters and some change today we get to kind of camp out in five verses which I'm excited about we're in Revelation chapter 19: 6-1 I am uh bear with me this morning I'm getting over some funk that's been going around so I have no idea what's going to come out of this voice but I'm sure it'll be lovely I um I love weddings uh weddings are a lot of fun I love The Angst of the moment uh that's you can just.
See bound up in the groom when he walks out I don't think I've ever seen a groom that's not just nervous because the weight of the moment is just so big and then when the do is open and his lovely bride is walking down the aisle the joy in both of their eyes and just the excitement and really the naivity of the pure joy which is what the way it's supposed to be and there just excitement um I love the vows that they take.
When I do weddings I do serious vows um because it's a serious moment and uh even if I'm performing this ceremony like I I I tell everyone and I myself reflect upon like my own vows that's a moment to remember the Covenant of marriage and how uh important it is to honor this Covenant um I love wedding receptions um I appreciate weddings that that do receptions well and have really good food um you know I I mean I do I got I'm went to a wedding that had endless shrimp cocktail and it's like yes absolutely just non-stop just quietly going back and forth trying to not get as much judgment that like I've murdered this.
Shrimp cocktail spread I love we're in the South so if you've got a good quality mac and cheese that's well done uh if you have uh a good spread of meats I really appreciate that I love weddings to have good food and good drink and really responsible wedding parties that can enjoy the moment but aren't sloppy and just can be responsible adults having fun um I love dancing I'm not the uh I'm not the first out on the floor kind of guy never have been that's just not my role in the party.
But but I do enjoy uh uh dancing with my wife as we get to go and have fun I enjoy wedding anthems Don't Stop Believing Mr bright side shout like just I mean I I so love it I love when they leave like I just love the seeing them excitedly going out on this adventure uh I love weddings I don't think I'm alone in this I think it's a widely accepted experience that most people enjoy good weddings and that's true in this culture that's true.
If you look at weddings and cultures across the world that's true when you look throughout history that in every age like weddings when they're written about no matter what year it is what century it is like weddings are are a joyous event they are some of the best versions of humanity this side of Eternity therefore it should come as no surprise that a wedding is one of the most joyfill hopeful themes that runs throughout the Scriptures from Genesis into Revelation let me read our text.
For today Revelation 19: 6 and following then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the Roar of many Waters and like the sound of mighty peels of Thunder crying out Hallelujah for the Lord Our God the Almighty Reigns let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous Deeds of the Saints and the angel said to me write this blessed are those who were invited to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to.
Me these are the true words of God then I fell down at his feet to worship him but he said to me you must not do that I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy what sometimes gets missed is this great theme that goes from Genesis to reev ation so much so that uh the buildup to this is is often missed the the theme that this is and Bible nerds will call this a motif that's the word Motif it's just a grand theme that flows from Genesis to Revelation that has this one grand theme that.
Kind of flows throughout the entire story and if you if you don't understand the buildup to this and you just jump into Revelation without understanding the backstory you you miss how beautiful and how wonderful this moment is it was be like just starting with the second Lord of the Rings movie and then all of a sudden an old man just pops out in the forest you're like oh they're excited to see him that's nice but you admiss that that's Gandalf and in the last movie he died this is a really big deal.
So without the backstory you miss how big that moment is and that's what if you don't understand the backstory that goes into this joyous wonderful event that all of the Scriptures are looking forward to you miss it so that's I want to do today I want to fill in the backstory I want to walk from Genesis to Revelation and just kind of go through from old into the New Testament to see this grand theme of this love story that plays out throughout the Scriptures and my hope is is that as we walk through this by the end of it we would understand the gravity of this moment and it would make us fall more in.
Love with our savior for who he is and what he's done for us so I'm going to pray for us and then we'll walk through this together heavenly father I thank you for this picture that the Church has longed for for so long God I pray that you'd help us understand how big this is and that we would aim and Orient Our Lives to get that wedding Altar and we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so we're going to start in Genesis chapter 2.
God uh makes Adam and he sees that it's not good that Adam is alone so he forms Eve from the rib of Adam and then brings them together in the first marriage and this is what God pronounces about their marriage in Genesis chapter 2 he says therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed so we get the creation of marriage as a gift to humanity and there's a lot of theology as in what's what's the point of marriage and there's lots of different purposes it's a partner it's a.
Partner for Holy intimacy it's a partner for the rearing of children for the building of families for the building of societies there's a lot that goes into this and then all of a sudden when you get to chapter three this beautiful Harmony that they enjoy is disruptive when the enemy Satan the form of a serpent comes into the garden and lures and entices them into rejecting finding satisfaction in their God by satisfying themselves in lesser things and then all of a sudden sin comes into the world through sin through their Rebellion against.
God through their rejection of God through trusting the word of the enemy over God sin enters into the world but it also enters into their marriage and strife begins so much so that the very first actions really after this some of the very first things that are said Adam blames Eve he says it's her fault it's this one you put with me and you see Strife begin and that trickles down into the rest of humanity and affects marriages even into today.
But if you read the rest of the Scriptures just keep going through the Old Testament it you don't really see much more about marriage other than it's just a part of society it's a part of families it's just part of the building up of the nation of God it's just a it's just it's a building block but by the time that you get to the prophets in the Old Testament we start to see something that marriage is actually a picture it's actually pointing to something bigger than just the horizontal relationship between husband and wife.
When you get to Isaiah 54 verse 5 God who is consoling his people who are enduring and going to endure more trials and are going to suffer more in Isaiah 55 54:5 he says for your maker is your husband the Lord of hosts is his name and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer the God of the whole earth he is called and we get this picture here where it says your maker God is your husband that this Covenant relationship that.
God has with his people is like that of a husband the Lord and his wife his people and you get this picture of marriage that points to something bigger that this is God and his people in this Covenant relationship together so much so that it's got this the Lord of hosts is his name the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer it's this this language of he's the husband who defends and strengthens and upholds his wife it's picturesque I mean there.
If you've if you've been in marriage long enough you know at some point one of you is going to struggle and one of you is going to uh to be in a season where you're just not okay and in Christian marriage by the power of the Holy Spirit the spouse who is doing a little bit better gets to by not his or her own strength but the strength of the Lord uphold and help carry through their spouse through the other side of it and that's this picture here of.
God he's he's I'm your Redeemer I'm your husband I'm going to I'm going to be with you I'm going to help you get through this and we see that marriage is is bigger than just husband and wife and this theme continues in Isaiah 62:5 on the back part of verse 5 it says and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride so shall your God Rejoice over you you and we get another picture here that the Lord he says like a groom who rejoices over his bride like a new husband who's just excited about his bride.
And if you if you've been there you've seen this it's it's wonderful I mean to see a husband who's just excited to be married and he's excited about his his new wife I remember when I first got married uh back in the day on Facebook they had this uh uh in the About Me section they had these activities so in college I had all these activities I don't remember what they were but I'm sure they were profound um and I had all these activities.
And when I got married I deleted all of them I just put marriage cuz I was that excited I like I'm just I'm married in the whole first year of marriage all I can do is talk about and that's that's a that Zeal that Joy that's what the Lord has over his people right he loves his people he's zealous for his people he rejoices es over his people what a wonderful picture of our God that those who belong to him he rejoices over them he celebrates them he's excited about them and that's the picture that.
God has for his people this deep Fierce love that is profound and it is precisely why when his people reject God why the response is so intense and so fierce in judgment that when the people of God re reject their maker reject their Covenant husband reject God for lesser Idols you get passages like Ezekiel 16 you look through the chapter of Ezekiel 16 I'm just going to pick out a few parts of it but God is addressing how they've forsaken him.
For forign idols and in verse 8 it says when I passed by you again and saw you behold you were at the age of age for love and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you declares the Lord God and you became mine just look at that of just how how much God loves us how much God loves his people and he says I I covered you with the corn of my garment it's this deep love that.
God has for his people pitted against verse 15 and 16 what happens he says but you trusted in your beauty and played the because of your Renown and lavished your whings on any pass her by your beauty became his you took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines and on them played the the like has never been nor ever shall be and you get this picture of marriage which was this love story that turns into a tragedy because the people of.
God have worshiped Idols in the place of God and and what they were doing is is a lot of times you think oh just how silly it is to bow down to W an object it's like that actually they they didn't un they didn't look at this wood an object that's just that's what I'm bowing down to this was an object that represented the God of Baal who provides rain for the fields and fertility and I'm not getting what I want from.
God here so I'm going to run to this God instead I'm going to go to Ashera pole instead I'm going to go to these foreign Gods who can provide for me and God is saying you play the horror you've gone to other things you've reject that's the all the language we've seen in Revelation so far and this spiritual adultery it's from the prophets and it's this picture of a rejection of God by the time you get to the prophet of Hosea in Hosea chapter 1.
God raises up the prophet Hosea to literally be a living Parable and he tells them that you're going to marry a a promiscuous woman and she's going to you're going to have children you'll build a family and a life with this promiscuous woman and she's going to cheat on you and your life will be a living Parable for what the people of God have done to me in Hosea 1:2 it says when the Lord first spoke through Hosea the Lord said to Hosea go take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom.
For the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord and the life of Hosea is this picture of God who loves and pursues and yet the people reject and they run to idols and lesser things and then this continues all the way to Malachi chapter 2 at the very end of the Old Testament yeah that was not enough not enough when you get to chapter 2 verse 11 at the end of the Old Testament it says Judah has been faithless and an Abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem.
For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign God and the Old Testament closes with this theme of of marriage pointing to this bigger reality and it this marriage is in disrepair the people of God have not remained faithful no matter how much God loved them no matter how much God blessed them no matter how much God protected them over and over again they say no I want this instead of you no I'd rather have this way instead of your ways and there's this longing as the people continue to Rebel as they continue to cheat.
And if you ever seen or endured cheating or adultery it's bad enough it's painful enough in the act itself but it's so much worsened when the person says yeah you caught me but guess what I don't care I'm going to keep going with this person cuz I don't want you and that's what's happened the people of God keep rebelling they keep running to other things instead of God and there's this longing for the marriage to be fixed for something to happen.
And then a prophet in Nazareth begins to preach and that is when the restoration of This Love Story begins when Jesus begins his ministry the Pharisees criticize him and his followers for not fasting and Jesus responds but he uses a very some very specific language and in Mark 2:19 it says and Jesus said to them can the wedding guest fast while the bridegroom is with them and he uses very specific language because he calls himself the bridegroom he's the groom and he says can can they fast.
When I the groom are with them he's using the language that's been pulled throughout the Scriptures in the prophets to say the groom is here and he's coming for his bride and then John the Baptist who at this point realizes that his work is done John the Baptist speak speaking in John 3 says the one who has the bride is the bridegroom the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice therefore this Joy of mine is.
Now complete he must increase but I must decrease and John the Baptist ends his ministry by exalting Christ he's like I'm I'm the best man my job is here he is he's here the the the groom has come and I'm I'm taking a step back now and then Jesus continues this in some other Parables he teaches about this wedding Feast that is to come and he pictures this wedding Feast that's going to include not just uh the people of God that were the Jewish people.
But also the Nations and you get all of this language that gets pulled throughout the rest of the New Testament but then you get to Ephesians 5 which gives us really the fullest clearest picture of what this love story was all about now when you read Ephesians 5 a lot of attention is paid to uh the roles that God tells of husbands and wives where God tells the husband to love your wife as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up.
For her and a lot of times when we're teaching this like husbands you were to lay down your life like Christ did sacrificially for your wife it's the sacrificial love and then he looks at wives and he says wives submit to your husbands whe it's just this picture of your husband is meant to lead the home you're meant to follow him and we teach this that wives you should follow the lead of your husband this is the picture of the design of marriage and a lot of attention rightfully.
So gets paid to that but there's something bigger that's happening in Ephesians 5 by the time you get to the end of Ephesians 5 it's very clear in Ephesians 5: 31-32 at the end of this passage it says Paul referencing Genesis 2 says therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so he quotes Genesis 2 and then he says this this mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.
So marriage is about this one flesh partnership it is about holy intimacy and marriage it is about the raising of children it is a building block for families it is a building block for societies but that's not the biggest part that's not the main thing marriage was and is and is always pointing to something bigger the bigger love story of Christ Jesus and his bride the Church that's what marriage is and that is why I'd argue that for every Century throughout time marriage in every culture has been this joyous event whether the people know why or not there is a reason why weddings are.
So joyous it is because it points to the most beautiful relationship God and his people Jesus Christ and the Church that he claims I mean goodness you read you read Revelation 19 and it's this picture of Christ being united with his bride and this wedding and then literally what Chad's going to walk through next week he slays the dragon so he gets the girl and he slays the dragon that is the basis for every classic tale you know why because it's based on the biggest love story that has ever existed.
God and his Church that's what this was always about now now now that you know the backstory let's read this text again in Revelation Chapter 19 Verse 6 then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the Roar of many Waters and like the sound of many of Mighty peels of Thunder crying out Hallelujah there's this this unbelievable rejoicing like if you watched the the game last night the yeah woo yeah that stadium was shaking and that's got nothing compared to this.
When this thunder peels of Thunder crying out Hallelujah for the Lord Our God the Almighty Reigns let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory and we've seen this type of rejoicing so much in the Book of Revelation because judgment is coming but that's not what it's only about there's this rejoicing because finally ever since the longing in the garden it is going to be fixed Jesus Christ is going to wet his Church it says for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready like a bride who's done all the right steps who has been faithful to wait in and engagement and is.
Now clothed herself in the white linen cloths of Purity and is now ready to receive her groom the bride is ready to receive Jesus verse 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous Deeds of the Saints and the picture here is twofold the righteousness is the is the picture here clothes the Church first by no work of Our Own It says it was granted to her and the good news of the Gospel is that though we don't deserve it.
Jesus Christ through faith in him bestows his righteousness upon us every good deed and perfect work of Christ is placed upon us I love what RC Sproul says he says Adam said don't blame me blame my wife the second Adam Jesus said don't blame my wife blame me that's the Gospel y'all that Jesus says don't blame the Church I will go to the cross I the sacrificial lamb will have my blood shed for her I will give her my righteousness no I'll take the blame.
So the first part of this is a God who comes for his bride and rescues her and prepares her with righteousness not of their own but the second part of this it says the fine Lin is the righteous Deeds of the Saints So within this when we believe the Gospel we live out the Gospel and we endure and the works that he's the the workmanship that he's created for us Ephesians 2 and we remain faithful in endurance and the these two come together in this beautiful wonderful picture as the bride of Christ has made herself ready.
Verse 9 and the angel said to me write this blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to me these are the true words of God blessed are those who invited oh the day that that's going to be listen I don't I don't know what this Feast is going to be like I'm acing dream about it I can picture it but the only thing I've got are are the best wedding experiences I piece together where it's like oh you had this beautiful ceremony you had this beautiful reception with this amount of food and and this and I I could piece all of these together and I'm like.
Oh man but none of those quite capture what is coming this eternal feast and celebration that happens like we can't quite imagine how it's going to be every wonderful picture of love love that we have here it's a pale comparison to what awaits us and it's this wonderful picture that John is losing his mind on so much so that in verse 10 it says then John says I fell down at his feet to worship him but he said to me you must not do that I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of.
Jesus the angel says no you you have misunderstood this this he says no worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy so John loses his mind a little bit he gets corrected here but it's just this joyfill event the wedding between God and his people that will be eternally satisfying when the kingdom is finally consummated the people of God will get to behold God to be so known by him in the perfected state that awaits us and to know him that that intimate language of knowing and being known that's what that's what awaits the Church of.
Jesus Christ and that love is so overwhelming and it's so sad because so much of this life is stumbling around trying to find what we think is the purest form of love people are looking for I'm I'm just looking for the one meaning they've looking for uh this romantic uh person or I'm looking for the purest form of friendship or I'm so deeply wanting the affection of my children I want the affection of my superiors and we're looking for all these forms of love.
Jesus says it's me it's me I'm the one your soul needs I'm the one that ultimately completes you I'm the one that ultimately satisfies you it's me no person a friend no human can satisfy this longing and we just don't understand how we just we can't conceptualize how wonderful that love is DL Moody was a was a preacher in the 19th century in Chicago in the Great Fire of 1871 in Chicago that burnt down quite a bit of Chicago DL Moody's Church was burnt to the ground his home was burnt to the ground and most of his Church their homes were burnt to the ground.
So utterly devastated imagine that this place burning to the ground all your pastor's homes burning to the ground and most of your homes burning to the ground completely devastated and he was in this deep dark depression and suffering longing in the darkness and he said that in this day this this this this this time of prayer when he was immersed in prayer seeking the Lord the lord gave him a glimpse of this heavenly love that awaits us gave him just a a slice of this love that we're going to experience in Christ in eternity and he says I cannot describe it I seldom refer to it it is almost too sacred an experience to name.
He goes on to say I can only say that God revealed himself to me and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand and it's like he caught a glimpse of this unbelievably Purity that this pure form of love that was so satisfying and so overwhelming that he just said I had to ask him just to stop because he's not in the glorified state yet in our in our sinful State I just I I just can't quite take it yet and it's just we we don't understand what kind of love that is we don't understand what kind of intimacy that is we don't understand what.
Kind of Union that is but that's held out for us if we just endure in the engagement because that's where we're in right now we're in the period of Engagement and we have to endure and the problem for us is that we're not good at that that we will take the Lesser things now we're like the person that goes to the best concert like whatever that is for you the Aras tour Eagles in the 80s like what fill in the blank whatever that is.
Okay and you go to the concert that you're so excited about and all of a sudden the opening band comes out and they're just mediocre so like have you ever been to a concert where there's so mediocre that the people are talking louder than they're playing and it's just finish up but you look at that and you say I did it I finally saw the best there is and I'm going home and you pack up and you leave before the main event that's how foolish we are in this life to be.
So I mean CS Lewis was so right we are far too easily pleased to worship lesser things to put our hope and satisfaction in lesser things part of remembering the Gospel is remembering the end that there is a day coming where a final Feast awaits us and yes the engagement is long but the weight is worth it the weight is worth it faithfulness is worth it and on that day I promise you if you wait if you remain faithful you will not regret the road that it took to get there.
But we must endure brothers and sisters we must endure we make the aim of our entire lives to make it to that altar we make it the aim of our entire lives to make it to that feast and yes we are going to struggle everyone who has chosen to follow Christ and has struggled I'm telling you is going to be worth it those of you who have consistently uh denied those persistent fleshly Earthly desires within you and you've chosen to believe that.
Jesus is better over and over again I'm telling you the weight is worth it those of you that have chosen to not build kingdoms of sand here kingdoms of Earthly Pleasures here and comfort here but you have leveraged your life to build into the Eternal kingdom of God you have given yourself away your time your talents your money to see the Gospel go forward because you are investing in the great feast and the satisfaction that awaits you it will be worth it those of you that have risked your relational capital in your workplace or in your homes or in your neighborhoods or with your friends to share the Gospel and it's made you.
Look weird but you so desperately want to see those people in your lives at that wedding Feast I'm telling you it is going to be worth it those of you that have chosen obedience obedience down some of the most difficult paths that you would have never chosen personally but God said you are going down that road and you said by faith I will go it will have been worth it those of you that have chosen chosen to not settle for an Earthly marriage with someone who does not love.
Jesus and you are getting older and it may be singleness for the rest of your days but you have chosen to remain faithful because you know that you have a husband who is much better you have a savior that you will await that is much better and you will Faithfully endure putting all of your hope for intimacy all of your hope for completion all of your hope for longing in that day it will be worth the wait those of you that are enduring right.
Now in a season of marriage that is difficult and right now you want to head for the door but you endure by faith remaining faithful because you know that your ultimate hope is not in a marriage here but it is the marriage that is to come those of you that have chosen to endure hard to endure the hardships of sharing the Gospel to go where God has told you to go even when it's difficult those of you that endured every single trial this world has to throw at you.
But you've said I will believe that Jesus is better at every step of the way it will be worth it because that day is coming that day is coming and that Eternal wedding Feast awaits us so endure endure endure because one day we will behold him for who he is we will walk down the aisle and it will all have been worth it and one of the ways we remember that is by taking the Lord's Supper the van's going to come up and we take this meal regularly.
For a reason because it is meant to remind us of what Jesus did for us on the cross that on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it and he said this is my body that was broken for you and he took the cup of the Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed for you that as long as you eat this you Proclaim my death which we remember what he did for us on the cross.
But it says until I return so the Lord's Supper is a meal of remembrance remembering both what Christ did on the cross for us that we did not deserve that he shed his blood for us so that we might secure the invitation to the wedding Feast that awaits us it is a meal of remembrance that looks back but also looks forward because it is a meal that points forward to the feast that awaits us so when you come to the table you're not just remembering the wonderful sacrifice of Christ.
But you remembering that faithfulness and endurance is worth it because that meal That Never Ends the day where I behold God in an intimacy that that I will never wrap my head around in this side of Eternity is worth it so it's a meal that strengthens you to endure you to fight to believe the Gospel and to endure so Christians come to the table joyfully remembering what this meal points to but if you are not a Christian if you not trusted in Christ as your only hope do not come to this table you need to run to Christ you need to believe that what he has.
For us is better than anything this world has to offer and humility right now you need to lay down your life Believe In Christ trust that his death will cover you so that one day you will Behold Him when you walk down the aisle but you must believe in him and my hope is that you would now let me pray Heavenly Father help us see how wonderful how powerful how beautiful the wedding Feast is that awaits us Lord help us by faith every day endure help us catch a glimpse oh.
Lord that we be be like DL Moody that we might catch a glimpse of your love that would be so overwhelming that we would have to ask you to stay your hand because it's just too much God we want that love to help us see that what awaits us is better so Lord reveal yourself in Jesus name amen.
Revelation 17-19:5
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 in Revelation chapter 17 and we're going to be going through 17 18 all the way into 19 uh today you can turn in your blue Bibles uh you can follow along on the screen as well but we got some quite a few verses to work through as we're getting closer to the end of uh working through this book before we jump in I want to play a quick game of would you rather would you rather be prosperous or would you rather struggle a few of you half halfhearted would you rather be comfortable or uncomfortable.
Okay would you rather be safe or at risk of danger okay would you rather drive a Tesla or a Prius the this it's an easy answer if you've been in the Church long enough you know you're Bob you're like oh I don't know if I should should I say comfortable is so good is good should I say that uh safe is better I think if we're honest there's an instinct in us that makes all of those answers fairly obvious it's not that any of those desires are bad in and of themselves it's not being comfortable or prosperous or safe is bad and of itself the problem is is is that often times those aren't directed.
Towards Christ or we'd find our comfort in him we find our provision in him we find our um prosperous in him we wouldn't uh seek other things we we we so quickly jump to those things as opposed to the Lord and finding those in him now that is built into human nature uh and there's a group of people that know that and they know that very well they're called politicians they just they know and every election cycle like the one we just went through plays upon those do do you want to be comfortable again do you want to be prosperous again do you feel unsafe and every four years some version of that shows up.
Over and over and over again it's playing into this this very human desire and when your side wins everyone's happy it's j ENT celebratory and if your side loses you're sad depressed I we saw that this week we saw that four years ago and happens every four years there's something within us some desires that are within us that are so easily displayed and what this few chapters in The Book of Revelation is going to do it's going to address those deep desires that have been in humanity.
For thousand thousands of years we're going to see what happens when those hopes uh are destroyed and my hope is is that we we will see the danger of what it means to be a Christian Living in a fallen world that plays to those desires and that we would respond in a way that we're supposed to and that God calls us to in faithfulness so I'm going to pray for us and then we'll walk through the text together hely father I pray that you might help us.
See what the Gospel saves us from and who it saves us to that we might not be people that are so influenced by the culture of our time that are molded and shaped into your image through your power so confront us in your word expose our desires so that we might respond in faith and in Repentance and and ultimately delighting in you over all created things we ask in Jesus name amen all right so we're going to start in verse one.
Then one of the Seven Angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me come I will show you the Judgment of the great prostitute who is Seated on many Waters again this is John in the vision the angel says come and I'm going to show you the next part of this vision and I'll show you the Judgment of the great prostitute who is Seated on the many Waters with whom the kings of the Earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the Dwellers of the Earth have become drunk and he carried me away in the in the spirit into a Wilderness and I saw a woman se s.
Sitting on a Scarlet Beast that was full of Blasphemous names and it had seven heads and 10 horns the woman was arrayed in purple and Scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and Pearls holding in her hand a golden cup full of Abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality and on her forehead was written the name of mystery Babylon the great mother of prostitutes and of Earth's Abominations so one of the things we saw a few weeks ago when we.
First were introduced to Babylon is that this language of sexual infidelity of immorality is actually pictures of idolatry this is language of the prophets of the Old Testament this is a picture of unfaithfulness but not wor worshiping the one true God by by worshiping created things in the place of God and the leader of this idolatrous worship of created over the Creator is called the Great prostitute the Harlot who is Seated on the many Waters and the Harlot here is Babylon.
Now when they hear Babylon they certainly know that a few centuries before this the nation of Babylon that once existed was a dominant power that dominated that region of the globe that had influence upon the Nations Financial dominance military dominance luring the people into their idolatrous practices so they would have known oh all about Babylon and how it existed but for these readers it would have been very clear to them that this isn't Babylon that he's talking about Rome he's talking about the Roman Empire.
Now as we've seen and as we've continued to talk through this that they in their context these seven churches we saw the very beginning receiving this letter are thinking Rome but we uh a few Millennia removed from this get to take a step back and see that this is not just Rome Babylon was an example of Rome and Rome ultimately is an example of all the kingdoms of the world that oppose the will of God that oppose his people and ultimately pointing forward to in the future some great Kingdom some great power that has this type of influence over the Nations.
Because as we're going to see in the moment the the streams of water that the The Prostitute is sitting upon those are the Nations that she has influence over and in her influence it's it's idolatry it's economic it's religious it's cultural and and it very much also is economic as we're going to see in a moment just like all roads led to Rome and through Rome all business in that time if you wanted to be prosperous it all went through the Roman Empire and all the kings of the Earth all the kings that the Romans ruled over all the kingdoms that parts of their Kingdom all them became prosperous off of the great prostitute the.
Harlot Babylon but here it's not just the Harlot it's not just the great prostitute she's sitting on a beast and it's the Beast with seven heads and 10 horns that we saw back in Revelation chap 13 and when Chad walked us through that then what we saw then was the Beast is representative of Rome which means we have two here that represent Rome we've got Babylon the Great prostitute and the Beast we have two different representations of Rome here and I would argue that the Beast is the military might of Rome the sword and power of Rome and the great prostitute is the economic cultural idolatrous influence of Rome and how both of those go.
Hand in hand together you've got political power you've got military power combined into one luring the Nations into rejecting the one true God and worshiping him and worshiping created things in the place of the Creator so the angel is helping us see this and this is why it's important if we don't see the danger of the Harlot if we become too comfortable with prosperity with comfort with safety then we'll find our comfort and safety living under the rain of a harlot and that's why it's important.
For every age of the Church as they've read this and the other problem here is the Harlot is not just in power but she's drunk off the martyred Saints and their blood as we pick it back up in verse six and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints the blood of the martyrs of Jesus this is all the Christians who were killed by the Roman Empire killed by the principalities and all the kingdoms that Rule and reign in a way that oppress Christians over the last 2,000 years that's the picture of what's Happening Here and he says.
When I saw her I marveled greatly but the angel said to me why do you Marvel I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the Beast with seven heads and 10 horns that carries her which when I read that at first I'm excited because I don't know if you've been studying this book I just want I want clarification all over the place can you please tell me what this means so when when I read that I get excited oh you're going to tell me what is it kind of verse eight the Beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.
And the Dwellers of the earth whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will Marvel to see the Beast because it was and is not and is to come so not as clear as I want it to be but he is doing something here we're told the Beast was and is not this hearkens back to Revelation CH 13 when the Beast received its mortal wound and I think what's Happening Here is this General picture of the work of the Enemy being hindered by the cross of.
Jesus Christ by the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the advancement of the Church that the work of the enemy is hindered so the Gospel spreads across the globe that's my best read on this that the Church has been persecuted and has continued to be persecuted but not fully in what is going to come in the future there's a greater more widespread persecution that will happen when the Beast rises from the bottomless pit when he's no longer hindered in the way that he has been and again I believe that's the enemy at work just as he a work at Rome just as the devil pulls the strings in the Roman Empire that we saw.
So clearly when we read the letters in uh chapter 2 and chapter 3 and it's evident in today as he pulls the strings behind every single government Force because he has dominion and reign on this Earth so my best read to Revelation this point is that they were thinking about Rome but again this is pointing forward to a romeike power that is going to come verse n this calls for a mind with wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated there are also seven Kings five of whom have fallen one is the other has not yet come.
And when he does come he must Ser he must remain only a little while okay there are moments in the Book of Revelation where theologians and different readers have very very different opinions on what's Happening Here and when I read some of these commentaries sometimes it feels like Choose Your Own Adventure because it's just I this one says this and this one says this because this is hard as we said apocalyptic Scripture is hard to interpret but there I think some things we can.
See here the Seven Mountains and the woman seem to be an illusion to Rome because Rome had Seven Hills and even a coin that was Meed around that time uh shows the woman on the Hills of Rome so this is picturesque of Rome and the economic power that it has in this region but then you get to okay well this is talking about Rome but then it says five of whom have fallen we've seen these Kings five of whom have fallen it's like.
Okay well what are you talking about and then you read one commentary and it says actually you know we can we can chart this out this was Julius Caesar and then Augustus and then Tiberius then Claudius and then Nero and now it's the emperor diishan and it's like maybe that seems like a good explanation and then you read another one and it says oh no no no this is bigger than just Kings this is whole Empires this is the Egyptians then the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks.
Now the Roman Empire and maybe I possibly and then there's this language of one that is not yet to come which is future looking and when I piece it all together I don't know that's where I land after studying this I like I don't know you can poke holes in a lot of those theories and then it just keeps going verse 11 it says As for the Beast that was and is not it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven and it goes to destruction and it's like.
Okay got some interesting theories on that all right keep going verse 12 and the and the ten horns that you saw are 10 Kings who have not yet received royal power but they are to receive Authority as kings for one hour together with the Beast these are of one mind and they hand over their power and authority to the Beast so we get a little bit of pictures here that we should be familiar with at this point in Revelation the 10 horns here is the language of Daniel 7 and some will.
Look at this and say okay maybe this is the 10 10 different kingdoms that Rome ruled over these client states that that Rome ruled over at the time or maybe it's 10 future kingdoms over also that are under this future great Empire and it's like I I honestly don't I don't know for sure but they rule together with the Beast now up to this point there a lot of things that I'm just like I don't know and we said the very beginning of the series there be some moments where it's like I don't know this is a good argument this is a good argument just depends on how you interpret it.
But then there are some things that show up that are so abundantly clear and verse 14 is one of those moments they talking about the beasts in these Empires the 10 horns they will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of lords and king of kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful and it's like I know exactly what that means that however this is going to unfold and however this is meant to be interpreted it is abundantly clear that.
Jesus wins we sang that song you've already won it is it is written that Jesus ultimately has Victory as the King of Kings at the L as the Lord of lords so however this is going to unfold Jesus ultimately wins which means that his Church the Christians who are chosen who belong to him will also share in that victory that no matter what persecution you're facing no matter what suffering you're enduring no matter hardships that you are facing you have victory in Christ it is written the lamb wins.
Verse 15 and the angel said to me the waters that you saw where the where the prostitute is seated are the peoples in multitudes and Nations and languages I referenced that earlier but that's the Seated on the waters this is the Nations the langu the all the nations all the peoples verse 16 and the 10 horns that you Soul they and the beasts will hate The Prostitute which is a bit of a plot twist because now we see that the Beast hates the Harlot continue they will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire.
For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over the royal power to the Beast and until the words of God are fulfilled and the woman that you saw in the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth so the Beast hates the Harlot the Beast hates this great prostitute and ultimately will be devoured by the 10 horns by the 10 kingdoms more directly Babylon which could be seen as Rome which we.
See as this future Kingdom that has lured the people in to idolatrous worship that has dominated economically one day it's going to cave in on itself by God's Sovereign will and the Beast will destroy this great prostitute so that's the end of chapter 17 then we get this shift into both celebration at the fall of Babylon and mour at the fall of Babylon we're about to read is actually Poetic Justice very literally this is poetically written to show the justice that is coming down and what we're about to read feels a little bit like a courtroom drama have you ever seen a verdict that is handed down in a very emotional emotionally Laden case where.
This man is convicted of murdering this woman and there's tension because you don't know how it's going to be decide and all of a sudden the verdict is read guilty and on one side you've got this joyous celebratory I mean people will literally shout in a courtroom with joy they will hug and they will Cry tears of joy and they will they will they will say hallelujah they are excited the justice has fallen down but then on the other side of the courtroom you've got mourning you've got lament you've got sadness and that's chapter 18 in ver in chapter 19 that we're about to.
See is that when Babylon Falls you have two responses here and we're going to see both of them starting in verse one after this I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great Authority and the Earth was made bright with his glory so John sees another part of the vision in verse two and it says and he called out with a mighty voice this great Angel Fallen Fallen is Babylon the Great this is this is a joyful Herald the victory is happened that Babylon has fallen it's Fallen Fallen it's Babylon the great she has become a dwelling place.
For demons a haunt for every unclean Spirit a haunt for every unclean bird a haunt for every unclean and detestable Beast for all nations have drunk the wine of The Passion of her sexual immorality and the kings of the Earth have committed immorality with her and the merchants of the Earth have grown Rich from the power of luxurious living so the idolatry which is picture with sexual immorality which also would have included some sexual sin but the chief picture here is idolatry and infidelity against the one true.
God and all of its Financial dominance that was weaved in with this idolatry is denounced Babylon and its Financial dominance to lure in the Nations is celebrated as its downfall has happened and the Nations that got drunk off of this Unfaithful well we're going to see in a moment that they are mourning but the heavens are rejoicing Babylon was a dwelling place for demons for every a haunt for every unclean and evil thing and it is now over verse four then I heard another voice from Heaven saying come out of her my people lest you take part in her sins lest you share in her plagues he says please just the people of.
God the Church that reside in and under the authority of Babylon has come out of her don't take part in her idolatrous practices don't take part in her sins because if you do you'll take part in her plagues which is you'll take part in her judgments four verse 5 her sins are heaped high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities he has brought judgment verse six pay her back as she herself has paid o pay back others and repay her double.
For her Deeds makx a double portion for her and the cup she mixed verse 7 as she glorified herself and lived in luxury so give her a like measure of torment and mourning since in her heart she says I sit as a queen I am no Widow and mourning I shall never see like in her pride and in her luxury and her vengeance upon those who don't take part in her idolatry she's pridefully saying I'm I'm I'm a queen the party will keep going the part is not going to stop I will not mourn I will not be a widow deceived self deceived in her Pride verse eight.
For this reason her plagues will come in a single day death and mourning and famine and she will be burned up with fire for Mighty is the Lord God who has judged her and the picture is when judgment comes it will be swift this Mighty Empire will fall and it will fall quickly verse n and the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.
So the heaven rejoicing God's people rejoicing and then now you've got oh the Nations the kings that were involved in with this type of idolatrous worship this financial dominance are mourning this is the side of the courtroom that is sad verse 10 they will stand far off in fear of her torment and say alas alas you great City you mighty Babylon just remembering oh how great wasn't it wonderful when Babylon was in power for a single hour your judgment has come these are the Nations who joined battle Babylon and the spiritual adultery who enjoyed the party who lavished in the decadence who chased after other gods they will mourn and they'll be.
So shocked that it fell apart so quickly and then we get this long list this long list of of the things the merchants the ones who made money off of Babylon all the things they're mourning that they lost starting in verse 11 the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore so think Babylon this Mighty Empire the chief buyer on the market for all everything in the world they used to buy all these things.
Now they're they're mourning CU now no one can buy their cargo and it says cargo of gold silver jewels pearls fine linen purple cloth silk Scarlet cloth all kinds of scented wood all kinds of Articles of ivory all kinds of Articles of costly wood bronze iron and marble cinnamon spice incense myrr frankincense wine oil fine flour wheat cattle and sheep horses and chariots and slaves that is human Souls which not the main point of the text but something that I never noticed until reading this that each one of those Commodities is just stated as such until you get to the last one.
When it says slaves and it says that is human Souls which I would argue shows the evil of slavery in itself I would argue that's a condemnation there's nothing else not one of those Commodities get to qualifier the last one does and it says oh because they're human Souls which you used to traffic in which is the mark of a wicked nation in Babylon not the main point but I wanted to point that out so then it continues in verse 14 the fruit of which your soul longed has gone from you and all your Delicacies and your splendors are lost to you never to be found again you could.
See how sad they are the party is over no more Delicacies no more splendors the fruit of which there Souls longed for and desired is gone never to be found again verse 15 the merchants of these Wares who gain wealth from her will stand far off in fear of her torment weeping and mourning alow and have you ever been in a situation where you've disciplined one of your kids or you've been the kid amongst a few kids that are being disciplined is like the other two like the other two of mine they instinctively know that it's time to back away it's like they don't want to catch the heat they just I'm I'm not getting.
Involved in that I didn't have any part of that and that's these Merchants are like we're sad that's happening but it ain't happening to me and they weep from afar verse 16 alas alas for the great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scar adorm with gold with jewels and with pearls for a single hour all this wealth had been laid waste I mean that long list of all the things all the wealth all the decadence all of the all the goods destroyed.
So quickly and they're in mourning and all ship Masters and seafaring men Sailors and all those all whose trade as on the sea stood far off and CED cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning you can even picture that the ships that are at Bay not going to Port one because there's nothing there to get but too they don't want any part of the Judgment that's falling Upon This Nation mourning from a distance what city was great what city was like the great City and they cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning what city was like the great City.
Verse 19 they threw dust on their heads as they wept and M crying out alas alas for the great City where all who had ships at Sea grew Rich by her wealth for in a single hour she has been laid waste you get this repeated refrain of how sad it is that it's Fallen but oh how quickly it fell and how shocking it was that it fell verse 20 Rejoice over her o heaven and you Saints and apostles and Prophets for.
God has given judgment for you against her and you get this rejoicing on the other side Oh Heaven you Saints and apostles and Prophets for God has given judgment for you against her and it's this joy that as we saw earlier in Revelation the prayers of the Saints Rising like incense stored in the bowl of Wrath that was poured out the people for centuries have prayed for justice to come down pray for the blood of the martyrs to be have a response from.
God that falls upon the evil of this world verse 21 then an angel took up a stone like a great Millstone and threw it into the sea saying so will Babylon the great City be thrown down with violence and will be found no more and the sound of the harpist and musicians of flute players and trumpeters will be heard in you no more and a Craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more and the light of a lamp will be will shine in you no more and the voice of a bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no.
More for your Merchants were the great ones of the earth and all nations were deceived by your sorcery and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth and you see the party Came Crashing Down no more music no more Milling no more light no more marriages no more happiness it will come crashing down and in her was found the blood of the prophets and of saints and all who have been slain by the Earth slain on Earth and that's this picture of judgment falling upon Babylon.
For all the persecution it did to the people of God so Babylon will receive its Fierce judgment and chapter 19 vers1 we see and the heavens are rejoicing after this I heard what seemed to be a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and power Belong To Our God for his judgments are true and just for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the Earth with her immorality and has Avenged on her the blood of his servants Heaven rejoicing that Justice is fallen down verse three once more they cried out Hallelujah the smoke from her goes up forever and ever and the 24 elders and the four.
Living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was Seated on the throne saying amen hallelujah and from the throne came a voice saying praise our God all you his servants you who fear Him small and great and the heavens Rejoice at her destruction from which the smoke never ceases to go up from and the elders shout hallelujah amen her judgment is Swift and complete and that's where we'll stop today before we get into the next part of 19 next week there's a lot of don't know in the Book of Revelation and a lot I can't figure out what it points to though in my feeble attempts I've tried.
So I don't know what Babylon is going to be fully I think every the history of the Church you see this this repetition where each each time in Church history they think it they know what Babylon is because they think Jesus is coming soon and he is coming soon just not in the time frame that we think of soon but in the time of the Lord so I I don't know when this is going to happen I don't know exactly what it's going to.
Look like I don't know what the makeup of Babylon is going to be but I do know and I can see that many of the descriptions of the corruption and the prosperity that Babylon had are very picturesque of what we enjoy in the west like I don't I don't know for sure but there ain't no way you read 18 and 19 in see the descriptions it would be foolish to not be reflective and not think wow a lot of this is what we enjoy in the west a lot of this is what we enjoy in America all these pictures of all these Goods all of the economic dominance that that is exerted over it's like.
I I don't know how you can't read that if you're going to try to penpoint on your time and in your context I don't know how you don't look with him I said that a few weeks ago and I think it's even more clear here therefore I think it would be foolish for us to excuse ourselves and to not look at this and realize and hear what the angel says the fruit in verse 18:14 the fruit for which your soul has longed has gone from you and all your Delicacies and your splendors are lost to you never to be found again.
And if I'm honest like I just there are Delicacies and splendors that that I enjoy here now that when they're taken I'm just sad that Expos this desire for created things over the Creator that my soul Longs for I don't think I'm alone in this I think we all think about this we reflect upon our own reality and our own selves that there's this part of our soul that longs for the delices and splendors when they're gone we lose our minds the power goes out.
For 3 days for 4 days for a week and the things that we lose that we we Lo we exposes the intentions of our hearts and the desires of our hearts and I think we'd be foolish not to be sobered by this because this soers me and it exposes what my heart wants and we would be shortsighted to not hear Revelation 18:4 when he pleads come out of her my people lest you take part in her sins lest you share in her plagues and not just be absolutely say oh.
Lord help me because there's a real part of me that wants to take part in the sins I love the financial security and the financial dominance of the American dollar and I love all the things that it can buy and when I don't have it I feel less okay and that exposes our hearts and he says be careful L you take part in her sins L you take part in the idolatrous practices don't think little wooden objects think anything that we worship in the place of.
God anything that our heart so desired that if we don't have it we're not okay that that when those things are taken away is the moment we should realize oh no I I so badly want to take part in sin in these sins and he the next part says lest you take part in the plagues because if we're not careful and we so align ourselves with the kingdoms of this present world if we're not careful and we so enjoy the things of this present world and what our culture has to offer and a way that lures us away from worshiping the one true.
God we have run to the prostitute for satisfaction and don't be fooled the plagues will come and when it falls and when judgment comes you will fall with it too it is a warning shot that we should receive with humility so here the call that says come out of her don't hear me I'm not saying America's Babylon I'm not saying America's Babylon but boy a boy wear the same type of clothes sometimes wears the same typee of clothes that we see here that the prostitute wears in chapters 18 and 19 and we should absolutely with humility say I want to come out of it.
Jesus and the only way to do that is running to the cross of Jesus Christ the band's going to come up and we're going to sing and before you rejoice at the good news of the Gospel reflect upon it because there may be some of you who have never actually tasted and seen that the Lord is good you've only tasted the Delicacies and the splendors of this present world so much so that that is only your heart's desire and the God of the universe is looking at you R.
Now saying come out of her my people come out of her you don't don't take part in the sins of this world don't take part in the satisfaction that is found this world be satisfied in Christ and that means that in humility you confess your sin and you run to Christ and you see the death that he endured on the cross and the Wrath that was poured out on him as a picture of the Wrath that will be poured out on you.
If you don't trust in Christ but the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus went to the Cross to endure that judgment for you so that you might not have to but you must in humility submit yourselves to Christ trust in his death that your sins have been paid for by him and Trust in the resurrection that brings you to life the living hope that we sang about earlier that brings you to life so that you might not stand in the sins of the culture.
But you might run to Christ and be spared the Judgment that is to come and for the rest of us that have trusted in Christ we must be sober in our assessment of our own hearts and we do the exact same thing we run to Christ and we say Jesus I've so sought to be satisfied by created things I've so sought to be comforted and for my safety and for my prosperity in this present moment in this present age and I don't want to be here.
When the plagues come help me run to you help me repent of these sins help me trust in you we're going to have some time to do that this week in community groups I would invite you to to be a group this week so that you can do that so we can walk this out in Repentance and so that we can be a people that are on the side of the courtroom that is rejoicing when the Judgment comes but that only comes.
If we are motivated by faith and repentance and running to him.
Revelation 15-16
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
All right so uh when the Church gathers um we we praise Christ uh we we have moments where we have times of of Thanksgiving for what God has done for us we have times of Praise uh we have times of of confession uh one of the things that uh that also is a category of an approach to worship is lament um it's something that uh that the people of God have done uh for thousands of years uh is not just acknowledge.
Because we're a people that are in between life and death we have the Life of Christ in us and we have the sting of death in this world and all the pain that comes with it uh and we acknowledge both of those as we praise Christ for what we just sang and Christ Alone we all of that truth is beautiful and also we still feel uh the pain in this life um and and there's a proper place for that that category is lament where we get to um from the posture of our heart that might be hurting uh from the posture of our heart that is uh suffering through pain or loss uh through the.
Trials of this life that are difficult that come to bear on our souls on our bodies that we get to have a time where we just lament before the Lord we are uh sad before the Lord knowing that one day all things will be made new knowing that one day there will be no more sting in death knowing that one more day there there will be no more sin uh but until then we're people in tension and within that tension we do have this category.
So I'm just going to give a moment as we have this time of prayer to just sit in silence and if that's where your heart is right now uh to really uh uh cast those cares upon the Lord uh and then I will close this in prayer of lament so bow your heads in silence and pray e father we we love you and we thank you for sending Jesus we thank you for the truth of what we just got to sing we thank you that no power of hell no scheme of man will ever pluck us from your hand we live uh waiting.
For the day when all things are made new and at times the the pain of this world the physical suffering that happens upon our bodies because of death the emotional Strife the spiritual warfare the death of friends all of that is hard and I pray that you would sustain us that weeping may tear for the night but joy does come in the morning and sometimes that morning does feel far off so I pray in the meantime that you'd renew us every morning that you sustain us.
For the day and that you'd keep our eyes fixed upon everything that we've been learning about in this series and the hope that is going towards When Heaven comes to Earth and death is no more and until then be our guide be our comfort be our friend in Jesus name amen good morning uh my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here grab a Bible if you will and go to Revelation chapter 15 we're going to be in chapter 15 and 16.
Today we are are working our way through the Book of Revelation and we are following along as John is seeing vision and he is writing it down he's writing what he sees and we're following along as the Apostle John writes this down um we are going to be looking at what is called the Bold judgments today and we're told that with the Bold judgments the wrath of God is finished he's pouring out his wrath on Earth and his wrath is finished as it is poured out on the earth through the Bold judgments and we have been taking some time to consider the wrath of.
God together because it's one of the major themes that the Book of Revelation keeps coming back to this idea that God judges this idea that God um has wrath for Humanity and for the Earth and for the Rebellion that has taken place and that's a little bit difficult for us especially for people who are culturally kind of Western it the idea of a wrathful God doesn't sit well with us culturally it's not something that our culture celebrates and and some of that you have to realize that you do have a culture you have things that just seem right to you.
Because because well they're right that's just you know that's just the thing like biscuits and gravy like it just as good it exists I watched a video of people in uh England and they were feeding biscuits and gravy to students who were like what is this and they were calling the biscuits scones and then they were like what's this mess on top of it and it's like magic eat some you know I one time I ate some Indian food and I almost immediately just spit it back out onto my plate.
Because my brain did not register it as food because there wasn't a single flavor in there that I had ever had before so my immediate visceral bodily reaction was don't know what that is but don't swallow it and it was food it was fine I ended up eating some and I grew culturally that day I expanded my horizons I still prefer biscuits and gravy but that's fine but there are certain things that we just culturally appreciate that we just make sense to us and one of those is that.
If there is a God he's a God of love if there is a God he's loving he's kind he's merciful and culturally we're fine with that if you say anywhere well I just believe God is loving even the the non-Christians the atheists in the room the people who did they'll just go H they're fine with that but the idea that there's a wrathful God who P punishes and judges sin doesn't sit well with us and I was reading in uh reason.
For God Tim Keller said that he had grown up in the Church and that he as he was getting older just kind of was like he wasn't sure just wasn't sure he believed this and he said he had that kind of that inclination of well if there is a God he's a God of love but as he had gotten a little older and was going to school he started said he just wanted to study up on other religions and he said he ran into a problem the idea that there's a.
God of love if there is a God he's a God of love that he cares about us he hears our prayers he knows us he said the problem was he didn't find that in any other religion Buddhism doesn't teach that Hinduism doesn't teach that Islam he said God can be merciful but he's not personal and the idea that he actually personally cares about you is a bit offensive to them that you know him and can talk to him and that he loves you and knows what's going on this it's not how it works he said the problem he ran into was.
For him to make the assertion if there is a God he's a God of love he had to get that from the Bible which means that we have to understand from the Scriptures who this God is and I would argue today and we're going to look at it as we look at the concept of his judgment that his love and his wrath are not in conflict with one another but actually his love is the reason that he's wrathful and that we're going to.
See that these complement one another and go together so Revelation 15 verse 1 then I saw another sign in heaven great and amazing seven angels with seven plagues which are the last for with them the wrath of God is finished okay uh to to keep along with where we are in the Book of Revelation we have had Seven Seals that were unfurled we had seven trumpets that were sounded and now about to have seven bowls that are poured out all of those are God's judgments being poured out on the earth some people will argue that that's recapitulation which just means each one's recapping and they're just showing the same thing over and over again I'm.
Not sold on that I actually think that the seals play out over time the trumpets play out over time and that when the last trumpet is sounded is when the day of the Lord is officially happening where Christ is calling his people to himself because we're told in other places that that'll happen at a trumpet sound and Paul says it'll be at the last trumpet we have trumpets here there's a last one and when it was blown it just says the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our.
God and there's a celebration and then the text of Revelation pauses and goes back and retells the whole story of the Gospel and brings us to in what we read last week in chapter 14 The Harvest of the earth and so I think the bowls are playing out where the Earth has been harvested the wheat has been brought into the barn as Jesus puts it at one point in a parable that those who belong to him are brought in and that what we're seeing in the bowls is part of the pressing of the wine press of the wrath of.
God being poured out on those who do not belong to him so this is part of the day of the Lord as he's bringing judgment on the earth it's my understanding of where we are so it says which are the last for with them the wrath of God is finished verse two and I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire we saw a sea of glass in chapter 4 this was before the Throne of God and it says and also those who had conquered the Beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of.
God in their hands and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb so we see those who belong to Jesus worshiping singing and Spencer mentioned this last week but there's this picture of joy and it says they all have Harps and there's a way for us to cartoon this and make it seem really not as amazing as it is but there's a real picture of joy and delight and freedom and hope that happens here where they've gathered and they're worshiping there's something about singing and worshiping.
For those people who know how to play instruments there's something about being able to just be a part of the music and join in in worshiping in that way and join in and playing that that we that the Church gets to partake in and so there's this beautiful picture of worship here and it says great this is what they're singing great and amazing are your Deeds oh Lord God the almighty just and true are your ways oh King of the Nations who will not fear oh.
Lord and glorify your name there's two things I want us to see as they start to sing we're told wrath is about to be poured out and then we're told they're singing Just and true are your ways but the song is he's right he's just wrath is deserved that's one of the things that's paired in this passage is that we're going to see that wrath isn't some sort of overreaction by God but it's just and right and then it says who will not fear and glorify your name and that question kind of rings out throughout the rest of this chapter and we're going to.
See that it does have an answer then it says for you alone Are Holy all the nations will come and worship you for your righteous acts have been revealed that he is right to do what he is doing not only is he judging but he's right he's just he's true these things are good verse 5 after this I looked and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened so this is the tent of witness was given to the people of Israel this is Tabernacle and it says it it's opened and he actually at one point says you're going to make a tent like the one I showed you it's possible this is.
The one he showed him the one that exists somehow in God's Heavenly realm and so that's what's opened and out of the sanctuary came theeven angels with the seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen with golden sashes around their chests and one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the Seven Angels were finished.
So these seven angels come out wearing bright white linen they're given seven golden bowls and then the the tent of witness behind them fills with smoke and this happens a couple of times in the Old Testament it's this manifestation of the greatness and the glory of God is present in the tit of witness and it says nobody can enter until the bowls are poured out then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels this is chapter 16 verse1 telling the seven angels.
So presumably God speaking out of his glory tells them go and pour out out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God there's a interesting thing that happens in this passage these seven angels are holding seven golden Bowls the last time we saw golden bowls they were with the creatures that were before the throne and with the elders and they were filled with the prayers of the Saints and so there's this connection in the text between prayers and God's Wrath and that I think can strike us as odd or off-putting.
But it makes so much sense if God is actually loving if we believe that and if we believe that he actually hears prayers then he has Wrath if he actually hears those who cry out to him in pain and distress and anger and he actually cares then there are things that happen where the only appropriate response is wrath I have a wife and two children if someone is hurting them actively aggressively harming them I'm not supposed to go hey you know stop just wrap it up.
When you can I mean that seems that's not it's not how I'm supposed to respond this Incorrect and if we're to assume that God hears the prayers of the people of Earth he is right and just and true and good to have wrath I'm just read you one quote to narrow it down to one issue to just help us understand that we we want a God who has wrath this is from the website uh rain's website r a i NN it's an anti-sexual violence organization every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted and every nine minutes that victim is a child it's an American in a place where we have relatively good laws and things.
That are enforced and protections that are in place every 68 seconds that means that while we study this passage together if this hour of the day is average 30 or 40 or so people will be sexually assaulted three or four of them will be children and if we have a God who hears prayers we want him to have wrath the end of that quote just says meanwhile only 25 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will end up in prison means 900 75 of them will keep going we want a.
God who sees we want a God who hears and we want a God who has wrath and that if he actually loves and actually hears then he has wrath and there's this connection between prayers and the wrath of God I think sometimes we have this completely backwards culturally we think that somehow wrath calls into question God's goodness it is connected to his goodness and if he did not have wrath if there was no judgment that would call his goodness into question it would be the absence of Wrath that would make us question whether or not he was actually good not the presence of it verse two.
So the first Angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and harmful and painful sores Came Upon the people Who Bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image so if we're being honest and in our understanding and framework of the the concept of Wrath we've immediately run into a problem because there's part of us who agrees yes there are certain egregious terrible sins and horrible things and there are oppressions and and wickedness that play takes place and runs rampant in the world throughout history and throughout time and even right.
Now those things exist and that there should be some justice and wrath for them but the line doesn't say that he draws it just clearly around those worst people the line is drawn Those Who Bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image we've been told throughout the Book of Revelation if this is your first Sunday with us or if you've been trying to track but have missed some things you either worship the Beast or you worship the lamb so the line here is everyone who doesn't belong to.
Jesus which immediately causes us some problems not as Christians but as Americans in our cultural con construct of things it's like well hold on second how is that fair doesn't that feel like he's just worship me or you're in trouble I watched a clip of Bill Maher recently where he was talking to someone about the Bible and he said I've read some of the Bible and God is very vindictive and capricious and mean-spirited he he's like a toddler who throws tantrums and there's part of us who goes yeah.
Okay so if he' this cultural thing to push back and just go okay so you worship him or he's going to punish you sing to him or he's going to crush you that's fair that's good that's a good question let's keep going and see what this text tells us the second Angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became like the blood of a corpse and every living thing died that was in the sea in the seals we saw that certain things affected a fourth of something we saw in the trumpets that certain things affected a.
Third of something when we get to the bows it's all it's total he is pouring out his wrath and with it the wrath of God is finished as it's poured out on Earth but everything the sea becomes like blood and everything dies verse four the third Angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the Springs of water and they became blood and I heard the angel in charge of the waters say just are you oh holy one who is and who was.
For you brought these judgments so there's an angel who's has some authority over Waters and those waters are now blood and the angel says you're right just this this is good you've done well just are you oh holy one who is and who was for you brought these judgments for they have shed the blood of saints and Prophets and you have given them blood to drink it is what they deserve and I want us to take a moment to know we've said.
If there's a good God he has wrath if he actually loves he has wrath if he's genuinely knows and cares about people he has wrath he's not okay with all of this and that that wrath does not call his goodness into question second thing we need to understand is that there's part of us that genuinely desires that this last sentence it is what they deserve there's a part of you that wants them to get what they deserve however you define them.
But there's part of us that wants that that longs for that that hopes for that this is I hope they get what they deserve I hope they get what they have coming I hope it catches up to them you know this if you interact with certain movies television shows you can feel this deep strain of this inside of you I I know I look I I watched the movie gladi Gladiator I wanted comist to die so bad Patriot I wanted that Colonel to die Harry Potter I wanted that pink lady to die I didn't care that much about Voldemort he hadn't sold me on he was the worst.
But that pink lady I was genuinely upset when I saw her in the next movie after the horse people had taken her I was like I thought they killed her why is she back there's part of us that has this desire for justice you want them to get what they have coming and y'all that's fiction in reality we want that anybody who's ever faced genuine hardship and the evil in the world that has a face and a name and a person behind it there's this desire.
For them to get what they have coming and there's actually hope here that eventually they will get what they deserve there are some people who will look in this and say well that means that Christians must be really vindictive and harmful people it's actually this truth that keeps us from being vindictive and harmful people because we're told in the Scriptures that this isn't our job it's his that we're to offer grace and mercy pray for our enemies and to know that he'll sort it out at the end it's the thing that lets us put the sword down.
If there is no God who judges and if they don't ever get what they deserve then we have to bring about judgment but we're told that he does it he's just and he's right to do it he's better at it than Denzel and Liam niss he handles it correctly he is righteous in his execution of it and that we get to defer to him this actually gets us live with a hope there's encouragement here verse 7 and I heard the altar saying yes.
Lord God the almighty true and just are your judgments if he's loving he has Wrath that doesn't call his goodness into question and there's a real part of us that genuinely knows that's right and desires it problem I think we run into is that there's a part of me that really wants to be the one who decides how that works and there's times when I read the Scriptures and I think ooh was he just and right in his judgments is that actually how that should um is that actually how that should work I um I thoroughly enjoy football um there's a thing called a a booth review in football something will happen on the field.
They'll make a call the white hat will come over turn his mic on if it's working you'll hear him otherwise you'll hear well what he said was the previous plays under further review what it means is there's some people in the booth the booth we don't know how many people are in the booth we don't know where the booth is located but there's a booth you guys there's a booth it's been sent to the booth what the booth is going to do there's two assumptions.
For the booth the Booth's going to tell us what the right call is but there's two assumptions that go into that one the booth has the rules and knows the rules the booth is right unlike the person in the stands next to you going let him play ref there intentional grounding the booth knows the rules okay the booth knows the rules and secondly the assumption is the booth has the right angles from cameras to see what actually happened so the booth knows what's right and can.
See it and I think we have two options when it comes to how we interact with stuff like this one I can assume that I'm in the booth I know what's right and I have the appropriate vantage point to make the call I'm in the booth my judgment's in the booth therefore I can read and see what God does and then I can tell you whether or not he's right or wrong because I'm in the booth I have the right angle and I know what's right and wrong.
For the record that started with us in the garden when we ate from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil we all said thank you very much I'll climb in the booth I'll decide what's right and wrong I'll decide what's good and evil I don't want to have God in the booth so that's option one is I'm I'm in the booth option two is God's in the booth we'll get to option two in a second there's some problems with option one Beyond it's wrong and stupid some problems with option one one I'm going to read a few quotes to try to help you.
See this uh one's from CS Lewis interact with some of their ideas CS Lewis was a a Christian writer thinker he wasn't always a Christian at one point he was a pretty hardened atheist and he said that the reason he was an atheist the reason he didn't believe in God at all was that he looked around the world and said this place is a mess look at all this wickedness look at all this evil there came be a God but the problem he ran into and to force CS Lewis to use my illustration was that he realized he had put himself in the booth as.
If he had the rulebook but the problem he ran into was to be intellectually honest he had to admit that there was no rule book if there was no God that actually if we're all in the booth then really we're just all on the field and we can say what we think we can can yell our opinion but nobody can really verify whether we're right or wrong because there's no official rule book it's just who's the loudest who's the most persuasive who's got the best force of Personality who's the most aggressive whatever.
But we're all on the field he one of the problems he ran into is that he wanted to look at something and say it was actually evil objectively eternally evil whether you thought so or not and it wasn't just his opinion that it was wrong and in order for it to be actively objectively evil he needed something above him that's CS Lewis this is a a quote from Michael ruse Michael ruse was in a debate with John Linux John Linux is a mathematician who's a Christian M ruse is an atheist also wildly smart and they were debating Michael ruse was trying to make a point he's making some other point.
But he said a quote that I want to share with you he was just talking from a Christian perspective he's not a Christian but he was trying to make a point he said you would see a person and you would say here's a person made in the image of God and that's what makes them evil if they were just a wild dog they would be dangerous but they wouldn't be evil and he said so if you're a Christian you would say heck Kimler who's one of the SS Nazis who did atrocities you'd say he's deeply evil not just dangerous.
But evil and and the reason being he's made in the image of God and he has run morally against something so you could say a bear is dangerous but you can't say it's evil because Bears don't have morals you can say a wild dog is dangerous but it can't be evil because it's not morally uh Crossways with something objective and true and so he's made a very valid point he was trying to make another point but he made a very valid point he was making CS Lewis's point which is.
If you want to objectively say something is actually wrong if you want to look at the world and say there are real atrocities and that's not just your opinion then you can't be in the booth there has to be something above you otherwise you can just say Nazism is bad in that it causes some problems for certain people but you can't say it's evil and you can say that collectively your group of people thinks it's a worse opinion and this is where Tim Keller says that he'll every once in a.
While push somebody when they're saying something like well we all know you can't treat children like that we all know you shouldn't treat women like that we all know that this thing about racism or whatever is bad and he said he just every once in a while would gently say historically and globally we don't all know that there are actually other cultures who think it's fine to treat women that way and then he said he would just ask what makes you.
So confident that your culture is better why do you think historically white Western culture is better than that culture why do you think that your culture that comes from this this place is better than that culture the point he's trying to make is not that it isn't just that if you think you're in the booth then so are they and who's to say who's right we need something to appeal above us y'all it's absurd to think that we have the right vantage point you you don't even have the right vantage point in your arguments about traffic or your arguments with your spouse or roommate y'all we we you've gotten pink eye before and you want.
To judge God it's silly you can't even eat dairy without having an upset stomach and you're in charge it's absurd to think that we're in the booth so here's what I want to put to you you God is in the booth which means that when he makes a call that you disagree with you don't say well that seems out of proportion maybe the problem isn't that he's overreacted maybe the problem is that you've under reacted maybe the problem isn't that he's overreacting to sin and false worship maybe the problem is that that we're under reacting to sin and false worship maybe it's not that there's a whole bunch of good people that are doing fine.
And he's just capricious maybe they aren't that good and they aren't that fine and there's actually something more more broken about it than we understand and that he's just and right and maybe we ought to Humble ourselves rather than exalt ourselves verse eight I think the problem is that we can willingly say at times okay I can see how he does this with the ones I agree with but then we want to say but what about all the normal people what about all the regular people what about all the good-hearted people that are just out there that just get caught up in this whole thing verse eight let's.
See what what this text tells us the fourth Angel poured out his bowl on the sun and it was allowed to Scorch people with fire and they were scorched by the fierce heat and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues they did not repent and give him glory earlier the Saints sang who will not fear you and give you glory and we're about to find out they did not repent and give him glory verse 10 the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the Beast and its kingdom was plunged Into Darkness people gnawed their tongues in anguish and curse the.
God of Heaven for the pain and sores for their pain and sores they did not repent of their deeds the sixth Angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the Kings from the East and I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet those we were introduced to in chapter 12 and 13 the false prophet was called the.
Second beast but now it's called the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs maybe they appeared like frogs maybe they hopped like frogs that maybe he saw them hopping out of their mouth like frogs for they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the almighty so what we see is they Curse God they don't repent they Curse God they don't repent and then they start Gathering to fight.
God and we're going to read about that battle later and see how it goes for him verse 15 behold I'm coming like a thief bless is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on and he may go that he may go about not go about naked and be seen exposed and they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon so they gather for battle at Armageddon Armageddon just means Mount megiddo megiddo is a place where several battles were fought in the Old Testament it's not a mountain.
So there are some questions as to whether or not that's exactly what this is talking about but it's just a name for a place verse 17 the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done and there were flashes of lightning Rumblings peels of thunder and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth so great was the earthquake the great city was split into three parts and the cities of the Nations fell.
God remembered Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath and we'll learn about Babylon the great next week and every island fled away and no mountains were to be found and great hail Stones about 100 pounds each fell from heaven on people and they cursed God for the plague of hail because the plague was so severe I think that I have had a picture in my mind and I'm willing to bet that you have had it as.
Well well of a whole bunch of people being very remorseful and saying we were wrong I see you now help me forgive me and God saying no I didn't know I didn't know no that's not the picture we see here and even where in the beginning of Revelation it says They Mourn or where Jesus says they'll be weeping and nashing of teeth it seems like they only respond to their plight They Mourn themselves and how it's affecting them They Mourn their sores they don't mourn their sin and the truth is that makes a ton of sense.
God begins to reveal himself in judgment and the response is not oh you must know something about Sin I don't you must know something about my wickedness I don't I need to turn and be rescued the response is how dare you well if there is a God like that then I've got a I've got some information for him I'd like to give him a pieace of my mind if that's the kind of God you worship then I I'd love to be able to tell him something I'll reject it it just presses it further they've already rejected.
God they already have no desire for him they already have no love for him and then when judgment begins to fall it does not soften them it hardens them it verifies their opinion I knew he was wrong I knew he was comicus I knew he was vindictive I knew he was evil how dare he it's not that they're just genuinely good-hearted these people that have been worshiping and following the Beast and they hadn't had a chance we're told in Romans 1 they've had a chance they've seen his goodness displayed in creation they've seen his goodness.
And then they see his power displayed in judgment and the response is not oh how great you are the response is absolute refusal to get out of the booth no no humility no respect they curse him they get further entrenched in their hatred and then they get what they want which is not him they get their own Glory they get their own self-satisfaction they get their own self-aggrandisement they get to carry the weight themselves and that means destruction if you absolutely reject the source of all goodness and joy and hope and love in the world.
Then you will get an existence without goodness and hope and joy there is no good apart from him and if you want the weight of your own existence to Bear down on your shoulders if you want the weight of your sin if you want the weight of life and judgment and and all that is right and wrong to Bear down on your shoulders you'll get it but it'll be far more than you can bear and the response is not Contrition it's rebellion and it's cursing.
God and hating God and saying see see what he's like and things far worse than that y'all there's a moment in this text where Jesus speaks the text is oddly interrupted with the voice of Christ it's John recounting what he sees it's John writing I saw the fourth angel I heard all this eye language is John except for verse 15 behold I am coming like a thief that's not John that's Jesus it's in the middle of saying that they're going to start Gathering an army to go wage war against.
God which y'all if God is fully revealing himself in in heaven and they can see him doesn't that make sense like there's part of me that goes yeah that's exactly what we do all right well we're going to go down I'm going to I'm going to go down shooting a nuke at him then it'll be worth it let's fight him there's no repentance there's no oh my goodness let's fall but it's not what they they don't do that they start gathering.
For war and in the middle of that Jesus says behold I'm coming like a thief blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed Jesus says don't be here when this happens I'm going to show up at a time when you're not ready and all that will be left is rebellion and destruction all that will be left as wrath and hatred don't be caught unaware Jesus he interrupts this whole thing and says don't be there don't choose this.
Jesus interrupts human history with his life with his death with his resurrection y'all we have no excuse our entire calendar is built around the fact that Jesus broke history in half well we didn't know we did we knew we know that he interrupted everything to bring about rescue and hope and joy and salvation and that he would pay for the wrath of God that's what we told that he's a propitiation when the altar yells out that altar is this picture of somebody's willing to pay.
For sin that something will shed blood so that we aren't covered the altar cries out and says he's just then Jesus says don't be there behold stay dressed be ready don't be exposed don't get caught with no covering we're told in the Book of Revelation that they're covered in white that the Saints are because they've washed their robes clean in the blood of the Lamb there is wrath for sin the question is is it going to be poured out on you or is it going to be poured out on.
Jesus are you going to follow the Beast and catch wrath are you going to follow the lamb who who took wrath for you and so Jesus interrupts this and he says don't be there don't be caught unaware into the Church don't act like this day isn't coming don't be so lulled to sleep by our culture that we stop caring that there are friends and neighbors and loved one who who are going to get what they've been seeking which is their own self aggrandisement which leads to destruction and don't tell yourself I've got time.
Because he's coming like a thief in the night Jesus says if you knew what time the thief was coming you wouldn't let your house be broken into that's not how it works but in the middle of judgment he does what he's done this whole time which is enters into it and says come don't be there Jesus enters into the middle of our judgment takes our sin for us pays the price for us so that we might be free and that we might glorify him that we might gather and sing praises to the lamb.
Because he's good not because we are and the hope for us is Christ and not anything else may we be people who understand that his judgments are true and righteous and just may we sing his praises and may we not be caught unaware let's pray yes Lord God the almighty true and just are your judgments just and true are your ways O King of the Nations who will not fear oh Lord and glorify your name for you alone Are Holy All Nations will come and worship you.
For your righteous acts have been revealed in Jesus name amen
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.
Revelation 13
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here uh grab a Bible and head to Revelation chapter 13 it'll be on page 599 if you grab one of the blue Bibles in the seat in front of you we are working our way through the Book of Revelation and if you've recently joined us and started being around on Sundays uh in the past couple weeks past couple months as we've been going through this book and if you're unfamiliar with the Bible as a whole you may be thinking to yourself is this what the whole Bible is like no it's not.
But the Book of Revelation is an apocalyptic book it Is God revealing to the Apostle John what's really going on behind some of the things that we can normally see and an apocalyptic book you get a lot of signs and pictures of things that point to something else and and it's very Vivid and striking and this is one of the things that we talked about when we first started working through this book we we went through this sentence here this is an apocalyptic book and it's a letter written to A persecuted people it's written.
When the Church was in distress it's written to these churches in Asia Minor in the Roman Empire where they're facing persecution where they're not fitting in financially they don't get to operate and do business the way they used to they're being arrested they're being persecuted there's difficulty and distress in the Church and one of the things that God does when there's difficulty in distress and we see in the Book of Daniel and we see it here is that he begins to speak in this nature he begins to give Vivid and striking images to try to help us.
See and the reason being in the middle of pain and chaos and difficulty and fear and doubt sometimes the nor noral means of just speaking and writing letters some of that just gets a little lost it's harder to hear every parent who's ever gone hey in the middle of a bunch of kids doing something they freeze and look at you that's not your normal way of talking to your children hopefully hopefully they don't get home from school and you go hey like no you aggressively you get loud there's a moment where you're trying to cut through the noise this is why in the middle of battle and conflict the signals that sent or a banner.
Or a horn or we're going to set fire to this thing and that'll be your time to go there's never been a general who was like all right and then I give you one of these it'll be time to move it's like that's not that's not how it works in the middle of difficulty and conflict we need something clear and so there's Vivid and striking images in the Book of Revelation because God's trying to break through the noise and help them feel feel something.
See something before they're able to hear something before they're able to to understand what's going on and so we're in the middle of a big sign that John is seeing and John is writing what he sees and we said last week that we're in the part of the Book of Revelation where we find out what the point is that there's some clarity given in chapter 12 13 and 14 we've reached this moment in the Book of Revelation where it's helping us understand the whole point of the book and there are some wild things that we're going to.
See this morning and we're going to spend some time on them but we don't want to miss the point because there's a moment in this text where John pauses all of that and looks directly at us and clarifies what's really going on here and what we're really supposed to take away and so we're going to spend some time on that as we go through this now where we left off last week we said this is one of the main things that's happening in this book is that we're told how the Church conquers that Christ through the blood of the Lamb has conquered the dragon that.
Jesus has defeated Satan through the cross and through his sacrifice that the dragon has been conquered and he's been cast down there was this time when he had some Mobility some freedom to go present himself before God and accuse humanity and he's no longer able to do that it says he's cast down and he's cast down in great wrath at the cross where Jesus conquers him and now he's going to begin to wage war against the Saints and this is what we.
See uh 12:1 17 where we left off last week then the dragon that's Satan became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her Offspring on those who keep the Commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus and he stood on the sand of the sea so the dragon has gone to make war on Christians and we're going to see how he goes about that in Chapter 13 so let's pray and then we'll begin to work through this text.
Father we ask that you'd give us the ears to hear and to believe and to respond as John intends us to we thank you for this message and this picture this clarification this revealing we ask you'd help us to respond in faith in Jesus name amen so the dragon standing on the sand of the sea and it says and I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads and the Beast that I saw was like a leopard its feet were like a bear's its mouth was like a lion's mouth and to it the dragon gave his power.
And his throne and great Authority so John sees this terrifying Beast come out of the water and there's a couple things that we should notice when this happens one is the the Beast mirrors in some ways the dragon the dragon has seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems and the Beast has seven heads and 10 horns and 10 diadems that there's this almost a um incarnation of the Dragon in the Beast that in some ways this Beast is called forth in a way that's going to represent the dragon and we're going to.
See that play out but there's this mirroring but there's also something that happens here that connects to the Book of Daniel so the Book of Daniel is the primary apocalyptic book from the Old Testament Ezekiel has some apocalypsis in it but uh Daniel has more and there's a section in Daniel chapter 7 where four beasts come out of the Sea and the first one is like a lion the second one is like a bear the third one is like a leopard with four heads and the fourth one is unlike the other ones.
But it has 10 horns and so what just came out of the sea here is all of those smoosh together because it's like a lion like a leopard like a bear and it has seven heads which that would be all the amount of heads from The Book of Daniel and it has 10 horns like from The Book of Daniel and in the Book of Daniel we're told very clearly that each one of those beasts represents Kings and kingdoms so it's a king.
But it's also a kingdom and we're told in Revelation 17 that this Beast also the seven heads are Kings the 10 horns are Kings and that this Beast is also Kings and kingdoms that wouldn't have been lost on the original readers and so Satan the dragon wants to wage war on the Saints and he calls forth Kings and kingdoms he raises evil political power out of the sea and we're told in verse 5 that there's going to be given Authority for 42 months which in our understanding of that and we've talked about that a bunch 42 months 1260 days time times and half a time is from the moment that.
Jesus resurrects and the temple is destroyed all the way through Church history and so there's going to be this political power that takes place over the course of history where Jesus says that the time of the Gentiles will have to be fulfilled before he returns and we still have a destroyed temple with Gentiles on it and chapter 11 says that they're it's given over to the Gentiles for 42 months so we just understand that 42 months to be this dragged out period.
Now it's possible that there will be a final climactic version of some of this and that it'll play out over time in iterations and then there'll be a big climactic version and that some of the text in here makes it seem like that may be the case but the dragon is working through political power throughout history and exercising Authority through political power throughout history and John's pulling the curtain back on that we're going to see he says this and he gave the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority to it one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound.
But its mortal wound was healed and the whole earth marveled as they followed the Beast so there's a lot of speculation as to some of the particular of things like that statement one of the Mortal one of the heads had a mortal wound and it was seemed to be healed one of the things we're going to see as we zoom out a little bit as we look at this Beast is that in some ways the dragon the Beast and then we're going to.
See a second beast create their own Unholy Trinity and that this Beast does some things to mimic Christ that it seems like it dies but it comes back and there are some who will say that that's kingdoms over and over again seeming like they fail but this continual power continues to happen where one Empire Falls but another one Falls and this Beast just lives forever and people continue to worship it and there are others who will say there will be a specific version of that that happens later and that may be the case we cannot in this text Chase every one of these little things.
Because we'll miss the point and thankfully John pauses the action to tell us the point as we go through it but this Beast seems like it's going to fail and doesn't and the whole earth marveled as they followed the Beast and they worshiped the Dragon for he had given his authority to the Beast and they worshiped the Beast saying who is like the Beast and who can fight against it I want you to see how that plays out they're worshiping the dragon he just said the whole world Marvels as they follow the Beast they're worshiping the dragon and the reason they're worshiping the dragon the re reason they're giving their worship to Satan is.
Because he's given his it says for he has given his authority to the Beast and they worship the Beast so what John is saying is that the enemy Works through Kings and kingdoms and political power and that we are drawn in worship to that and then John goes okay what you see is a castle what you see is a territory line what you see is a parliament and then he pulls it back and goes there's actually a beast and that worship of the Beast rolls up in worship of the Dragon to give our love and allegiance to give our life and our energy and our hope and our faith to a kingdom rolls up.
Worship to the dragon now John says not John Paul says that all authority Heavenly uh all uh governing authorities Earthly authorities have God's permission says that in Romans 12 that we're to live under Authority and that Authority is good because it's ordained by God he tells us to pray for kings and everybody in high place so that we might live a peaceful and orderly life and then it's like well well hold on John but Paul says governing authorities are okay and they have the sword and that they're allowed to exercise Authority and we should submit to that.
And then John's telling us nuh-uh it's a secret Beast who's right and the answer is yeah they're both right what Paul is saying is as Christians we should live in society we're not to be Anarchist trying to burn everything down we should hope for a peaceful we we should hope for the kind of situation we're in where we get to to travel and share the Gospel and nobody's hunting us but what John is saying is yeah we should hope for that.
Because our Hope's in Christ we shouldn't put our hope in the Kingdom we we shouldn't put our faith in the Kingdom we shouldn't put our love in the Kingdom we shouldn't be overwhelmed with Devotion to the to the kingdom because ultimately all of that no Kingdom on Earth is working no uh government on Earth is actively working so that you might love and follow Jesus and the enemy is at work in governments on Earth to distract and to woo and to conquer in a way that pulls us away from Christ.
And so we are to be as Peter tells us Exiles who have a citizenship in heaven and it says they say who is like the Beast and who can fight against it they give singular praise to the kings in the kingdoms that sentence should only be said about God we sang it a minute ago who who is like our God that that's for him that's not for political powers and so we have a tension as Christians to live as good citizens in the land that we're in.
But also if our land is telling us we're not allowed to tell people about Jesus well that's a part where we're going to be bad citizens and we'll talk more about how this plays out with us I don't think it means you can't be in the military but you've got to wonder where your heart is and pay attention to where your Allegiance is and where your hope is and what actually really trusting in and at the end of the day what you believe we're going into an election season no I'm not going into it we're in it sorry we're about to have an election that's what I meant and it's really easy.
For us to Care a whole lot more for you to have a whole lot more concern and worry and emotional energy for who's going to be in the white house for 4 years than you've had about whether or not you're neighbors will spend eternity with or without the Lord in a long time and that we care more about that than we care about some of these other things and we're missing what's really supposed to be going on here and John's pulling the curtain back and going y'all all these kingdoms are going to fall and ultimately they're trying to divert our worship to the dragon the American flag will not fly over the New Jerusalem that.
Belongs to Christ verse 5 and the Beast was given a mouth uttering hay and blasphemous words and it was allowed to exercise Authority for 42 months it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God blaspheming his name and his dwelling that is those who dwell in Heaven All right so this Beast is exercising Authority and it has Blasphemous names on its heads we're already told that but it also begins to just blaspheme God and it blasphemes it speaks against him it raises itself up over and against him and we've seen this throughout history in leaders and rulers who were given Divine status who accepted worship who were held up as gods and we've seen this.
In kingdoms that maybe they didn't say this ruler was God but they held up their their Kingdom as worth full devotion and Allegiance and would live forever that this this King and kingdoms raise themselves up against God but there's something that's very interesting that happens here so the dragon is an accuser and a deceiver and he's cast down he used to spend time accusing the Church to God he's not allowed to do that anymore we're told in chapter 12 that there is no accuser that stands before.
God anymore but he's still accusing and deceiving just here and now he's accusing God to us he no long gets to stand and accuse us to God but he's at work to accuse God to us to blaspheme against God and there's something else that he's doing that's very interesting and very encouraging not that he's doing it it's not encouraging but way it's worded is encouraging it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God blaspheming his name which we all should be tracking we understand how you could do that and his dwelling that phrasing is where he Tabernacles that is.
So it's about tell us what his dwelling is that is those who dwell in heaven now if we were writing that we might would have said that is heaven but it doesn't say that is heaven it says that is those who dwell in heaven and throughout the Book of Revelation it's going to talk about those who dwell on Earth but every time it talks about those who dwell on Earth it's specifically referring to those who don't believe so what it just said is he begins to blaspheme Christians which some of that makes sense yeah he's accusing Christians he accuses.
God but he accuses Christians we see that where Christians are mocked and made fun of and attacked globally this is a thing but that word blaspheme needs to hit your ear and you need to register it because some of the accusations made at you by the enemy one of our problems sometimes is that if he accuses Jesus we might would argue with him Jesus doesn't love you and you say that's not how Jesus is but then he might hit you with no one loves you or you're unlovable and we accept that.
Because it feels humble but if Christ dwells in you that's blasphemy against him if he's tabernacled in you if he makes his dwelling among you as 1 Corinthians 3 says do you not know that the spirit of God dwells in you that you are his Temple that this is blasphemy it's not just an accusation but it actually rolls up just like praise for the Beast rolls up in worship to the Dragon accusation against the Church can roll up in blasphemy against.
God to tell you that you're no you'll never be forgiven for that well that's only true if Jesus doesn't do what he says he does no one loves you that's only true if Jesus isn't good and so some of the things that we walk around repeating and hearing I heard a pastors say that the enemy works by accusation and agreement he accuses us of something and we agree but some of the things that we let roll around in our head and that we feel like I'm just the I'm the worst I'm it's like no no people say.
Well I'm chief of Sinners Like Paul yeah Paul was talking about that in the context of his forgiveness to the praise and the glory of Christ and so that sometimes we accept these things but they blasphemies against a holy God who has rescued and redeemed us in Christ and you need to quit listening to it because it's not about you it's about Jesus if you belong to Christ those kind of accusations don't get to stick because they would UL timately have to make something untrue about.
Jesus that is true and we get the good things from Christ because of Christ not because of us and so we get to walk in freedom but he's accusing and blaspheming also verse 7 it was allowed to make war on the Saints and to conquer them and Authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and Nation here again we see the Beast mimicking some of what Jesus Does by having every tribe and language and people and Nation it's possible there's a future version of this that is some sort of global power.
But y'all every people in language and tribe and nation is under some form of king or leadership or government that they can put their trust in and when Satan is tempting Jesus in the desert it says he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and says if you'll worship me I'll give this all to you he's called the the God of this world that he has some authority over this and he's working out governing authorities in a way that divert us from Christ that place Our Hope in them and ultimately claim our worship.
But I want you to see something else in verse 7 it says and it was allowed well who allows it God so when John's pulling this curtain back he's saying you see a parliament you see a capital building you see a castle there's really a beast and there's really a dragon but looming up above them seemingly even unseen by the dragon is the God who allows some of this to play out for a time but then ultimately draws it to a close that all of this plays out under God's Great Authority he's not actively at work in doing these things he's allowing some of this to play out as he works Redemption out in history.
And one day the enemy will be destroyed but the conclusion isn't up for grabs it it's not like the enemy might win he only works at the allowance of God who one day says time's up but it says he was allowed to make war on the Saints and to conquer them and Authority was given it over every tribe and people in language and nation and all who dwell on Earth will worship it everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain.
If anyone has an ear let him hear if anyone is to be taken captive to Capt ity he goes if anyone is to be slain with the sword with the sword must he be slain here is a call for the endurance and Faith of the Saints so this Beast is going to conquer and kill and capture and work against the Church then I saw another Beast rising out of the earth it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
So this isn't a wolf in sheep's clothing this is the dragon in sheep's clothing and in some ways it's trying to mirror the lamb but it's just part of the dragon as well it exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first Beast whose mortal wound was healed so this second beast shows up and points back to the first Beast so when you worship the first Beast your worship rolls up and praise to the dragon just as.
Jesus says no one comes to the father except by me the worship for the Beast rolls up in praise to the dragon and the second beast shows up and points to the first beast and we have an evil Unholy Trinity at work to lead praise and worship to the dragon but this Beast is at work now again this is a sign this is a picture so it represents something else and so here's what it says it performs Great Signs even making Fire come down from Heaven to Earth in front of people and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the Beast it deceives those who dwell on Earth telling.
Them to make an image for the Beast that was wounded By The Sword and yet lived it is possible that some of these signs and things will take place in a very real fashion in the future but this Beast is at work in soft power if you have the first beast at work through political power and through conquering this one shows up and it works like a prophet from the Old Testament to call people to worship of the first Beast it's working through signs and wonders it's taking on the role of a prophet to point people to the.
First beast and so this is and we're going to see it's both religious and financial it's working like a prophet and it's going to work through financial systems to try to bring about worship for the first beast and so that may be specifically referencing something that's going to happen but it also is playing out over time as there have been civil religions and world religions that call for adherence to the authorities and the governing authorities have always liked the religions that help the governing authorities have power they get rid of the ones that cause problems they keep the ones that say do what's right and in every place where the government has grown in authority.
And power you will see that they'll keep the religions that help their Authority and power and they'll get rid of the ones that don't they'll make it more difficult for them to exist and that's what this second beast is doing 15 and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the Beast so that the image of the Beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the Beast to be slain so your options are worship or die also it causes all both small and great both rich and poor both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or the forehead.
So that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the Beast or the number of its name so again this may have some future really crystallized version of this but one of the other things that happens here is that this is tied into economic existence which we see that the letters written to the first seven churches had that involved that they were poor that they were having a difficult time operating and functioning and working in a society that they had to Worship in order to exist in and they were not doing that and one of the things that the Jewish people were told in the Old Testament.
Was to put a fanry on their wrist on their hand or their forehead which was a small Torah scroll that helped them remember who they were and what they were about so one of the things that may be happening here is that the second beast gets you to worship the first Beast because of your love for money that he makes you about buying and selling that what your hand is trying to do and what your mind is thinking about is buying and selling that there's this economic aspect of participation in a worshipful way with the.
First piece so it may have a future fulfillment but it also can be a sign pointing to playing out over time the call that if your local first Beast is doing really well usually your economics are doing really well also Verse 18 this calls for wisdom let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is 666 if you don't know much about the Book of Revelation or Christianity you probably still know something about this there are one million guesses as to what this is getting at the further you go the crazier the math gets and you can make the math do.
Whatever you want to do there are a few that make a little more sense but there is no consensus so I'm going to give you some of the options and then we're going to make sure we don't miss the point of this passage while this is very intriguing it's not the point of this passage so here are a couple of your options one is one of the commentaries point out that he calls for wisdom and then he says calls for understanding and to calculate the commentary was just pointing out that most of the people just get into the calculate part they're just doing math problems and he says.
But usually when the Bible calls us for wisdom it's beyond just he said anybody can do math it's calling us for some sort of understanding that is spiritually discerned and so he was just trying to say that may not be the best way to go about it and I thought that was a good argument but there is a thing called gatria matria which is taking words and adding them up to get a number it doesn't work in English because we have letters and numbers.
But in Hebrew and Greek and Latin their letters were their numbers so you could write a name out and you could do a math problem there was a guy who like graffitied a thing that said I love her whose number is 545 or something like that and it wasn't like an old school phone that only needed three digits it was he had added her name up and someone could do the math and try to figure out he's in love with Tina or whatever.
So there are people who have taken and tried to figure out what does this name add up to because it says it's the number of a man and his number is 666 if you take this was written in Greek but if you transliterate it into Hebrew and spell it a little differently than it normally is spelled you can get Nero Caesar so a lot of people think that this maybe was Nero Caesar and that he he was doing it in Hebrew and people would have to figure that out you can get the Beast.
If you transliterate it to Hebrew you can also get Nero Caesar if you do it in Latin and spell it a little bit differently uh irenaeus who was a disciple of polycarp who was a disciple of John so he's like this John's spiritual grandson he didn't know he wrote a commentary on this and he was like gave some options and then he just ended with it'll probably be clear when it's really important so he just said seems like a future thing they'll figure it out out and I think that's a good argument maybe that's how that'll play out the phrasing it's the number of a man is used later.
When it talks about a cubit it says it's the measurement of a man and it doesn't mean One Singular man is 18 in tall it means Humanity uses this number it's humans number and so there are some who say that's actually what this is saying that seven God cre the world in six days and he rested on the seventh and seventh is a complete cycle and it it brings to the end of something and so they would have festivals that lasted seven days or lasted 14 days they had a uh things that would happen every seventh year they had a Year of Jubilee that happened every seven s years it's 49 years.
And so they're just saying that really what this is getting at is the full culmination of the power of humanity is going to equal a trinity of incompleteness 666 maybe it is written out as 666 rather than just a six a six and a six I I don't think that it is extremely clear it does take understanding and calculation and I'm I lean a little bit with irenaeus which is maybe it'll be clear when we really need it to be clear the original readers would have most likely seen in the Beast the Roman Empire and they wouldn't have been wrong.
And then later people saw other Empires and other kingdoms and other powers and I don't think they were wrong either because I think this is how this works you look out in the world and you see the Beast and John saying yeah that's how Satan's at work that the Roman Empire was the beast but the Roman Empire Falls and then something else Rises and there have been powers in China and Russia and yeah and the United States is also a very powerful political power.
And if we don't see the enemy at work in that we're missing something now we're not in a season where we're being conquered there are Christians being conquered in Iran and Algeria and North Korea that they're having to deal with the he's conquering them but we're not in that season that way but we are in the one where there's a a whisper and a call to political power and influence and financial gain and to just love the Beast and participate in its ways and have your hope set here.
But there's a moment in this text where John stops I I I uh I don't know if you watch plays I really like plays they're excellent if they're done well they're amazing and if they're done poorly they're amazing so plays are amazing you go to a middle school play and they crush it that was awesome if they fail the whole time it's still awesome you can't laugh real loud cuz their parents are there but it's awesome so my wife and I can't sit with each other.
Because we cause problems but I love plays but there's a thing that happens in plays every once in a while where everybody freezes and the lighting changes and the main character steps out and just looks at the audience it's just something between you and them this happens in in Hamilton he gets right to the end but the point is freezes and then he turns and goes he's going to talk to you he's holding a gun that's why I'm doing that because they don't want you to miss the point and there's a moment in this text where everything freezes and John turns.
So look at verse eight all who dwell on the earth will worship it that's a fearful statement everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain everyone worships the Beast everyone loves the Beast everyone bows to the Beast unless before the foundation of the world your name was written in the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain if you belong to Jesus you don't worship the Beast you don't love the Beast you can't and you make it out Everyone Falls prey to the Beast except those who've been rescued and Redeemed by.
Jesus everyone places their hope in the Beast everyone bows to the Beast everyone wants what the Beast promises except for those who belong to Jesus and so I'll hear Christians every once in a while go I just what if I take the mark what if I what if this happens what if that happens and it's like it won't if you belong to Jesus because he will keep you and the Beast Rises and falls and on the bookend of that the whole life of the work of the Beast and the dragon on the book end of that.
If you belong to Jesus your name was pinned in the book and you live for eternity that in the promised existence of those who know Christ in his rescue plan and hope there's a moment where where the Beast gets to throw everything he has and the Church doesn't fall and those in Christ don't fall and so John says that and then everything freezes and he looks at us and he says if anyone has an ear let him hear if anyone is to be taken captive to captivity he goes.
If anyone is to be slain with the sword with the sword must he be slain here is a call for the endurance and Faith of the Saints why is the Book of Revelation written in the middle of distress and pain and confusion and doubt God speaks and he says there's a beast and he has Authority and you may be conquered you may be taken captive you may be killed endure and Trust because I wrote your name down before I spoke the world into existence and I sent my son as the Pinnacle of History to pay with his blood.
For your life so that you might belong to us forever and ever and ever and ever and no Beast I don't care how many heads or horns it has can take you away from me now you may have to endure here for for a time but you will live enduringly forever because of the rescue of Christ and right now we aren't actively being rounded up hunted conquered we're not being taken into captivity or slain with a sword it's possible that'll happen it's possible you're sent somewhere that that happens it's possible that things change drastically in our country and that happens.
But right now we do have a beast that is luring us and whispering to us and trying to woo us into a love that we cannot get into and we cannot worship the Beast and we cannot follow the Beast and we can't place Our Hope in political parties or in financial systems and our participation and all of that has to happen on a level of Exiles who have a citizenship somewhere else and a hope somewhere else and a king somewhere else and I don't know where your faith fits in and how you think about it in your life.
And if it's just a part of something do and it's one of those things that's kind of a part of life for you and it's a little bit of a thing that you take place in and it fits in when it fits in or if it's something that's maybe a little bit more of your time in life but you have to understand that if you really really really belong to Jesus then your faith is something that exists outside of time and has existed before the foundation of the world will keep you and will stand in the face of the Beast and all his power and all his strength that the dragon the.
First Beast and the second beast cannot conquer those who belong in Jesus in any sort of meaningful way because as soon as he kills us we rise and I don't know what kind of fears and doubts you have and I don't know what right now is Whispering to you in our culture walk away from Jesus everything would be easier if you just came this way but you can not you must endure and hold fast to your faith in Christ because that's where our hope and our eternity is set and sealed.
And if you want to this morning place your faith in Jesus and say I need something that can stand in the face of the Beast and I need a hope that is held secure can I tell you if you'll do that all it means is that before the foundation of the world he wrote your name down and he will keep you and he will save you and you will hold on to the end Christians will endure and we're called to endure you're going to make it to the end.
So make it to the end you're going to keep your faith so keep your faith faith here's a call for the endurance and the faith of the Saints let's pray Lord Jesus by the power of your spirit may we endure as we're tempted into sin as we're tempted as we're fearful as we stare out into the world and we see so much chaos and destruction may we see with Clear Eyes what's really going on where our hope really is and may we endure and trust you in.
Jesus name amen
Revelation 12
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning today we are going to read about how a red seven headed torned dragon is defeated by a lamb turn to re ration 12 we are in the Book of Revelation working our way through the Book of Revelation and the Book of Revelation is recorded by the Apostle John who was exiled to the island of patmas for telling people about Jesus and while there it says he's in the spirit on the Lord's day he's worshiping and he hears a voice.
And then he sees a vision and he's told to write what he sees and so we are reading what he saw and it is fantastic and glorious and terrifying and we're working our way through the book and we've reached a pivotal point in the Book of Revelation and over the next three weeks we'll kind of be in this zone of the Book of Revelation so when you were in eighth grade ninth grade somewhere around there in an English class you were shown a chart probably that looked something like this and this is how a story is told this is what a good movie looks like this is you have Exposition which is hidden over here.
Under the drum cage so I'm sorry uh you have Exposition which is you know the beginning of the movie where the you know like in The Lord of the Rings where it's like there were seven rings given to the Elven Kings or whatever was just telling you the stuff that's happening you know like you're learning about like there's a guy who lives here and his girlfriend's mean or whatever like that's the beginning part and then there's conflict something happens that sends you know our Hobbit towards a Mount Doom or whatever there's like a thing that's going on they hit the baseball over the fence to the Beast like something happens that gets it going.
And then we have rising action and then there's a climax that ends they you know put on their PT flyers or whatever and outrun the dog and get the baseball back the the ring goes into the mountain somebody kills somebody else and we're super happy about it whatever ever that happens and then there's resolution we get to see him on the beach for like a 10-second clip or it just freeze frames and tells you what happened when they grew up or whatever we have resolution this is how a story is told we're used to this.
If someone dies in the first 20 minutes of the movie and you thought they were a bad guy you realize they're not the main bad guy unless this is a zombie movie like we you you know this kind of story you know this flow like I saw the movie Australia and they did this it was a good movie and then it just kept going for some reason and was like a whole second movie and I was just confused the whole time I was like what on Earth is happening why did this movie was a movie.
Now and I felt myself because they did it wrong I don't know if y'all have seen that movie it's wrong and so we just are used to this and you can't get it out of order this is the way it works well there's a thing in Middle Eastern writing called a kaym or a chastic structure in eastern literature it happens in Hebrew all the time happens in the Old Testament all the time that they're used to just like we're used to this we're used to this structure we can feel it we don't even have to think about it you don't go oh we've reached the point of conflict like you just you just follow along.
You understand what's happening you you know the pace well this is what a chastic structure looks like and it's different from what we've been in there's a point a then a point B and then a point C and then there's something that stands on its own or is the same kind of point back to back and then we have a matching c b and a on the other side and there's some really good Arguments for the whole book of Revelation is written in a chastic structure that there are direct quotes from chapter 1 to chapter 21.
And then there's a lot of parallel in the letters that are written to the churches and the promises that are made to them and then the promises that are fulfilled in the chapters 19 20 and 21 that there's uh the seven seals and the Seven trumpets and then we have the seven bows and the fall of Babylon and there's this moment in the middle that stands as the top of the pyramid or sometimes they turn it this way and it' be the tip of the arrow and that's where we are right.
Now which for an Eastern audience Middle Eastern audience they would have understood we've reached the point that's telling me what the point is that's where we are and if you've been following along with us we had the six seals where God's judgment is unfurled and there were uh Seven Seals but there were six and then there was a pause there was what the uh commentators call an interlude and I don't like that term but I hadn't come up with a better one.
So there was an interlude where John says look at this I saw this and then there's the seventh seal and then there were six trumpets and then an interlude where we pause and it's look at this and then there was the seventh trumpet and in some ways chapters 12 13- 14 are the interlude for the whole book it's this Vision that helps you understand this is the main thing and so for the next couple of weeks we're going to be and here's the point of the Book of Revelation and it's that a lamb defeats a dragon.
And then we're told what we are to do with that as we live out our days we'll get into that next week we're in chapter 12 this morning I'm going to pray and then we're going to read together Lord help us to see this help us to feel feel it help us to believe it and help us to go we ask this in the name of your son Jesus and by the power of the spirit amen Revelation chapter 12 and a great sign appeared in heaven.
So John is seeing uhoh that's my fault if you go back to the first slide and you click the first one it'll clear all that stuff out and then you can click the slide that we're on yeah and then go to the slide we're on boom that was to help you know that Revelation 12 is the main point you saw how it was at the top of the arrow you're welcome now you'll remember it all right John is seeing something and he sees a sign.
Now a sign is not the thing a sign points to the thing and so he's seeing something that's a picture that points to a reality and so it says he saw a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 Stars she was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth okay he sees a fantastically dressed pregnant lady she's clothed in the Sun the moon's under her feet she's got 12 stars on her head and there are other clues in this text that we'll get to.
But this is Israel this is the people of God throughout the centuries working toward she's pregnant with the Messiah and we'll see that she's going to give birth to the one who's going to rule with a rod of iron and she is dressed like Israel if you're familiar with your Old Testament in Genesis 39:9 Joseph gives a vision to his dad Israel and he says I saw the sun and the moon and 11 stars and they bowed down to me well Joseph would be the 12th star.
So this is Israel and the people of Israel this is the people of God throughout history working towards God's plan to give birth to the Messiah so that Israel is pregnant with the promised one that's what this is a picture of so it's fulfilled in Mary who gives birth but it's also all of Israel all of God's promises and it's all God's covenant people so it's the true Israel which is pertinent a little bit later in the passage but this is Israel who and giving birth.
For Jewish a Jewish audience they would have recognized the Sun Moon 12 Stars would would click so we have a pregnant Israel and another sign appeared in heaven this is verse three Behold a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and on his heads seven diadems it's crowns so seven heads indicates Authority intelligence 10 horns indicates power strength seven crowns IND indicates Authority rulership now this Dragon when you picture a dragon this Dragon most likely would not have had wings.
For two primary reasons one it doesn't tell us that he has wings and two in first Century Roman Empire this word draco most often was represented and meant giant sea serpent it's just like a massive sea snake the Romans actually had a draco that they would have on a stick which was just like this monster head that was made out of gold or bronze and then it they just put like a streamer on it and they would ride into battle and it would catch air and you know like an evil battle kite.
And so this Dr would be like this massive sea serpent with some connections in the Old Testament to Leviathan and and if you read in Isaiah 26 2729 there's this picture there of him conquering Leviathan as like a future promise that this twisting Serpent and so there's this picture of what he's seeing is this massive seven-headed terrifying monster and it says his tail swept down a third of the stars of Heaven and cast them to the Earth uh this is most likely a reference to um demonic creatures that join in the dragon's rebellion and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth this Dragon we're told in.
Verse 9 is Satan himself this Dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child he might devour it so he sees this pregnant Israel and she's in labor and then there's a dragon that's come to take take the Messiah away to ruin all the promises of God that have been building up and this is Genesis one stuff where he when he gives the curse to The Serpent and says you'll crawl on your belly he says that there will be enmity between you the woman and woman's Offspring and you and he will you'll uh bite his heel.
But he will crush your head this is that picture of this promised one who's going to fight the dragon who's going to crush The Serpent and we're seeing that the dragon is here to destroy it she gave birth to a male child one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron that's Psalm two that's a promise that the Son of God is going to rule he's going to Reign he's going to rule with a rod of iron he's going to dash the Nations into pot into into uh pieces like hitting a clay pot we looked at this.
When we looked at the promises in the letters to the churches that he says you're going to rule with me he quotes that Psalm and they're going to be ruling with him and so this is this picture of Psalm 2 this is the picture of the Messiah this is Jesus is born and we we read these Passages at Christmas and at Christmas it's quaint but this is what's happening that the promise is being fulfilled by God and that the enemy wants to destroy it this is Herod going and sending to Bethlehem to kill all the children to try to sweep away this Messiah and this is the life of.
Jesus where he's tempted and where he's taken to the cross and crucified this is where Satan is working any way he possibly can to try to undo God's plan with the Messiah and it says that if he really understood if the rulers of this age really understood what would happen on the cross they wouldn't have done it but they they do because they don't understand exactly what's going on and they're trying whatever they can to destroy it and it says but her child was caught up to.
God and to his throne so in the vision the dragon doesn't get the child the child goes and rules with God on his throne this is Jesus and the woman fled Into the Wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days all right we looked at that number last week and we're going to see it again next week 1260 days is exactly 42 months if you use the Jewish 30-day month so any of youall who did quick math and thought it was wrong haha it's exactly 42 months or later In this passage it's going to be called a time times and half a time it's.
Three and a half years and we looked at it last week it's this this um prophecy that was made in the Book of Daniel for something that was going to happen when Antiochus took over and there was going to be this great time of tribulation and persecution and then John is saying that it's not just that time it's actually stretched that picture of that tribulation is stretched over the time from the time Jesus is resurrected and the temple is destroyed till the end and there's a lot of hints that that makes sense where it lines up with the trampling of the the Gentiles over the the temple Mound which.
Jesus says will happen until the end which Daniel says will happen till the end which uh they say will happen for 42 months last chapter we were just in there's this picture of this is meant to drag it out it'd be like if we said when we enter the Helen that lasts forever you'd have a picture of the destruction but then you're dragging it out so that's what it's saying this this time of tribulation is lasting but the beautiful part here is that she's being nourished during this time it's meant to bring to mind this picture of tribulation and difficulty and attack she she's being protected and we'll.
See a picture of that later cuz it's going to bring it back up it just tells us that here okay now War arose in heaven Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back this is prophesied in in Daniel 12 and John saying I saw it that Michael and his angels make war on the dragon his angels vers 8 but he was defeated that's the dragon they fought back but he was defeated and there was no longer any place.
For them in heaven and the Great Dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to the Earth and his angels were thrown down with him and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ it's Jesus have come for the accuser of our brother has been thrown down who accuses them Day and Night Before Our.
God accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them Day and Night Before Our God Jesus conquers the authority of the Christ has come and Satan is expelled from before God his realm is limited he's been cast out the accuser who accused day and night is cast out and then it says this and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their lives even unto death therefore Rejoice oh heavens and you who dwell in them.
But woe to you oh Earth and sea for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short so there was a time where Satan had more mobility and the ability to enter into the presence of God and then he's cast down and he's relegated to Earth he's imprisoned and he's in great wrath because his time is short now this has played out for at least 2,000 years since Christ's Resurrection now and we might say.
Well that's not a short time but our scope's real limited like it's like when you're interacting with a toddler and they're not eating their food and you're like we can stay here all day because sitting for 10 minutes for a toddler is like half their life y'all like it's just like it'd be like if I made you sit for a week like it's a long time you can outweigh a kid this is one of your superpowers as a parent it's like bro I got all day you going to eat that food you going to live in this chair you will not.
Remember a time that you existed before this chair existed that's actually one of the great perks of getting older you remember when it was so hard to do anything that took an hour it just wait you you had to sit still for an hour you had to wait for an hour one of the look there's a lot of ne ne negative things about getting older you know your body starts betraying you and all that stuff and people talk about that but one of the great perks is that time isn't as bad anymore like you get stuck at a doctor's office.
For 2 hours that's fine if you don't have somewhere to be like if you got small kids at the house and I'm stuck at the doctor's office for 2 hours that's like I'll be like take your time doc I know you got to help people I no need to Ruth I can wait I I got time and the Satan says his time is short because he's had a lot of time and y'all the angels that didn't Rebel have a lot of time still coming enjoy and peace and prosperity Satan's been relegated he's been limited and he's got a destruction that's coming and pain and turmoil that's coming and it says he's in great wrath thrown.
Down to the Earth verse 13 and when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the Earth he pursued the woman that had uh pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child but the woman was given given the two wings of the Great Eagle Eagle so that she might fly from the serpent Into the Wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time so that's 1260 days or 42 months or three and a half years again representing this Church age some will read this and say that's just Israel like ethnic Israel and I spent some time trying to study this.
This week it seems much more likely given the way that the New Testament treats Israel and the way that the the Christians would have understood Israel and John who's part of ethnic Israel but also a Christian is that the Church is the Fulfillment of the promises to Israel capital I Israel so that Abraham we're told and you look at Romans you look at Galatians we're told that Abraham had Ishmael but ishma wasn't a son of the promise the promise was to Isaac.
And then Isaac has two sons but Esau is not the promised son it's Jacob that it there's this there's this it's not just blood hereditary Israel but it's the true Israel it's the Covenant people of Israel and so there's this picture that the Church that as God makes war against Israel and as he makes war against the Church God's Israel the Covenant people that the Church Will Survive will be nourished and protected and that's what it says that throughout this she'll make it it says the serpent poured out water serpent poured water like a River out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood.
So it's in a fire breathing Ser serpent it breathes water which may be representative of lies and language it could just be War something is poured out against this woman but the Earth came to the help of the woman and the Earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth a lot of pictures here parallel uh The Exodus God says he bore them on Eagles wings and she's given Eagles Wings she's taken to the Wilderness that's where.
God took the people of Israel uh the Earth opens at one point to to swallow up a rebellion in the in in The Exodus and here it opens up to swallow up what the enemy is bringing forth but she's protected God is protecting her then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her Offspring on those who keep the Commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus and he stood on the sand of the sea there's some who say that she's just ethnic Israel.
And then he goes and turns his attack on the Church I think it's that she's the Covenant people of God that she is the Church and he goes to attack Christians he's not going to be able to conquer the Church but he can kill some Christians that he goes after those who hold to the testimony of Jesus this is similar understanding as when John writes his letters uh second John and third John where he says to the elect lady and her children the elect lady being the Church her children being the Christians.
So it's this corporate and individual understanding Ben Johnson is part of 1040 hope he helps uh Mission work happen in the 1040 window where there's a lot of conflict and difficulty and he he got stuck at one point and and was in a war zone this past year and here's the thing about Ben Johnson you can kill Ben Johnson but you can't defeat the Church you can kill the missionaries that Ben Johnson is helping but you can't defeat the Church they can persecute the Church in North Korea and in Iran and and in Libya and they can kill Christians.
But they can't defeat the Church they can line them up on the edge of the sea and have them wear in Orange and make a video and mix their blood with the ocean you can kill Christians but you can't kill the Church and we're going to read next week about this war that the dragon is waging against Christians but it's possible for us to read Revelation 12 and think this is a chapter about the dragon and how scary he is and miss that he got conquered this is a chapter about Victory it's not about the Dragon.
And if you say okay well where where did how did he get conquered you might be tempted to think Michael did it but chap verse 11 tells us how he was conquered it says look back at verse 11 and they that's the brothers that's the Christians that's who he was accusing they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their lives even unto death that he's been conquered he's been defeated that's the.
First thing I want to say he's been conquered in in the first letters to the churches when he's when we went through those weeks and we talked about the letters of churches every single one of them ended with to those who conquer to those who conquer to those who conquer if you conquer if you conquer if you conquer and we've hit Revelation 12 we've hit the the point of the spear the tip of this pyramid and it says they've conquered and we get to hear how as we read through that over and over again and we wanted to conquer we want to be the ones who conquered we going to make it to the end.
And says here's here's how they did it and so we're about to see how how and how far we're going to see how how and how far how do how do we conquer how do we conquer how far how by the blood of the Lamb he's defeated by a lamb th this lamb is Christ we're told in Revelation 4 they say look the lion of the tribe of of Judah so born out of Israel of the tribe of Judah the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered and he says.
When I looked I saw a lamb as if it had been slain this is Jesus who conquered through seemingly being conquered who conquered through his death who conquered through his blood who conquers through his righteousness and his sacrifice that he's the lamb that pays for sin that we conquer by the blood of the Lamb it says they conquer this is the Church this is the people who belong to the Lord it says they conquer by the blood of the lamb and do you know how beautiful that is that it doesn't say they conquer how by their obedience by their morality by their righteousness by being the ones who get everything right by doing what they're.
Supposed to by keeping it together by being loving Enough by not sinning bad enough and doesn't say that it says the blood of the Lamb let me show you how this works this is Colossians 2 and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh so this is you were he's talking to the Church and he says this is who you were you were dead in your trespasses you were rebellious you were sinful you were broken you had no ability to fix this you were dead not you were kind of bad in your trespasses or you were a little dirty in your trespasses no you were dead in your trespasses that's.
You without Jesus God Made Alive together with him him being Jesus the resurrected Jesus the lamb that was slain having forgiven us all our trespasses if you place your faith in Jesus you were forgiven all of your trespasses all of your sin all of your Rebellion you say well what about yes that but if I yes but you don't know I don't care I mean I care about you but all your trespasses are forgiven in Jesus by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands you had debt in your sin that weighed on you that you were going to have to pay.
For that you were going to be required of you that was going to be taken out of you and that Jesus by his blood has canell the record of our death it says this this record of debt he set aside nailing it to the Cross well what was nailed to the cross Jesus was nailed to the cross and we're told that he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God that your debt has been paid in.
Jesus that he has conquered we have conquered by the blood of the lamb and then we we we got that we're tracking that's the Gospel we're wrapped our head around it and then verse 15 says he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him what well that's this that's who are the rulers and authorities that's the accuser being thrown down he's disarmed what he used to have was the ability to say you're a righteous.
God look at how sinful they are look at this debt that they owe punish them if you're so good if you're so righteous if you're so just destroy them look at how sinful they are look at how broken they are how are you letting this slide and he accused day and night before God he was before God accusing Non-Stop and now by the blood of the Lamb he has nothing to say we're actually told by John that we don't have an accuser before the.
Father we now have an advocate Jesus Christ the righteous who is a propitiation for our sin that if you have sin you don't have an accuser you don't have someone who's saying look at what they've done look at what they said look at how they've acted look at how they treated people look at how they've sinned look at their immorality look at their shame look at their guilt you don't have that you have one who stands before the father and says they are covered by my blood that one belongs to me their debt has been paid and to the glory of Christ and his grace and to the praise of his name and his blood.
We are free and there was a a moment in history when Jesus rose and the debt was paid that God looked at Michael and said get him out of here I just imagine Michael being like gladly and Michael made War but he conquered because of the blood of the lamb and the debt has been paid and there is no accuser there's an advocate and there's something that you have to see clearly I had a conversation with one person in our Church this past week where they said.
Well you know I'm such a terrible person and then they went on to explain something I said hold on a second do you mean that you understand that you sin and so you shouldn't be surprised that you sin and you'll have to repent or do you mean that you're a terrible person because if you're in Christ you're not a terrible person you're you're made righteous there there's no accusation that sticks to you and she said we we say all the time like we're we're terrible and it's like yeah without.
Jesus 100% you have no hope if you don't have Jesus you're not fixing this you don't conquer by your righteousness your goodness your morality your IQ you don't you don't but you conquer by the blood of Jesus and once the blood of Jesus is entered in there are no trespasses the record of your debt is canceled there's nothing to bring up there's no accuser there's an advocate you are free to the glory of God you are free and we don't walk around with our head down going I'm.
So terrible no I'm free I would be terrible but Jesus is wonderful and his blood has covered me and to the praise of his name in his glory I'm covered we conquer by the blood of the lamb and the enemy is silenced and cast out praise God so that every once in a while people say but I'm not strong enough I'm too sinful I'm just too broken you know sometimes you're talking to kids and they say something that makes sense from a kid's perspective.
But it's just so stupid and irrelevant like if you looked at a kid and said do you want to go bowling and they responded with I can't I don't know how to swim and it's like it's not in a bowl I don't know it's not is doesn't it doesn't pertain to this that's what we sound like when me say yeah but I'm so sinful but I'm so broken I just I can't keep it together I'm not good enough it's like yeah we conquer by the blood of the Lamb it's irrelevant.
If you've trusted in Jesus you've been washed clean you've been made whole the eny has been disarmed You Are Holy and blameless and above reproach you are the righteousness of Christ because of Christ so we get together and we Praise Jesus and we point to Jesus and we celebrate Jesus so that's how how by the blood of the lamb but then we're going to get a second how it's by the blood of the lamb and it says this and by the word of their testimony.
Well we're told over and over again that the testimony is the testimony of Jesus that that this is bearing witness to Jesus Paul John says he's on the island of Patmos because of the testimony of Jesus meaning he was telling people about Jesus they told him to shut up that he's going to make war on those who hold to the testimony of Jesus but it's testifying to Jesus it's the witness of Jesus it's where Jesus in Acts 1:8 says you will be my Witnesses this is where Paul in Romans 10 says how are they going to believe in someone they've never heard about how are they going to hear about them unless someone preaches.
How are they going to preach unless they're sin we say this every Sunday we know who Jesus is we know what he's done and God's plan for people to hear that is the Church the Church is plan a and there is no plan B so you're sent we say that every Sunday go because of this how is the serpent conquered by the work of Jesus and a whole lot of people who won't shut up by the work of Jesus and the most annoying person in the office by the work of.
Jesus and that neighbor who keeps trying to meet me by the work of Jesus and people who actually e with effort leverage their time and their money and their energy to send people as missionaries to other countries where people don't want to hear it this is one of the reasons why as a Church we don't do a whole lot in this building because we don't want you to think that your job as a Christian is to be in this building you have a job you have a neighborhood we want you to have time we want you to coach little league join a gym get in a knitting club go to a painting class do gardening.
Join a wck league whatever sports ball do it we want you to be around people who don't know Jesus people have lamented to me before it's so hard to be at my job because I'm the only Christian and I'm always like Jesus snuck one in you're in a mission field you're in start praying start laboring you have neighbors you have people around you do you know how much they don't want to hear about Jesus do you know how much we're surrounded by people who absolutely need to hear the Gospel and don't want to y'all y'all might you might have a coworker you might have a neighbor who will randomly show up here on a Sunday.
Or some other Church something might happen in their lives and they feel like they need to hear the about Jesus and figure that out and that may happen that's a small percentage the rest of them need somebody to testify to go and to speak we're sent and we're supposed to be intentional and care because y'all it's how the dragon is conquered by the blood of the lamb and the word of the testimony that Christians tell people about Christ as what we're supposed to do.
So how by the blood of the Lamb how by people telling people about the blood of the Lamb you might say but I don't I don't know enough or or sometimes people say stuff like yeah but but I'm a sinner I can't I can't tell people about Jesus I'm so messed up you're not telling them about you you're the reason you love Jesus is that you're so messed up that's why I love him if he didn't sa messed up people I would be doing something else we talk about forgiveness we talk about Redemption we talk about Grace we talk about Mercy we talk about his blood that covers Us not our works that cover us.
We have the message if you know Christ you have everything you need to tell somebody about him You' got the spirit work in you and you have the message to declare that Jesus saves Sinners you say but I mess it up I don't say it right okay work on it you've practiced your golf swing in the last year you've gotten better at pickle ball you know the names of you've studied all kinds of things this one matters don't let the enemy lie to you and tell you you're not ready or capable or you don't have the words or whatever go there are people around us who don't know.
Jesus and their fate is to join the serpent in destruction or there can be those who give a testimony to the blood of Christ how how how how far verse 11 and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their lives even unto death you could not shut them up if you wanted to the best thing you can do your last resort is to kill them and every time you do it there are more who keep saying the same thing they love not their life even under death and y'all everybody loves their life it's assumed it's built in it's built in that.
We we protect ourselves this is why Jesus can say love your neighbor as yourself even people who are depressed or whatever they still want good things to happen for themselves we still are designed to be self-protecting this is why Paul can say to love your wife the way you love your own body it's built in that we love our life it's built in that we love ourselves we're designed to be that way to have some sort of self- protection selfdesire to to want things to be good.
For ourselves to want Comfort to want whatever and then it says but there's a love that's greater than that love and these people love Jesus more than they love themselves when we say Jesus is better than everything else we mean up to and including you and your heartbeat that's the love of Christ the love for Christ and the mission goes forward with death defying missions because Jesus is better than everything and so the Church proclaims the Gospel in the face of death this past week I was watching a documentary called Sheep Among Wolves is about uh the Church growing in Iran they were talking to missionaries and Christians there they were translating.
For that were talking about all the persecution that they face all the attacks secret police rapes and murders imprisonment talking about having to prepare themselves mentally for that and one of the missionaries who's from the West who was there said yeah he said they they share the Gospel even though the consequences are immense he said in the west we don't even have real consequences and we don't share the Gospel somebody in this the same documentary series says that it seems like the West has had a lullabi sung over it the enemy's just going sh go back to sleep y we don't even get to death we don't even get to loving Our Lives more than.
Death we we don't get to loving Jesus more than our couch and there are people around us who don't know him and we don't care but the dragon is conquered by the blood of the Lamb the testimony of the Church in the face of unending odds of Destruction and we move forward because death is not the end for us so they love not their life even unto death and God is glorified and praised and people are saved and they get to stand in eternity with Nations and languages and tongues gathered around the throne praising his name unendingly.
Because Jesus Christ rescues and redeems Sinners and then those sinners go and tell people and when someone tells them to shut up we just keep going John Piper put it this way he said the goal of a Christian is not to stay alive it's to stay in love he said he hear so many Christians so many times saying well I'm gonna do this and I'm going to do that and I'm gonna and he said all it is is I'm going to stay alive I'm going to stay alive we're going to fight we're I'm going to stay alive and he said that's not the goal of a Christian our goal in the middle of tribulation.
Difficulty and persecution is not to stay alive our goal is to stay so in love with Jesus that we don't care about our life God help us because you have people around you that don't know Jesus and we're sent let's pray Jesus we thank you that you have conquered our sin with your blood and that we do not earn anything from you but that everything has been freely by your grace given to us and may we not sit stuck in guilt and shame as.
If you had not paid the price and canel the debt and nailed it to the Cross as if we have an accuser and not an advocate we praise your name that you stand before the father and you say we're welcome and we're washed and we're righteous because of your glorious Grace and goodness and you have paid the cost and it is finished so Lord may we live in Freedom and joy and Delight with our heads up smiling towards you because of your grace and your goodness towards us.
Lord may we tell people and trust your spirit to work may we not be lulled to sleep by Comfort entertainment and distraction and cell phones maybe not waste hours a week doing things that don't matter and have no Eternal purpose the only Eternal purpose they hold is to keep us out of the fight distracted by the enemy and far from telling anyone about your glorious goodness that their Eternal weight is just to kneecap us God may your spirit work and may we Proclaim and may we go out of our way to get to know our neighbors and our co-workers and may we tell them about how good you are.
Because you have set us free in your own goodness and by your mercy and your love and we are free and we have a hope and Lord we pray for your Church around the globe and we pray for those in this room who should commit to go to a place where their life is at risk we pray that you would strengthen and give endurance to the Saints around the globe who cannot gather like this cannot say the name of Jesus in public have to figure out a way to hide everything.
So that they might follow you and Lord may you strengthen them and encourage them and Empower them and may you send some people from this very room to go to places where they have to risk everything because you're worth it Lord we're thankful that the Church is unconquerable and we're thankful that Christians have something better than life in Jesus name amen Matt's going to come back up and we're going to take communion and my invitation to you this morning as you take communion.
Because communion is a is for Christians to celebrate the blood of the Lamb my invitation to you this morning is to take a moment and then when you come and take communion to remember that you have Redemption and freedom and Reconciliation and life and resurrection and forgiveness because of the work of Jesus to take communion in Joy this morning if you need to repent if you need to confess if you need to talk to someone in our Church family and tell them that you've sinned against them do that.
And then come and Delight in the Glorious risen and re resurrected saving King who shed his blood for us if you're not a Christian communion is not for you but Jesus is offered to you that you might trust in him and follow him as Matt plays when you're ready we'll take communion.
Revelation 10-11
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we are in Revelation chapter 10 and 11 we have two chapters uh today as we continue to walk through this book together the other night I was uh lying in bed and I was having trouble sleeping and it's because I was cycling through a bunch of worries which I may shock you that pastors are human but uh we are and I was worried about paying bills and worrying about all the stuff on my to-do list and just was.
If you've ever been in this cycle where you just see can't seem to break out of it you just keep worrying about it and there was no offramp I just kept going and kept going and then I all of a sudden because I'm immersed in this book right now uh this book came to mine and it just pierced through the cycle I was able to have off-ramp and to consider a lot of what we've been walking in these pictures especially these last few weeks and the weeks that are to come of of judgment that is poured out on those that don't know Christ.
And then the overwhelming Grace that he bestows upon the Church that we don't deserve at all that we would get the new heavens and the new Earth at the End of This Book and I started to think about my neighbors and friends and coor not coworkers but neighbors and friends and different people in my life uh that don't know Christ where judgment is going to fall upon them and it made all of the worries that were in my life seemed so much smaller I was like looking at Everest.
And then looking back at my worries and it was an antill I mean just by comparison in stature and in scope and seriousness and weight it just seems so small and insignificant by comparison the heaviness of these chapters that we're walking through I think many of us don't want to sit in them they're uncomfortable I think many of us want to get to the end of the book get to the end of Revelation and uh and get to the final two chapters and sit in that.
And while those are good I think it's a disservice to our own souls to just skip to that I mean the Revelation chap 1 says that blessed are those who read this and that's not just the letters of the beginning and the final two chapters at the end it's also these pictures of judgment so my hope is that with all the things that each of us have going on in our lives that we would not simply just move on but we would let the uh seriousness of these chapters Pierce through and remind us of what's at stake especially.
For those that don't know Christ and that's my hope today as we walk through two more of these chapters we be reminded of that so let me pray for us and then we'll walk through these chapters together heavenly father I pray that you might help us sit under the authority of your word that we would not look away but we would embrace the reality that judgment is coming and what that means for us as Christians as we think about this may you open our ears and our hearts to receive your word we ask this in.
Jesus name amen all right so let me Ori where we are because we've been going through a lot and I just want to help us see where we are in the Book of Revelation so we got through the letters to the seven churches and then in chapters 4 and five the next part of this Vision that we've kind of called CH uh part two of the book that there's this vision of the throne room that John is seeing the throne room and he's seeing the glory of.
God and he's seeing uh the lamb that is to be worshiped in Praise that we just sang about Christ and then a scroll is presented with Seven Seals and those uh Seven Seals are unveiling the Judgment of God upon the Earth and chapter 6 through 8 it's each scroll is being open judgment is falling upon the Earth and we've looked at that to see that that uh is uh judgment that is poured out over history and also especially at the end of this present age and we got to.
See in chapter 7 this uh this interlude this pause this break from The Narrative because you can't read Revelation sequentially like this is this break from The Narrative that looks at uh what is going to happen to the Church and in chapter 7 we got to see that the Church will be sealed and protected on the day of final judgment the final judgment will be poured out on those who don't believe but God will protect his Church from this final judgment.
And then the seventh seal is opened in chapter 8 and that is the final judgment that is poured out uh on the earth at the end of this present age now last week we see another set of seven not just Seven Seals but seven trumpets which you're going to see in this book there's seven uh these parallel narratives of of of seven and and and Chad Walkers through these first six trumpets which is again another picture of God's judgment being poured out on the earth.
Now we are to right before the seventh trumpet and we have another interlude another Pauls and the narrative that takes you away from that and positions you and looks at something different and that's where we pick up in verse one of chapter 10 then I saw another Mighty angel coming down from heaven wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head and his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire he had a little scroll open in his hand and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land and called out the loud voice like a lion roaring.
So we get this Vision this part of the vision of the Mighty Angel and in this he's got one foot on land and one foot on sea and this is really symbolic of the whole earth that what he's pronouncing is upon the whole earth just like judgment is poured out on the whole earth what he's about to say from this little scroll is for the whole earth now this little scroll is different it's different than the scroll that's already been uh shown to us this is something uh different and it says.
When he called out with seven Thunders the the when he called out the seven Thunders sounded and when the seven Thunders had sounded I was about to Rite it but I Heard a Voice from Heaven saying seal up what the seven Thunders have said and do not write it down so John as he's been doing he seeing all of this he's writing all of it down he's getting ready to do that and the angel says stop the only thing that you can write down is that you can't write this down I just find kind of a humorous part of this.
So we don't get to hear that it's just for John verse 5 and the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever who created heaven and what is in it the Earth and what is in it and the Sea and what is in it that there would be no more delay but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel the mystery of.
God would be fulfilled just as he announced to his servants the prophets so this is imagery that comes from Daniel chapter 12 one foot on land one foot on sea signifying the whole earth that's about to receive judgment the picture here is the trumpet is about to sound the seventh trumpet is the end and there's no more delay and the Church as we've seen throughout this book is is in the tribulation the Church is suffering longing for the justice of God to fall upon the Earth and what he's saying is this is just a little longer.
But it feels so long right now that though though it feels so long what he's trying to help him see is that in the grand scheme of time it's not as long as you think years ago my wife and I when we first got married we moved to Louisville Kentucky and we decided to get a dog and uh uh was across the river up in Indiana so we said all right let's go we'll go on this day the day came.
Then all of a sudden uh we looked at the weather and it said tornadoes and my wife who newly married looking for my leadership said hey maybe we should wait till tomorrow and at 23 with wisdom and insight I said no don't worry about that and I quote tornadoes are a bunch of hype cuz I'm from South Carolina and you know like it's just we're we're not used to that kind of action I was like there's a bunch of hype and you know it might blow over uh a car it's fine we'll we'll be we'll be good.
So get in the car driving up the interstate get cross over into Indiana in the river and all of a sudden the sky looks bad and I turn on the AM radio uh which is a type of radio for those of you that don't know you you turn it on it's a different frequency anyways turn on the AM radio and hear about these tornadoes it's really bad and then we took cover in a gas station and the winds were pounding the gas station I mean this the building is shaking my wife is literally clinging to a toilet questioning everything in her life up to this point preparing me.
For fall it felt like forever felt so long it was 2 minutes turns out that was a very serious storm I mean a few miles over it was an F4 mile wide tornado took out our entire town when it blew over us it was thunderstorms it picked back up in Western Kentucky and it was tornadoes again and in the middle of all of that it just when you're in a storm like that it feels so long but it's not as long as you think and the Church is in a tribulation it's it's it's long in.
For this to end it's longing for the suffering to be over but in the grand scheme of time it's not as long as you think that's what he's conveying here to endure a little longer until the seventh trumpet sounds verse 8 it says then the voice that I heard from the heaven spoke to me again saying go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the Angel who is standing on the sea and on the land so I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll and he said to me Take and Eat It it will make your stomach bitter.
But in your mouth it will be sweet as honey and I took the little scroll from the hand of the Angel and ate it it was sweet as honey in my mouth but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter and I was told you must again prophesy about many peoples and Nations and languages and Kings so this I would argue is a pretty clear illusion alluding to Ezekiel just as Ezekiel took the scroll and ate it and it was sweet.
But the difference here is that John takes it and he eats it and though it's sweet because the word of God is sweet the prophecy of God is sweet it sat on his stomach bitter because this is Judgment though the Judgment of God is good it is fierce it is bitter and that's what's happening here but then you get this verse 11 at the end of this chapter where it says You must again prophesy about many peoples and Nations and languages and kings and like much of the Book of Revelation the different commentators and theologians who looked at this have different opinions on what that is.
But I what I'm looking at this and I'm reading these commentaries I'm reading this passage I think what's Happening Here is both the warning of judgment and the reality that judgment is coming but also the reality that every it says peoples and Nations and languages and Kings need to hear the Gospel that every tribe Nation tongue needs to hear the go the Gospel so as the Church suffers and endures in the tribulation we should labor to take the Gospel to the Nations we should take the Gospel to our neighbors we should take the Gospel to those who desperately need to hear about Christ that's the tension of the Church that in one side we are.
Worshiping and proclaiming come Lord Jesus come when we see the injustices of this present world we say come Lord Jesus come but also in the very next step say Lord help us I got friends that don't know Christ I got family don't know does know Christ there are nations that don't know Christ come Lord Jesus come and help us labor to see as many as possible be spared the fierce wrath that is going to be poured out that's the calling for the Church in the middle of the tribulation.
So that's the end of chapter 10 then it continues into chapter 11 which I'll be honest chapter 11 is probably one of the most difficult chapters in the Bible to understand and interpret it's definitely probably the hardest in the Book of Revelation but I'd argue probably one of the most difficult in the Bible so there are two main ways I think to look at this chapter you can look at it and say that what we're about to read are very literal pictures of a brief tribulation that happens right before.
Jesus comes or the language here is symbolic of what's going to happen to the Church throughout the whole tribulation so I think those are the two main ways to read this if you read the first way where this is a very literal tribulation and these pictures are literally pointing to something that's going to happen right before Jesus comes back I think this this is how you have to read this that what we're about to read is is that one day in Jerusalem uh currently where the Dome of the Rock is that's the.
Third holiest site in Islam that sits on the Temple Mount where the temple used to be that one day that's going to be actually torn down and that a temple is going to be rebuilt there and then when that happens there'll be a a period of time for 3 and 1/2 years of intensified suffering and tribulation upon the Church and that in that day in that time there will be two Christian Witnesses at the temple who are martyred and killed by an evil figure.
Now some are going to say that's the Antichrist even though that word doesn't show up at all in the Book of Revelation not once some are going to say that that's the man of lawlessness that comes from second Thessalonians but an evil figure will rise up and we'll strike down these two uh Christian Witnesses these two Christian witnesses will uh lay dead for three and a half days as the world celebrates their death and then they will resurrect and rise.
Then that will begin the return of Christ now that is if you take that approach and honestly that is a that that is a Fair Way absolute to read this text that is not the way that I read this text that is not the way that Chad who also preaches reads this text um so we're not going to preach from that position again Christians if you came to our training weekend have disagree these kinds of things the good news is is this doesn't affect your salvation and it also does not affect what we're supposed to do as Christians in response to passages like this.
So pick up in verse one then I was given a measuring Rod like a staff and I was told rise and measure the temple of God and the Altar and those who worship there okay this is similar to to Ezekiel 40 which if you in our Church there's a bunch of us who are doing a a 2-year Bible reading plan if you read this morning you came across that passage and it's just kind of I think in God his Providence line that up that's nice.
So and if you want to be a part of the Bible reading plan come talk to me I add you to it so I think this is imagery here from Ezekiel chapter 40 when uh the Temple's being measured but John is being told to measure the temple here in verse two it says but do not measure the court outside the temple leave that out for it is given over to the Nations so he says measure the temple but not the outside Court this is.
For the Nations and then it says and they will trample the holy city for 42 months and I will grant authority to my to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth so then we get this picture of Jerusalem being trampled for 42 months these two witnesses that are prophesying during this time 1260 days that's 42 months that's 3 and A2 years I think the language here when it's talking about the temple is not talking about the literal temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem I think this is language throughout the New Testament.
For the Church Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2 talks about the temple being the the the Church of Jesus Christ that the Church of Jesus Christ making up this spiritual Temple uh Christ being the Cornerstone I think this is New Testament language for the Church which will include not just the Jews but also the Gentiles Every Nation tribe and tongue then we get more imagery here we get this 42 months and what I would argue is is the 42 months is a pretty clear reference to uh The Book of Daniel from chapter 7 through chapter 12 in Daniel 7 a ruler is prophesied who will one day persecute God's people.
For a period of time that's called uh a time times and half a time which when you get to Daniel chapter 12 we learn is around 3 and a half years 42 months or 1260 days now throughout Church history as we've looked back at the Book of Daniel prophesying about this seems to be very clear that he's talking about a very specific time later around 167 BC in 167 BC when the Greeks were ruling over the Jewish people a ruler named Antiochus ivth or or he called himself Antiochus epiphanies which means.
God manifest he believed himself to be Zeus reincarnate started to fiercely persecute the Jewish people for three about three and a half years he fiercely persecuted the Jewish people killed tens of thousands of Jews this is called a period of time called the maban Revolt which you ever heard of the Jewish history books first and second mccabes that's this period of time have you ever seen Hanukkah celebrated they're celebrating this time period that from 167 BC to 164 BC the Jewish people were intensely persecuted.
And then Antiochus went into the temple and he slaughtered a pig on the altar to Zeus which is desecrating the temple if you know the Old Testament law pigs were run clean this was a direct shot to desecrate and make uh fun of the Jewish faith make fun of the Lord so people look at this Daniel chap 7 to 12 and they say that points forward to that time period when that prophecy was fulfilled so when that's being referenced here here's what's happening as Christians who know their Old Testament we.
See 42 months we go that's Daniel chapter 7 that was fulfilled later in this time period but this time period was a time of deep tribulation for the people of God and that points forward to the age when the Church also will be trip will be under tribulation meaning that this is an example of the tribulation the Church is going to endure that's what's happening here I would argue Chad showed this picture last week that when you see this sign in the mountains.
When it finally there maybe no imagine a sign you're driving there's a car and there's a mountain and there's rocks falling if you've men that from last week it was a sign that helped picture that if you are driving through the mountains and you see a sign that has rocks falling you don't literally look at that sign and look at every single part of it there it is woo and think that's it I'm looking for those exact rocks on this exact formation it's a picture that's meant to warn you of hey.
If you're driving through the mountains be weary it of the dangers that are awaiting of Rock's falling and I would argue that when you read 42 months here what's happening here it's meant to draw you to Daniel then to the period of time of tribulation as a future picture of what the Church is going to endure between Christ's first and second coming and again that's debated and Christians disagree but I think that's what's happening here it's meant to draw your mind to this is the period of time of the tribulation.
So that the Church can understand that in the middle of the tribulation the Church is called to as we suffer witness because when you pick it back up in verse three it says and I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth the language here of two witnesses is the Church this is Jesus when he says where two or more are gathered in my name this is the Old Testament uh saying that you need two witnesses to declare something to be truthful this is.
Jesus sending out his disciples and pairs of two this is the language of the Church these two witnesses when you pick that back up as we witness in the midst of suffering verse four it says these are two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth and as we've already seen lampstand in the Book of Revelation is the Church and language of two lampstands here is to convey this is the Church that is suffering in the tribulation and declaring the glory of Christ to the Nations this language of two olive trees is a reference to Zechariah 4 it's two Olive Tree language here in the Old Testament is talking.
About uh the uh uh kingly and Priestly leadership and ultimately this being fulfilled in the Church so what you have here is in verse three the language of Prophecy even uh tagged with clothed in sackcloth this the language of prophet and get this to Olive Tree language which is both Priestly leadership and kingly Leadership and what you have combined is Prophet priest and King which was perfectly displayed by Christ but the Church embodies those roles as we witness both Pro all three Prophet priest and King.
So the language here is the Church witnessing as we are called to in the midst of suffering we endure verse 5 and if if anyone would harm them fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes if anyone would harm them this is how he is doomed to be killed again this is a picture of the Church advancing even under trials not being defeated and that ultimately as the Church advances throughout history The Gospel spreads and enemies are and foes are defeated continues they have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of they're prophesying and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to.
Strike the Earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire and it's like if you're reading through this you're just like what breathing fire like what plays but if you look at this and understand that Revelation is packed with imagery from the Old Testament pack with references to the Old Testament the language here is of Elijah who when he prophesied shut up the sky and no rain fell upon the land and it's the language of Moses who water and uh the N turn into blood and the plagues falling out on Egypt this is references to both Moses and Elijah Elijah being a prophet Moses being a prophet and a priest this is witnessing.
Uh sharing the Gospel Fire coming out language for the Church witnesses as she suffers and is persecuted verse 7 and when they have finished their testimony meaning when the Church has taken the Gospel to every tribe nation and tongue the Beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them now we're not going to get into the Beast this week Chad's going to get into that next week but I do want us to.
See here that what's being referenced here is that towards the end right before Jesus comes back the Church is going to suffer great LLY now I think the language of killed here doesn't mean completely dead I think it means deeply persecuted and suffering but that is what's going to happen ultimately what's going to happen with the Church before Christ comes back verse 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street on the great City that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt where the.
Lord was crucified for three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and Nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb and those who dwell on the earth Will Rejoice over them and make marry and exchange presence because these two prophets have been a torment to those who dwell on the earth and again I argue this is language that towards the end the Church is going to suffer I think the language here of three and a half days shows that it's going to be actually brief that towards the end of this tribulation.
When the Church suffers immensely it will be brief before Christ comes back as the Nations uh rage and pl lot in vain and celebrate the demise of the Church at the end verse 11 but after 3 and 1/2 days a breath of life from God entered them and they stood up on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them then they heard a loud voice from Heaven saying to them come up here and they went up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies watched them and at that hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake and the rest were.
Terrified and gave glory to the God of Heaven the second woe has passed behold the Third Woe Is to come and I would argue the language here is this is the resurrection that before the third W before the final trumpet before judgment is finally poured out on the earth the people of God will be resurrected this is the language of 1 Corinthians 15 with the trumpet sounds and the Church being resurrected I think this is also imagery from Ezekiel chapter 37 this Breath of Life entering into the people of.
God being resurrected being spared the Judgment that is ultimately to come then we get this beautiful celebration 15 onward it says then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall Reign forever and ever and the 24 Elders who sit on their Thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying we give thanks to you Lord.
God Almighty who is and who was for you have taken your great power and begun to Reign the Nations rageed but your wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged and for the rewarding and for rewarding your servants the prophets and Saints those who fear your name both small and great and for destroying the Destroyers of the Earth this picture of the Church in Victory worshiping Christ and judgment falling down upon the Earth verse 19 it finishes it out.
Then God's temple in heaven was opened and the Ark of his Covenant was seen with in his Temple there were flashes of lightning Rumblings peels of thunder and earthquake and heavy hail and then we get another picture of God bringing judgment upon his Earth all right that's a lot in chapter 11 you read it you're just like man and I I I do think that this is a good way to to read this but I don't want to get lost in trying to figure out the who what where.
When why and chart off this out I think what's more important am the complexities is that the Book of Revelation is very consistent that Jesus is coming back that he will judge the world that his people will ultimately be sealed on the day of judgment and be spared the Wrath of the Lamb that will be poured out but in the middle of this tribulation in the middle of this longing in the middle of this waiting the Church is called to witness that we should.
Look at the pictures of judgment In this passage and let that sit upon our souls that there are people in our lives that will not be spared these horrifying pictures and as Christians you can't just move on from that you've got to sit in that reality one of the things I many of you know this I love music um I love Christian music that celebrates Christ and makes much of him I also love music made by those who aren't Christians the lyrics don't always glorify Christ.
But some of it's very beautiful years ago I was at a concert for someone who's very much not a Christian someone who's an atheist and he explained one of his songs that was about he said listen this song was about the fact that there is no God and as soon as we Embrace that reality the whole world's going to be a lot better off and I heard thousands of people just joyously celebrate and I just sat there as a Christian seeing people celebrate this Blasphemous statement and it's like I couldn't enjoy the beauty of the music without understanding that there are thousands of people right.
Now that are celebrating celebrating something like this because they don't know Christ and those thousands of people unless a Christian stands before them and pleads for them to trust in Christ that those joyous screams will be turned into screams of Terror when the Judgment of God falls upon them and as a Christian you can't you can't walk away from that reality you can't do that we have to sit under the reality of the Gospel and realize and be burdened by this that there are people that are one day going to receive this this picture of Wrath that one day.
When that wrath comes upon them they will not be one day closer to the end of that wrath they will not be one day closer to the end of that Eternal judgment so you can't read these chapters s under them and think man that's really sad I wonder who's going to win the game today because that's what we do we're uncomfortable with these pictures we don't want to sit under them would rather just skip to the end and celebrate these pictures of the new heavens and new earth without sit sitting under the reality of the Judgment that you have friends you have neighbors you have co-workers you have family members we have people in our.
Lives that are going to endure this and we because of nothing that we have done not because we're good not because we're awesome not because we're deserving but because because of God's free Grace kindness and mercy that's bestowed upon us that we don't deserve will be spared all of that as the rest receive judgment you cannot sit in these pictures as a Christian and be unmoved by them and not be motivated that while we are celebrating come Lord Jesus come please.
God this Injustice this evil this world it needs to be finished come Lord Jesus come and the very next breath we say and Lord until you come use me to declare the Gospel to ears that are closed eyes that are blinded so they might taste and see that you are good and experience the goodness of the Gospel now and be spared the Judgment that is to come that is abundantly clear from this book so as we look at these pictures of judgment we should worship and we should praise that one day we will be sealed as the Church.
Because of the lamb and his blood that was poured out for us that because we trust in the Life death death and resurrection of Jesus we will not stand in judgment because Jesus Took the Judgment we deserve but we should also hustle and be motivated and be eager to take the Gospel which means that you should regularly you should walk through your neighborhoods and pray that you should walk and see households that you actually have learned their names and you should pray.
For them God I pray that they might understand who you are that they might understand the the grace and the mercy God right pray for opportunities that I might be able to declare the mystery of Christ to them it means that that there is a woman from your work that you've been meaning to invite the community group there's a guy from your shop that you've been meaning to invite to your community group and you shouldn't delay you should go and you should ask and you should compel them you should say come we're going to eat dinner.
And then we'll talk about some things and then get them there or be up front I don't know what your style is going to be but you should invite them to come and experience Christ in your community group that we should risk the relational Capital that we have with people even if it makes it awkward even if you think if this doesn't go well and I take them out to lunch and I share the Gospel with them and they rejected they might go and they might talk badly about me they might.
See me as the weird Christian you should say none of none of that matters because the pictures of judgment are real that I want to literally stand in the path before them in judgment and do everything I can to say Jesus is better come and see the lamb who was slain for you that you might behold him for who he is that we should some of us should risk the comfort of just being here and prayerfully consider leaving here pray prayerfully consider planting a Church prayerfully consider leaving to go and start a kingdom effort somewhere else.
Because there are other people that need the Gospel that some of you should consider to risk your safety and your comfort to pray and say God do you want me to go to the Nations do you want me to go to a people that so hates your name that so is opposing the Gospel the risk the very safety of my myself it would risk the very safety of my family because every nation tribe and tongue needs to hear the Gospel we cannot leave the Book of Revelation without understanding the Eternal reality of what awaits those who don't believe this is true.
So Matt's going to come up here and I just want us to sit in that reality and don't run from it I want us to pray and I'm going to give us a few moments in silence to pray and I want you if you're a Christian to consider what's at stake here yes our lives are busy yes life is hard and yes people will receive judgment and that is a Monumental Eternal event that is going to come and you as we say every week the Church is plan a.
For declaring who Christ is there is no plan B it's us in this city we should embrace the reality to call and take the Gospel so if you're a Christian I want you to sit in silence and pray and ask God what do you want me to do what do you want me to do Lord what is obedience look like for me who do you want me to go and talk to who where do you want me to go and I want you to sit in the silence.
Listen to the Lord and the stirring and if you are not a Christian everything I just talked about it's true judgment is coming but Christ loves you so much that he took the Judgment for you that if you place your faith in Christ you will be sealed on the day of judgment you'll be in Christ for eternity and don't run from the uncom the discomfort of this picture but run to Christ instead so bow your heads close your eyes sit in silence.
For a few moments and then I'll close this in prayer Heavenly Father we we do not want to be a people that runs from pictures of judgment we don't want to be a people that believes these pictures are true and then in our callousness and our self- interest or unwilling to be obedient to your will to make disciples in our city to make disciples of every nation I break the callousness of our distracted Hearts so that we would see the Eternal reality of everyone arounds us that needs you.
And if there's anyone here Lord that has not believed this is true compel them to a faith rooted in you trusting in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus on their behalf so that we might be praising you in the day of judgment an unworthy and undeserving people Lord may you motivate our hearts towards faith and repentance and obedience and worshiping you in Jesus name amen.
Revelation 8:6-9:21
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here grab a Bible and go to Revelation chapter 8 we're going to start in verse 6 and uh I put the the page number up there wrong it's page 597 um but we're going to be in page 597 on one of these blue Bibles uh and we are in Revelation chapter 8 did I say six verse six 86 all right you know good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here we are looking at what are known as the trumpet judgments being poured out by.
God on Earth and we have been working through the Book of Revelation and we are with John as he is seeing a vision of the throne room of God so he sees him who is Seated on the throne and he sees the lamb who is Christ come to he who is Seated on the throne and take the scroll from his hand that is sealed with Seven Seals and he has been the only one worthy because he has conquered through his blood to make a people.
For God so this is Jesus who through his sacrifice has rescued and redeemed a people he comes and begins to break the seals we went through the Seven Seals on this scroll and in the seventh seal suddenly there's silence in heaven for 30 minutes and trumpets are handed out to seven angels and that's where we are in chapter 8:6 it says now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them so John is seeing Seven Angels standing with trumpets getting ready in the Old Testament trumpets have two primary functions and one of the things you need to know about the Book of Revelation is that it is pointing forward towards things that.
Are going to happen but it is so often pointing back to prophecies in the Old Testament that much much of the Old Testament shows back up in the Book of Revelation that it rolls forward and so I heard one Pastor put it this way he says you'll read the book of Revelation you'll think huh that's new and he said no it's not because the Old Testament already told you some of this it already Proclaim some of this this is already connecting back much of what we're going to.
See today connects to the Book of Joel and there are direct references to the Book of Joel from some of the creatures that are here some of the locusts that we're going to see some of the different things that are showing up and in the Book of Joel we get this picture of what we see throughout the Old Testament which is what trumpets are used for and trumpets so often in the Old Testament are used for warning to sound an alarm there's a place where.
God says is the trumpet not blown and people aren't in the city aren't terrified like that's what it sounds an alert it sounds an alarm there's a trumpet that is to be blown to tell people a war warning and then trumpets are blown to call people to worship and those are two primary functions that we see in the Old Testament of trumpets so they're warnings and they call for worship and in the Book of Joel we see both of those show up and this passage this whole uh chapter in the next chapter chapter eight parallels Joel in some way.
So I want to read this from Joel to try to help you see how the Old Testament considers trumpets Joel chap 2 verse1 says blow a trumpet in Zion sound an alarm on my Holy Mountain let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming it is near trumpets sound an alarm but 14 verses later he shows us what else trumpets are used for blow the trumpet and Zion consecrate a fast call a solemn assembly gather the people.
So trumpets so often are shouting a warning or an alarm but they're also blown to to call people to worship and going to see that that's what's happening here that there's a warning but a call to worship and John is seeing this take place he's seeing a vision of this and what can happen when we look at the Book of Revelation is there are some things that are very clear God is the one on the throne through Christ's work in history they are playing out judgments on Earth that's very clear.
But then we start getting into questions like well when does do this happen and how exactly does it play out and the text doesn't tell us all of that and that's where Scholars and uh people of different theologies will will debate some of how this plays out and for our purposes we don't want to get bogged down in zooming in too far on all of this because I think we'll miss some of what God has meant to show us because at the end of chapter nine it's not going to say and here's.
When all that'll happen it actually directs our attention somewhere else there's an expectation that comes out of these trumpets that there's this moment where it's like John holds his breath waiting for something to happen and it doesn't happen and so it tells us why the trumpets are blown not just when they happen so there are some people who would think it's playing out over history there's some people who thinks that it's going to play out really specifically at the end of History there's some people who fall in the middle on that and we're not going to spend a ton of time we're going to just.
Look at the vision with John and then we're going to see what the expectation is but he's seeing us sign when I moved to lychburg Virginia my wife and I lived in Virginia for a little while we started seeing this sign when we drove around so I'm spent all of my driving years in South Carolina I was not prepared for this sign Y what is that even communicating like a deer crossing sign is like hey heads up deer might come out what is this hey you might die like what do you do is it saying drive faster to dodge them is it saying they might be on the road like I saw those signs.
I was like I don't know what to do with this information was actually we were watching the news one night and there was a part of a mountain that had fallen into the road like the sign told us it would and they're out on the news reporting live talking about this road that's closed it's got a you know a big rock in the way it's down to one lane and this guy comes around the curve and is just staring at the reporters and just plows right into the to the stones.
And then he gets out and they're just like come over here hey why'd you do that and he was like I was looking at you guys and he completely failed to see the sign now that sign is a picture of a real thing and much of what we're seeing in the Book of Revelation is a picture of a real thing it's pointing to Something Real the question is how is the picture is he seeing the actual thing playing out or is he seeing a picture that will play out in a different way and some of it is unclear in the Book of Revelation just like in the Old Testament and Daniel he sees a goat.
And that goat represents a nation it's not going to be a giant goat it's going to be a nation and there's some places where we go maybe this is just a picture that's very Vivid but it's pointing to a real thing sometimes it's like no I actually think he's seeing the real thing playing out in the future but it's not always clear in the text doesn't always tell us and the point of that sign is not to go I wonder what kind of rock that is that fell the point of that sign is.
Look out pay attention and we're going to see that that's what this text is doing doing as well because at the end of chapter 9 it's going to draw our focus on something very specific that helps us understand why this is here and how this is helpful so we're going to pray we're going to hear some uh in just a moment we're going to pray and then we're going to hear some trumpets that are calling us to warning and worship and we're going to.
See the expectation the why in this text this morning so let's pray Lord help us to hear and respond to heed the warning and the call to worship and respond in Jesus name amen so as we read this we're going to just see with John as he sees this play out now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them the first Angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood and these were thrown upon the Earth and a.
Third of the Earth was burned up a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up so John says he his trumpet's blown and he sees the Earth and hail and fire which um mirrors some of the seventh plague on Egypt but it happens over the whole earth and a third of the earth is burned up now in the trumpets we're going to see a lot of things happen to a third of the Earth in the seals we saw some things happen to a fourth.
And so this is increasing in intensity but it is still most of the earth is okay most of the earth is not facing this trouble but a third of it is and so we see both God's judgment playing out but also his Mercy at work because it could be all of the Earth at this point but it is not all of the earth it's a third of the earth is facing this but that's cataclysmic it's massive scale but he says he sees hail and fire which could be lightning could be fire.
But it is certainly burning mixed with blood that's terrifying a storm but blood so not not like regular rain and then the Earth is burning and that's what John sees when the first trumpet is blown the second Angel blew his trumpet and something like a great Mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed so he's seeing the Earth and something like a burning Mountain which.
If you've ever seen these like movies about like asteroids or whatever hitting the Earth that's what this brings to mind for me is like how what it look probably looked like to him is this massive thing slamming into the ocean and God in some ways in the trumpets is undoing Creation in the in the seals we saw much of what was playing out was happening to man kind there was some famine but a lot of it seems like it was happening specific to humanity.
But right in these first four trumpets we're going to see things playing out in creation suffering under the Judgment of God and it says a third of the ships a third of the sea became blood a third of the living creatures in the sea died which would cause shortages on food and massive shipping issues and problems as this plays out on the earth the third Angel blew his trk ET and a great star fell from heaven blazing like a torch and it fell on a.
Third of the rivers and on the Springs of water the name of the star is wormwood now in the Book of Revelation and throughout the Bible there are times where stars are stars and there are times where stars are pointing to Spiritual Beings this star specifically has a name wormwood and seems like this may be a spiritual being the next star we'll read in in our reading this morning is is definitively a spiritual being a third of the waters became wormwood and many people died from the water.
Because it had been made bitter wormwood is a plant that it doesn't take much of it to make a whole bit of drinking water bad and they knew about wormwood the plant and it would sometimes get into their drinking water and cause problems and so they're saying there's a spiritual being or a star that comes down and specifically strikes a third of the drinking water of Earth which would call massive problems and like I said some people are saying would look at this and say this is PL out of time some people think it would be playing out more potently at the end some people think it plays out very very quickly at the end.
But as I was researching some of this currently two billion people on earth live in places where they don't have access to good water 1.7 billion people which is right around a fourth of the earth drinks water with feces in it and 5 100,000 people a year die from diarrheal diseases and conditions caused from Bad drinking water most of them are children that's currently this is taking on a third of the earth becomes undrinkable through the Earth's water this is massive problem and and John is watching as these trumpets are blown and the Earth is suffering Ing and I think it's easier.
For us at this moment to imagine what this is like given the past few days I don't know how close things came to your home I'm assuming there's a greater percentage of our Church population that is doing okay is here than the ones who still have massive power problems but I know some of y'all still have power issues and travel issues but I don't know if you've seen videos and pictures of some of the ways that what happen happens when the earth and the weather starts giving out starts causing problems how quickly literally powerless we are.
And so John is seeing this play out on the earth as judgment is being poured out as warning is going out to the Earth chapter uh verse 12 the fourth Angel blew his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck and a third of the Moon and a third of the Stars so that a third of their light might be darkened and a third of the day might be might be kept from shining likewise a third of the night so things that are as regular as the Sunrise become not as regular anymore things that would be normal and like clockwork and we could set and travel by and set our calendars by suddenly there's.
There's problems and Jesus says there will be signs in the heavens and there'll be great distress of Nations and some of these things that are coming upon the Earth will start causing massive problems and so we're seeing cataclysmic things playing out as this judgment is poured out on the earth and John is witnessing it then I looked and I heard an angel crying an eagle sorry an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead so John in this Vision suddenly sees an eagle flying overhead and the eagle is crying out whoa wo wo wo to those who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets that the three angels.
Are about to blow so we have four trumpets and then an eagle flies by and says it's about to get worse those were Trumpets the next three are woes meaning despair despair despair Agony that woe upon them this is Curse that's going out over the world wo wo wo at the next three trumpets in our reading today we will look at two of the woses we will cover the next two trumpets in chapter nine the fifth angel blew his trumpet and I saw a star fallen from Heaven to Earth and he the star was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
So this star is an Angelic being he given a key to the shaft of the bottomless pit he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit and from the shaft Rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace and the Sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft this section also lines up pretty closely with some of the imagery and and wording from The Book of Joel there's a shaft a bottomless pit and and throughout the Bible this idea of the Abyss is some place that is a holding cell sometimes connected to the idea of shol or Hades.
But other times it seems like it's a specific place for Angelic beings second Peter 24 says this for if God did not spare Angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy Darkness to be kept until the Judgment or Jude verse 6 and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling he has kept in Eternal chains under gloomy Darkness until the Judgment of the great day or Luke 8 where.
Jesus is interacting with a person who's demonized Jesus then asked him what is your name and he said Legion for many demons had entered him and They begged him not to command them to depart into the the abyss so Jesus interacting with demonic creatures they say don't don't send us to the pit don't send us to the abyss' and in the Book of Revelation we see a spiritual being is given a key to open this up smoke begins to bow out.
But that's not it that's not all verse three then from the smoke came Locust on the earth and they were given power like the power of scorpions on the earth I don't know if you've ever seen Locus I would encourage you to to Google Locust I don't know if I would encourage you to Google the Locust from The Book of Revelation because you might go down some weird YouTube hole but just looking at Locust so you can see what it looks like.
When they swarm and cover and he says that smoke begins to billow out of this shaft he sees this Angel this star has given a key opens the shaft the shaft is open smoke begins to bow out and if you're a good Jewish person like John you know what this shaft is you know what this pit is you know what's kept there and your heart begins to beat fast because you don't want this pit opened but it's opened smoke begins to billow out it covers out the sky.
And then sudden it's not just smoke but you're going to hear that there's a warror of wings as Locust begin to come out they were told not to harm the grass of the Earth or any green plant or any tree that's a weird command for Locust it also just want to pause for just a moment it's one of the things when you're reading the book of Revelation that helps us see that we're given pictures and we don't exactly know a timeline.
Because they're told don't harm the grass but we just read in the first seal that all the gr or the first trumpet that all the grass burned up so has there been time or was that just the picture that John got and it it's representing something that's happening that's where we some run into some interpretive questions where we're trying to walk with humility and understand what this text is getting at for us but these locusts are sent out and they're told you're not here.
For the grass you're not here for the trees don't harm the grass or the Earth or any of of the Earth or any green plant or any tree but only those people who do not have the Seal of God on their foreheads if you'll remember back to last week There's this moment where the world cries out and says who can stand before the wrath of God who can stand in the day of judgment and then say pause in the in the seals where there are sealed those who belong to.
God they're sealed on their forehead he marks them as His and then we get this picture of this countless multitude gathered around the throne standing Before the Throne and before the lamb so the question goes out who can stand and then we see this countless multitude standing and the text answers itself it says those who've been washed by the blood of Jesus can stand they're the ones who will make it out and so there's this picture of this protection over the people who belong to.
God there's a picture of protection over them in the face of this torment that is coming verse five they the Scorpion Locust were allowed to torment them for five months but not to kill them and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone and in those days people will seek death and will not find it they will long to die but death will flee from them okay this is referring to a real thing that is going to take place in those days people will long.
For death and they'll seek death and they won't be able to find it the question is interpretively will they be able to see these creatures or these spiritual creatures attack them in a way that is unseen so there's some who would read this and go I think it's going to be something where these are literal material creatures that are loosed on the world the text doesn't tell us the text tells us that these creatures are loosed on the world but it doesn't tell us how they're going to show up.
Because throughout the Old Testament there are pictures where angels are sent to do a job but the people don't see the angel the angel sent to do a thing and it shows up in a material way there's a plague that shows up in first Corin uh 1 Chronicles chapter 21 it's called a plague there's disease and death but then David gets a glimpse behind the disease and sees an angel standing over Jerusalem holding a sword but I don't think everybody saw that David was given eyes to.
See that it was God carrying out this judgment and so it's possible that this will be carried out in that way John gets to see the revealing of what is really taking place but there's going to be torment poured out on those who don't belong to the Lord in a way that they don't see the text doesn't tell us and I think either one of those is a fair reading of this text but the point isn't how is that going to play out the point is it is going to play out and why is the.
Lord telling us and we're going to keep moving forward so we can see yall they long to die but death will flee from them there are things worse than death and God is actually showing them Mercy in the middle of their torment because once they die it's over and we're going to see that the text is holding them out for something God is holding them out for something and we're going to see that in the text CH uh verse 7 John is going to describe to us what these creatures.
Look like in the vision that he saw in appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold their faces were like human faces their hair like women's hair their teeth like lion's teeth they had breastplates like breastplates of iron and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle they have tails and stings like scorpions and their power to hurt people for 5 months is in their tails they have a king over them the angel of the bottomless pit his name in Hebrew is abadin and in Greek he is called aolon that's destruction and Destroyer why does.
The text take the time to describe these creatures to us one is because John sees it and he's supposed to write what he sees two is I think that if he had written they were terrifying you wouldn't have come up with the right horrific picture and he tells us not only they're terrifying he tells us they look like Locust but they look like horses they have human faces and the hair of women and I don't know if that makes them alluring or just chaotic I don't know what that looks like I don't know.
If he's like they're oddly like I I don't know what this is what woman's hair means like on a locust that's running around biting people with lion's teeth and stinging them with a scorpion's tail but he's looking and he says they sound like horses for battle they look like they've got breastplates of iron they're flying around swarming and it is terrifying the Judgment of God that's being poured out on Earth verse 12 the first woe has has passed behold two woes are still to come there was a time limit on that one.
Verse 13 then the sixth Angel blew his trumpet and I Heard a Voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God saying to the sixth Angel who had the trumpet release the Four Angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates so there's bound angels in the Middle East at the river Euphrates and they're commanded to be released so the Four Angels who had been prepared for the hour the day the month and the year were released to kill a.
Third of mankind y this is not chaotic this is scheduled and decreed by the ruler of the universe this judgment is set they've been prepared for this exact moment in the creation of these beings he bound them here and when it hits the right time they're released talks about those four creatures and then it says this that uh so the Four Angels who had been prepared for the hour the day the month and the year were released to kill a third of mankind.
So they're sent out to kill a third thir of mankind in World War II about a tenth of the earth died so what they're sent out to do is three times worse and it talks about these four angels and then it says the number of mounted troops so it immediately jumps to this picture of an army was twice 10,000 time 10,000 I heard their number that is 200 million the US has 100 no has 1 million sorry has 1 million uh people that can put in uniform.
If we had to put everybody in uniform we have a 500,000 standing army person standing army and we have another 500,000 that we could get geared up right around there it's 1 million China has a 2 million this is million sent out and this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur and the heads of the horses were like Lion's heads and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths by these three plagues the.
Third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur coming out of their mouths for the power of the horses in their mouths and in their tails for their tails are like serpents with heads and by means of them they wound so John writes what he sees 200 million armed soldiers on horses that have lion heads that spew fire and their tails are snakes and they're set loose in judgment to kill a third of mankind not all of mankind the.
Third God's judgment is restrained and we're meant to see with Clarity God's judgment God's rule over Humanity the reality that this is coming whether this is a vision of something that he got to see the spiritual reality behind it but it'll play out on Earth physically in a different way or whether or not God at this point has peeled back the the barrier between the two and is releasing things it I don't know and I don't know if that's the point of the next.
Because here's where it goes next it moves our attention on purpose we've seen six trumpets and two woes and then the text says this the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and Idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts I said there was an expectation in this text John sees all this play out he says I've seen a vision of what's coming I've seen this picture of judgment on the world.
And then John goes and they didn't repent there was an expectation that they would see the Brokenness and the wickedness and the failure of their sin and their false gods and John says they they did they didn't repent they didn't turn from it they they kept right on doing the same stuff they went right back to it these judgments were a warning and a call to worship repent for the kingdom is at hand a warning and a call to worship and it says they don't heed the warning and they don't change their worship you have lived through moments that shook your world you've lived through moments where there was pain where.
God shook you in your pain in your distress there are moments where the things you had planned on and counted on that were normal and we set fell apart y we live through a global pandemic that suddenly your life just changed and you had to change what you were doing and where you were going and we had this weekend where we saw just a just a moment how fragile we are how incapable we are to stop things my brother-in-law is in Asheville it's accessible by air right.
Now they don't have celf service we don't know how he's doing he doesn't have any ability to let us know we don't have any ability to find out a h a tree fell on my mother-in-law's house massive one in the middle of the night this is all over the place where trees are down and people don't have power and there's no way to get to them and roads are closed and we just down where my brother and my family lived they told some people it's going to be a couple weeks we don't know how we're going to get power to you just we have these moments you've had moments in your life where things suddenly.
Just changed where the whole world changed around you we have these moments where in the middle of pain and distress and fear and doubt we're shaken and we can see that we aren't in control and John is saying I'm watching this play out on a global scale but how often as soon as things go back to normal do we just run right back John says I watched them y'all they didn't they didn't change they didn't acknowledge that they were small they didn't acknowledge that their gods are terrible and cannot accomplish anything how often have we gone right back to the way we were interacting our our our internet usage our phone usage run right back.
To our sexual sin how many of you have had a moment where you had this scare and you prayed and you said Lord I'll change and then as soon as things got a little bit better you just went right back you have this moment where you're like oh I can just see clearly but we go we go right back they go right back to their Idols in the middle of fear and doubt what do you run to what is the thing that comforts you that makes you feel.
Okay some of us in the middle of this when we're seeing that we don't have control I found myself going I'll be more prepared next time I'll get ready some people have just the big conclusion you came to was not that God judges the world and our time here is short and my neighbors don't know Jesus the big conclusion we came to was I'll get a generator some of us over the past few days have just eaten more carbohydrates than we've eaten in a long time we saw that in the pandemic some people went into their house.
For three months and ate some people went in their house for three months and did push-ups because we're running to the things that help us feel like we got a sense of control in the world and John's saying I'm watching the world and they they don't repent and they keep worshiping the same stupid stuff they've been worshiping that has no power they're worshiping demons and they're worshiping stuff that can't see or hear or walk or talk or do anything and God is shaking the world and there's an expectation that they'll turn and you can almost feel John being like they they don't don't.
So my hope for us as we read this is that we hear the trumpet sound an alarm for coming judgment and call us to worship something good those who are sealed are sealed not because they're the good ones they're sealed because Jesus shed his blood for them what he's holding out to the world is a repentance where he does the work to cover you to save you to make you whole to make you good to protect you to keep you this reads like a parent that you talk to that goes I don't know they were rebelling.
So so I I grounded them and they kept doing the same stuff they snuck out so I put alarms on the windows and I took away their phone and they kept doing that so I sent them to a thing to try to help them and I'm just trying to help them tell them I can see where they're headed and it's not going to go well I love them so much it's not going to go well I know where they're headed and all they did was get more rebellious and keep running to the other things they kept figuring out ways past it they kept running back to the same stuff and they got mad and mad.
And mad at me we're going to see that in the Book of Revelation that Humanity doesn't as this continues they don't do anything but respond to him and say how dare you and God in Mercy is only playing this out on a third and there's an expectation of repent see it and come see it and come hear the call and come turn away from the things that won't provide that won't save that won't fix you that don't help you that have promised you life over and over and over and over and over again and have never once delivered turn from your sin and come and John says they don't repent.
But I'm hoping that we do I'm hoping that we get to look ahead and go okay I don't want these same things I've been running to I Want Jesus the only one who can redeem who can save who can heal and who can help I'm hoping that we turn from sin and turn our eyes up and worship and that we take seriously this call let's pray Lord may we respond in Repentance May today we turn away from our sexual sin our sexual immorality May.
Today we turn away from our Idols of wood and stone paper our Idols of money and success our Idols of comfort and control may we turn away from worshiping what is evil and demonic in the world may we repent and Lord May we worship and for the person in here today who has not trusted in you may they repent and may they see the glory of Christ in protection and Redemption through the work of your son that it is not about what we do.
But it is about what you have done for us and may they turn to you in Jesus name amen the band is going to come back up and Church family we're going to take communion communion is for Christians and it is where we get to practically repent and worship on a regular basis it's where we get to be mindful of the sacrifice that was made for us y' when Christians walk in a life of repentance we don't walk with our head down our foreheads are sealed we belong to Christ through the work that he has accomplished we get to come and say.
Lord I'm a sinner and I need mercy and then we get to receive Mercy that we get to be covered by the work of Christ that when you feel moments when you go I don't deserve this Praise Jesus yes in amen you don't deserve it oh you don't deserve it but he's so good he's so kind he's so loving his Mercy is great his love is great his Mercy is Rich he is a redeemer and it's to his praise of his glorious Grace.
And so when we come in Repentance we come in Repentance and worship that we come and we say Lord I'm in need of a savior Praise Jesus that I have one if you have not placed your faith in Jesus communion is not for you but Jesus can be if you'll trust in him if you'll tell him I need to be forgiven I need hope and help you can say Lord I don't want to face judgment I don't want to chase after the same stupid stuff I want you and I need help and he'll help you he'll save you he does not let anyone down who calls on the name of the.
Lord none will be put to shame so if you say I want to trust in you then you are covered and healed and helped so Church family take a moment reckon with your sin and your fragility and then come and know that it's been covered and that you are cleaned and that you are welcomed with the Lord and you are sealed and may we worship Jesus together.
Revelation 6-8:5
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we're in Revelation chapter 6 vers uh actually chapters 6 all the way through 85 we got a some territory to get through today um so you can turn in your Bibles uh towards the end and follow along there the text will also be on the screen so we've jumped into this part two of The Book of Revelation and we've been saying that it's going to ramp up a little bit like it's just it's going to be.
If you haven't read the book of Revelation before it's about to get a little wild and we've been going up the roller coaster a bit and like last week chck got us to the top but like we are woo like it's I mean it's we are descending down jumping into it starting in verse one and for the next few months are going to be in this and my encouragement has been for you to go into if you weren't here for training weekend or.
If you haven't gone back and listened to the content that was Tau at training weekend uh that's on our website now I would encourage you to do that because at times you might be like what's happening um and we don't have all the space on a Sunday morning to to cover all what's happening but the next two months that training is going to be crucial um because it's it's covering things in this book from a uh uh perspective in in in different areas that we don't have space on a Sunday morning to cover.
But I will say one of the things we did say in training weekend and how to read this part of the Book of Revelation from chapter 4 onward is how to understand this uh phrase that shows up the tribulation we've already seen it a few times we're going to keep seeing it this idea of tribulation some will view the tribulation what we're seeing in chapter 4 onward as a period of time that happens right before Christ returns and then there are others that.
Look at uh chapter 4 onward and look at the tribulation and and we'll see actually this is the uh a description of events that happened between Christ's first coming and his second so the whole of Church history uh and Chad and myself both take that position and if you're like wait what encourage you go back listen to training weekend we went through this and I'm going to preach this from that perspective that this is actually uh covering the whole uh that what we're going to.
See is pointing to events that happen between Christ's first and second coming not just before he returns and the reason I'm doing that is cuz I love you because earlier this week week I try to do all the things and and we have a teaching team where these sermons are preached and and I watched uh a little bit of Isaac and Chad's Joy evaporate I don't know if they'll ever get it back I think that's I think that's just gone so it's going to be a lot easier we're just going to preach from that perspective.
But I would encourage you to uh if you want to know more about it to go back to our training weekend so there's the cavat as we launch into this next phase last week cck kicked us off in verses four and five witnessing the throne room scene where John sees the glory of the Lord how worthy he is to be worshiped and his unworthiness and there's this desire for a scroll with Seven Seals to be opened I'll show you a picture of it this is one we showed last week we don't know.
If this is exactly what it looked like but this is a little bit of a helpful picture that this scroll needed to be unsealed it needed to be opened and there's this moment where no one is found worthy enough to open the scroll and and when this happens John weeps it says began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and he's weeping because this long awaited thing has not happened yet if you've ever done a a a a puzzle like a long one or it took all weekend or it took a week and you spent the time putting the edges together and connecting the pieces and everything it's satisfying.
But then you get towards the end those final few pieces and you're starting to get a little concerned because it doesn't look like you're going to have enough and then you finish it and there's two pieces that just aren't there yet and you're like you I mean you're what what's happened you look underneath the couch you you berate your children because you think they might have taken them like what where are these pieces you're just left unsatisfied there is a missing piece of the puzzle.
For John and he is weeping because it has not happened yet and the question that we left kind of last week and this week is why why is he weeping because the scroll has yet to be open what what what is happening in him that's what we're going to examine as we walk through these chapters and my hope is that as we as we look at this that we too with John would long for what's about to happen in these chapters we should long.
For the Scrolls all Seven Seals to finally be open so me pray and we'll walk this together heavenly father I pray that you give us ears to hear what is certainly difficult I pray that you would open our hearts that we would not combat your truth but we would be open towards your word and that it would sink into our hearts and it would mold us and shape us into your image we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so chapter 6 verse one.
Now I watched when the lamb opened one of the Seven Seals and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a loud with a voice like thunder come and I looked and behold a white horse and its Rider had a bow and a crown was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer so what we're shifting into here is Judgment that is unfolding and that's what these seals are going to start to unveil when this first seal is opened a white horse emerges.
Now there two different ways to look at this first seal the first is is that John is being told to come and see and he comes and sees this part of the vision and then this part of the vision there's a rider on a white horse and that is Christ and and Christ appears on a white horse later in the Book of Revelation this is Christ on a white horse conquering what's conquering is the Gospel advancing that the Gospel is advancing it's going to conquer every tribe nation and tongue that's one way to read this the.
Second way to read this is that come is a horse is being summoned with a rider it is not Christ and it is an angel and this is launching immediately into judgment and what's happening here is that the first judgment upon the Earth is nations against Nations it is war between the peoples now you read the arguments on both sides and they're very very compelling they just star it's like oh that looks that's yeah that you make a good point there and the good news is is it doesn't really change how you interpret all this.
Because it's true that the Gospel advances and also God does bring judgment nations rise and fall so you know I I don't have to pick a lane here because it doesn't really change how you view it and if that annoys you you then I'm just giving you a warning you're going to be annoyed for the next couple of months because the Book of Revelation can be quite difficult at times so that's the first seal then we get to the second one chapter 6:3.
When he opened the second seal I heard the second living creature say come and out came another horse bright red its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that people should slay one another and he was given a great sword so the second seal is opened and it is a rider on a bright red horse and this is clearly judgment unmistakably because peace is being taken from the earth now if you think the first one was the Gospel advancing.
Then This is war between nations if you thought the first one was actually war between the Nations what H was happening here is conflict between individuals peace is being taken from the earth and and and people are fighting against one another and this is God's judgment upon Nations that rebel against him against peoples that rebel against him that that God turns them over to their sin and that Strife happens this is what Jesus is prophesying about in Matthew CH 24 when he is speaking about the uh end times in this present age and he speaks about wars and rumors of wars.
So that is the second seal that is opened here verse 5 when he opened the third seal I heard the living creatures say come and I looked and behold a black horse and its Rider had a pair of scales in his hand and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat for a Daenerys and three quarts of barley for a daus and do not harm the oil and wine.
So this third seal is opened and out comes a black horse and this judgment is famine the pictures here is is a of famine scales being brought out here to to weigh food that's what happens in a famine a court for of wheat for a Daenerys a Daenerys is a day's wage so working all day just for a little bit of bread I mean we feel it right now with inflation like we looked yesterday and the eggs of God back up in price I like no.
But I haven't worked all day for a carton of eggs I don't think anyone in this room works all day for a little bit of bread so this is severe this is severe famine and the and the the the picture here do not harm the oil and the wine is likely a picture of what happens in a time of famine in a time of famine you don't need Vineyards you don't need olive Groves you need wheat or you're going to die and everyone's going to die.
So it's don't harm the wheat don't harm the olive Groves don't clear out The Vineyards Don't Make Way for wheat Fields no but this is a picture of famine another picture of God's judgment that happens upon the Earth verse 7 when he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creatures say come and I looked and behold a Pale Horse and its Rider's name was death and Hades followed him and they were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pest and by wild beasts of the Earth the fourth seal is opened and its writer is death with Hades following and the.
Picture here is of rampant death upon the Earth this is the kind of death that you see in history like the black plague where a quarter to a third of Europe died because of pestilence because of plague and it's a picture again another Vivid and difficult picture of God's judgment upon the Earth when the Nations Rebel when the people's rage and plot in vain then we get to the fifth seal now those four horse are what are commonly called uh The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse you've ever heard that before.
So that shifts into the fifth seal and the fifth seal is not judgment it's actually a cry for justice jce so verse 9 when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar The Souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne this is Martyrs this is Christians uh throughout history that have uh leveraged their literal lives to proclaim the Gospel and have been killed for the Gospel this is the martyrs and it says they cried out.
Verse 10 with a loud voice oh Sovereign Lord holy and true how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth there's this Cry For Justice oh how long oh Lord verse 11 then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been so they have this deep cry.
For justice when how long Lord when will you avenge our blood and says he says you need to wait a little longer and and note the language here until the appointed time when every last martyr has died that the the Gospel even today advances with the blood of saints so there is God is for pre-ordained for ordained that the Gospel will advance and he will come back after the last martyr has spilled their blood for the sake of the Gospel reaching every tribe Every Nation every tongue all right it's possible at this point you're like goodness I mean this is heavy you may be visiting.
For the first time and you're like wait what it's like that's a lot I I feel this when I read this this is a lot and you may be thinking is this what we've got for the next couple of months are these types of heavy pictures of judgment and the answer is yes that's this is this is exactly what we're going to see you want to know why John is weeping because no one's able to open the scroll this missing piece of the puzzle that has not happened that's left him in as Chad said last week ugly ugly crying ugly tears do you want to know why the the the martyrs are crying out avenge.
Us oh Lord how long oh Lord it is because they understand the evils the injustices the Brokenness and the sinfulness of this world they uniquely understand it I mean goodness the at this point when when John is writing down what he is seeing he's the last of the Apostles the rest have been murdered some brutally beheaded crucified upside down flayed alive burnt alive I mean he's had Brothers and Sisters in Christ who were thrown into pits where wild beasts tore them apart at this point he in his in his life tradition tells us that he was they tried to kill him they tried to boil him alive and he survived.
So he set a front row seat to some of the most heinous parts of the sinful condition of humanity and when you've been there you long for justice and a goodness y'all if we came back here next week and 50 people were just missing and they were some in prisoned some hanging in the Gallows children that need to be raised cuz they're now orphaned for the sake of the Gospel that puts a whole new understanding on what's Happening here because this is the reality.
For these churches that are receiving this book of Revelation it's the reality for many churches throughout history it's the reality for many churches across the world today so when they are asking how long when John is weeping bitterly it's cuz they want Justice to come down they long for it therefore it would be a lazy reading of the rest of this book to not understand all of the pictures of judgment from their perspective and the persecution that they are enduring and that's important.
For us to understand as we continue to read this but we should along with them for the return of Christ that God would write every wrong this leads into the opening of The Sixth Seal which regardless of whether you think these are playing out at moments in history or over time as a series of events in history or right before Jesus comes pretty much everyone is on the same page when we get to the sixth and seventh seal this is this is at the end these are pictures of right before Christ returns.
So verse 12 when he opened the Sixth Seal I looked and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the Earth as the Fig Tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale the sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and Island was removed from its place then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains calling to the mountains and rocks fall on us.
And hide us from the face of him who is Seated on the throne and from the Wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand there is a day coming when the fierce Judgment of God and its final form is going to come and the picture is the Earth being torn to pieces and from the mightiest most powerful King Kings prime minister presidents generals down to those who are not in power and those who are poor everyone will be asking.
For the mountains to fall upon them to Shield them from the wrath of God that is pouring out on them they will long for an end to it to not see see his Fierce wrath and then there's this question at the end of this who can stand who can stand when this happens now that question is what gets answered by chapter 7 who can stand then we get chapter 7 now chapter 7 is an interlude this is a pause so if you try to read Revelation as a chronological this happened and this happened this happened you're going to run into some problems and chapter 7 is one of those problems.
Because this is not you need this is not like a typical movie where this event this event this event this is more like a you ever seen a Christopher Nolan movie Inception Interstellar Dunkirk it's like this happens then we're this point in the story and this point in the story and this point in the story I mean this is so we are not following between the sixth and the seventh seal we are jumping out to something entirely different and that's what's happening here with this seventh between the seventh seal with chapter 7.
So let's pick up in verse one in this interlude after this I saw four Angels standing at the Four Corners of the Earth holding back the Four Winds of the earth that no wind might blow on Earth or sea or against any tree so here God is holding back judgment we have this imagery of angels here holding back the Four Winds the this is the wind here is judgment and four is reference to the four corners of the Earth this is the whole fullness of the earth that the angels are holding back judgment upon the earth and the question is is why why are they holding back verse two.
Then I saw another Angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the Seal of the Living God and he called with a loud voice to the Four Angels who had been been given power to harm Earth and sea and saying do not harm the Earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the the Servants of our God on their foreheads which again this is why you can see it's clearly not chronological here because he says don't harm the sea the Earth the sea or the trees.
And if you go back to the Sixth Seal a lot of a lot of trees were harmed like that the imagery there is there's a lot of harm going on so this is not this is completely detached and there's this all right this isn't going to happen yet until until the ceiling of God's people so we're going to see what that is up at verse four and I heard the number of the sealed 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
Then we get this long list 12,000 of the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben 12,000 from the tribe of GAD 12,000 from the tribe of Asher 12,000 from the tribe of napali 12,000 the tribe of anassa 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000 from the tribe of Levi 12,000 from the tribe of issachar 12 000 from the tribe of zebulun 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph 12,000 from The Tribe of Benjamin were sealed he he hears this this 144,000 and this long list.
And then verse 9 after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing Before the Throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches es in their hands verse 10 and crying out with a loud voice salvation Belongs To Our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb and some of you may be thinking what you may have never read this before and you're like huh some of you have read this 50 times and you're like what what what is happening here.
Because at first glance it's like what this is crazy confusing to us the 144,000 here I'll be honest can be pretty wildly speculated and go in some pretty uh crazy directions I mean it can go in some actually heretical Jehovah Witness directions okay so I think that the New Testament and really the the context of the Book of Revelation gives some clarity to what's actually happening here so I think here the this 44,000 is the full number of the Church for those who have placed their faith in.
Jesus between Christ first and second coming this number is figurative it is not literal it's not it's certainly not literal when it comes to the the the tribes of Israel this isn't literally talking about ethnic Israel if you want to have that conversation one with me later certainly can I'll give you one of the reasons why it's not this isn't even the 12 original tribes this list of tribes is not the original 12 list of tribes this matches nothing from the Old Testament.
So this is not the literal Israel as rest of the New Testament teaches Israel in its truest form has always been the people of God who have faith in God you're not a Jew by birth only means belong to the people of God is to be a Jew by faith and when you see Romans chap chapter 10 and chapter 11 Galatians chapter 6 and all these other passages that show that the Church is brought into the Gentiles are brought into the true people of.
God in Israel but this is not literal Israel and this isn't a literal 144,000 this number is symbolic of fullness a fullness so 12 is a number that's symbolic for completion you have 12 tribes of Israel you have the 12 uh disciples so this is a number four completion here and the number here is 12 * 12 * 1,000 it's symbolic of complete and what's important to note here is that John heard that number and that number points to the symbolic reality that this is those who will place their faith in Christ over the span of Church history.
But then he hears that and then he sees a number that cannot be counted a number greater than 144,000 it cannot be counted and this is not just ethnic Jews this is every tribe Every Nation every tongue this is the Church of Jesus Christ so who is being sealed is the Church of Jesus Christ who will not face the ultimate Judgment of God so what is the ceiling here the ceiling is God's protection upon the people who will stand at the end of chapter 6 on the day of judgment the Church of.
Jesus Christ will the Church of Christ will stand because of God's sealing upon them this is Assurance to the Church y'all this is good news to the Church this is meant to encourage us that we will stand like there there are times where I go up and I and I put my son to bed and he looks at me and he says Dad what what if somebody he's like really upset what if somebody comes in and tries to hurt us in the middle of the night and I and I have to tell him like buddy you are my son you belong to me you are a carry you you out of every little boy in.
The world you're the most important little boy the most special little boy to me you I love you buddy if somebody comes into this house to hurt you I'm going to break every bone in their body buddy you know Daddy has guns right just it's it's going to be okay and it's to assure him you're you're you're sealed you're okay God is saying you the Church will stand you you will you will be sealed on the day of judgment so that goes into.
Verse 11 and all the Angels were standing around the throne and all and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom and Thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever amen at the thought of this praise God that he seals the people of God from judgment glory and honor and power and might be to you oh God forever and ever.
Verse 13 then one of the elders addressed me saying who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come I said to him sir you know and he said to me these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation they have washed their robes and made them white and the blood of the Lamb so has this exchange with the Elder who is this it's like you know th this is those coming out of the Great Tribulation again the Great Tribulation being the period of the Church and the trials of the Church faces to advance the Gospel and he says they're the ones coming out of this and I love the imagery.
Here the ones coming out they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb y'all this is the Gospel that if you everyone comes in this world broken deserving the Judgment of God God loves us so much that he sent Christ to be crushed for our sins then he claims a people for himself and he washes his people in the blood of the Lamb that Christ's blood stands for us by faith in what he has done.
For us on the cross and the empty tomb and that blood washes us and renews us our sin is washed and we are made white in the picture here is the righteousness of Christ all the good works of Christ are credit to our account and it's just a celebration praise God for the good news of the Gospel that saves that will make us stand on the day of judgment verse 15 therefore they are Before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence they shall hunger no more I thirst anymore the sun shall not strike them nor any.
Scorching heat for the lamb and for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be there Shepherd and he will listen y'all he will guide them to Springs of Living Water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes that's what awaits us in Christ y'all and we don't deserve this at all we deserve judgment but he saves us and he redeems us and he sets us apart and what awaits us is no more hunger no more thirst no more scorching heat no more trials that we will be with the lamb we will be with Christ our chief Shepherd who guides us to Living Water who wipes away tear from I mean every.
Pain of this present life will be a distant memory what a beautiful gift that God gives us that we don't deserve now that's the interlude so put that scene there now we're back into the seals in chapter 8 and we're going to see the seventh seal open in the first five verses when the lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them and another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censor and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the Saints on the golden altar.
Before the Throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the Saints Rose before God from the hand of the angel now we're going to get into trumpets that's coming up but but I want to focus on right here is this picture of the prayers of the people of God that are being offered up like incense and the prayers of the people of God are being gathered in this sensor and they're they're being they're being gathered here so here are the prayers.
And then listen to verse 5 then the angel took the sensor and filled it with fire from The Altar and threw it on the earth and there were peels of Thunder Rumblings flashes of lightning and an earthquake and that is the final judgment and what I want us to see here is that the prayers of the people of God and the Church of Jesus Christ throughout history have been a prayer and a longing for justice a prayer and a longing for.
God to wrong to write every wrong a prayer for justice and all of that gets stored up in the sensor and then God hears those prayers and at the right time when Christ comes he answers those prayers and those prayers are converted to Fire and judgment that is poured out on the earth that is one of the long missing puzzle pieces that John is weeping to see happen he's longing to see that happen the the Church has longed to see that happen however I think.
If we are honest I think many of us don't long to see that happening I don't think we love this I think one of the missing puzzle pieces about the new heavens and the new Earth I think we long for that and I think many of us just want to skip to chapter 21 and 22 but this piece of Justice coming down judgement on the earth I don't think we long for that I think that the reason for this is that many of us in the west have largely been insulated from Injustice I don't think we've actually endured the type of Injustice that the global Church endures right.
Now that the Church has endured for 2,000 years so I don't think we really celebrate this kind of picture of judgment largely I think you make an exception I think the the black Church in America for centuries has done a better job with this but I think largely in the west we just don't have a category for this we don't have a category for experiencing Injustice and longing oh how long God before you bring Justice upon the earth I don't think that's our heart cry I mean this world is broken and marred by sin I mean goodness y'all the the Ukraine Russia War General estimates hard to get estimates in a war like that a.
Million people dead what's happening in Israel right now and has been for the last year I mean you go on and on and on and on and on and I think we see some of that and what's Wild is that I can get on my phone and see somebody being blown to bits and another part of the world I not looking for this stuff sometimes just shows up you read this story and then I flip the next thing and oh the Gamecocks and that's way more fun to.
Look at and I think we're largely insulated from the reality of Injustice that happens in this world and I think that honestly our faith is a little too comfortable and our lives are a little too comfortable CU I think deep down we just we kind of like it here and we kind of like this present moment and we kind of like this life a little too much in a way that we're not willing to leverage our lives in a way that would make us uncomfortable they willing to support and get behind Mission efforts where people are literally putting their life on the line to.
See the Gospel move forth and the reality is the the whole rest of the Book of Revelation is going to be very very heavy and my hope is is that we wouldn't turn away my hope is that we'd see that this moment in history for the Church and our context is pretty unique that we haven't had to experience the things that our brothers and sisters have across the world right now that are being persecuted and throughout history and that we wouldn't turn away from these pictures of judgment.
But we would actually submit our hearts before the Lord and ask God to change our heart so that we might look at the Brokenness of this world and the haer in this world and the vess of this world and all of the things that happen in this world and we might begin to weep like John and say how long before you come Lord please come and that might end up into a humble praise that says thank you Jesus that you're going to make this right and thank you.
Jesus even though I don't deserve to be a part I don't deserve to stand that I will but we need that heart shift to make it through the next two months in a way that will help us see the glory and the goodness of God in his judgment the band's going to come up and the reality is is that we need to start to do that work today we need to start to do the work on our soul they would not turn away from these pictures of judgment would.
But would embrace them the reality real is is there some of you live a life that is storing up wrath for every person that's ever harmed you you live angry you live bitter and the reality is you you're not trusting in the Judgment of God you're not trusting in the actual that there is a God who will bring Vengeance and it is not you and some of you need to repent of your desire to bring judgment upon others you need trust in the Judgment of the Lamb I think many of us need to prepare ourselves through repentance over the next couple of months and what we're about to.
See that the parts of us that don't want to look and examine these parts of Revelation but also don't want to look at the injustices of this present age we need to submit that to the Lord and ask God to change our hearts in Repentance that the Wars that are that are happening right now where millions are giving their lives and are dying that there are people right now that are in famine and we have full bellies that there are babies being killed by the millions in utero every single year that there is mass oppression of the poor all across this world that there is ethnic and racial hatred and every part of this world.
That there is flagrant celebration of sin and Rebellion all across our culture in this world that we should look at all of it with tears and say Jesus please come Lord how long but that's going to take work and that's going to take the Lord slowly beginning to change and reorient our heart towards Justice in a way that needs to happen but that first comes through coming to Christ because there may be some of you that have never fully put your faith in Christ and he has spilled his blood.
For your sin so that you might stand on the day of judgment and if you can hear this and walk away the Scriptures say woe to you but it gives the invitation to say Don't run from Christ run to him that he might cover your sin and your Rebellion you don't deserve it none of us deserve it but the offering is there that you might not stand stand in your own sin in the day of judgment but you might stand under the Seal of.
God and the rest of us boy oh boy at every moment that we start to read some of these pictures of Judgment at every ter in our community groups and on Sundays in our private reading we should go praise God I don't deserve this I don't deserve the stand but I'm thankful that you let me stand because of what you did for me we need to prepare ourselves for the next couple of months and God willing God will change our hearts and it will result in the type of worship and honor that our savior deserves.
Let me pray heavenly father I pray that you might begin that work today Lord we are humbled by how intense these texts are help us not turn away from them help us embrace the reality of judgment that is coming so that we might stand so that we might act now so that we might be motivated to see the Gospel Advance now but Lord we need your work and we need your grace and we need you to go to work in our hearts to help us be the people that you've called us to be we ask this in.
Jesus name amen.
Revelation 4-5
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here grab a Bible and go to the Book of Revelation uh we're going to look at Chapters four and five together today we are working as a Church through the Book of Revelation we have finished part one of the Book of Revelation which is the letters that were specifically written to the seven churches uh in Asia we we see that the whole book is a letter but then there's these specific addresses and we've worked through those seven specific addresses.
Now we are in part two uh as we've labeled it I mean we're just trying to as we're walking through it this section is a shift in the Book of Revelation and chapter four and five are a major shift in the Book of Revelation towards what is coming next and we are seeing with John a vision and multiple Visions are going to be playing out and this was to these letters were written to the Church in distress they were written to a Church where people had placed faith in.
Jesus they'd heard of the hope of the Gospel they'd heard of forgiveness and they'd Place their hope in Christ and then life got worse life got harder there was persecution and difficulty they were not well received that it caused them problems and and this is written in the middle of difficulty and T tumult and problem and tribulation for them and then John is able to see what's really going on it's a Revelation it's peeling back now there are some things that happen as we move forward in the Book of Revelation that there are differing views on and differing approaches to and we had a training weekend this past Friday and all of that is online.
Where we tried to quickly uh give a lot of information um and so if you were here you maybe still have a hangover from it I don't know but we gave a lot of information as quickly as possible to try to just say these are some of the ways to view the Book of Revelation to try to understand it and some of the things that we're not going to get into fully on Sundays because we don't want to lose the the big picture of the Book of Revelation as we get caught up in some of the smaller things.
But we did want to help our Church family uh be able to navigate that so that's online you can watch those uh you can watch them in 05 speed if you need to um to just try to slow down how how quickly we were trying to get through some stuff um my my sons recently asked me the question what does it mean to be worthy now their primary concern at the time was why Iron Man can't lift Thor's hammer they hit me with I was like that's deep.
And then I was like oh okay well but that's a worthy question and honestly that's that's what's being taken up in the text that we're looking at today is this concept of worthiness and in some ways in the midst of difficulty and trial and and chaos one of the questions we have is who's who's going to fix this who's in charge around here you ever been in the middle of just cting you're like who who leads this thing who's in charge around here who's going to fix this and and in the middle of difficulty and where there's those that are oppressing others and there are situations where the people in power are are exerting their.
Influence for their own gain and for difficulty of others there's that uh that age-old play uh playground question of says who you say this isn't fair you can't do that and someone looks at you and says says who you and what Army and we're in this moment with these churches there's difficulty and and John gets shown by God here's who says and here's who's worthy and here's who and what army that's that's what's beginning to happen in the Book of Revelation is as history's going to unfold and his judgment's going to unfold and his salvation's going to unfold who's sitting on on the throne and who's the one carrying out history and we're about to.
Get that answered and by God's grace and by the work of his Spirit may we see it and believe it Revelation chapter 4 after this this is after Jesus's addresses to the Church after this I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and the first voice which I had heard speaking to me me like a trumpet said come up here and I will show you what must take place after this okay so he originally in chapter one he hears a voice that sounds like a trumpet and this is John experiencing things.
And then trying to articulate it to you so a voice like a trumpet he turns to see where the voice came from and he sees Christ standing uh in seven lampstands and then we get the the letters to the churches and he says I hear that first voice again and it says come up here and he says he looks and sees a hole in heaven a door standing open in heaven that he's actually seeing through now not just into the sky.
But into God's spiritual reality and he's being called up and one of the things that we're going to see in the Book of Revelation is that we want to ask the question all the time what happens next and he does say I'm going to show you what must take place after this and there are things that are going to for John be in the future taking place and carrying out and some of them are still in the future for us certainly.
But the better question as you're reading the book of Revelation is not just what happens next but what does John see next and we're going to say that repeatedly as we go through the Book of Revelation because there are certainly things that they're shown that have already happened but right now we're seeing things that he's going to get shown what's to take place and we're seeing with John what he sees next verse two at once I was in the spirit.
Behold a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne so he and once is in the spirit which I transported pulled up Suddenly he's there and the first thing he sees is a throne and one seated on the throne so we've entered the Heavenly throne room and when we read the book of Revelation there's a lot of pictures and a lot of wild to us pictures fantastic pictures and it's real easy to get caught up and going what is this what is this what does this mean what is that.
But the first thing we should do with John is be overwhelmed with John we should see with John what he sees even in this text from Verses 4 to 8 there's a whole lot of phrases in Greek that don't even have a verb it it just is like and a throne and 24 Thrones and seven torches like he just is it it's just and this and this you can almost feel John being overwhelmed like so we're going to just to take this in with him he sees a throne and he sees one seated on the throne and he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian which are two stones that are Reddish.
In color and also have design and swirl to them and some of what John's trying to do is just put words to what he's taking in and he's trying as best he can to describe something Indescribable and to put to pin Indescribable Beauty and we're going to see that as he goes through and he doesn't even really try to overly tell us what God looks like he just says he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and a Carnelian and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald what does that even mean rainbow would bring to mind beautiful Kaleidoscope of colors.
But then it has the appearance of an emerald which is a stone which is green but if you look at emeralds it maybe it meant it's a rainbow but it has depth and texture and was Jagged but glorious that this is around the throne but he's overwhelmed with what he's seeing and around the throne were 24 El uh 24 Thrones and seated on the Thrones were 24 Elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads so he sees a throne prominent.
And then he notices oh there's 2 four other Thrones with 24 elders and there's some some discussion the text does not tell us who these 24 Elders are sometimes it tells us later there's golden bowls full of incense and it says those are the prayers of the Saints whenever that happens I'm always like thank you but it just says there's 24 elders and so there's some some discussion some people trying to dig into what does that mean I will tell you that it's.
If we had to know he would have told us so there's some relief there that we don't have to know who the 24 Elders are some argue that it's 24 Heavenly beings and that there's some good argument for that some good uh every everything else here is a Heavenly creature and later they're going to when they're doing some of the the stuff that we just read together that was underlined they don't include themselves and those that are ransomed they seem to be talking about it as.
If they're separate from it there are others who look at this and say that they it seems like it's possible that it's the 12 apostles and the 12 heads of the tribes of Israel they they have crowns and white robes and and throughout the Book of Revelation white robes represent what Christ has done for us that he's covered us and so they say that it looks like it's the 12 apostles and the 12 heads of the tribe of Israel which would mean that John is here and John is also there on one of the thrones potentially.
If that's true which I don't know if he noticed and I don't know what you would do I think if you were the one on the throne you'd give yourself one of those like but what we're to see with John is there's a throne and there are 24 Thrones but it's going to become evident that those 24 Thrones serve this throne and that these who have more power than any King on Earth has ever had these 24 that have more Authority more ability more capability more wealth more honor than any King on Earth has ever had are completely and utterly joyfully subservient to the throne and he who is Seated on it around the throne.
This is verse four were 24 Thrones and seated on the Thrones 24 Elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads from the throne came flashes of lightning and Rumblings and peels of thunder and Before the Throne were burning seven torches of fire which are the seven spirits of God and we're going to into that again today and we've seen it already a couple times and our understanding of that is that's a reference to the Holy Spirit that there are imagery given to us that represent the Holy Spirit and seven being complete and full and utter and finalized and there's this picture of the Holy Spirit present.
But there's lightning and thunder and Rumblings and torches y'all this is terrifying I don't know if you've ever been near lightning when it strikes and thunder goes off at the same time not like you see a Flash and then you hear the rumble but when it's like and you go he's the throne is issuing forth power I don't know if you can feel with John how fast your heart would be beating and how overwhelmed you would be trying to take all this in and Before the Throne there was as it were a sea of glass like Crystal which is a similar description to what uh Moses sees in Exodus chapter 24 and around the throne.
On each side of the throne are four living creatures and this is about to be similar to some of the stuff that Ezekiel was able to see full of eyes in front and behind the first living creature like a lion the second living creature like an ox the third living creature with the face of a man and the fourth living creature Like an Eagle in flight and the four living creatures each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and night they never cease to say.
Now those creatures are terrifying they're full of eyes in front and behind all around they have six wings and he says it's like a lion like an ox Like an Eagle in Flight like a man is it a man no it's like a man some semblances there some some pictures of it and oh these are around the throne praising and glorifying God and if you look through history how much Humanity has used Lions Eagles oxes and humans in our imagery to show our own dominance we put it on Shields we put it in you know over mailboxes at the foot of stairs that go up to where you're going to sit like this is what.
We do the Roman Empire had a an the Roman Eagle the United States has an eagle we put Lions we put oxes on things we we have this imagery and John says I saw the most terrifying version of all of those and they Worship the Lord and they never cease to say holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come holy meaning set apart on completely other on his own and he's not just set apart he's set apart set apart set apart he's above and beyond above and beyond above and beyond he's glorious glorious glorious he's holy holy holy unapproachable holy who was and is and is to.
Come which is a bit of an odd phrasing he was he exists in all the past all eternity he is now and it doesn't say and who will be says and who is to come meaning that he is always and he is and his being will forever exist and exert its existence he is Holy and he is eternal and whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is Seated on the throne who lives forever and ever the 24 Elders fall down before him who is Seated on the the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever they cast their crowns Before the Throne.
So there's 24 Thrones but they get off of their Thrones take their crowns Off cast them down in front of him and they say no it's your glory it's your honor they're going to say that he's worthy and so that these Thrones even though they're granted this Authority in joy and in worship they acknowledge no no no no it's all you and I I've heard people before it usually comes across as a lament or a complaint and I've felt it before myself.
But they'll read passages like this and go is that all we do is that all that happens in heaven we just worship and first of all I don't think so um there's going to be a new Heavens A New Earth I don't think it's going to be just like this all the time but I do think this will be the best part and to say is that all we do is actually a failure to understand what worship is what praise is and how wonderful it is.
Because you naturally praise things as you enjoy them you naturally praise what you love and the truth is part of the enjoyment as CS Lewis says the consummation of it the the full and final version of the enjoyment is the praise of it that we actually can't really enjoy something without praising it I you do this you'll watch moms do this with their kids I watch my wife do this with our children all the time she stares at them and then she just goes they're.
So cute like it would hurt her to not say it but you do this you fall in love with someone and you just it just comes out you just say these things some of you did this yesterday watching sports something amazing happened and you didn't just go my I noticed that was quite good even that would be a form of praise it would just be a muted form but what you do you jumped up you yelled you were excited it's part of it it's part of the enjoyment.
And So True Praise true worship is true fulfilled delight and made all the better by how much better the thing we're praising and worshiping is so to have true fulfillment and Delight in the one who is ultimately worthy y'all that's Heaven those are your best moments in life when you're so caught up in how wonderful something is you're taking out of yourself those are your most free moments when you're just looking at the ocean or the sky and you're just going.
Look at that look at how wonderful that is and you're just free from yourself for a moment and you're just caught up in something that's bigger than you and something that's better than you and so to say is this what we're going to do Lord I hope so I hope that we'll be so caught up in how gloriously worthy he is that we're just it's overwhelming to us and we get to Delight eternally in his glory and his goodness and that's what they get to do and they say this.
Verse 11 worthy are you our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and Power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created so they say He's Worthy glory and honor and power to receive glory and honor and power like he's worthy to for it to go to him for it to defer to him for it to be about him he's worthy of it he's equal to it it's worth it and then it says for.
So why here's why you created all things and by your will they existed and were created there's not one single thing that exists that does not owe its existence to God there's not one thing it exists by his permission at his will when you hear people periodically say things like well if there is a God when I meet him I'm going to ask him this you hadn't slurped in one greedy breath into your nasty little lungs without his permission you know ask him anything that's not how it works he's worthy.
For he created all things this presumption of us that we're going to your brain that he gave you that is a small derivative of his brain has worked out logically some sort of inconsistency in him that you're going to stand before him and he's going to go oh neat you got me that's not how it works he's worthy because everything exists at his pleasure all of us he gets to sit on the throne we don't he's worthy then I saw in the right hand of him who was Seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back sealed with Seven Seals.
Okay so we have a throne we have a king Seated on the throne he has a scroll in his hand we're to understand this is some sort of Royal declaration Royal edict something that's going to be put into the works something that's going to be applied to existence and it's sealed with Seven Seals now we don't have a lot of familiarity with this but a scroll would be rolled up wrapped with some string and then sealed with a special type of wax and you weren't allowed to open it unless you had the authority to break that seal this is sealed with Seven Seals an example I found this online just try to help you picture.
It and there are other pictures online that may be a better representation but that's just try to help you understand what it's talking about it's sealed with Seven Seals meaning someone has to have the authority to to break those seals to to carry out this command to receive this command to to to take it forward that's what he's holding in his right hand and I saw verse two a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice okay he's Seated on a throne he's holding a scroll in it as we find out is going to be the unrolling of History the unrolling of judgment the unrolling of Salvation like it's going to be the carrying out of.
God's plan and he says he sees a mighty angel now we don't know what this Angel looked like but he was given the description Mighty so if if I said I was hanging out at a restaurant and these four guys come walking in and then a mighty man walks in behind them what what made that one Mighty it's like well he had a hard time fitting through the door like I there's some something that differentiates and so he sees this Angel and says this Angel has more Authority more power more something there's something that declares the greatness of this Angel as this Angel steps forward and this Angel says and I saw a mighty angel.
Proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals there's this declaration that Echoes out this question that Echoes out into we're going to see into all existence verse three and no one in heaven or on Earth or under the Earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it okay no one in heaven all Heavenly Creatures none of them step forward on the earth the best of our power think tanks Kings Governors athletes Heroes nobody steps forward under the Earth.
So all the dead and all the enemies of God that are sealed in the abyss which we're going to get to see more of as we work through the Book of Revelation so not all of them are there but some of them are there and so it's saying that in all layers of creation all layers of existence no one steps forward so this declaration goes out who is worthy and here's the answer and I don't know how long they sat but verse four says and I began to weep loudly.
Because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it John says I started to ugly cry I made a scene John is weeping he is heartbroken that the Unworthy of existence the unworthiness of creation the unworthiness of humanity would stop God's plan that what God had designed for the world what he was going to carry out that no one can carry it out and John says it broke me John's just weeping he's just crushed and you've got to understand that you're included in the no one of verse three you don't get to walk to the throne and say hand it over I've got this.
And if you think background somewhere in your head well maybe you wouldn't think that if you were there seeing the throne seeing him who is Seated on it seeing the mighty Angel making the Declaration hearing the lightning and the Thunder and the Rumblings there's not one of us that would go none of us are worthy we have fallen short we have sinned legitimately we're not even worthy for some of the promotions that come up at our job and that's like how many people John is weeping verse five one of the most beautiful verses in all the Scriptures and one of the elders said to me weep no more and Church hear that hear that with.
John weep no more behold the line of the tribe of Judah the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its Seven Seals there's one coming who can walk to the throne who can reach his hand out who can take something out of God's hand and Carry Out history weep no more he has conquered Here Comes The Lion of the tribe of Judah here comes the root of David the one who was promised throughout the Old Testament that root of David language is that there's the fulfilled Messiah the promises that were made to David have been carried out the lion of the tribe of Judah has come the what the.
Prophecies have told us what the prophets have told us has been accomplished someone has conquered someone is worthy someone can approach the throne and he says Behold The Lion of the tribe of Judah so he says look it's the lion of the tribe of Judah that's Jesus the Fulfillment of the prophecies to David and between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain John says I was told.
Look there's the lion and I didn't see a lion I saw a lamb that had been slain praise God that Jesus comes to us in conquering he was first conquered for us that he comes to win us back not as the lion who carries out God's Vengeance but he first came as the lamb who would be slain so that we might be forgiven that John says I looked and I saw a lamb as though it had been slain standing Before the Throne as a lamb covered in blood a lamb that's been crushed a lamb that's been sacrificed that's the lion of the tribe of Juda that's how he conquers he conquered through the cross that.
When it looked like Humanity had won that our sinfulness had conquered that he was just going to be swept away and gone he was dead and buried but he rose again and what did he do he walked to the throne and said I'm ready because he's conquered and that's who John sees and that's our hope is that Jesus who was conquered walks to the throne and is going to carry out history with seven horns and with seven eyes which are the spir seven spirits of.
God sent out into all the Earth so it's not a normal looking lamb it's a lamb that has been slain but it has all authority all power that's what seven horns is and with seven eyes it's filled with the spirit it's got the spirit of God and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who is Seated on the throne John who has teary eyes a swollen face who's been weeping loudly he's got snot running out of his nose sees as the lamb approaches the throne and takes it and he's going yes and he knows who the lamb is he's saying take history.
Jesus do it carry out God's will let's go and for a Church that's in the middle of turmoil and difficulty and Brokenness and we're saying what is happening who's in charge who's going to carry this out is there anyone worthy can anyone save can anyone do this Jesus can and he comes to us the Conquering lion he comes and is first conquered in our place for our sins so that we might be able to carry forward with him because he could show up and just conquer us in our sin.
But he loves us so much that he comes and rescues us and has conquered for us to pay our debt a debt that we could not pay to give us a hope that we could not have gained on our own that Jesus is the one who can approach the throne and when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the 24 Elders fell down before the lamb okay he's God you got to see his divinity when this happens they're not allowed to worship not.
God in front of God that's insane Jesus Is God who came to Earth to rescue us he's the son of God and he has given Divinity and glory and honor he it belongs to him he had it before the world began and he exists with it forever and they worship and praise the Lamb when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the 24 Elders fell down before the lamb each holding a harp and Golden Balls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints that your prayers are brought before.
Jesus and for those reading the book of Revelation John's saying hey guess what you know how you've been tired and hurt and sad and hungry and before you go to bed at night you've just plead with the Lord can I tell you something I saw it make it to him can I tell you how precious it is it's in Golden bowls can I tell you that there are Elders that hold it out before Christ he hears it he knows that he sees it he's aware can I tell you that he's conquered can I tell you that he's good that's what John is saying.
See this picture I saw it can you see it with me and they sang a new song There was a moment where no one was worthy because Christ hadn't gone to the Cross he had a will to fulfill and then there's a moment where the song changes in heaven because Christ has done what he was sent to do worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for so God was worthy because he's the Creator Christ is given worthy.
For you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God ransomed means to be bought out of slavery so he paid the debt with his blood he paid the debt we're enslaved to sin we owe a debt in order to get out of debt someone has to pay the debt the payment has to be paid in blood we can pay it in our own confidence in ourselves we can say I got this I'm good enough I'll pay my debt and you can through destruction through death through God's Wrath you can accept the payment of your rebellion and your sin or.
Jesus can pay it through Grace and through his blood on our behalf and we can be ransomed out of slavery we can be ransomed away from the guilt that we have and we can be brought to God you ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and Nation y'all do you know how beautiful that is do you know how how much the world this is a new idea how much faith has always been be this type of person learn this type of language it it belongs to a people group y'all know the center of Christianity has moved throughout history from Jerusalem to Europe South America yall know that there's not rules.
On skin tone or dialect what happens to your skin in the Sun or what happens to your skin when you get out of water like those aren't rules here there's not rules about what your hair looks like or what eye color you have he's got every tribe and people in language and Nation belong to Christ and all of them in their tribe language Nation tongue will cry out the glory of Christ because they all belong to him he created all of them and he's purchased out of them all of them that there's not a single unrepresented people group around the throne in heaven this is one of the reasons why we send missionaries to places.
Where people aren't reached because we know that God's got someone there someone's coming out someone's going to sing his Praises from that from that language somebody's going to be there it says that he's done it and we get to see it later in the Book of Revelation it says you've made them a kingdom and Priests to our God priests were the ones who got to stand before God directly got to relate to God directly and it's saying your whole Kingdom of people who get to relate directly to.
God and they shall reign on Earth Christ is worthy because he paid the debt rescued people for God and finalized what God's plan was which was to have a people that belonged to him then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands he's just saying an uncountable all of a sudden uncountable Angels saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing he's worthy of all of it it all belongs to him all of history and all of existence.
Will cry out to the glory of Christ and I heard every creature in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever and the four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and worshiped the appropriate response to God on the throne and the lamb who was slain to Christ the Conquering King is worship and praise and glory and honor and blessing forever and ever.
If you ever have in any moment where you think is it worth this is it worth the effort is it worth the repentance is it worth the energy is it worth giving my money to is it worth is it worth laboring for is it worth giving up this promotion so that I can go be a part of this is it worth saying no to everything so I can say yes to Christ the answer is it is eternal worth it that God who reigns forever is worth glory and honor and praise and Christ who died to redeem a people.
For himself is worth all glory and honor and praise and blessing and might and power forever and ever and ever and ever and ever he is worth it and he is worthy and the only appropriate response is worship so that's what we're going to do we're going to take a moment together as a Church and we're going to worship and if you've never surrendered to Christ can I tell you that in the Book of Revelation he will conquer with a sword.
But by God's grace the way that he conquered for us is that he was conquered for us that he is a lamb who was slain so that you might be forgiven so that you might look and say God I'm not worthy but Christ is and my hope is in him I've fallen short I mess up I've caused so many problems I've hurt so many people I I'm covered in guilt but I have a lamb who's paid my debt who's ransomed me with his blood and my hope is in him.
And then Church we get to sing he's worthy which means that we're included we're welcomed he's worthy I'm not worthy He's Worthy the question before God is who is worthy and you're going to get there and you're either going to say I think it's me and be wrong or you're going to stand and say it's Christ he is worthy he is worthy I'm not but he is and my hopes in him and my trust in him and I tell the Lord this all the time.
When I see my sin so clearly I say if you don't save me I won't be saved if you don't forgive me I won't be forgiven if you don't help me I won't be helped because it's all on your glorious Grace that I have hope but if you have Jesus you have hope because he is worthy let's pray Lord Jesus you are worthy of all things you're worthy of all of our time of all of our energy of all of our money of all of our hope of all of our effort of all of our might of all of our mental capabilities you're worthy of all things you're worthy of all glory and all pra.
Praise and all power and all wealth it all is yours may we trust you and may we praise you and may we Delight in you and may for a moment through the power of your spirit may this place get so close to the throne room that we can see you that we can know you that we can feel you and that we can worship you that we can join with the song of Heaven to the praise of your glory amen the band's going to come back up we're going to join in singing with one another this is one of the reasons why we sing and praise on Sundays and it's one of the reasons why.
We should take it seriously that you're being invited into something gloriously wonderful something that exists in eternity something that belongs in front of the Lord right now it's not a time to talk it's not a time to text it's not a time to do anything else it's time for us to try to set our hearts for just a moment to get them so out of the the mess that we're in all the time where we just see things here and to just.
For a moment raise our eyes and say Lord help me see a door open to Heaven may I see your throne for a moment may have been caught up in how worthy and glorious you are so as a Church family we're going to take communion we're going to take a moment where you just recognize that he is worthy and that you are not but by his glorious Grace he was slain for us if you're a Christian communion is for you it's where we we.
Remember the broken body the shed blood of Christ on our behalf if you're not a Christian communion is not for you but you can trust Christ and he will be for you he will rescue and forgive if you need forgiveness he grants forgiveness and mercy because all glory and honor and power goes to him so if you're not a Christian I we' invite you to place your hope and trust in Jesus and if you are a Christian we'd invite you to take a moment.
And then take communion as a Church family and then we're going to sing together and if you have a gluten allergy we have gluten-free back there.
Revelation: Laodicea
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Morning my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here um we say that regularly uh I'm just one of the pastors we actually don't have a lead Pastor it's a team of five different pastors we also say Elder uh as the New Testament does that oversee different areas of our Church and I'm thankful for that I'm thankful for Isaac Hill who uh oversees families and students and uh facilities and helps with operations he was up there getting that room ready.
For our fourth and fifth graders uh I'm just thankful for the service that he does of our Church thankful for Matt Freeman who was just leading worship he's one of our pastors uh and in the the Church of our size and to be able to have a Sunday morning and the way they worship I'm just I'm thankful for the work he puts in I'm thankful for Chad Phillips who tells good jokes and no he he over SE Community groups and our operations and he puts.
So much effort into leading our Church and I'm thankful I get to preach alongside of him I ever see teaching and counseling and care and spiritual formation and then we have Raz Bradley who often times is less visible uh he just is he works behind the scenes a lot so a lot of the times you don't get to see him working as a pastor here he serves in a bunch of different capacities and oversees different things in different seasons one of the things I appreciate about what Raz brings to our team and I say appreciate in a LoveHate kind of relationship way is uh Raz is very straightforward he just is uh I think part.
Of that is uh he's not from the south I think Southerners we we dance around things a little bit sometimes he's from Australia I think uh is a little more of a straightforward culture I think raz's personality is a little straightforward I think that uh often times it's Holy Spirit empowerment because every now and then when we're in Elder meetings or every now when again we're deciding to do a thing uh it's helpful for him cuz I know it's like I can.
See it coming I can see his face and it's like his beautiful stupid face it's about to come and he says a thing and he's like no no no it's very straightforwardly tells us we this is we're this is foolish we should not do this and he's done that so many times in so many helpful annoying and awesome and beautiful ways over the years but I appreciate uh what he brings the team in this very straightforward when he seees something that is wrong he's going to say something he he's going to call us to account and that straightforwardness uh uh at times like you know like anyone like we all make mistakes and at times.
It's it's uh not good but a lot of times it is really Holy Spirit in power because that's what our God does with us sometimes sometimes he he he looks at us and he straightforwardly calls us to account he calls us uh out in our sin and that's what Jesus does today in this seventh letter and the final letter in this part one we're walking through the letters that Jesus wrote to these new testament churches he is very straightforward with the Church of leoda and it is a straightforward rebuke.
Today we get to look at this final letter before we move on to part two of Revelation and as we look at his straightforwardness and calling them to account we as the Church get to see that how that applies to us and that's all we're going to do today so I'm going to pray for us then we'll walk through the text together heavenly father I thank you for the goodness of the Gospel that we just celebrated and saying that all we have is you our only hope is you.
But that means we need you to confront us in our waywardness to confront us in our sin and foolishness so that we might behold you in faith and walk that out in Repentance and the good works that you have in store for us we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so we pick up in chapter 3 verse 14 and to the angel of the Church in leody deia write the words of the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of God's creation.
So in standard form in these letters he introduces the Church it's the Church of leoda this is this little route that we've shown that goes through Asia Minor that goes through the modern day Turkey this is the last stop on this route and this Church in this city is like many of the other cities that we've seen before it it is wealthy it is very Pagan very GRE or Roman and Pagan worship has great uh wealth and prosperity and trade that runs through it.
So very similar to everything we've seen thus far and then Christ in the next part as he does in all these letters he describes himself and he says the words of the amen now we're used to that word we say at the end of prayers we may not realize what it actually means in the Hebrew it just means truly so be it it's it's it's it's we pray this thing and so be it in accordance with your will as the New Testament Church as we pray in accordance with Will.
So be it this is a statement that Christ is the amen he is the one that makes things happen he's The Sovereign ruler and Reiger over all things he is the one that makes things to be and it calls him the faithful and true witness that Christ is faithful and he is true and he sees it Witnesses everything this is a sovereign Rule and a sovereign sight amongst the churches amongst the people of God and then it says the beginning of God's creation this is a statement that Christ along with.
God the father and uh God the Holy Spirit was at the beginning this is the God who made all things out of Christ and The Trinity all things came to be out of nothing this is a sovereign ruler and reigner of all all things from beginning to end as it is in this book and he describes himself and then he leads into a very very sharp rebuke probably the sharpest rebuke of any of the letters that we've seen thus far and it's only rebuke there is no encouragement in this letter not an ounce of it he goes straight into this heavy rebuke.
Now I want to read the whole rebuke to give some context for all of what he's saying and then we'll go through it verse by verse he says I know your works you are neither cold nor hot would that you were either cold or hot so because you were lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth for you say I am rich I have prospered and I need nothing not realizing that you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire.
So that you may be rich and white garments that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and sound to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love I reprove and discipline so be zealous and repent behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me okay so this first part he gives three pictures hot water cold water and luke warm water he says I know your works.
Okay he's describing their Works he says your works are neither cold nor hot what that you either cold or hot so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth there are some people who will suggest there's some archaeological evidence that uh that shows that above Leo deia was a city called heropolis and that city was famous for its hot springs and that uh the aqueduct system that the Romans have would take hot water like from that City and transport it down to Le oia.
But by the time that it made the sixmile trip down to leoda it actually was lukewarm water which is useless I mean hot water is hot it's useful for bathing and cleaning cold water is useful because it's it's good drinking Source but lukewarm water well that's useless and and that's I mean that lukewarm water breeds bacteria and sickness now I'm not an archaeologist and archaeology nerds with the Bible disagree on whether that happen or not it's possible it did it's possible it didn't guess what it doesn't matter.
Because it still makes sense to us too because everyone gets the illustration hot water is useful I like a hot shower cold water is useful i' like to have a cold drink of water I don't want a lukewarm drink of water because I'm not a psychopath I don't take lukewarm showers because no just no we all get what he's saying there hot and cold water is useful lukewarm water is useless but here's where it takes a turn and somehow I would I would argue how some misinterpret this how some have taught this is.
So what is being said here is you need to be hot like on fire for Christ and if you're like hot water like you're on fire for Christ that's useful you need to be hot or you to be cold which means you be distant you can be hard and atheist but what God really despises is the middle ground he doesn't like lukewarm faith if you claim Jesus in name only and you just go through the motions God hates that will spit you out of his mouth which is the language Old Testament Prophet language of judgment.
So be hot on fire for Christ or be an atheist but don't be the middle ground and that is how this gets taught sometimes and some of you that may be your understanding of this text what I want to do is push on that a little bit to reshape this in a way that I think is more true to what the text is actually saying here so my guess is is the reason that some folks will come up with this illustration that says hot on fire cold distant from.
God lukewarm Middle Ground has a little bit to do with how we understand the word lukewarm in the English the word itself definition one temperature lukewarm definition two unenthusiastic that's how we understand this word but I think we need to put the cart before the horse and not this is true for any text that we study if you're at home reading your Bible it's not what do I feel that the text is it's not what I think it is is what is the text saying itself and here what does.
Jesus mean when he says hot cold and lukewarm and that's the work that needs to be done here so uh what is he getting at I think very uh simply hot and cold are useful lukewarm is useless is it your works are not useful I oh that you'd be like hot and cold water all that you your Works o lead Deans would be useful but they're but they're not they're useless I think that's directly what he's saying when he's he's keeping it encamped in hot cold.
And then lukewarm and he says if your works are to be found like lukewarm water useless then I'll reject them which leads the next question okay then what does he mean when he says lukewarm what does he mean in this illustration when he says useless works because what I what I don't think is being argued here I don't think God's desire is for you to be on fire for Christ or to be hard and atheist I don't think that's what God is saying here I don't think he's saying that be either or not I know I think he's saying let your Works be useful let them not be useless.
And then he goes on to Define what this uselessness is starting in verse 174 you say I am rich I have prospered and I need nothing not realizing that you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked these leody Deans part of their lukewarmness is that they are wealthy they are rich and they are prideful and their richness they believe themselves to be self-sufficient because of their wealth not in need because of their wealth which is on par with this city leoda is a city that was rich around 60 AD there was an earthquake that hit this region many of the Cities uh got aid from Rome to be able to rebuild their cities Leo deia.
Said we're good we will handle this ourselves and and that's that cultural probably ethos that was in that City probably trickled down to this Church that's what culture does it impacts us and the way that we view God and others in this world so they are rich and they're prideful in it and their self-sufficiency and they think we we're good we don't have need we're doing okay as a Church and Jesus says you are not I mean wretched pitiable poor blind naked goodness that man alive G A lot of times we have this picture of.
Jesus as this traveling Sage who like Scoops up babies and gives kisses and warm hugs and he is that our God is gentle and he is kind and he is wonderful and he's also a prophet I mean the the these this this is Old Testament uh covenantal language for being morally bankrupt wretched evil pitiable you are pitiful and miserable poor you are spiritually poor you're spiritually blind you're spiritually naked you are pitiful and wretched I mean just imagine listen imagine the force of that hearing that right like.
If I just decided to point at someone in the room and then put my finger on someone and said you are wretched you are pitiable you are poor you are blind you are naked if I said that it would be a little unnerving it would make this a little bit awkward we would not like that you might not come back right this is confrontational Christ okay he does this sometimes this is one of the more aggressive times that we see it and he calls them to account in a very straightforward manner.
Because here's the thing I don't think they knew this about themselves that's what the text seems to lead right I think they thought we're good we're great we're awesome and they're not in it fake the facade of of of being great is hiding the fact that that beneath the surface there's something deeply morally wrong and broken in them to where they're not living out their faith the way they're supposed to a few years ago there was a music festival called fryfest and this Festival was build as like the most luxurious ious Music Festival on a remote island in the Bahamas like it was it's going to be great music it's going to be.
There's going to be luxurious food and AC and accommodations it's going to be great and everyone got really excited about seeing Blink 182 on an island in the Bahamas and overpaying to go see them and they did it they showed up the Bahamas ready for the luxurious Festival experience and when they got there they were like FEMA disaster tents for housing it was uh uh Styrofoam boxes of cheese sandwiches and not even like toasted cheese sandwiches like bread cheap cheese bread closed here's your luxury and like immediately everything unraveled I mean just complete utter disaster people I mean it was actually a safety issue they didn't have enough bathrooms they have Wall I mean it.
Was bad it ended immediately when people arrived and it was buil as I mean they they they sold it as this is awesome and it's great and beneath the surface it was garbage and this Church this is the reality they've deceived themselves they think they're okay they think they don't have need they think they're fine and Jesus is standing in the in front of them and saying you're not okay in fact you're much worse than not okay and you need to.
See the reality and get rid of this facade this fakeness and this you are wretched and poor and pable it is an aggressive call up but then Jesus moves into in verse 18 he moves into language of the Gospel he says in verse 18 he says I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich in white garments you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and SV to anoint your eyes.
So that you may see this is language of the Gospel he he's speaking about the richness of the Gospel right come to me for for gold don't these Earthly riches that have deceived you into thinking that you're okay it it leave that come to me and I will give you gold and richness I will give you the goodness of my righteousness these white garments this is language of the righteousness of Christ that when you come to Christ in your sin you put your faith in him and what you receive is the perfect righteousness of Christ that stands.
For you and the Riches of of the gifts of the Spirit that are lavished upon us and the riches that await Us in eternity and he said I'll give you I'll give you Sal I'll give you ointment for your eyes you're blind right now you don't see this but I'll give you ointment I will open up your eyes so that you can see your spiritual reality so you will not continue to uh Wander from me towards blinding yourself with riches he gives them the Gospel and in.
Verse 19 he says Those whom I love I reprove in discipline so be zealous and repent which I appreciate two pictures here the first is this that Those whom I love I reprove and discipline y' God disciplines Those whom he loves God's kindness in a lot of ways in seasons of our life is discipline and I I think that we're infected by uh bad feel olical streams that flow in and out of our country that God shows his Blessing through the gifts that he gives you through material things and it shies away from both a Theology of suffering.
But a Theology of God that shows that he disciplines Those whom he loves which is a a broad category for a lot of things I I I think when you sin and you make mistakes you run to God for forgiveness but then you don't want the consequences of your sin to come to bear and some people live under the consequences of their sin for years and that's God's kindness to discipline us that's his kindness to show love to us through discipline I think sometimes we endure hardships we endure endure sufferings and we we we begin to question the goodness of.
God where are you God why aren't you giving me this thing why isn't this working out in the way in which I want it to and it's hard for us to see that in those Seasons that God is refining our faith through the fires of Trials and and and it's disciplining Us in the same way that I I love my children and one of the ways I show love to my children is I disciplined them you ever been around a nine-year-old who's undisciplined at three it's like um how much damage can you do you need to work on this before it gets out of hand at nine it's like goodness gracious this is you've show.
You've not loved your child you certainly don't love everybody else that has to deal with your child now but God did disciplines those me I love that picture this is a new testament beautiful picture of God the second part here is be zealous and repent be zealous and repent so now we're getting a more full picture of what's Happening Here they are a they are a people who have been primul self-sufficient in their wealth but they're also not zealous they lack a Zeal.
For the works of God I think this and I'm not a English uh uh expert on the on the language but I if I had to guess this is probably where the Bible and this happens at times impacts the English language if you go deeper into this and if you really want to do a deep dive on this later go nuts this is great but I think the deeper you go into this I think it it seems that this this zealous language that later informs what lukewarmness is actually impacts the English language in a way that one of our.
Second definitions of that word itself is a lack of zeal is unenthusiastic so there is a a lack of zeal that's a part of this right it's you're self-sufficient in your mind in your riches and building your life on riches and you lack Zeal you are not zealous for the works of God and we should be we should be zealous but we live in a culture that actually has really made that word a no no word it's a pejorative it's like you you don't want to be zealous that's a bad thing especially as a Christian religious Zeal is bad.
But the the Bible doesn't see it as that way the Bible sees it as good uh Romans 12:11 says do not be slothful in Zeal be fervent in spirit serve the Lord we should zealously and enthusiastically serve the Lord we should be eager to do the good works that God has given us we're saved by grace through faith but then he sets apart for his works that we should walk in them we should be zealous for that Titus 214 says who gave himself.
For us this is Christ to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify himself a people for his own possession that's the Gospel right that Christ saves us and then he redeems us for what for his own possession who are zealous for good works that we should be zealous we should eagerly and zealously enthusiastically we should have this Zeal for being obedient to the Lord and doing the good things he has set out before us so this is the problem of leosia this is this this is the picture here this is what he.
Jesus means when he says lukewarm you are pridefully self-sufficient in your wealth and building your life upon riches and you do not see your need and you are not zealous for the good works that God has called you to be zealous in this is your problem and therefore you are unrepentant now here's the problem for us as we read this letter many of us may go man these letters have been rough like God but I dodg a bullet here because I ain't wealthy oh man uh uh you know I'm here every Sunday and in groups.
So I'm doing the things guys I'm doing it and I think that if we try to excuse ourselves from one of the most aggressive calls to repentance that Jesus has in the New Testament I think we misunderstand that American Christians have more in common with the leod doans than we believe I think that on two fronts I think the first front is indeed wealth y'all in the history of the world in the history of human history there is which is a good way of saying that there is more widespread wealth.
Now than ever it's not even close there there have always been wealthy people there's always been a King Solomon and there's always been a Bill Gates there's always been super rich people but never in history until now is there more just widespread General wealth now one of the ways that's been measured for years is GDP which is gross domestic product you go country by country you can look at gdps but econ those in economics who study this will say a more accurate way of understanding this is something called pppp GDP which is purchasing power parity this measures how much the the uh per capita on average.
But individual in a country can purchase and that's a better measurement for how widespread wealth is in a nation and we as a nation in the PPP rankings are number eight and some of you are like America's number one in everything not everything it's just it's not just fun fact we're eight that's still very high on the list and for our country country of our sides that's a that's very high so this is a helpful measurement to see not just who in the top 1%.
But where is the widespread wealth and we're number eight at about $76,000 in spending power per year $76,000 okay now that's about $20,000 more than countries like Japan and Spain which we look at as oh those are prosperous countries and they are youever visit them beautiful and there's a widespread wealth there as well and we're $20,000 more ahead of them we are double the PPP average of Greece we are triple the PPP average of Costa Rica we are five times greater than the highest PPP average in uh the richest country in Africa which is South Africa five times an entire continent in this country.
Now inflation certainly has hit hard I feel that every time I order groceries from Walmart plus every time my wife and I were doing it last night into this morning just like oh man the cart's getting bigger oh man and you know and then we wore them and and then they get delivered which is not a thing that happened ever until 10 minutes ago right I mean think about that like it like and listen if you want to talk to me about this like I will I I've done I've done that like going into Walmart is one thing especially with children who want to grab things going to Walmart with a hungry stomach you can.
Just add things to the card but when you're on the app and you're just hitting the things you save money in the long run but hear that right and I think everyone's got some version of this it's like man this is so expensive so hard but it wasn't until 10 minutes ago that you could get on a phone that was connected to a broader internet Universe where you could order groceries that came from all across the world and spices that came from all across the world that you can make meals in a in a in a in a shelter in a home that you could actually I mean goodness that wasn't a thing until until.
10 Minutes ago and that is widespread I I could do this on 15 different examples of the things that we take for granted the things that we think are just oh man that shows yeah we're not you're not you're not Bill Gates but but you are you are wealthier than almost any person that has ever lived by experience by what you can actually purchase and I and I I feel that y'all I feel that as as a person as a pastor and my wife as a teacher and we are literally dragging down the average of PPP in America by by spinning power I I I feel this and I know that some of you might.
Say but you don't know me you don't know my situation you don't know what I depend upon you don't know the government services that I have to depend upon to make ends meet and I get it by comparison to the rest of this country you may not be killing it as the kids say you you may not be spending like everyone else but just in reality the fact that we have a social safety net in our country that that provides for I mean aund over a hundred years ago before the Great Depression like.
If you if you didn't have means you starved that was for thousands of years backwards you didn't make it there there was an ability to to you you better seriously you if of past 100 years ago you would have hoped there was a Church nearby because that was the only one that was going to help me and the reality is I'm thankful for our safety nets I'm thankful the fact that people can get food I'm I'm thankful for all of that.
But you have to understand that in the grand scheme of the Church's history history where we are this Church our Church is wealthier than the overwhelming majority of churches that have ever existed and it's not even close so any bit of us that wants to distance ourselves from lead DEA because we're not wealthy I think is folly I think we're very much in this exact same category and when I think about how comfortable we are even in these difficult times this passage terrifies me this passage soers me and it terrifies me it terrifies me to think that.
Jesus looking at us and looking at everything that we spend money on and everything that we have from phones to to three meals a day and for us to find our sufficiency in the material things of this world to terrifies me to think of Jesus looking at our spending and saying in reality you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked that if Jesus could walk through our budgets he could walk through our spending statements we walk through our cash receipts.
Look at everything that we spend money on and ask the question is this to the glory of God is this to the glory of God I I I would feel the overwhelming weight of conviction when I read this and the reality is is that I'm thankful for his grace and his Mercy because in our self-sufficiency in looking to material things for joy happiness contentment Etc Christ calls us to account through a text like this which means we get the opportunity to turn to come back to him we get the opportunity to sit down before the.
Lord with our with our budgets and our spending and say God how can I use this for your glory how can I use this for your goodness how can I not rely on the things of this world but rely upon you as my Lord and if you want help doing that we have a financial care team that that will do that they will sit down with you they'll help organize budgets they'll help you look at everything that is that is in your budget categories or maybe lack of budget budget categories.
But needs to be a budget and we'll sit and look at this and go how can you do this to the glory of God how can we find our sufficiency in him and not our things so that Christ would look at us and our approach to riches and he would say you are not re wretched but you are Christ exalting you're not pitiable but you are uh admirable in how you Steward what I have given you that you're not poor in Morality In the way you approach money.
But you are rich in Godless that you're not blind but your eyes are open to the spiritual reality of every dollar that is spent that you are not naked and baren but you are submitted to Christ having his righteousness cover us and Empower us for the good works that he has with for us when it comes to how we spend so we get that call there and we should receive it and then the second thing he says is what what about Zeal are we the kind of people that are merely fine with checking boxes whether that's attendance at Sundays in groups whether it's reading the Bible whether it's fill in the blank I'm doing the.
Things Lord I'm doing the things or are we coming to God out of a posture that's been so infatuated with Christ because God you saved me when I don't deserve it and you set me apart for good works God what do you want me to do how can every ounce of my life and every ounce of my energy how can every aspect of my life be used for your glory God show me what to do what do you want for me is EV to spend every day starting and praying saying saying.
God what are the things you have for me embolden me make me zealous for the things where I might be obedient to your will and sanctification might be obedient to your will and the things that you have for me he says be zealous and repent and we can we can receive the rebuke of leody deia and we can be zealous for ultimately what God wants for us now it's a it's a hefty rebuke as some of these rebukes have been in these letters.
Now the text is not it's not saying you need to work harder now Jesus isn't saying be zealous now because you got to get right with me it's not the Approach at all no is is this is anchored in the Gospel that as every week as we walk through one of these letters that we see the grace that covers us we come back to Christ who saves us not of our own doing but what he has done and and then we.
Look at the call to repentance and we shouldn't run away from that we should embrace it and say no absolutely Lord help me trust not in myself help me be zealous and then hear what he says next in verse 20 behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me that after this intense rebuke we have this wonderful picture where he says I'm here like like a.
Father who has rebuked his child I mean because she really messed up he really stepped in at this time she runs off to her room and she closed the door in tears fearful because what they have done God comes the door and he hey you still still part of this family come to the table when you're ready come dinner's ready come on down how good is our God right how wonderful is our God that even when we are wavered even when we do mess up that he stands at the door and he knocks and he says you still have a place at the table Yeah you messed up youve banked your life on riches you've.
Not been zealous for what is good but you can come to the table and you can take part in this meal with me come he says come I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him he with me goodness gracious our God is so good he invites us to repent he invites us to Fellowship in our repentance and then he holds out this reward this is the final reward of these letters that we.
See and these seven letters he says in verse 21 the one who conquers I will grant him to sit with me on my Throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches y'all to the one who conquers the language that he's used in every letter to the one who conquers to the one who conquers the one who hears this rebuke responds in Repentance who fights daily to die to themselves and their desires to trust in Christ and conquers all the way to the end the picture that we have here of what's waiting.
For us in the new heavens and the new Earth because every one of these pictures is in the new heavens and the new Earth it's in Revelation 21-22 that's where this is going he says I will grant him to sit with me on my Throne as I conquered and sat down with my father on his throne it is the very language of reigning with Christ when Christ resurrected he ascended to the right hand of God the father and one day Heaven comes to Earth and he says.
If you conquer you'll Reign too if if you conquer if you hear the call If You Hear Me Knocking at the door if you come back to the table if you walk this out if you persevere if you make it to the end you will reign which we need to hear and believe because so much of our lives are spent on on building these little tiny kingdoms for ourselves these little tiny kingdoms where we can Reign and the God of the universe is saying put that aside.
Look to me I'm I have a kingdom that never ends I have riches that you cannot possibly begin to understand and if you will conquer to the end you will reign with me that's what is awaiting us but to get there we've got to heed the call to repentance and remember the Gospel and we trust in him and we submit Our Lives to not be a people that are infatuated with the security of riches and not be a people that are overly comfortable and content in this life that we lose the hustle to be zealous.
For the works that he has for us but we own the call to repentance there and we respond to the knock at door at the door and we come back to him and we walk this out until we reign with him again and Kell going to come back up we get to sing one last song we get to remember that we don't love the world and the things that it has to offer that the most beautiful and wonderful person we could.
Behold over anything this world has to offer is Christ don't leave part one of this series I I if if you for seven weeks have sat in each of these texts and are unmoved are unmoved by the call to repentance My Hope Is that God would soften your heart right now that you'd hear the knock at the door and that you'd respond and that you see that the path that he has for you is far better than anything this world has to offer.
So Church sing that wholeheartedly right now and then leave this place today with a faith that's based in what God has done for us and with a repentance that mirrors the very heart of what God wants for us amen.
Revelation: Philadelphia
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Here want to welcome you my name is Isaac I'm one of the pastors here at mil City and uh we have been working our way through the Book of Revelation and we've kind of broken it up into three parts uh the first part being the seven letters written to the seven churches um and so we are on our second to last letter this morning and uh as I Was preparing uh for this sermon I was talking to Ben Johnson and if you don't know Ben he's the director of uh 1040 hope it's a missions organization um that we partner with and uh they rent some office space from us uh during the week.
They specifically do Mission work in the 1040 window um which is the latitude numbers uh and if you go look over it's in kind of the Middle East in Asia Northern Africa and it's some of the hardest places to reach with the Gospel because it has some of the most hostility um there's also some of the least amount of missionary presence there so we're super happy to partner with them but I was talking to him about some of the mission work uh that they are doing and he was recounting to me a story uh about uh one of their local house churches and uh in this house Church they've got about 30 or 40 people.
And the reason that they meet in houses is because the area that they are in uh is uh hostile to the Church uh primarily to to Muslims converting over to Christianity so that's why they can't meet out in the open they meet in houses they can't do like we do we're very blessed to be able to come and gather like this but through this the work of this Church to be faithful in evangelism and to to spread uh the message of the Gospel one of the local uh military personnel that was around this Church had placed faith in.
Jesus super encouraging uh to hear that through the work of this Church this man had come to Faith um but he had when he had signed up to join the military he had signed a statement saying that he wasn't going to do that so he was following Jesus and being faithful to that but he was in opposition to his government and what he was working in and it turned out unbeknownst to the Church at the time time that the government had sent in one of its agents undercover to play the part of a converted Christian to try to get inside of this local Church community uh and this agent basically was a spy coming to.
Spy on this local Church and after about uh 6 months or so of being around this local Church eventually uh this agent from the government he outs that this military personnel has converted and he's participating in this local Church community uh and this guy ends up getting kidnapped the Church didn't know where he was at for several days um and when he does turn back up uh he recounts how uh he had been taken he had been kidnapped that he was beaten up by uh the the military and that how he was fired.
And then he was forced to sign a a statement for kind of public record saying that uh he had just kind of gotten beaten up by some street thugs uh and so this guy is left without any way to support himself and the people that he used to belong to because he claimed the name of Christ he now was uh treated with disdain and he was now treated like he didn't belong now thankfully this local Church is doing the work of generosity that the New Testament calls us to and they're supporting this uh man and he's still working to try to find some work.
But it's kind of hard for him because he's been flagged by the government uh and so it's hard for him to find a job uh but uh he's also kind of gone to the local Pastor there and just said hey I've got time if there's anything I can do to serve our Church let me know so on one hand the story is it's super encouraging it's encouraging to hear about the faithful witness of this Church as they uh seek to share the Gospel and it's encouraging to hear the move of the spirit to work in this guy's life to bring them to repentance and Faith.
But there's also much grief in this story that this man had lost what he belonged to that what he was used to was taken from him that that no longer were people that were familiar faces to him they treated him like he was an outsider and today we're going to be reading about a Church uh that was treated as if they didn't belong so let's pray and then we'll dive into our text Father we thank you very much for your word and the way that it instructs us that it leads us it guides us and ultimately it reveals to us who you are and what you are doing in our lives and in this world.
To rescue and redeem a people for yourself may this uh passage this morning be an encouragement to us may it point us to who Jesus is and may that give us strength to live our lives in faithfulness to him in his name we pray amen so our passage today is Revelation 3 uh: 7-13 so if you got your Bible you want to go ahead and turn there uh if you're using one of the blue Bibles that's available in the seat racks it'll be on page 596 um and as we've been working our way through these uh letters to the seven churches um there's this pattern of commendation and rebuke that.
Jesus has things that he points out that's good and Jesus has things that he points out that is bad well particularly for this Church he only has Commendation he only has things that are that he wants to uh encourage in this local Church so today this morning for us is going to be a very encouraging morning there's no rebuke for us so let's get started in verse 7 and to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write so this letter is addressed to the Church in Philadelphia and I know that some of you are thinking that you didn't realize that Pennsylvania was prophesied about in The Book of Revelation.
So it's not in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania uh the seven churches they're addressed to uh uh seven local churches in Asia Minor uh and that is modern day Turkey if you're looking on a map uh but this uh specific City Philadelphia this is the only place in the New Testament uh where this Church is referenced you're not going to find it in the book of Acts you're not going to find it in uh any of the the Epistles so our contextual understanding of this Church really just comes from this place this passage in the Bible.
And then there's some general information that we can learn just uh historically from the city itself of Philadelphia so regarding the city itself it turns out it's very similar to all the other cities that we have been studying uh throughout these letters in terms of its prosperity in terms of its success and the religious practices would have been pretty much just the same as the rest of Rome that they would have been polytheistic worshippers they would have had Pagan practices.
So this is where this Church is located and then from the context of this letter itself we see that there is apparently this Jewish population in this city that's established enough to have a local synagogue and uh it seems from the letter as we'll get on to here in a minute that the the Church's difficulty and hardship mainly comes from this local Jewish synagogue but I think it is also safe to assume that they would have felt some of the same pressures uh and some of the same effects of being monotheistic worshippers in a polytheistic Society.
So it was some of that contextual understanding let's continue on to uh the rest of verse 7 where Christ describes himself and to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write the words of the Holy One the true one who has the Key of David who opens and no one will shut who shuts and no one opens so in this we see three main descriptions of Christ so let's go through them one by one first he calls himself the Holy One.
Now the word holy it just means to be set apart by or for God that's just the Baseline definition so that idea is definitely here that Jesus is set apart by and for God of course ultimately in his life death and Resurrection but this specific description of being the Holy One has an extra note of weight when uh when looking back at the Old Testament that title Holy One is used to refer to the Lord the Lord of Israel and so uh in the book of Isaiah we.
See it show up 25 times alone just in that one book and so this Title Here of holy one gives us the idea of that Jesus is Calling himself Lord he is The Sovereign ruler over all things so that's this first title that he gives himself Jesus is the Holy One the second description is that he is the true one Jesus is true in the Gospel of John Jesus says I am the truth that there is no falsehood in him.
And if you're if you're here today if you've ever uh had an experience where you've been around somebody that was a liar or maybe you just have been deceived by a lie before you know that feeling of like the rug being tugged out from underneath your feet just every sense of stability just gets taken away but Jesus he is the essence of what is true that that's how he is describing himself there is no lie there is no falsehood in him and we're going to.
See how that's a particular encouragement to this Church so that's the second descriptor that Jesus is the true one this third one that he uh gives this description to himself isn't about who he is rather what he has Jesus says that he has the Key of David who opens and no one will shut who shuts and no one open opens now this is a little bit harder to understand uh the the imagery he here of a key it has to do with authority in the same way that.
If you have a key to something the assumption is that you have the right to access whatever that key gets you into so for instance if you had some kind of physical commodity that you wanted to keep safe and secure you take it to the bank you put it in some kind of security deposit box and they give you some kind of key we live in a digital age it might be a digital key but the point being that you have access and by having that key you are given the authority and the right to what is in it.
So this is what's talking about with the key so now we need to understand what is he talking about when he says he has the Key of David because I don't think he means that he has authority over David though that would be true he's getting at something more here David he was the king of Israel that's the David that's being referenced here King David of Israel and Israel they were in the Old Testament the people of God that's who they were as the nation.
So David as king he was the one who had authority over the people of God and the nation also belong to him as king that's how that relationship would work that the king he would rule over the people and the people would belong to him and his rule so in this context in this description of Jesus he's saying that he has authority over the people of God but there's more detail to it cuz he says who opens and no one will shut who shuts and no one opens that in context here regarding the opening and the shutting we get this picture of.
Jesus not only having authority over the people of God themselves he has authority over who belongs and who doesn't he has authority over who is and who isn't that's the description that Jesus gives himself here when he says that he has the Key of David and this also is going to be a very encouraging description for this Church as we will see here in a second so Jesus he describes himself as the Holy One the true one and he has the Key of David in other words he's the.
Lord above all things he is without falsehood he is the essence of what is true and he has authority over the people of God who is in and who is not and after this description now we're going to get to in verse 8 and N we're going to start to see some of the situation that this Philadelphian Church is in so let's continue on verse eight I know your Works behold I have set before you an Open Door which no one is able to shut I know that you have.
But little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name behold I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not but lie behold I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you so this is where we get the most amount of information about what this Church is specifically facing about the difficulty and the hardship that they are encountering and there's a couple things that we need to understand to know what is going on here.
So first when Jesus refers to the synagogue of Satan he's referring to the local Jewish synagogue in this city um there's another time that this shows up in the Gospel of John Jesus is talking with some of the Jewish uh religious leaders and he says that they are of their father the devil now to them to the religious leaders that would have been mindboggling they wouldn't have been able to really process exactly what was just told of them CU remember they were the people of.
God they weren't the people of the devil so this would be outlandish this would be ridiculous this would be crazy the Jews were the people of God so how could Jesus say this how could he say it there in the Gospel how could he say it here but what we see through the accounts of the Gospel is that they miss Jesus over and over again they don't understand him and ultimately their blindness to who Jesus was leads them to murder him and I didn't know.
If you know this you don't murder your friends you don't murder those who you belong to you murder your enemies just how it goes so there's that first so this synagogue of Satan it's referencing this local Jewish synagogue these men who had rejected Jesus the second point of clarity here Jesus says that uh they say they are Jews and are not but lie so here the language that Jesus is using he's not uh referencing ethnically Jewish that's not what he's talking about.
Now the the the Jews in the synagogue they absolutely would have they would have been proud of the fact that they came from the lineage of Abraham that's what they were staking their claim on that they came from Abraham but Jesus he means something else he's referring to Jew in the sense of belonging to the people of God the nation of Israel they were the people of God that was used as the channel by which the Messiah would come to bring Redemption and rescue however what we.
See in Romans when Paul writes about this he says for no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly nor is circumcision outward and physical but a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the Heart by the spirit not by the letter so Paul who before his conversion he would have fit right in with this local Jewish synagogue he would have been right there with them persecuting this Church cuz remember he did persecute the Church but after his conversion this last letter that he writes he's helping to clarify that Jew is in reference to the sense of belonging to.
God it's not an issue of ethnicity or genealogy or circumcision it's about faith that's what Paul talks about it's what he gets at in all of his letters that belonging to the one true God it's about faith in Christ so Jesus in this letter here he's also encouraging this Philadelphian Church saying that these ethnically Jewish people who are combating you they've actually rejected Jesus as the Messiah that they don't belong you belong to me you belong to the people of God.
And so we see here that this Jewish this local synagogue here has beef with this Church and the main issue that the the Jews had with the Christians is that the Christians would have included Gentiles and they were saying we belong to the one true God the Jews they didn't like this cuz they didn't think that was a part of the plan the plan that they thought was going to happen was that they as a nation were going to be uh uh taken up they were going to rise up above all other nations and they would bow down before.
For the Israelites that's what they kind of understood God's big plan to be God his plan is different remember Jesus comes and he declares the Gospel to all people that the Gentiles come in so they they didn't like this the Jews thought they were the ones that belonged the Christians now are coming saying we belong to the one true God and obviously there are some Jews here in this local synagogue who are causing a headache with the Church and even though we don't know exactly the words that they were saying to them it would have involved some version of of you don't belong we belong you aren't in we're in it's not you it's us.
That would have been some of this language that would have been used with this local Jewish Community to these Christians in this Church now these letters are written to specific churches inside of the first century but we can take the content of the letters and determine what is applicable to us today and uh I don't think Colombia is a onetoone to to Philadelphia here and uh I though I think the general trajectory of our culture is uh heading in hostility towards the Church we are nowhere near where these local churches are at there are other places in the world like we saw in the story um of recounting this missionary work in the Middle East.
There are places where the suffering is just as real as they're experiencing but even though we're not a onetoone comparison I do know that there are some of you that because you claim the name of Christ you are suffering because you claim the name of Jesus whether it be in your workplace whether it be with your families whether it be with your friends that you've experience loss and difficulty I know there's a there's a guy in our group that I have conversations with him often about he's in the workplace he works in it and he's kind of over a couple people and he's trying to figure out what does it.
Look like for me to share the Gospel with them so that I don't get fired because they go complaining to the bigger boss that I was using my position to try to co them into believing this stuff because you name the you claim the name of Christ you've been in difficulty I know that some of you when you profess faith in Jesus that it caused riffs in your family relationships that simply because you claim the name of Christ that now there's tension between you and your parents your brothers your cousins whatever it might be or maybe your belief has cost you to lose friends you start believing this stuff you start speaking the language of.
The Bible and they say you know what I look we we had a good run as friends but this stuff really isn't for me so bye you felt the cost of following Jesus and Jesus in this letter he's encouraging his Church that as the true one he's encouraging by calling out the lies in this local Church that they're experiencing from the synagogue that Jesus as the one who has authority to say what is true and what is false he's confirming for the the Church that they are walking in the truth.
Now this encouragement that Jesus gives is not just in the way that he addresses the men of a synagogue but also in the way that he commends the Church itself so he says that I know your Works says you've kept my word you've not denied my name similar to the Church in Smyrna they're said to have uh little power so in other words this people they don't have influence this local Church they don't have influence they don't have respect to the people around them.
Okay it's not comfortable belonging to this Christian Community here in Philadelphia however they're commended because they have kept the word of Truth they've kept the word of Jesus they haven't denied his name they've held fast to the Gospel that was proclaimed to them and they haven't Deni their allegiance to Jesus just to make their lives a little bit easier and specifically here Jesus says I know your works and we don't know exactly what it looked like for them to hold on to the truth and not deny his name.
But Jesus sees them and to somebody who's been Faithfully following Jesus even in the midst of suffering especially in the midst of suffering and difficulty that's an encouraging thing to hear that Jesus knows where they are he sees them and what they are experiencing and in the same way he sees us he knows what you and I are going through if you if you're here today and you feel like you've been putting every ounce of your energy and effort to try to keep the word of Christ and not deny his name he sees you he knows take the courage that he's giving to you here.
Now there's this intense line in verse 9 where Jesus says I will make them come and bow down before your feet now Jesus isn't saying that the Jews are going to come and worship the Christians that's not the language that's being used here God's the only one who's ever stated as worthy of worship the language here is Vindication language so in the end the endurance of this Church Church to remain faithful to Jesus will result in them being Vindicated and that.
Jesus Will declare his love for his people that's what he says he says they will learn that I have loved you the Christians in this Church who have felt out of place because of the slandering of this local synagogue because of the Pagan practices of the city and the culture around them and the idol worship that was running rampant they're told by Jesus here who has the authority to say who belongs and who doesn't Jesus says that at the end he will.
Look at them and he will say I have loved you if we are to endure to the end Jesus will look at you and he will say I have loved you let us take this encouragement to the end that Jesus Will declare this love for us he will declare that we belong to him and only he has the authority to say that so now that Jesus has spoken to the Church about what has been true for them what they've been experiencing.
Now he's going to talk to them about what is to come verses 10 and 11 because you have kept my word about patient endurance I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth I am coming soon hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown so this first thing that we run into difficulty with is Jesus referencing this hour of trial and there is much debate over what specifically this is referring to and this uh really goes back to the conception of the Church itself and trying to understand exactly what is uh being talked about here.
And all the different opinions they really kind of fall into two main camps that either it's referencing just the General Life suffering and difficulty that we all experience uh or it could have been referring to a or could be referring to a specific suffering uh at a specific time in the future from When It Was Written those are kind of the two main camps but it doesn't really matter uh what camp you fall into to understand that Jesus says that he will keep those who have kept his word.
So we know that to be sure from this text and we don't have time today to get into all of the details that are wrapped up in this but if the words amillennialism premillennialism pre-trib post-trib any Tri whatever you want the if any of those words mean anything to you this verse is right in the middle of that debate and if you're interested in learning more if you feel like uh you want to understand the different views I would love for you to call Chad he's on vacation I'll have his number up on screen.
But seriously we've got we've got a training weekend that's coming up on the 13th that is going to be heavily dealing with this we don't have a ton of space on Sunday morning uh to walk through all of these different views but you should definitely if you're interested in knowing more uh about the different ways the Church has interpreted the Book of Revelation sign up you can go on to our website uh and you can learn more about that stuff but we're going to continue on I do think there are even though there's some maybe some ambiguity with that there is some specific things that we can take from this text this passage here.
First in the same way that the Church keeps the word of Christ right he said because you have kept my word about patient endurance so they've kept the word Jesus will keep them from whatever this hour of trial specifically is and just like we saw it doesn't really matter exactly what the hour of trial is the language is clear that Jesus Will keep those who keep his word and that word keep will mean different things depending on what interpretation you decide you want to hold to.
But the point is clear Jesus keeps those that belong to him so secondly this hour of trial is said to try those who dwell on the earth now this Earth dweller language here it shows up several other places in the Book of Revelation this is the first time and then there are like five or six other times it shows up and every other time it is specifically referring to those who don't belong to Christ it's very clear from the context that's referring to those who don't belong to Christ.
So whatever this specific time of trial is it's meant specifically for those who don't belong to Christ which especially makes sense because Jesus is going to protect he's going to keep those who belong to him so I think those are some things that we definitely can understand from that verse now let's continue on into verse 11 Jesus says that he is coming soon now I think we would do well not to import our own understanding of soon to the one who is called Alpha and Omega that is the beginning and end.
Jesus as the creator of time let's not import our own understanding of soon to his understanding of soon but what is clear what is plain is that Jesus is coming and here he's using this as an encouragement for this local Church remain steadfast because I am coming he said hold fast as to what you have several years ago my younger brother and I we were helping our dad build some cabins out of the camp that he directs and we were working on installing some metal sheet roving uh and this one cabin we had gotten all the main panels done and I guess we must have been come back from lunch or something cuz we were.
All on the ground about to make our way back up onto this roof to finish it up and my little brother he heads up first he gets with the ladder climbs up makes it up to the ridge my father he's right behind him and he makes it up about halfway and then I'm right behind holding up the rear I'm very at the top of the ladder about to step out onto the roof and as I'm getting there my father he slips and he starts to fall and you know.
When you slip and you fall you reach out for something trying to grab something but there's not really much there for him to grab it's just an empty roof and my little brother he sees him he sees our dad about to fall and he reaches down and he grabs him and if you've seen the difference between my father and my little brother my little brother loses he starts to go down too and he throws his arm up and he grabs onto the ridge and they're holding fast to what they have this is all they have and they're holding fast.
Because if they don't hold fast both of them come tumbling down into me and all three of us end up off of the roof now we're all very tall so it wouldn't have been that far of fall for us but the point being that they it was second nature to them in this hour of trouble to hold fast to what they had so that they wouldn't fall down and that's what Jesus is encouraging them to do he says hold fast to what you have and what they have here are the words of.
Jesus and his name that's what they've already been commended in hold fast to the Gospel this Gospel reality that Jesus as God comes as man to pay the cost for our sin to pay the cost for what you and I have produced in this world and by going to the Cross he pays the record of our debt so that we could be redeemed so that we could be purchased and freed and that in raising a new life that he has new Resurrection Life.
And if we would walk in faith with him we could participate in that new Resurrection Life as well and he reigns on high with authority over all things authority over us that that is the Gospel truth and if we would live by faith in that truth holding fast to it Jesus says that what old ultimately results is receiving a crown and a crown here is referring to a reward like a runner who wins the race and has given a medal that.
Jesus he's encouraging his Church to patiently endure all things and to hold on to what is true so at the end they will receive their reward and if there are any of you in this morning this morning that are here that are suffering because of the name of Jesus hold fast to what is true because there is a reward however my fear is that most of us are not in those types of situations where we are suffering there are some for sure.
But I think most of us most of the time are safe to claim the name of Christ and that might be a weird thing to be afraid of but when we feel safe we start to let our guard down and though the physical world around us might not be a threat against us because we claim the name of Jesus most often in our life there is the reality of a spiritual war that is ever present and that's some of what this book of Revelation is doing.
For us it is revealing we're going to get into this in part two but it's beginning to reveal to us the weight of what is at stake of the cosmic Battle of good versus evil that is taking place that you and I are a part of if we would open our eyes to see what is going on so when we don't hold fast when we begin to let our guard down we start to loosen our grip on what is true.
Then we begin to compromise but let us not be people who compromise let us be people like the Church in Philadelphia who are commended for keeping the word of patient endurance and not Den denying the name of Christ because the reality is something Greater is Coming Jesus is coming so Jesus ends this letter with a promise to the ones who would conquer verses 12 and 13 the one who conquers I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God never shall he go out of it and I will write on him the name of my.
God and the name of the city of my God the New Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches in the Old Testament the temple it was the place where God's presence resided it's where God's presence resided with his people and this first promise that's given to the one who would conquer is that they will become a pillar in the temple of.
God now I don't think Jesus is saying here that we'll become a physical real pillar of a building and we actually learn at the end of Revelation that there is no physical temple in in Revelation 21 John says I saw no temple in the city for its Temple is the Lord God the almighty and the lamb that there is no need for a physical Temple where God's presence could come to reside behind a veil to be with his people because God's presence will fully be with his people.
When he comes to to live with us so there is no place but this language here of us being a pillar gives us the idea of this security and this belonging to the presence of God if you've ever looked at a building and saw a pillar holding it up you thought that belongs there and that is secure there and that's what we see here that we will belong and be secure in the presence of God when he comes to dwell with us you ever been on a long road trip and uh you've been nearing the end sorry I lost my place in my notes that's not where we're at forget what I just said that.
Is our that is our future if we are to hold fast to the Gospel that we will be secure in the presence of God and that reward is so worth it to hold fast so that's the first promise the second promise that Jesus gives is that he will inscribe three names on us now at first that sounds a bit strange it sounds a little weird at first but it's a beautiful promise names uh hold great significance in the Bible because they give a word picture.
For who you are that's what words are that's why Jesus he uh renames Peter to be Peter he was cus but then he's Peter because he's the rock upon which the Church is built that names they give you word picture of who you are so the first name that Jesus writes on us is the name of God signifying that we belong to him that if we endure and hold fast to the Gospel then we would be those who our very essence would be that we belong to.
God that would be who we are as his people my wife and I were in the process of adopting right now and when the time comes when we're placed with a child our name our last name Hill will become its last name because he or she will belong to us that's this picture that's being given here that in the end that God's name will be describ will be inscribed on us that we will belong to him and this idea of this inscription this being written on gives me the sense of permanence that never will be be cast out from from it.
But forever we will belong to the almighty God so that's the first name that's written on us the second name written on us is the name of the New Jerusalem so in Revelation chap 21 later in the chapter than where we referenced earlier it says and he and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain this is John so Jesus carried John away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from.
God having the glory of God its Radiance like a most rare Jewel like Jasper clear as Crystal the wall was built of Jasper while the city was pure gold like clear glass the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of Jewel the first was Jasper the second Sapphire the third agot the fourth Emerald the fifth Onyx the sixth Carnelian the seventh chrysite the eighth Barrel the ninth topaz the 10th chriso pra the 11th jasin the 12th amethyst and the 12 gates were 12 pearls each of the gates made of a single Pearl and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass what a place what a city.
And the name of that city is written on those who conquer because we will belong there Church family if we are to hold on to what is true we will belong there no longer will we live in cities that push out the Church push push the Church out of the synagogues that practice Pagan rituals that bow down to Idols we will belong in our home whatever feelings of misplacement you have right now it's because we don't belong here we belong there you know that feeling you get.
When you're driving home from long trip you start to pass the signs on the interstate Columbia 20 M 20 miles and that there's that little sense of comfort that starts to creep in and then you see your exit number and it starts to intensify you feel it more and then you pull into the drive you walk into your house and you're washed with a sense of belonging when the end comes when we are there we will be washed with a sense of belonging this final name that is written on us is what.
Jesus calls my own new name now this is similar to the promise to pergamum describing a white stone with a new name on it but the difference being being here that Jesus calls this his own new name in chapter 19 of Revelation Jesus comes writing in to conquer his enemies and it is said that he has a name written that no one knows but himself now it's possible it's referring to this name and that would be my understanding but it's also possible that it's referring to a different name there's a little bit of difficulty.
If it is going to be that name at the end of Revelation uh because it says that no one knows it but it's written on us but in numbers chapter 6 in the Old Testament the Lord is talking with Moses and he says so shall they put my name upon the people of Israel but they weren't actually marked with a name on their body the point was the significance of belonging to the Lord and I think that is what is ringing true here that.
Jesus is saying that my new name will be on them because they belong to me and this picture that we see of Christ at the very end what does he do he conquers every force of evil every bit of sin death Hades Satan and every enemy of God is conquered by Jesus if you're in a battle do you want to hear that you belong to the defeated or to the Victor and the promise of Jesus to those who would endure is that we would belong to the one who is Victorious over every inch of Darkness that you and I ever have or will ever face in this life what beautiful promises given to us to.
Encourage us to hold fast to what is true to hold fast to the Gospel and not deny the name of Christ but to endure the band's going to come back up and as we close I want us to have ears to hear this as John says The Sovereign Lord who is without falsehood or lies who has the authority to welcome in those who belong and keep out those who are his enemies he knows our work the ways in which we have kept his word and not denied his name he will vindicate our patient endurance and he will protect us from the hour of trial that will test those who do not believe we will forever.
Be secure in the presence of our God belonging to him belonging to his City and belonging to the Conquering son let us hold fast to this that we might receive our reward Jesus is coming.
Revelation: Sardis
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer and I'm one of the pastors here we are in the Book of Revelation still in part one walking through these letters that Jesus wrote to the churches uh and we are going to be in the letter to Sardis this morning it's on uh it's in chapter 3 veres 1-6 you can uh turn in your Bible too there you can also just follow along on the screen uh one of the more famous battles of the Revolutionary War was the Battle of Trenton.
So it was the winter of 1776 at this point in the uh War uh the Americans the Continental Army was losing battle after battle they were pushed out of New York City they were pushed out of New Jersey into Pennsylvania and the morale of the troops and really the the whole cause itself was very low they were beginning to question whether George Washington was the man to lead him and the winter came and typically at that time and even still today in some parts of the world.
When there are is a war going on during the winter you uh you stop fighting because the winter is hard to survive it's hard to fight in the winter time so you just really hunger down for the winter survive and then when it starts to warm up again uh the battle begins again but the American Army was the morale was so low uh that they began to uh as they began to question George Washington he realized they needed a victory they needed something to really boost the morale as they could head into the warmer months in fighting again.
So they decided to take back Trenton New Jersey so they crossed uh the the Christmas of 1776 they made their cross uh the Del over the Delaware River that's the picture of George Washington on the Delaware River it's that battle and then the morning of December 26th after the uh British and really their mercenary Army the hessan Army were recovering from a day of celebrating Christmas and eating and drinking and being married they invaded Trenton caught them completely off guard and they won a huge battle only five American soldiers there were only five casualties there were over a thousand on the other side and it turned the war it boosted the morale it raised their.
Belief again in George Washington but it it taught a very important thing in military history two things you cannot get complacent you cannot get lazy you see the British had won battle after battle after battle and they got complacent and lazy and the second thing is you have to keep watch they they were unprepared they were celebrating they didn't have the people in in place to To Be watchful for the enemy to come in and then they were taken the same is true.
For us as Christians uh we're going to look at another letter today we're going to look at a rebuke of the Church at Sardis and we're going to see that Sardis is a Church that has become complacent that has become lazy that is not watchful and is actually on the verge of spiritual death and as we look at Christ's rebuke of this Church we as Christians should be reminded of what is at stake for us as Christians and the danger that we might fall into and becoming complacent becoming lazy and not being watchful.
So let me pray for us then we'll walk through this together heavenly father I pray that you might help us see your truth today that you would open our eyes and our heart to receive your word that you might call us into faith that you might call us into repentance you might call us into worshiping you over the things of this world so that we might not be complacent in Jesus' name amen all right kick up in verse one and to the angel of the Church in Sardis write the words of him who has the seven spirits of.
God and the Seven Stars so as in each of these letters there's the introduction of uh the Church this is the Church of Sardis and the City of Sardis Sardis was a uh a city that was known for also its riches and prosperity very much like some of the other churches that we've seen so far Sardis was the ancient capital of an uh ancient empire called the lydian Empire and like many empires the lydian Empire had its rise had its Hay Day.
And then eventually it was taken over first by the Persians then later the Greeks and the Romans but the Romans knowing the history of the city and really liking this city it was a favored City in the Empire they very much they loved this city and therefore it had lots of of wealth it had lots of prosperity had elements of pagan worship that we saw in some of these other cities but that's the city of Sardis and then as we typically get in these letters we get a description of.
Jesus him describing himself he says the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars now we've seen this description before we saw it all the way back in chapter one now it was very clear in chapter one The Seven Stars are the seven angels who are on guard in these Seven Cities but in chapter one when I said the seven spirits uh when I walked through this it was uh this is debated this could be uh uh seven other Angelic uh uh Spirits in heaven with.
Jesus or it could be the Holy Spirit as I've spent more time in this I've grown stronger in my belief that the right interpretation of this is that the seven spirits is just uh apocalyptic metaphorical language for the Holy Spirit and that's what he's talking about here seven is is a number of fullness completeness uh in an apocalyptic literature like this I think this is a reference to the Holy Spirit so Jesus saying the words of him Jesus who has the Holy Spirit and the Seven Angels this is him reminding the Church at Sardis I am present among you I.
See you now typically he shifts into a commodation to encourage them that's what we've seen in each of these letters that is not what happens in this letter there is no encouragement for Sardis he goes straight into rebuke so he says I know your works you have the reputation of being alive but you are dead he says you you're known for being alive you're known for being a vibrant Church but you're not you're actually dead this is very similar to how.
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees he would call them whitewashed tombs that you have the appearance of godliness but you lack the power of God it's all appearance but you don't have the power you look alive but you are dead when I was a kid I watched a movie that came out called the others it's about a family that's being haunted in a house and the whole time they're trying to figure out why they're being haunted who they're being haunted by and at the very end what they learn is is that they're actually dead they're the ghosts they're the ones that are haunting the family that is there and it.
Would have been so much cooler had the six cents not come out two years before it and just completely ripped the plot away from that movie for their own purposes but that imagery of just walking around thinking you're alive but you're actually dead I mean that that's what happens there have been people for thousands of years who claim the name of Christ who claim to be Christ Christians who thought they were alive but in fact they were spiritually dead they did not belong to.
God and this city seems to have this reputation for being alive it's possible that other cities looked at Sardis as a shining example of what it meant to be a Christian it's possible that they themselves just said but well I guess if we call ourselves Christians we must be Christians but Christ sees through all of that and he says no I see your heart you're actually spiritually dead you have the op appearance of godliness the appearance of power but you lack my power that's the problem with this Church and I think we've seen I think.
If you if you've lived in the South long enough you've probably seen some of that right when I was in my rebellious teenager phase following the ways of the world drinking doing drugs all kinds of stuff I used to see people that were like this that they they had the appearance of godliness they were churchy they were put together they were outwardly religious but then I'd see them in their private life or I'd see them outside of the Church they were gossips they were very judgmental they they were weren't very happy people very self-righteous and like.
For me and many others was like I I see both I mean this is this is hypocrisy and then after becoming a Christian and walking with Jesus all these years I have to ask myself the same question which is a haunting question to ask yourself as we have unbelievers all around us in our neighborhoods in our workplaces in our lives and we said we we represent Christ we say we're Christians but where are we being Hypocrites where are we having the appearance of godliness.
But we actually don't have the power of God it's a question we should ask ourselves it's a question that every Christian should wrestle with because I don't think uh Sardis was very aware I don't think they were self- aware I think they were blind to their own spiritual reality the very spiritual Decay that was within them and Jesus is Calling them out and saying you have the appearance but you like the power and in verse two he says wake up wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die.
For I have not found your Works complete in the sight of my God he tells them you need to wake up wake up which commentators will say this is the language here is a play on their history you see that the city of Sardis was a an ancient Capital that was a complacent because they were an acropolis they were a fortified city on a hill this is a picture of modern day Sardis and uh in Turkey right there the city was built on a giant Hilltop.
And when you are on a giant Hilltop and you have enemies below that try to fight it's very hard to be taken and they were complacent and that what is what led to them being taken by the Persians and then later the Greeks and the Romans and it's the play on their history to say oh you you you've grown complacent here you think that you're okay but you are not just as the leian empire fell just as the British hessan Army in Trenton fell the Church can get complacent and asleep believing that they're.
Okay when they're on the verge of spiritual death so Jesus says wake up which is similar to the language that Jesus uses in First Peter when he speaking through Peter and Peter's writing to the churches in 1 Peter 5:8 he says be sober minded Be watchful wake up Be watchful your adversary the devil prows around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour you need to wake up you do not realize what is at stake you do not realize that you you have an enemy who wants to destroy you who wants to.
See the Church be crushed you need to wake up to the spiritual reality that you are unaware of and he says you need to strengthen what remains and is about to die strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have not found your Works complete in the sight of my God so Jesus is warning them now he is not uh taken their lampstand which is the language that he uses in the letter to Ephesus that we read back in Chapter 2 that there's a judgment that fin.
Finally comes where Christ takes the lampstand he takes the power from the Church that you might appear to be a Church you might call yourself a Church but you're actually an apostate Church you're a Church in name only that you have the appearance but you lack the power altogether he has not done that yet with this Church there seems to be a a a flicker of like a like a candle that is just barely alive that's slowly beginning to flicker In and Out In and Out in and out that's where they are and it's like you're getting ready to be completely snuffed out you're getting ready to be completely spiritually dead you got to strengthen.
What remains and what he means by strengthen what by uh what remains he says your Works uh he wants the works complete in the sight of God so what he's calling them to and the call to strengthen what remains is to do good works to do good works that's what he means by he says your work is not complete now he's not talking about Works based salvation Works based righteousness that's not what he is talking about here because in the very next verse in verse three he says.
Remember then what you received and heard keep it and repent he says remember the Gospel remember the Gospel of how I came I saw you in your sin and I came and I live the perfect life that you could not live and I went to the Cross to have my blood shed for your rebellion and then I Rose from the grave and the resurrection giving you the ability to walk in the newness of New Life in me into eternity remember the Gospel that saved you and out of the Gospel that Sav that changed your heart walk in the good works that I done and provided.
For you that's the language of the New Testament when you get to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8-10 we're very familiar with 8 and N for by Grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing it is a gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast that it's by grace that we've been saved through faith and we will beat that drum because that is the Anthem and the Heart of the Gospel that we are saved by grace through faith your Works do not save you.
But you have to keep reading on to verse 10 when he says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them that you're not saved by your Works you're saved by grace through faith but in Christ Jesus has prepared good works for us to be obedient in them as Luther once said your good works is not for God it is for your neighbor there are these works that God has prepared.
For us that we would walk in them James in the New Testament he's writing to some Churches it's clear from the context he's writing to some churches that have uh have started to just claim faith and live in waywardness claim faith and not do the works that God has called us to in James chapter 2: 18- 19 he says but someone will say you have faith and I have Works he's quoting someone you have faith and I have works and then he says show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my Works he says we're not petting Faith against works we know that order.
But the faith will have fruit the faith will display works and he goes on to say you believe that God is one you do well even the demons believe and shudder so the demons know that Jesus is Lord the demons can articulate the Gospel but they're unregenerate and they're enemies of God so you can claim to be a Christian you can claim that Jesus died on the cross for your sins but if you don't you don't have the fruit that bears that out your confession is meaningless.
If you belong to Christ if your heart has been changed by him you're going to bear that fruit you're going to look a certain way you're going to act a certain way they go together I and I know many of you know this I'm a Gamecock fan all right so and The Season's approaching now I'm a Gamecock fan and some of you might say well so am I and if that's true I will know it by your works I will know it by the fruit like I I will I will know it.
Because you won't be the kind of person that plans an event a wedding a birthday on a Saturday in the fall and what what happened recently is my daughter's birthday is this Saturday and I've been very busy lately and I failed really is a failure of leadership in my house and we we planned her birthday party on her birthday and then one of our friends said hey uh did you know that that's the first game of the season the first home game and I was.
So first off I was so embarrassed so I felt I felt the The Sting of failure and I just said I man I just I guess we'll do our birthday the next day and we we have we have we have pushed her birthday because I'm a fan you don't do that that's just I just if you're if you are overly optimistic right now if you're like oh boy have you seen Lenor sellers I don't know I think I mean this is like it might be Heisman I don't know.
If you're overly optimistic and if you're so used to being completely disappointed and crushed that you can endure years of suffering and loss I know the fruit of your belief that's just I know it that's that if you believe something you're you're going to embody that and if you believe in Christ you're going to embody The Works what it become what it means to be a Christian and that that's what's being called out here he's trying to get Sardis to see that.
If you believe this then you need to work you need to your Works need to be complete in the sight of God you need to remember the Gospel that saved you and set you apart to live out the good works that he has for you and he goes on to tell them if you will not wake up I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come against you that is the language of Christ's return that's the language of his return that's the language of his return and his judgment one of the passages we're going to use a lot as we go through the Book of Revelation is.
Matthew 24 Jesus has a teaching that is forward-looking to the Future and what awaits the Church and in that teaching he says in verse 42 and 43 therefore stay awake same language stay awake wake up stay awake for you do not know on what day your lord is coming but know this that if the Master of the House had known in what part of the night the thief was coming he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into same language.
Jesus comes like a thief in the night you do not know the hour any of us could die tomorrow Jesus could come back tomorrow you do not know when you do not know the hour so do not sit on your hands stay awake wake up that's what he's trying to impress upon the Church Sardis now the good news is is that in Sardis there seems to be a few the very the minority who have stayed awake and he has this to say to them in verse four yet you still have a few names in Sardis people who have not soiled their gments and they will walk with me in white.
For they are worthy so the language here is descriptive imagery and it's fairly blunt to the point that if you belong to me if you have faith you have you will have a white garment this is the language that you see throughout the Scriptures of of righteousness that you'll walk in righteousness that you'll that you'll have the righteous of Christ that covers you and that faith faith will initiate the good works that you will walk in but if if you're Wayward it is the language of SPO of SPO soiled garments impurity is the picture here Chasing After idols not Faithfully following Christ.
But he's trying to help the rest of that Church see you you're you're flickering you're nearing the end and you need to wake up now in these other letters that we've already read we get some context for what he's actually talking about we get some context for uh what what type of sin that need to repent of we see uh idolatry is something that is prevalent in this Church we see sexual immorality is prevalent in some of these churches and certainly this being a similar City that might be also true.
But we don't know that for sure we don't actually get what we get are two sketches you have the appearance of God without the power and that they are asleep and they are complacent so I want to take both of those sketches that that you are have the appearance of godliness but you lack the power of God and this idea of being asleep and complacent and lazy and I want to apply those to our context because if Jesus wrote a letter to uh the American Church.
If he wrote a letter to a Church like us what would he say in those two different categories and I want to think about this I want this to be something we think about as we head into community group this week to think about all throughout the the week the first category appearance without the power how might we be tempted to have the appearance of being a follower of Christ but lacking the power that comes with that I think for some that is following all the rules checking all the boxes and outwardly you're doing all the things you're taking all the steps.
But inwardly your heart has grown cold because what Christianity has been for you is a bunch of boxes to check off it has been a legalistic list of things to do but it actually isn't about meeting and knowing and beholding who our God is it is not that those boxes of reading your Bible and prayer and uh being faithful to worship on Sundays it's not that those are bad those are actually good but the heart posture behind those is I do these things to prove as opposed to I do these things to know who our.
God is and that's the appearance of godliness but without the power I think for others that's going to be uh helping others not to the glory of God helping others not because we look at Christ who in our helplessness saves us and redeems us and sets us apart so that we might look to others and help them too you like to help others not for that reason but because it makes you feel good or worse it makes you look good and that serving others is actually not about faithfulness to Christ it's about a way to make yourself.
Look more presentable to others I think others others would listen to sermons on behalf of others I think that's a thing listening to a sermon and thinking oh man Chad's moving today he's got jokes he's got illustrations boy oh boy I hope Tim hears this just old Tim he needs to hear if he he just if he's sitting right there I hope he's listening and it's like oh Ma'am Spencer's preaching today he's clear most weeks and just I hope I really hope that Tina is just I I hope she's listening and it's like sister you need to.
Listen brother you need to listen if you're consistantly thinking about other people who need to hear this or need to hear teaching to hear truth but you're not actually listening with open ears to have the truth impact your own heart and out of the Overflow of your own heart care for Tim or care for Tina which by the way this is just names guys I don't I don't even think we have we might actually I'm not going to do that I'm not going to try to guess.
If there's a 10 or 10 in the room but if you're constantly listening for other people not listening to hear the word of God impact your own heart it's a problem I think another way we have the appearance of the power is like a faux concern for other people in a way that like praying is I need we need to pray for this person what it really is is like gossip and slander is I we need to pray for for this person.
Because air their dirty laundry I think what's actually more prevalent especially in younger folks is can I get with you I got got to process this because do you you not believe what just happened I just can I process with you and it's like I I I think process is code for I just want to gossip and again I'm not against externally processing I'm an external processor but you know discretion because airing out other people's laundry is not okay it's the appearance of I care about them.
But it does not honor God I think another way we do this is showing partiality which is something that happens you see that clearly the Book of James is being called out being partial to others because of who they are what they have one of the things I've seen over the years is is partiality to having cooler people in your group just I just want I I just want cooler people in my group more put together people in my group I.
Listen I've I've had folks that have come to me come to other pastors and just they go in some version of the speech and it's like yeah you know I've been going to this group for a few months and like I just you know I don't know like I just I mean can I like go can I go see other groups like I just because you know and they're trying to be careful with their words but it's like guys I just you know there they these people I they're they're nice they love.
Jesus but like I just they're you know we're just different you know and they like we're just different stage different different personalities and it's like oh you think they're lame it's just you can say it like you they're not cool enough for you and you know we we're very much against group hopping and we have to give this speech it says no no like I think you should stay I think it's okay for you to be around people that are are different than you I think it's.
Okay to be around people that aren't as aren't think the same as you I think you should stay but we do that we want folks that look like us we want to talk to folks that look like us we want to talk to folks that have the same skin color as us we want to talk to folks that have the same class as us we want to talk to folks that dress the same as us that talk the same as us.
Because that's more comfortable but that's partiality and it's sin and you might think oh I'm a social person I'm welcome people in but if it's the exact same type of people every time that certainly is the appearance of godliness but it is not the power of God at work it's about your own interest and not the interest of others and you may think you can hide behind those appearances but Jesus sees right through it I think the the second category this a sleep been complacent.
Jesus in Matthew 24 in that sermon he continues when he gets to verse 48 he says but if that Wicked servant says to himself my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards which is just language that as a part of the story that Jesus is telling is that they're just there the master is gone I'm going to do what I want I'm going to beat my servants I'm going to eat I'm going to drink the master of that servant will come on a day.
When he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the Hypocrites in that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth that's language of judgment and if you go deeper into that cuts him into pieces and you try to look at the original text and what it says it means cut him into pieces this is language for judgment y'all that Jesus is getting at if you're a away.
If you're if you're not awake if you're asleep and you're complacent and I think we can do this in a number of ways you can spend your days seeking the pleasures of this world eat all the finest meals and drink all the nicest drinks and you can eat and drink and be merry and just seek pleasure and be complacent to not have a hustle behind you and sit on your hands but you're asleep and Jesus is trying to open your eyes to.
See no no no this is not this is not this is not what the Christian Life is supposed to be about it should not not be about enjoying the pleasure of this world I think sometimes we can make excuses for how hard it is to serve it's hard like I'm it's hard to serve on a Sunday or it's hard to serve and and be like it's hard for me to be at group don't you I work I work 8 to 5 9 to5 it's hard.
For me to get the group I work six days a week it's hard for me to serve on Sunday and it's like y'all the people of the New Testament I don't know if you know know this they also worked hard like you know what happens if they don't work in this context they die they don't eat there's no government that's going to give any type of of safety net if if you don't work you don't live these people worked and we.
See evidence in the New Testament and the early Church history that they hustled that they worked and then they gave themselves away to others they regularly gathered together as a Church they did not neglect the Gathering of the Saints but they leverag their lives for one another they leverage their lives the mission of God going forward and it's like but that's that's that's exhausting yes it is and it should be it should be so much so that you have to actually commit to carving out a day of rest where you actually do rest before the.
Lord so yet it is you should hustle you you should serve we we should be that kind of people we should not be asleep we should not be complacent we should be marked by this I think this happens with folks who spend listen if you spend more money on entertainment on Sports on concerts on movies that whole category in a budget if you spend more money on that than you do giving to the local Church giving to missionaries giving to Orphan orphan care you spend more money on enjoying the things of this world than giving to the kingdom of.
God you have misunderstood the Gospel youve misunderstood the kingdom values that God calls us to and I'm not against those things I I enjoy a good concert I was in the queue to go see uh Zack Bryan in May and and you know what it didn't work out because our budget's not wasn't we we we we're I'm not perfect we got all our problems but we just like this this isn't going to fit some like I don't know who Zach Bryan is is that a new Christian artist it's not just disclaimer I think you can.
Listen we can do you you you can be the kind of person that another way we do this is that you can you can sense the Holy Spirit calling you to do a thing and then box him out and I I I'm trying to grow in this because I for years I would just be ah you know I don't know like I that could is that I think that's probably just my conscience I maybe not I don't know it's just a thought move on.
And then I just keep driving or I keep walking or I keep doing and I'm I'm I've grown to a place where when I sense something like this this leading I just I try to pause and go all right God I don't know if that's me I don't know if that's to you but if it is make it clear right now all right I'm going pull around drive back and go talk to the guy but listen if you continue to box him out like that you make it to a place where he doesn't speak anymore and you don't want to be there there are a lot of different ways that we can lure ourselves to.
Sleep with the cares of this world there's a lot of different ways we can lure ourselves to sleep by not listening to God there's a lot of different ways we can lure ourselves to sleep by not being faithful to the good works that God has called us to and here's the reality you can live a good Moral Moral outward life morally looks good asleep complacent and when you die there will be people at your funeral who will say man that was a good man what a Godly woman that was and you can live that type of life where everyone around you and yourself would have thought man what a Godly Christian that was.
Jesus sees right through all of it because the most haunting thing you could ever hear is after you die standing before Jesus and he says depart from me you worker of lawlessness I never knew you and that should sink in for us because here's the deal I don't think Sardis was aware otherwise Jesus wouldn't need to tell them I think they thought they were fine I think they thought that they were okay and they didn't realize they're marching towards spiritual death which is way worse than physical death I think they believe they have the reputation.
For being alive I think they had the reputation that they thought they were being faithful but this letter is meant to confront them and say your outward appearance your complacency will not stand for you in judgment repent turn back to the God to the Gospel that saved you and walk in the works that he has for you and then therefore receive the final picture vers 5 and six the one who conquers which is how each of these letters end the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments and I will never blot his name out of the book of life I will confess his name before my.
Father and before his angels He Who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches now we get this reward here clothed in white garments that's the Eternal righteousness of Christ upon us but we get this language I will never blot his name out of the book of life now the book of life it's the first time it's mentioned it's going to be mentioned six other times in the Book of Revelation it is this book that has existed before the very foundations of the world before.
God created the world there was a book where God had predestined names there are people there are Christians whose names are written in that book it breaks our brain we can't mathematically work out that equation but that's what the Book of Revelation makes abundantly clear clear that there's a name there's a book with all names of those who are faithful in following Christ and what he's not doing here is he's not saying you better you better just work to earn your spot in that book that's not what he's getting at we would take this in the context of all the other passages of how we are saved by grace through faith.
But passages like this don't miss this are a motivation to live out the calling that he's bestowed upon us in faith to be obedient to the good works that he's called us to not to try to earn favor with him but to worship him and to glorify him and he's saying do you know it's at the end the book will be open and Jesus Christ will read from the book he will read your name before God the Father see that picture and live life towards that picture you probably picked up on.
Listen this sermon or if you've ever listened me preach I like football it's a great hobby of mine I love college football and I love pro football I think they're both great the argument between which one's better college or Pro is dumb because both of them are great for different reasons but that's not the main point what happens between college and pro is there's one event that overlaps one event that combines the two together and that is the NFL draft all right every April NFL teams pick players from the best players from college and I'm such a nerd.
Because cuz I will follow like mock drafts to see if the Colts like who are they going to draft I don't know is it going to be we need really need a tackle this year oo like I just get it's sad I know but it I get really into this but when you follow the draft you sometimes follow these storylines that there are these players that come out of really difficult uh families and neighborhoods and situations and they work really hard in high school.
And then they finally get recruited and they get a scholarship and they go to college and not everyone plays at Alabama and they go to a college they have to work throughout the summer and grind and if you've ever seen College athletes whoever been in college and seen how they work they wake up early at 5:00 they work out they stay late they they work hard and after everything they've done after years of suffering and trials coming from very difficult situations and working hard to play this game on a day in April one day they.
Finally hear their name called and they are now a part of the National Football League the most elite level of football in the world and there's these videos their families that are crying that are hugging that are hooting and hollering and celebrating and listen you watch that and if you don't get chills I don't know what's wrong with you it's awesome to see some of these players who their lives have been changed and guess what it's for a game it's for a game that one day is probably going to give him CTE or chronic pain right it's.
For a game and that is such a small just tiny picture of one day you're going to stand before God the father and if you belong to Christ Jesus is going to read your name he is going to call out your name before God the father and all of the Heavenly hosts and the angels and you're going to enter into the new heavens and the new Earth with life with God forever that is worth every suffering every trial and changing the way we live that we might walk in the good works that.
Jesus has for us so hold out that picture receive the rebuke that Jesus gives us and wake up because what awaits us is better the band's going to come up we're going to take the Lord's Supper when we come to take the Lord's Supper from the table we're reminded that on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it and he said this is my body that was broken for you he took the cup of the New Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed.
For you that as often as you eat this and you take this you you remember my death until I return which means the meal is looking back at the cross and what Jesus did for us but it's also looking forward to that day that day when we will sit at the table of God when our name is read out loud in eternity with him there are some of you here that have the appearance of godliness you have the appearance of being called a Christian.
But you lack the power of God because your life has been one that is faking being a Christian but actually doesn't belong to him and I want to say so clearly to you right now now please do not take part in this Meal please come to Christ come in your sin come in your Rebellion Jesus wants all of it he wants to cover you with his blood and he wants to give you the power of God which will change every aspect of your life and yes it may make it far more difficult.
But the reward that awaits us is far better so don't come to the table come to Christ and if you are a Christian you have failed I have failed we have rested in appearances and we have gotten complacent but guess what he offers repentance and he offers forgiveness so as you come to the table think of the ways we have become complacent ask for forgiveness joyfully come to the table take part in the Lord's supper and walk in Repentance in the good works that he has.
For us when you are ready come to the table there's gluten-free back that back corner over there.
Revelation: Thyatira
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here if you will grab a Bible and go to the Book of Revelation it's the last book of the Bible it's on page 595 if you have one of these blue Bibles that's in the this the I don't know the Rack in front of you sorry um just couldn't find the word uh we are working through the Book of Revelation which is a letter the whole book is a letter written to churches in uh Asia which would be modern day turkey and uh there are sections of the of this entire book that's a letter that are specific addresses to different churches it was written to the.
Church in a time of distress in a time of persecution and in a time of difficulty and we find that it is helpful for us in the time that we're in as we study through this that we might gain encouragement and be emboldened to endure and to pursue faithfulness just as these churches were called to so if you will we're going to looking at the address to thota and it's in uh Revelation 2 starting in verse 18 and to the angel of the Church in thyra write the words of the Son of.
God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished Bronze in the beginning of each of his addresses to each of these churches Jesus references some description of himself from the first chapter of the Book of Revelation and this is a reference this eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze is a reference to uh chapter 1 in verses 14 15 and 16 it's a description of what Jesus looked like when he showed up to speak to uh John John sees him and immediately Falls over John says like I was dead just killed over and it's actually not just a description of.
Jesus here but this description is very similar to the description of who ends up being referred to to as the man in linen from Daniel in the Book of Daniel which is another apoc apocalyptic book from the Old Testament there's a man in linen who shows up who has a very similar description in Daniel chapter 10 I would encourage you to go read it but it seems as if Jesus shows up and interacts with Daniel then he shows up here and interacts with John and he is proclaiming what is going on that's what he's referring back to this picture and he refers to himself here as the Son of.
God it's the only place in the Book of Revelation where he is called the son of God and he's going to directly quote Psalm 2 later in this address to thyra and in Psalm 2 it's a Psalm about the Son of God so we will we will look at that a little more as we get to that section in this letter but Jesus is writing to this Church and he says this verse 19 I know your Works your love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter Works exceed the.
First y'all that that's great listen to that I know your works I mean I see you I see you I know what you're doing you were love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter Works exceed the first we could spend the whole morning just looking at that and considering how blessed it would be to be a Church where that's a a fair description of what is going on and our hope would be that we'd be a Church like that that we would have works that we would have love and faith and service and patient endurance and that we would continue to grow and develop in service and works it doesn't stop.
There but it's a wonderful uh encouragement and acknowledgement of what this Church is doing and so he then goes to to verse 20 but I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetes and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to Idols so he says you're doing this great I have this against you and he's going to call them to repentance uh I do think it's helpful.
For us to see that this is one of the ways that we can be confused about how things work that we can look at our own lives or we can look at the Ministries in the churches around us and the people around us and say well look at how good the ministry is therefore God must be cosigning all the things they're doing that you could look in your own life and go well I know I've got this sin I've got the struggle.
But I just LED one of my co-workers to Christ so God must not care this must be fine and I just think this is helpful that he can look at this Church and so say this is great but this isn't and that he would be continually doing that with us as well that he would be looking and going yeah no this this area of your life is good but this is the area I want to talk to you about where I can call you into repentance where I call you into Joy would he call us to himself as we'll.
See later now if you're unfamiliar with the Old Testament you might just think that Jezebel is just a lady who's in this Church and that's her name he called her out by name that's highly unlikely that her name was actually Jezebel what he's doing is referring to a figure from the Old Testament and her name was Jezebel that's how we know that's who he's referring to she's in second king a First Kings chapter 16-2 and she is welln there's so much packed into.
When he calls her Jezebel that it's startling to them it'd be like if he wrote a letter to us if I said hey Jesus wrote us a letter we're going to read it and it says well done I'm so proud of y'all y'all are doing great you're multiplying groups you have like 75 people who volunteer in Kid City not at one time but overtime I don't know if y'all know that we have like 75 people that volunteer in Kid City and we need like 125.
So if you're not one of those consider this your invitation to begin serving in Kid City but he writes and says you're doing great I have one thing against you you have your group coaching system overseen by Hitler we would be startled he would have packed in a lot of information I especially would be startled because I oversee our group coaching system but he's packed in so much when he refers to her as Jezebel what he's doing is Jezebel was the the queen she was married to King Ahab and she was uh there's a there's a word theologians ed.
For this the worst she was just awful she actively uh um attacked and assaulted the prophets of God actively fought against worship of God brought in prophets of Baal she at one point has 400 prophets of Baal she's oppressing the people of God and she's enticing them into idolatry and false worship it actually says in First Kings it says that there was no King like Ahab Who Sold himself to do evil the way that he did and then it says as his wife enticed him.
So Ahab was a terrible King Who Sold himself to do evil and his wife enticed him into it and so when he says that you have the prophetess Jezebel in your Church he's saying there's a lady in your Church who's enticing people to do evil now there are some who would think this is like a concept that Jezebel doesn't represent an actual person I I don't I don't read it that way I think I think that that's okay if that's kind of how someone takes it.
But it says who calls herself a prophetess which makes me think this is an actual they're tolerating that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess that there's actually a lady in this Church in this congregation who is claiming to speak on behalf of God and is saying it's okay to sin that's what she's doing you look and say what was she doing well she's enticing them seducing them just like Jezebel of the Old Testament into sin into false worship it says is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols and we spent some time talking about food sacrific to Idols last week.
Because these are the same two things that he talks to pergamum about they would have had in all these places if you had a job and you worked in a guild you would have a God over your guild and all these cities would have Gods over their cities and then you had the Roman gods and it was a whole Pantheon of gods and and what Spencer said last week was everybody was fine with Jesus as long as you played along with the rest of the gods they didn't mind.
Jesus being added to the pantheon it only became a problem when you said no Jesus Is God and none of these other ones are and we're not going to participate that messed up your livelihood that messed up your participation in Civic things in the city it caused you a lot of problems to not just eat the meat meet sacrifice to Idols not just participate in these sacrifices and she is somehow saying that this is okay there also at this time was a lot of sexual immorality and sexual sin that was practiced in Worship in temples and at festivals to these false gods many of them are fertility Gods many of them are are about blessing.
The crops and about rain and all these things and they would have these sexual practices that went along with it there was also cultural sexual practices that were perfectly fine in the Roman Empire that are not perfectly fine in the Bible and so for those people who were becoming Christians apparently we don't exactly know what Jezebel this lady this prophetess was telling them but she was stepping in somewhere and saying this thing that the Bible says is bad isn't actually bad that's.
Okay and I'm speaking on behalf of God and he says you shouldn't have tolerate her which means that we can't every time somebody writes a book has a TV show has a Church wears a suit says something clearly and nicely and helpfully in some ways is able to articulate an idea and claims to be holding a Bible while they do that we can't just go along with whatever they say we have to know the text and if they're undoing things the text says we should not tolerate it you can't just go.
Well he says she's a prophet says he's a prophet I don't know he's got a big Church we have to to know what is true and follow it so he's correcting her he says this verse 21 I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality behold I will throw her onto a sick bed and Those who commit adultery with her I will throw into Great Tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works.
So he says judgment's coming for her judgment's cominging for those who follow and practice with her and all the churches will see it and take and take warning now we might be a little uncomfortable with the idea of God specifically addressing and judging someone in the middle of their sin but y'all God is the judge and he will judge us eternally and sometimes he lets us wait until that moment when we Face Eternal judgment and other times he brings about judgment in life.
But God is the one who is able to author judgment whenever and however he sees fit now he says he's going to throw her on a sick bed which is a little bit of poetic justice he's saying she loves a bed she'll stay in one she'll suffer and be in bed and get what she's got coming to her then he say says I will throw her onto a sick bed and Those who commit adultery with her I will throw into Great Tribulation unless they repent of her works.
Now it's possible that she was doing some sort of weird cultish prophetes had a harm thing and was actually committing adultery with people we've seen that in a lot of places where someone sets up a cult claims to be a prophet they end up with seven wives or 10 wives or 120 wives or whatever it it's possible this is actual adultery but I think the way it says unless they repent of her Works she's going to be punished and unless they repent of her works I think it's more talking about the adultery of idolatry that they are participating with her in this adulterous approach to worshiping.
God and following God they're in the Church and they're committing adultery against Jesus that's the way Ezekiel talks about it the Old Testament has set precedent for this Ezekiel says for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands with their Idols they have committed adultery meaning that the people of Israel and the people of Christ belong solely to God that we're meant to have our affection solely for him and when we commit a idolatry it is akin to committing adultery that we're giving our love to something or someone other than him.
And so it's not just like well I'm a Christian and I'm sinning here and it's not that big a deal I know I broke some rules but it's like no your heart is going Wayward to love something else when you have someone you belong to this is a bigger issue but he's going to bring judgment on those who have participated with him and then he says I will kill her children now it's possible those are her real actual children I think it is more likely it is those who have begun to follow this idea that this idea is going to die out that her her pursuit of this and those who are following her.
Where this idea has multiplied is going to he's he's going to have it die out and potentially have people actually die and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and that I give to each according to your works I want to highlight that and I will give to each according give to each of you according to your works the the Bible is very clear about that that we will be judged according to our works that will be judged according to our Deeds.
Jesus says this in Matthew 16 he says that he'll he'll repay us you'll get recompense according to your Deeds according to your work Romans says this second Corinthians says this Peter says this James says this this is true that what we do matters but there there's a way for us to mistakenly read this text and act as if what we do is the operative thing in Salvation that it's the thing that rescues us or fails to rescue us that either we're good or we're bad that either we've done the works or we haven't done the works.
But that's not the operative thing in this passage and even when Peter talks about this this is not how he talks about it this is what he says when we read First Peter 1 because I think he says it so clearly and if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's Deeds okay he's a father he judges impartially according to your Deeds what you do what you have done what you haven't done the things that were good that you did the things that you should have done that you didn't do the things that you should not have done that you did do he's looking at your deeds.
And if you aren't uncomfortable you don't have a good gauge on your Deeds just throwing that out there if this doesn't give you some pause and some consideration about how you spend your time and how you spend your money and how you spend your life and what you care about then maybe you don't have a good gauge on what your life looks like or has looked like over time conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your Exile that we should consider the fact that he looks at our works he looks at our deeds and we should have some fear that you.
When you set your budget should should operate in fear when you consider your time and what you care about and what you devote yourself to you should operate in some level of fear knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things such as silver or gold Ransom is buying someone out of slavery but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot why does he look at our Deeds why why do we care about our Deeds.
Because we already belong to him if you belong to Jesus you've already been ransomed your sins's already been paid for your debts already been covered it is not if I'm good enough I might get Jesus it is because he's already claimed me and made me his through the work of the cross through forgiveness and hope now I want to operate in fear trusting him following him living life towards him and you'll see that In this passage in Revelation cuz he says this unless they repent of her works and he says I am he who searches mind and heart those give us some very clear handles.
For understanding how this him judging us by our Deeds works you he says unless they repent he doesn't say because they've already done this meaning that you had a shot and you're awful Jesus doesn't show up y'all if y'all don't know Jesus I need you to know this about him he doesn't show up and say hey real quick I've come to Earth and I'm gathering the good people who hasn't commit sexual sin who hasn't committed idolatry who hasn't loved something other than me who are the good people raise your hands good little boys and girls.
And then those people raise their hand he goes good y'all can come with me that's not how it works the reason part of the reason that's not how it works is that no one would raise their hand a Liars would but they'd be immediately disqualified nobody qualifies it's not because they've sinned it's because they won't repent it's not because they've sinned it's because they won't repent he says unless they repent meaning that they can turn to him and ask for forgiveness and he'll Grant it.
Because he's already paid the debt with his blood he even says this about Jezebel he says I gave her time to repent but she refused uses to repent of her sexual immorality I gave her time and she refuses I held out repentance for her if Jesus came to me and said that Church over there has a jezebel and she's teaching she says she's a prophet she's not she's lying about me she's teaching them to commit sexual sin you know what I'd say get her and there's a moment where.
Jesus would look and say no she has time to repent not yet I'm trying to get her but but not like you're talking about not judgment I'm trying to get her to come back to me I'm holding out repentance so that she might have life and forgiveness and Praise Jesus that in our lives there's a moment where he says no I'm giving them time to repent Oh Praise Jesus that he's looked at me and not come in and just brought the hammer down.
Because I'm wicked but he said no I'm giving him time to repent and he holds out repentance and that's the operative thing here and that's why it matters that he says he searches heart and mind and judges our works I can judge Works without having to see heart and mind you can judge Works without having to see heart and mind he judges our works as he sees our heart and mind meaning he judges our works accurately because there is a way to do Works where our heart and our mind are not in love not in love towards.
Jesus not in devotion not in worship not in anything there's a I think there's like 10 or 15 movies that work like this where somebody places a bet they're going to go get the ugly girl and make her prom queen and they've made a bet they're going to do this and so they begin the movie begins with them like asking her out telling her she's pretty buying her flowers giving her chocolate taking her on dates now if we're just judging the works this guy likes that girl.
But we know about the BET and we know that's not really what's happening now at some point in the movie he does start liking her it's usually when she like lets her hair down and he's like I didn't know your hair could touch your shoulders girl like you know whatever and then he he finds out she's like a person which we were surprised too I didn't know she was a person and she's like a real person with a soul somewhere in the middle of the movie and you're like wow I didn't know that about girls.
And then so she he starts likeing her she finds out about the bet they break up and then the end of the movie is him telling her that he cares about her buying her flowers holding a boom box outside her house whatever and he's doing some of the same works that he did at the beginning but his heart's different and there's a way for us to do religious works because we love ourselves and there's a way for us to do religious works.
Because we love Jesus and we're loved by Jesus and that's why he says we get a chance to repent he sees our hearts and judges our works because you can do a lot of religious works and not love Jesus you'll get really tired of it and you'll be very frustrated but you can do it so he says this verse 24 but to the rest of you and thyra who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the Deep things of Satan to you I say I do not lay on you any other burden only hold fast what you have until I come he says y'all shouldn't tolerate this.
But those of y'all who haven't run along in it I'm giving them time to repent there's a chance to repent there's judgment coming yeah hold on hold on to the Gospel hold on to what you believe now that phrasing who have not learned the Deep things of Satan is weird he doesn't explain what it's referring to uh I think it's talking about what Jezebel has been teaching and promoting either he's just referring to it as that but he says who some have called I think it's possible that she was giving some insid or knowledge she maybe had she was saying I know what Satan's really up to.
And so you could bring to her things and she would say no that's not a big deal because that's not how Satan works so you can sin here but it's not sin but she was teaching the Deep things of Satan so that they might avoid what Satan's doing I think it's possible that is that I think this letter is applicable and helpful to us because we live in a culture that has lost its mind when it comes to sex in the lifetime of some of the older Saints in this room culture has moved.
So far I talked to Miss Louise periodically and she she grew up on the tail end of World War II remembers moments from that we talk about rationing and those sort of things the cultural approach to sex and sexual immorality from that time to now I mean in in my lifetime it's like Whiplash it has moved so far I have a few quotes from Carl Truman I think he's he's thought a lot about this written a lot about this studied this in his book Strange New World he says it this way he says indeed it can seem as.
If things that almost everybody believed as unquestioned Orthodoxy and I love this phrase the day before yesterday are now regarded as heresies advocated only by the dangerous lunatic French the culture has moved so far that now a normal Christian sexual ethic isn't just that we're more moral than culture that's the way it used to be that culture might have thought we weren't fun but at least thought we were more moral it's moved past us now to where it's like like no y'all are crazy and that's harmful it's hurtful and regressive he says it this way a little further on talking about the sexual Revolution he says the sexual Revolution didn't just say let's expand the.
Boundaries it says let's get rid of all the boundaries altogether and then it's begun to require the positive repudiation of traditional sexual mores positive repudiation means that you have to actually now think that traditional sexual moras are bad we have to get rid of them begun to require it to where belief in or maintenance of such views which we would hold as Christians has come to be seen as ridiculous or even a sign of serious mental or moral deficiency we now live in a culture that considers our approach to sexual ethics as less moral and harmful.
Because our culture has moved so far of been told that everything's okay everything's open to us it'll bring joy it'll bring satisfaction it'll bring fulfillment it'll bring happiness y'all if it would have it would have already done it there's not much left for us to do and our culture is just saying well you just need more you need better you got to push in that direction and we have cultural pressure to move and if you want to find a Christian Prophet or prophetess who will tell you you that some sexual sin is not sexual sin you can find it you can find it there's whole denominations who have changed their stances on things that the.
Church has held for thousands of years I saw a clip of Reverend Brandon Robertson this past week wearing one of those collars which I'm just so thankful I'm not a part of a tradition where I have to wear a collar you guys our tradition used to wear ties I don't even do that but I like that collar he's wearing that and he says he says I don't have a lot of time to answer this question but in short no premarital sex isn't aent.
And then he goes on to describe how the Bible talks about it but he's not actually describing how the Bible talks about it because that's not how the Bible talks about it the Bible is very rigid when it comes to approach to sexuality and honestly all honest intellectual thinkers understand that people who aren't Christians look at the Bible and go yeah I know why y'all hold to those restrictive sexual views your stupid book tells you that the only people that you're going to.
See un trying to undo it are people who want to be in the Church but are trying to be a prophet or prophetess that's saying these things are okay now uh that's all over the place uh the Baylor which was a Baptist College is a Baptist College it's Affiliated kind of loosely they're not all Christians there and they but it's a Baptist School in their uh November 23rd uh 2023 last year they ran an article in their student paper called don't Ruth the ring it's.
Okay to have premarital sex yeah that's wicked and harmful in his book called losing our virtue David Wells describes worldliness this way and I think it's helpful he says it's the system of values in any given age which has at its Center our fallen human perspective which displaces God and His truth from the world and which makes sin look normal and righteousness seems strange it thus gives great plausibility to what is morally wrong and for that reason makes what is wrong seem normal y'all we live in a culture where we don't have temples set up to Gods the way that they did.
But we absolutely have gods that are held out to us in our culture that must be dis must be served sexually must be worshiped in this way way the God of self the God of personal freedom where nobody can tell me what I'm allowed to do with my body and who I am that I've got to look inside of myself and discover myself and that anybody who puts any restrictions on me is evil the God of Pleasure the whole point of life is to suck the juices out of it to make all of life.
So wonderful and pleasurable and so good and if you're wasting your time if you aren't and if you're facing any suffering you've got to get rid of it and you've got to get rid of those people and you've got to get rid of that stuff and anything that hinders you has got to be gotten rid of because we've got to worship this God this is why our culture is so committed to abortion because the gods of self and pleasure deserve sacrifice they demand sacrifice.
If we're going to have those we have to have this and the Bible teaches that sex is good it's a gift it's powerful and therefore has a lot of restrictions around it it's meant for a man and a woman Inside the confines of marriage you don't have to have sex to be a whole person it's just a blessing that's given to us you don't have to have it for fulfillment it's not at the level that we've placed it at but it is a good gift.
But there are restrictions around it because it's powerful not because it's bad I have power tools at my house I like them one day I hope to own a few more of them they make working much easier but I've never once plugged in a circular saw and handed it to my six-year-old and said have buddy and that's not because I think circular saws are bad just think he shouldn't be messing with them it's not in the right context and that's the way.
God treats sex and the invitation is to repentance and joy but we have a culture that worships it we have a culture that pushes us on it and I love that he uses the word you tolerate Jezebel because I think for all of us we need to consider how much our tolerance of sexual sin has shifted how much your tolerance of innuendo sexual jokes what you'll watch what you'll repeat what you'll read what you'll think about what you'll consider what you'll correct and not correct and people in your community group I think our tolerance has shifted and we've become much more tolerant of things that are wicked.
Because we're soaking in a culture that that has overblown all of this stuff and we also ought to take very seriously as we speak on behalf of the Lord in our community groups as Christians what we tell people is okay and not okay and what you look at someone and go well that's not that bad everybody does that as if you are a prophet or a prophetess who can step into the Scriptures and untie it when we ought to hold rigidly to what the Bible teaches about this.
Because it's good and it's for our good and it's for our hope and it's for our joy y we've been enticed we've been lied to we've been tempted and there's an opportunity for repentance he doesn't say if you've never failed here you're welcome he says you're welcome but you got to come you got to turn away from it he calls us to conquer if you're in the middle of sexual sin conquer walk forward in Repentance ask for help and then overcome it we've got to get rid of it.
But he says this the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end to him I will will give authority over the Nations there's this invitation into repentance that he holds out for us because of the work of Jesus and then this call to walk in that in Victory we don't have to be slaves to sin that we get to conquer we get to hold on to what is good until the end and then he says something that I find to be absolutely insane to him I will give authority over the Nations and he will rule them with a r Rod of iron as.
When Earth and pots are broken in pieces even as I'm myself have received Authority from my father that Jesus looks and says that Christians who conquer and hold on and fight and repent and follow will rule the Nations I'm uncomfortable with that if he said I will rule the Nations and you'll get to be there buddy I'd be like that's great he says you'll rule the Nations just like I rule the Nations and he's referring he actually quotes Psalm 2 read some of Psalm 2 to you Psalm 2 starts off by saying the Nations rage and plot in vain that they hate.
God and they're trying to overthrow him and then it says God laughs at them which is comforting to me God's not shook he does not care that they are raging against him he holds them in derision and then it says this verse 7 Psalm 2 I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me you are my son okay so Jesus just said Son of God only time he says it in Revelation then he quotes this Psalm so he's the son.
Today I have begotten you ask of me and I will make the Nations your heritage and the ends of the Earth your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel that's the exact quote that he just said you'll get to participate in this as well now therefore oh Kings be wise be warned o rulers of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way.
For his wrath is quickly kindled blessed are all those who take refuge in him Jesus says it's not just that y'all get to be there you're going to reign with me and I love the visual imagery he says he has a rod of iron a rod is what a Shepherd would have to defend against anything that would harm the Sheep they were made out of wood Jesus has one that's made out of iron meaning it's not broken and probably it hurts worse I think that's included as.
Well but you can't break it and then what is he fighting with his Rod of iron clay pots my sons I have a 9-year-old and a six-year-old they have us we play would you rather if you're not familiar with the game would you rather is you give someone two choices and you find out about them you give them weird scenarios and you say would you would you rather and they pick we do this like we're riding around the car and stuff stuff like would you rather live in outer space or at the bottom of the ocean Would You Rather Have Eyes in the back of your head or taste things with your fingers weird stuff.
That just is like okay my six-year-old hasn't quite grasped the game fully yet he likes playing but when he makes up his own they come out a lot like this would you rather I give you an entire pepperoni pizza or we hang you upside down and set you on fire I'm always like I'm going go with the pizza buddy every once in a while he's surprised really yeah is there something I don't know about the pizza like would you rather have a rod of iron or be a clay pot like this is this picture of the this the disparity between.
Jesus and his authority that he wields and the Nations is so drastic they don't stand a chance his authority is complete it's it's uncontested and there's a way for us to be in the middle of distress and the middle of our culture swirling around us and for us as Christians to look at each other and lament in fear and say we're losing we're losing losing and Jesus says no I'm holding a rod of iron and the nations are clay pots and one day you'll hold it with me we don't lose.
So hold fast the only way to lose brothers and sisters is to be standing unrepentant before the King when he comes walking in holding his Rod but the call to us now is a promise of coming judgment and rescue but the call to us now is of obedience and repentance that we would turn from this and that we would come and then he says this verse 28 and I will give him the Morning Star he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches which immediately makes us ask what is the Morning Star sounds great I'm sure.
If he's given it to us it'll be great but what is it you work through the Book of Revelation and all these promises that are made to the churches in the first few chapters we're going to see them show up at the end that's why we all every time we get to this section in this book we go let me show you where it shows up there's only a few that don't clearly show up in the end but Jesus says this Revelation 22: 16 I.
Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches I am the root and the descendant of David the Bright Morning Star Jesus says stop committing adultery stop running after sin stop thinking your sexual sin and your idolatry is okay and then he says you'll reign with me and I will give you myself that we get Jesus he's the prize do you hear how loving and gracious and intimate and joyfill this is that he says I'll give you the morning star and we work through the whole book of Revelation going what is that and at the end he goes it's me it's me you'll get me and y'all that's the.
Hope because there's nothing better than Jesus so may we repent and may we hold fast in the middle of a culture that is swamping us with calls to sexual sin calls to promiscuity calls to pornography and things that will steal Joy from us may we repent may we quit those Works may we hold fast to what is true may we make it to the end and may we get Jesus let's pray Jesus the opportunity to repent is held out to us.
Because of your work on the cross and the promise of a future hope with you where you Reign and we Reign because we belong to you and you belong to us as held out May your spirit move may we hear what the spirit says to the churches may your spirit move so that we would repent of sin so that we would hold fast to what is good and may we love you more than we love anything else so that the promise of getting you at the end fixes our eyes and holds us will you keep us.
Lord in Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up we're going to respond in worship to Jesus if you consider your Works before the Lord if you find yourself convicted of sin do not tell yourself I'll do better I'll make my work works good enough take your heart to Jesus and say I Repent forgive me give me Grace and may you Empower me to walk forward let's.
Revelation: Pergamum
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the Book of Revelation uh we are in part one which is the letters that Christ wrote to uh the churches in the Book of Revelation so we're going to be another letter this morning in Chapter 2 verses 12- 17 you can turn your blue Bibles to page 595 the end of that Bible is the Book of Revelation you can also follow along on the screen uh because the text will be on the screen.
For today so in the Old Testament feels a little boomy yeah all right there we go if not we'll get a handheld uh in the Old Testament uh during the Babylonian exile King Nebuchadnezzar took the Israelites removed them from the promised land and then brought them into the kingdom of Babylon now when he did that he took their identity not only did he remov them from the promised land where they were he also enforced customs and values upon the people of.
God so the the Jewish people had to live under the reign of a king who conquered them who killed many of their brothers and sisters removed them from their land and then had to do whatever he said up to the point where at times he's telling them you have to worship and bow down to an Idol and you can read the book of Daniel you can see how the people of God some of them resisted this but this idea of of living under the reign of your arch enemy of being forced to take part in things of of being persecuted in this way this is how you impose your identity and your values Upon A.
People and conform them into your image and and make them do what you want them to do this is is true of the Babylonian exil is true throughout history as well now what we're going to see today in this text is that we also have an enemy that we have an enemy that seeks to do the exact same thing that seeks to rule and Reign Over us to get us to worship idols God makes this clear Jesus makes this clear to the people of pergamum the Church of pergamum and as we walk walk through this letter.
Today we're going to see how this is also true for us so I'm going to pray for us then we'll walk through the text together heavenly father I pray that you might help us sit under your word and not just witness it and walk away not just be hearers of the word but be doers of the word because we worship you as the one true God and that brings us into obedience and Delight in you and we ask this in Jesus name amen all right.
So start starting off in verse 12 and to the angel of the Church in pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword all right so in each of these letters it starts out by introducing uh the Church and this is the Church in the city of pergamum so we've shown this map the last few weeks uh that if you take the Book of Revelation these different cities Ephesus Samina pergamum each of these in order it's going to be a route where these are being dropped off each City and pergamum is very similar to smear and Ephesus.
So the last two weeks we walked through those letters and we got to see uh cities that were affluent that had wealth and we also saw cities uh that had lots of pagan worship so like Ephesus pergamum is just like that it has wealth and affluence but it also has temples dedicated to Zeus it has cult worship it has all types of idolatrous practices so this city is very similar to some of the ones we have already seen so that's pergamum.
And then in the order of these letters Jesus then describes himself he says the words of him this is Christ talking about himself the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword that is Jesus telling the people in the Church of pergamum that he is the one that will bring judgment sword is Judgment here and the sword of his mouth is what we're going to see throughout the Book of Revelation that this is his word of judgment and what he is giving out the gate is I am the one who will bring judgment I will bring judgment by my word upon those who are not faithful to the end who do not conquer as.
We see at the end of these letters so Christ describes himself and then he launches into the next section which is in many of these letters a section of encouragement where he's commending them for their faith verse 13 he says I know where you dwell where Satan's Throne is now pause for a second this is the encouraging part and out the gate he says I know where you dwell where Satan's Throne is yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even the days of antibus my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
So we get some intensity in Christ and his speech here he says I know where you live you live where the Throne of Satan is you dwell in the midst of Satan and I just want to imagine what that would be like to receive that right Christ wrote a letter to us and he says I know where you live you live in Columbus IA where the Throne of Satan is I hope that would jar you I hope that would wake you up to what he has to say next.
Because I think what happens is is we have this U almost cartoonish view of Satan that's influenced by culture that says that Satan's down in hell and he's torturing Hitler for all the things that he did but that's not a Biblical picture of Satan at all Satan's domain is here he rules here and he seeks to deceive Nations and deceive Christians here and Christ is in in in seriousness is is telling them this I know where you dwell you dwell where Satan Reigns where his throne is.
But he he commends them he encourages them he says but I see your faith you have not left the faith you have not capitulated and bowed down and bow the knee to uh the false God of Caesar you stayed faithful even the presence of our great enemy and he's encouraging them in this and you can tell from this that there's great persecution that is happening in this Church which I think we should try to understand with because this is more foreign to us we don't understand this type of persecution.
But just imagine if you showed up on Sunday for worship and all of a sudden 10 people were gone because they were arrested and awaiting trial which that's a reality not here but in churches across the world in China and other Church other nations that are oppressing Christianity to be able to absorb kind of the the the the fear that might set in and the anxieties that might set in on a regular basis when you think about are we next am I next is our family next that's what the people of pergamum were living in and and we.
See an example of at least one person anpus who was martyred who was killed for his faith in Christ has Comm mending the faith of antibus when I was in seminary I had to read this book called uh letters to pergamum uh it's historical fiction so it's it's fiction uh but that genre takes really uh uh historical elements that were true about that time and and their context in the same way that the chosen that if you're familiar with that show is fiction it's based on Source material the gospels and has true elements and true cultural elements.
But the whole backstory a lot is fiction so that's what this is this letters to pergamum is just like that it's a book that really helps uh you see how the New Testament world was how letters were going back and forth and really the intense persecution that the early Church was facing and the main character in this book is Antipas now we don't know how Antipas that but they kind of build this backstory and they imagine based on historical evidence of how Christians were persecuted in this time and I want to read a section.
For this because I want I want us to help help us get to understand what they were facing and the intensity of their persecution so we don't know this this we don't have evidence of this is how Antipas died but this is how certain Christians were persecuted so here's what it says it says as he was standing before Caesar it says then the slaughtered carcass of a magnificent bull was carried in and laid before him they then forced Antipas to place himself inside the emptied carcass folding his legs within its body the carcass was chained together fully encompassing Antipas within it lifting the carcass with a metal pole the guards rigged it up.
So that it stood over the nearby fire whose Flames burned low but hot I don't know if you caught that description but he was put inside of an animal and slowly cooked to death now again we don't know how antus died this is how Christians were persecuted in the New Testament world and it's Insidious and it's evil and it was a reality and one of the reasons why that they would kill people slowly kill Christians slowly was with the goal of getting them to recant.
Because if you kill them slowly maybe the pain will set in and they will forsake Christ and bow the knee to Caesar that's what's at stake here with this Church and what they're facing the declaring allegiance to Christ yielded the enemy to come in Satan to use with all of his power manipulating governmental forces to torture God's children with the goal of getting them to recount and the faith of Antipas is highlighted here but it also shows the cost of following Christ in pergamum and Christ commends them.
For their faithfulness yet after this in the typical form of these letters he follows this encouragement with a rebuke and that picks up in verse 14 it says but I have a few things against you you have some there who hold the teaching of balum who taught baac to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrifice to idols and practice sexual immorality so also you have some who hold the teaching of the nicians all right.
So in looking at verse 15 I and others who are way smarter and more educated than I have looked at the original language the the Greek here and it it seems that What's Happening Here is that this is all the same false teaching it's not one and then you get to verse 15 then we have the teaching of the nicadan what's actually here is the nicadan teaching is what is in verse 14 this is all one together now we first heard about the niad and false teaching two letters ago in Ephesus and these are the only places in really the New Testament where this is mentioned we don't have any historical evidence to go on.
That tells us what the nicadan false teaching was we have this right here and it is a reference to an Old Testament story in the Book of Numbers chapters starting in 22- 24 so in this Old Testament story we have a reference to that this false teaching resembles what happened with balum and bailo now I would encourage you to go and read this story in the Old Testament if you're not familiar with it it's a powerful story but when the people of.
God make their Exodus from Egypt and are wandering in the wilderness they eventually come near to the kingdom of the moabites and the king of the moabites baac he certainly has heard about what God has done just as all the surrounding Nations have heard the power of God what God did to the Egyptians so he goes to a prophet named balum and he appeals to him and he asks him and he actually doesn't ask him he offers money to pay him to curse the Israelites.
So bam goes to the Lord and the Lord says no you will not curse my people and when you read the story he seems like a hero because he doesn't curse the people in fact He blesses the Israelites so when you read it it's like oh bam is a good guy until you get to numbers 31 and when you get to numbers 31 you see that while he F the letter of God's command and not cursing the Israelites he certainly disobeys the heart of it and what he does is he instructs Balo to get the moabit people to intermingle with the Israelites and to lure them into idolatry and sexual immorality that's what happens he.
He he takes his payment takes the advice B takes the advice and then he goes and he gets his people and they intermingle with the Israelites and they them men to sexual immorality and idolatry that's what's being referenced here so the hearers of this letter many of them would have known this story so when they heard balum they would have immediately thought oh false teacher because balum is like the the original false teacher in the Old Testament in the same way that.
If I if I said you're being a Judas I'd say you're being a traitor right you're you're committing acts of betrayal as a side note I was going to mention uh Benedict Arnold here this became a whole thing this week because I thought that everyone knew the history of bened arold because not everyone's on my history nerdom level but I said this and Isaac and Chad were like hey man I don't think everyone knows that Benedict Arnold was like the OG American traditor and I was like and this is going to shocked some of you I was like no he definitely was and I went hard after it and turns out not everyone knows that.
Ben Arnold was the like type the American original traitor so that's just free for you some American history there but that's in the same way the people would have heard this they'd have heard balum and they would have thought oh oh immediately went to false teacher immediately went to oh this is a guy who sold out the people of God for money and and led them astray one commentator he says that balum became proverbial for the false teacher who for financial gain influences Believers to enter into relationships of compromising unfaithfulness.
So that's what immediately what comes to mind in the context they hearing this now in mentioning this this type of false teaching that is both idolatry and sexual immorality in the context of the GRE Roman culture and the city that they were in and the culture that they were in this would have been some deliberate involvement some deliberate involvement in offering food to idols or a a feast uh that was uh uh in the presence of Idols as an act of worship mixed in with this would have been sexual immorality which would have been prostitution which would have been uh um homosexuality would have been orgies would have been all types of sexual practices.
So that's what's being brought to mind here as Jesus is rebuking them now when it comes to uh food that is offered to Idols it's helpful to know that the New Testament on this because the New Testament over and over again is going to mention food offered to idols and there's some Nuance in what's happening there as you read the New Testament you're going to see this is a problem that in many of these GRE Roman cities like pergamum uh they had temples like in in pergamum there was a temple to Zeus and the people would go and they would offer food to these Idols often it was meat that was offered to these idols.
And that was an act of worship now where this gets complicated in the New Testament world when you look at First Corinthians you see Paul as as as he's trying to explain this is that while it's explicitly forbidden to go to the temple and offer food to Idols that's clearly sin and idolatry what happens is is that same food that meat once it's been offered is later put back into the marketplace and it's sold at the marketplace and what was happening in the in the New Testament churches was the knowledge that that same meat was in the marketplace.
Now and that Christians were going and buying and eating that meat now it's clear from the New Testament that that meat in and of itself is not sinful it's just meat but was happening is that some Christians were uh being tempted and lured back into idol worship and Paul makes the argument he says hey it's not worth it don't just avoid meat altogether you have the freedom as a Christian this is just meat but don't do this don't engage in this.
Because it might cause your brother or sister to stumble so that's some of the Nuance here of of how the New Testament is thinking about food offered to Idols but when you get really in the context directly of pergamum itself what seems to be tied up in this is not what's happening in the marketplaces it's not the conscience issue it's actually people going to the temple and offering food or more likely eating feasts in the presence of Zeus and and and that being idolatrous worship mixed in with that sexual immorality.
Jesus says you need to understand this is not okay and any false teaching that's promoting this judgment is coming upon that he warns them of this do not be lured into just as the Israelites were lured into idolatry practices and sexual immorality do not be lured into offering food to idols and sexual immorality now as we read this and as we read all these letters we need to be careful not to directly read ourselves into every part of the story okay.
Because there is a context here we are not being persecuted like these Christians were there's some differences between us and the Church but here's what makes our culture very similar to this culture and what makes it harder for us as Christians living in this culture people are fine with Jesus they are people are fine with Jesus as long as Jesus stands alongside the pantheon of other gods so for the Roman culture they actually were fine with Jesus as long as he stood beside Zeus Aphrodite that that they were found with.
Jesus just ad him to the pantheon ad them to the rest of the Gods but what happens in the New Testament and what happens in what we see here in pergamum is the teaching that says no no no no Jesus demands worship to him and him alone these Idols are not real they are false gods the one true God demands allegiance to him and to him alone and when the Roman Empire heard that they said oh no no no no no no that's not.
Okay now you will bow the need of Caesar and you will take part in these practices and you will eat the meat that that that's what's happening I thought our culture is similar because our culture is fine with Jesus I I'm sure there there a small angry minority that's not found with Jesus himself but the rest of the culture is actually fine with Jesus as long as he stands amongst the pantheon of the other Idols in this culture as long as.
Jesus is alongside of every other false God in this culture it's fine but the moment that you say no Jesus demands worship to him and him alone that is when we are very similar to the Romans and their culture and our culture says no no no no you can have Jesus but you're going to eat the meat you can have Christ but you're going to take part in the idolatrous practices because that's not okay and that shows up in a lot of different ways I want to highlight one in particular that we spent a lot of time talking about.
But I think it is actually very important well we don't have temples and uh dedicated to false gods that live we don't have uh little wooden Idols in houses what we talk about a lot is there are Idols of the heart that there are things that we worship in the place of Christ they get our affection our worship and our desires above God we have a lot of those and one in particular that shows up a lot in our culture is the idol of the American dream it is it is a it is something that is.
So infused in the very fabric of our culture it's is the mechanism by which funds the very things that we do regularly what happens in our culture that we're so surrounded by this that at a very young age you can grow up up and what's emphasized is do well in school excel in activities which in and of themselves are are fine they're neutral in fact they could be very good when Direct in the right place but that's not what our culture says not to the glory of.
God don't do well in school and don't excel in activities to the glory of God to make much of him and being faithful in what God has given you no no no it's to so you can move to the next part of the American dream for some that's going to be College where you can work hard and get a degree and make lots of money and for others that's going to be trade school trade school and our a trade listen to a bunch of micro podcasts start your own business at 25 and boom you can start making money and what happens along the way is that this gets reinforced over and over again that.
So many of the movements of our culture is make sure that you're uh that you're leveling up here make sure that you're purchasing this goodness gracious our economy is literally built upon uh people going crazy at Christmas time and buying all the things and the whole and and and and everything's going to shut down if that doesn't happen it feeds itself and we're so uh uh unaware of how it's it's pervasive in our lives that every movement that every uh stage of life is just another part of worshiping that Idol until you can secure the type of retirement that you want on that beach on that mountain wherever fill in the blank that this feeds.
Itself all over place and it's all around us and while we're not being burned at the Stak we're not we're not being burned at the Stak we're not being persecuted for not participating in this we're not facing the same level of persecution the moment though that we start to point out from the Scriptures that we should not worship the God of money that we should not go hard after the American dream that's true we should work hard and we should be successful to the glory of.
God and the purposes that he calls us to and being sacrificial the the the the moment that we start to press on that the moment that we start to say we should pass up on the luxuries that our peers have that maybe we shouldn't have always the newest and the nicest things that maybe you don't have to go out to lunch every day of the week that maybe the place you're renting right now is actually while it isn't as great as the apartment complex down the street this it's it's fine it's sufficient.
For your needs the moment that we say that you probably shouldn't have Amazon boxes showing up to your house every single day the moment that we start to press on the reality of all of the materialism and the uh and the uh things that make up This American Life that everyone in this culture seems to so desperately want because they are worshiping the moment we start to press on that there's a part of us that says oh no no I work hard.
For what I what I make you you take your giving check and pound sand like I'm I I want to make sure I mean there's always going to be orphans there's always going to be needs I know I always be given more but the moment as I got my own kids I got my own future the moment we start to press on this there's a part of it that just says no and alongside that desire within us to say no our friends neighbors co-workers family members and a whole culture of advertising that's pushing along the way saying.
When are you going to ditch that old car because it's a piece of junk when are you why don't you take part in all the nicest vacations don't you see your friends having fun on Facebook their vacations are amazing they're smiling all the time they never post a picture of the bad part of their vacation where they argue the whole way down there no they're very happy take part in this you should eat that all the time it's amazing you should eat Dukes every day the week du's Patti is amazing go.
For it treat yourself this happens y'all and our heart gets captivated by worshiping this Idol and over and over again cultural forces surrounding you say are you going to eat the meat are you going to participate are you going to take the bind now go all day on the American dream we do that a lot but there's all types and I'll just do a couple that are very quickly but there's all types of of Idols that are set up in our culture that are vying.
For our worship and places of Christ one of them is is the is the philosophical idea of freedom and autonomy versus submission to Christ so as Christians we we see the Gospel teaches that we are once slaves to sin to the desires of the flesh Christ through faith and what he did on the cross in the empty tomb we place our faith in Jesus and he brings us out of slavery into freedom but that freedom is in submission to him while slavery to desires and to Idols does not yield Joy slaver to Christ and service to Christ is freedom and what happens is is the moment we start pressing on this that actually.
God has spoken and he's spoken through his word and the Scriptures teach that that this is how we submit to the Lord by loving God and obeying What He commands the moment we start pressing on that cultural forces say uhuh don't tell me how to live my life don't tell me how to spend my money don't tell me what to do with my body no because I'm I'm a free person and the moment we start pressing into B it's like no no no culture is saying are you are you.
Okay with this are you gonna are you going to are you going to teach this because are are you going to take a bite of this this happens with that this happens with sexual immorality itself at a young age kids early and earlier getting exposed to sex and sexual sin and every step it's just going to be do do you want to participate do you want to take the B are you going to look at pornography are you going to start sleeping around are you going to be doing the things your peers are doing and this continues on into adulthood are you going to participate are you going going to be that weird person.
Jesus is fine okay you can have Jesus but are you going to participate here because if you don't participate here you're weird you're backward you're arcave the same thing happens with lgbtq ideology we did a whole sermon series on this last fall Theology of sex plus if you're not here for this I would encourage you to go back and listen to this we spent a lot of time talking about this got to tell some of my personal story in this so I'd encourage you to go back.
Listen to that but what's at play now is it used to be in the 90s and the 2000s that it was just like you know everyone lived their own lives and so much of the fight from that time was just saying hey you just live let us live our lives and let you live your life that's not the lay of the land anymore the lay of the land is no no no no you need to approve of this and if you don't you're a bigot are you going to participate.
Jesus is fine but the moment that Jesus starts to push on this and say no Romans 1 do not engage in this also do not approve of this the moment we start to that Jesus starts to press on this the culture says no and very angrily so are you going to participate in the idols of the day I can keep I'll just do a few more this listen if you're in high school and college you're going to feel this there is an idol of pleasure that shows up.
When you're in high school and college a lot of times it shows up and in partying and doing drugs I felt that as a kid I did it because I thought that's where satisfaction was because the friends were saying are you are you going to be cool you going to do this you going to participate in this and you're going to feel that if you're in high school you're in college you're going to feel this temptation to participate people will say yeah.
Jesus is fine but are you going to participate are you going to eat the meat are you going to drink are you going to get high are you going to participate in the idol of pleasure this happens over and over again you feel this at your workplace so much of the there's so much uh waywardness when it comes to the use of words whether it's gossip or whether it's crude joking in your workplace and it's like yeah if if you kind of stand back as a Christian and you don't participate in the crude joking and you don't participate in the gossip and you don't participate in the slandering of your co-workers and they kind of.
Come to you next you just say I'm actually I'm good like I'm I'm not going to talk about Tina I might think about Tina I'm not to repent of the thoughts I about Tina but I know better than to speak about Tina what are you doing participate come on don't be weird this happens over and over and over again now here's what we failed to I think some of us are aware of this I don't think this is foreign to I think we I think many of us you probably get this here's what we fail to.
See in all of them that behind all of the cultural forces that are seeking to lure and entice you into rejecting Christ into uh uh submitting yourself to the aous practices of today behind all of it is the work of Satan and the Demonic forces of evil are behind they're behind it pulling the strings luring you into sin and we just we don't see the Unseen spiritual reality that's at work that the enemy is at work seeking to lure us away from Christ that the the Demonic have beded down in our lives and are using cultural forces all around us to get us to take a bite to eat the meat of idolatry that is.
All around us but what we don't see is that there is a hook in that meat and in that hook will it will drag you and pull you away from Christ and seeing that he is good and seeing that he is better and it pulls you into a idolatrous worship to the point where your heart grows hardened and cold that is what's on the line here and we sometimes fail to see the Eternal consequences behind the seemingly ordinary rhythms of life that are deep in the trenches of spiritual warfare we just don't.
See it and Christ is trying to open our eyes right now to see do do you not see what's happening here this is not neutral ground and none of this is cute that your heart is on the line and the more that you yield the idolatry of the day the more that you go to the temple the more that you offer the further away you're going to rft and he's trying to warn them because they are false teachers all around the people of pergamum who are saying it's fine it's fine it's fine and there are false teachers all around us that are saying it's fine it's fine and Christ is saying it's not it's not.
You need to have your eyes open to the reality that it's a play that there are all sorts of idolatry and sexual immorality that's built in that that the the culture is going to say that Satan is going to preach that is for your good that is for your more human flourishing but Christ is standing in the middle and he's saying it's not I am better that's why we should heed the words of what he says next when he says in.
Verse 16 therefore repent repent if not I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth which is a picture of judgment he says judgment is coming it is coming coming upon this false teaching and these false teachers and if you follow the ways of these false teachers you will be swept up in that judgment so he says repent which just means to turn to turn from ulous practices and turn back to Christ and after he gives that he says in.
Verse 17 the the next and the final part of this letter that we see in all these letters to the one who conquers verse 17 he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers I will give some of the Hidden mana and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it now in each of these final rewards that we.
See in each of these letters to the one who conquers is a futur looking in the new heavens and the new Earth gift that God is going to give to his people to the to those who conquer into the end now there are three mentioned here hidden Mana a white stone and a new name now you can get into the weeds of like all right what is the hidden Mana what is this Whit Stone and let me tell you if you want to there's all types of commentaries there's all types of takes on this and pretty passionate takes I would I would imagine at some point I to be honest I don't know with 100%.
Certainty what each of these mean I I can take a step back and very generally look at these rewards and and see what they mean and they're wonderful you see Mana in the Old Testament that was when uh the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness and God gave daily provision Daily Bread Mana that came from heaven and and the picture here of the Hidden Mana that awaits us is that there is a day coming where you're not going to be trying to actively fight the sinful desires to go and eat the meat of the temple to go and eat the things the culture gives you to go and be satisfied with lesser things that only.
Rob you of Joy now there is a day coming where you will have eternal satisfaction there will be Eternal Provisions that are wonderful and beautiful and you will only enjoy those and all of the Lesser evils that V for your attention and your affection will be forgotten they will be a distant memory there is a day where hidden Mana is coming and there is a day where there will be a wh Stone I that that's either some bit of permanent marker permanent security permanency some will say it's it's an invitation to to an eternal banquet both of those are true that one day you will sit at the table of.
God one day you will have a permanent place before the Lord and on that white stone there is a name a very person personal name that only you and your savior know now new names in the Bible uh mean new identity so when Simon is called Peter he takes on a new identity Peter you are the Rock in which I will build this Church and the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against you that in the new heavens and new earth.
Jesus will give you a personal name that redefines your eternity and it's wonderful we get these glimpses of Eternal offerings that are given to us that are eternally better in each and all of these that we see in these letters and everything that is glorious about the new heavens of the new Earth everything that is glorious about eternity with God that has to be held out in front of us because the enemy is over here dangling all sorts of idolatrous practices all sorts of meat on hooks that are seeking to rob you and Rob me of that and what.
Jesus offers is better it is better now and it is better then I want to close with John chapter 6 Jesus as he's teaching about how he is the one who will satisfy in John 6: 31-35 he says our fathers ate the Mana in the wilderness as it is written he gave them bread from Heaven to eat and that is the picture of the Old Testament the story of the daily Provisions that were given to the people of God verse 32.
Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from Heaven he says my father is the one that gave this he's the one that gave this good gift for the Bread of Heaven is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world so he redefines this now then the New Covenant of Christ I know this going to shock you he's talking about himself he says.
For the bread is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world and the people he just he he reels them in he says he gets him excited they said to him sir give us this bread always and Jesus said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger whoever believes in me shall never thirst I'm the one that satisfies if you eat of me if you believe in me you will be eternally satisfied and that is what we get to.
Remember as we come to the table the band's going to come up and we're going to prepare to take the Lord's supper and communion is a meal of rembrance we we remember that on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it he said this is my body that was broken for you and he took the cup of the new covant he said this is my blood that was shed for for you that as often as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until I return.
Now look what Jesus was saying there is that we remember the Bread of Heaven who came and gave his life for us to free Us From Slavery to sin so that we might eternally enjoy him because it also points forward to a day when we will sit at the table of God and we will eternally enjoy our savior but the reality is that is an invitation that some have rejected and there is a possibility here that some of you have not actually accepted the invitation the Christ is offered himself.
But your whole life has been geared towards idolatry has been geared towards uh slavery to the things of this world and Christ Is Lifting your eyes to see the Eternal reality of right now that he is better and he's worthy of your life he's worthy of your faith he's worthy of Your Surrender so the offer right now is don't come to the table it has come to Christ and to place your faith in him and to eat of the Bread of Heaven through faith in him.
If you are a Christian you have participated in idolatry we have sinned but we have a wonderful Savior and he invites Us in Repentance to come up to the table to remember what he did for us to remember that that he died for us to free us from it and that we get to leave this day actively walking away from the idolatry that so wants our affections and our desire so as you are ready come to the table there's gluten-free in that back corner.
Let me pray heavenly father I pray that you might help us see the Eternal reality of the enemy who wants to lure and entice us towards sin and unfaithfulness and waywardness and I pray that we wouldn't stand for it we'd stand firm in the Gospel that you died for that sin that we might flee from idolatry that we might flee from sexual immorality that we might flee to you and find refuge in you the Bread of Heaven and I pray if there's anyone here that has not placed their faith in you I pray they would.
Today in Jesus name amen.
Revelation: Smyrna
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here in 1942 Nazi Germany was marching its way across Russia and winning and Russia was consistently retreating and being pushed back they the the Nazis had stalled out a little bit in the winter of 1941 but by the middle of 1942 they were moving and they made it to Stalingrad which is a strategically located City on the vulga river and it became clear to the Russians that they couldn't lose Stalingrad that.
If they did they would have lost a very strategic position that the Germans would have gained a very strategic position and so they said we we we can't we can't lose here they issued order number 227 which is it had more to it but basically it's known as the not a step backward order they just said can't cannot lose here does doesn't matter how how much it takes how hard it is how much suffering there is we don't take one step backward and the battle.
For Stalingrad lasted 5 months and cost 2 million lives but at the end of it the Russians held Stalingrad and Germany had broken themselves on their Eastern front and as I read is we're studying together the Book of Revelation and we're working our way through it we're in Chapter 2 today we're going to go from verses 8 to verses 11 if you have one of these blue Bibles it's going to be on page 595 and as I read this letter this address of.
Jesus to the Church in Smyrna it feels a little bit like that he's telling the Church you can't lose you can't take a step backward even though it it's going to be difficult even though there's hardship even though there's death you have to hold on and so the hope today as we read this letter to the Church in Smyrna is that we would be emboldened and incouraged to hold on to remain faithful to not Retreat to not fall back but to.
See how gloriously good Jesus is and hold on that's the hope for this morning let's take a moment to pray and then we'll begin reading the text Lord we ask for your grace we ask for ears to hear what the spirit says to the churches and we pray that as we Face tribulation and difficulty that you would help us to be faithful faithful to you in the midst of whatever we face and we ask this by your grace and by the work at the cross and in.
Jesus name amen chapter 2: 8 the the whole book of Revelation is a letter that's written to seven churches and then in the Book of Revelation there are specific addresses to the different churches we are looking at Smyrna and the way these letter letters are written is that it would have most likely traveled kind of the route you would have taken to deliver the letter so it goes to Ephesus which is the first letter the first address goes to Ephesus.
Then up to Smyrna and there's a road that runs Ephesus was the chief Port of Asia Minor at this time goes Ephesus up to smyna then up to pergam and then on around and there's a road that runs that Loop so it seems as if it was just basically the way you would have delivered it Smyrna is the only one of these cities that still exists it's ismir now and it's written to Smyrna it says and to the angel of the Church in Smyrna right Smyrna probably had about 200,000 people it was a beautiful prominent City they actually have coins printed that we found uh that have been discovered that say Smyrna.
First in Beauty and in size which is just bold but that's a pretty good like if you're going to if you're going to have a city slogan that's a pretty good one like Chicago was like we're windy good anything else n that's it stick with that one Casey's is it's it's a time for Life whatever that means Columbia is famously hot which would be a good way to sell chicken but it doesn't sell a city very well it doesn't make me want to live there.
But Smyrna first in Beauty and in size sounds nice it was a very prominent City it was a wealthy City and we're going to see that the Christians got none of that they got to participate in none of the goodness of the wealth and the prominence of this city because this is what he says we're going to see in just a moment but first Jesus begins by referring to himself he says to the angel of the Church in smyna write the words of the.
First and the last who died and came to life Jesus begins by telling them who he is but also it's a little bit of why they should listen we're going to see in all of these addresses to the different churches that he's going to talk about himself but it's out of his nature and character and goodness and who he is that his commands are going to be able to be founded it's where they're going to stand it's going to be based off of who.
Jesus is some of what we talk about as a Church is we want to be Gospel fluent which is that we want to remember that everything's about Jesus and what he's done and that the reason that we do the things that we do come from him they come out of him or they they find their meaning in him and that's how these are written that Jesus is saying this is who I am it's like if you went to a conference they always tell you before someone gets up and speaks who they are what they've done and in some ways they're saying here's why you should.
Listen this person has three phds they've been in this field for 30 years they're never just like here's some guy they always tell you what what it is that would make you want to listen and and Jesus says the words of the first and the last who died and came to life we should want to listen in in these two phrases we have such Ain and beautiful doctrine of Christ he's the first and the last the beginning and the end he was there at the beginning through whom all things were made all things hold together and all things are returning back to him at the very end of days we will.
See him because he's the end of days he's the Ancient of Days he rules over all things he's the first and the last and he's reminding this Church of his sovereignty we're going to see that this Church is in the middle of difficulty and it's really good for him to look and say I'm in charge I rule over all of it and we believe that as Christians if you don't know that we believe that about Jesus if you're new to this we believe that.
Jesus is God who rules over all things but it's not just that it's not just that he's the first and the last but he died because he took on flesh specifically to pay the debt of our sin if you don't know much about Christianity it's Poss possible for you to think that what Jesus wants from you is morality he wants you to be good that this whole point is that we would get together and learn the rules and do them and be good people.
But the reality is we're sinners in need of Grace and Jesus came to live on our behalf and to die in our place so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in him and then fulfilled for us because of the work of Jesus so if you think it's just about morality and you learning some rules then the death of Christ makes no sense but if you understand that you are a sinner in need of a sacrifice then the death of Christ makes perfect sense.
So this is the ruler of all things the first and the last who died and came to life so that in the resurrection of Jesus we see the confirmation of God's work in him and the truth and reality that we can actually be forgiven of our sins see if he just died we might still have some question marks but he came to life how do you know you're forgiven Jesus Reigns the sacrifice was accepted he died in my place he rose again I get to be dead to my sins and alive in Christ and that's all right here as.
Jesus describes who he is he says this I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich meaning that they are materially poor but spiritually wealthy uh Jesus tells a story when he's on Earth and doing his Earthly Ministry he tells a story about a man who was the opposite who was had material wealth and spiritual poverty but he says to this Church they're blessed that they're uh actually physically Earthly poor but eternally spiritually rich I know your tribulation tribulation is difficulty I know that you're facing trouble I know that things are hard which is beautiful.
Because in the middle of trouble sometimes it's easy to think does he even know what's going on and he starts off with I know what's going on I know what you're facing I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan that's a reference to those who would be ethnically Jewish but that do not worship or follow Jesus that's what he means by those who say they are Jews.
But are not this this idea is brought out in the as Jesus is the Fulfillment he's the the promised Messiah he's the true son of Israel he's the true Israel then all of those who are belong to Abraham belong to Abraham by faith Roman Romans tells us this Jesus talks to a bunch of Jewish men and he says that they're not really Jewish they're not following their father Abraham they're following their father the devil it's the same idea that because they don't worship.
Jesus because they don't follow Jesus they're not really included in the Covenant people because he has come to fulfill the Covenant and they have rejected him so they are ethnically Jewish but not spiritually included in the Covenant he says that there a synagogue which is the like a Jewish Church but they they would say it's a synagogue of God and he says no they're actually on the other team which is similar to what he tells them in John chapter 8 the Christians in Smyrna it didn't matter.
If you were Greek or Jewish things were not going well for you if you were Greek originally Greek and became a Christian Smyrna was not a good place for that it was a place that had a lot of worship of other Idols worship of other gods it actually had won the right to be the place where they put the temple to Roma the temple to tiberias the temple to Caesar where they would worship Caesar as Lord in SM when you became a Christian it messed up your ability it's one of the reasons why a lot of Christians were poor it messed up your ability to work.
Because in order to be in the guild to be a silver smith to be a carpenter you had to worship that God it'd be like if if Amazon had the God of Speedy package delivery and you had to and when you clocked in at Amazon burn some incense to the to the package delivery God in order to clock in that's how it worked or in order to keep my dad build swimming pools and I grew up in in a family where we built pools.
But it'd be like if in order for him to keep his licenses he had to to worship the God of the ocean or the God of floating or whatever but he had to somehow do that or otherwise he would lose his licenses that's what happens for Greek speaking Greek people who they they they're Christians now and they can't worship these false gods anymore they can't burn incense to them and and suddenly they said well you can't work and so there's no real place.
For them and the rule in Rome was everybody everybody absolutely everybody worships the Roman gods except there was one group of people they made an exception for and that was the Jewish people because everybody else was polytheistic and when the Romans conquered them if you're willing to have a bunch of gods you could just build another Temple to another God didn't bother you and also since they conquered you that God might be better the Jewish people were the only people who didn't do this they were like oh y'all conquered us.
But you going to be in trouble this land doesn't belong to you it's coming that's what the Jewish people did and they wouldn't worship the other gods and so the Romans decided they were either going to have to kill every person who is ethnically Jewish or let them just have their one God and that's what they did so when Christianity started anybody who was ethnically Jewish Roman Empire just saw them as another form of Judaism you had Pharisees you had Sadducees.
Now you have Christians and so they just left them alone well the Jewish synagogue started saying no these Christians don't belong to us and actively turning them over to the Roman authorities to be executed so if you were Greek you lost family you lost prominence you lost your job it's what often happened especially in places like Smyrna and if you were Jewish you got kicked out of the synagogue you were uh actively being told on by other Jewish people that this person only worships one.
God and they're not part of us so they should be in trouble and you lost your family you lost your livelihood and suddenly you have this group of people who loves Jesus and loves each other and has tribulation in poverty and that's who Jesus is talking to he says I know what's going on and I know it's awful right now verse 10 do not fear what you are about to suffer okay that sentence would not help me that much like if you went to the doctor and they walked in and said don't worry you're about to suffer it'd be like they didn't teach you about this day in doctor school I think you're supposed to.
Word that differently this what does he mean honestly as I look at it I'm reminded of the way that my dad used to do stuff with us we would when we were little we would go and have to like get a shot we were going to the doctor we going to have to get a shot or something and we would ask cuz you you ask is this going to hurt and I think a lot of parents would say no it's not that bad that's not what my dad would say my dad would.
Look at us and go yeah it's going to hurt they're going to take a piece of metal about this big and Jab it in your arm it's going to poke a hole in your skin you are going to bleed it is unpleasant you ever been stung by a bee yes sir it's like that except you have to watch it happen and then he would say but you're going to sit there and you're going to be still and you're going to keep it together.
Because if you wiggle it's gonna be worse and it's worth it and it gave us courage I think that's what Jesus is doing he's encouraging the Church not the way we use encouragement like you did so good that's the kind of encouragement I like what you so good look at you doing the the good stuff this is the encouragement where he's actually giving courage you're about to suffer get ready don't be afraid look it in the face square up now I think he's going to tell us why they ought not to be afraid I think we're going to.
See that in this text and I don't think it's the type of answer that we want but I think it's the answer that Jesus so often gives and it's actually better than what we want so here's what he says do not be afraid do not fear sorry do not fear hear what you are about to suffer behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and for 10 days you will have tribulation be faithful unto death and I will give you the Crown of Life all right we got to answer a few questions.
So that we can understand what's going on here he says behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison how how does that work I don't know if y'all know this but we have three enemies the World the Flesh and the devil and the devil actively Works to oppose the Church and he does this in a lot of ways but one of the ways the enemy works is through sinful men through political powers and so yes it's going to be the synagogue it's going to be the Jewish leaders handing them over to the Greek authorities.
But what The Book of Revelation does is a revealing it pulls the curtain back and one of the things Jesus is pulling the curtain back on right now is to say that's the enemy at work the Jewish people they're not your problem they're not the issue like it's they don't know it but they're worshiping Satan by the way that they're going about this they're on his team and it's the devil that's at work against you here and so he's saying you're going to face opposition he's going to throw you into prison that you may be tested.
For 10 days that you may be tested sorry and for 10 days you will have tribulation now that and for 10 days at first makes you go okay well good it sounds fairly short and it is possible he means a literal 10 days but also in the Book of Revelation as we continue going we're going to see that a lot of numbers are used and most of them seem to be um symbolic and so 10 days here most likely means a fix fixed relatively short period of time that.
Jesus knows the amount of time it's fixed he's not in the dark on this he knows the amount of time and it's fixed but he also if you said okay well it's going to be short he says be faithful unto death some of the shortness will be due to death not how we would describe escape and I think it's possible for us to look at situations like this and say why would God allow that what why is he letting Satan do that to this Church and I think there's times in our lives where we're saying that about our situation why is he allowing this why is this happening why is this working this way why.
Isn't this working the way it's supposed to I think it's also possible because of the way our culture thinks about suffering and difficulty is for us to say there is no good God who would allow us to suffer and so we're going to immediately run into problems in passages like this where he's telling them don't fear go suffer unto death and I think it's possible for us to to say well if I'm suffering I know that Jesus wants me out of it.
So that what he wants for me is to escape the suffering but a passage like this says Maybe not maybe he wants something so much better for you than escaping suffering and what that is is faithfulness that leads to life because that's what he says be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life now that's interesting and we're going to see as we keep going that that he has a specific way that he thinks about life and death a specific way that we are to think about life and death.
But he says go until you're dead dead and then I'll reward you with life that Crown there there's two words in the Greek that get translated Crown at times there's Stephanos and diadema diadema also gets translated as diadem at times but it's it's a way that we will take that word and translate it to Crown sometimes in Stephanos we translate to Crown but it also is a laurel that they would reward someone it's like a gold medal like a trophy it's what they would reward you with.
So he's saying I will reward you with life you'll earn life life now he's the first and the last so these Christians who were going to face execution you'd say the last thing they saw was the Executioner no Jesus is last oh he died yeah and was immediately crowned with life that's what Jesus is saying saying here don't fear go face death and I'll Crown you with life I'll be at the end the Executioner will show up at the end to meet me that's what.
Jesus says and don't fear to follow my footsteps because I went from death into life he died and came to life and so he's saying come follow me all the way to the end follow me be faithful all the way to the end come face death and be rewarded with life from the one who face death and owns life that's what Jesus is Calling them into he says he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
Now it's Jesus speaking but now we see it's also the spirit speaking because Jesus and the spirit speak together so this is the spirit speaking to the Church it's also Jesus speaking to the Church because 's Unity between Jesus and the spirit I also love that all of these passages say he who has an ear let him hear I think it's possible in our culture because of the way we've been trained to be consumers if I go to a restaurant and I don't enjoy the meal I don't once think that might have been my fault I think that's their fault the people who cooked it and I think it's possible.
Because we're trained in this fashion to somehow let that infect our approach to belonging to a Church to show up and consume you go hang out with your group and and things aren't good with your group and it's their fault not yours you you show up be a part of a Church for a while you gather on Sundays and you guys just don't like that how they whatever like they exist apart from you like you don't belong to them there are people who stand up here.
But they're part of the US you guys we've gathered to sing we've gathered to study the word and I I want to as graciously as I can tell you if you've moved from Church to Church to Church to Church it's quite possible that they don't have a mouth problem you have an ear problem and what we ought to be asking for his ears to hear and showing up here preparing ourselves to participate in what it looks like to gather with the people of.
God to sing with the people of God and to make much of the Lord Jesus but he says he who has an ear to hear Let Him hear and then he says this the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death that word conquer is going to be used repeatedly in these letters and it is a violent word it is a word that calls for action it's a word that calls for grit it is a word to help you understand what is actually happening that you have a Real Enemy and that we are facing off in a real high stake issue and he says the one who conquers will not face will.
Not be hurt by the second death Okay so we've heard about the first death because he says be faithful unto death but now he's talking about a second death did y'all know that did you know that you can die twice Jesus knows it and this is what we get so often we don't get why does this happen what we get from Jesus is why it's worth it to fight through what he's he doesn't tell them why they're going to face suffering why they're going to face tribulation why he's not going to just stop it there what he says is here's why it'll be worth it I'll Crown you with life and you won't face the.
Second death but we need to understand what the second death is the Book of Revelation in chapter 20 says this uh Jesus is Conquering everybody at the end we're excited to get to this part of the Book of Revelation it's excellent Jesus conquers Satan he conquers the Beast he throws them in the Lake of Fire and then it says says this in ch 20:14 then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire this is how much Jesus is the last of all things he kills death they were thrown into the Lake of Fire this is the.
Second death the Lake of Fire or again in Revelation 21 6-8 and he said to me it is done I the Alpha and the Omega that's the first and the last the beginning and the end to the Thirsty I will give from the spring of Water of Life without payment the one who conquers will have this Heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son but as for the Cowardly the faithless the detestable as for the murderers the sexually immoral Sorcerers idolators and all liars their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur which is the.
Second death everyone faces death but not everyone faces death faithful to Jesus and not everyone faces the second death which is eternal dying there is eternal life and there is eternal dying and so Jesus looks at this Church and says be faithful unto death and the second death won't touch you you focus on me you love me you follow me and the second death won't touch you that we get to look to Jesus who died and Rose to life and we get to die and rise to life that the Church in Smyrna gets to die and rise to life that they get to.
Look to him this is how he thinks about it this is why he says weird things when you're reading like the Book of Matthew The Book of Luke I want to read Luke 12 he says I tell you my friends do not fear Those Who Kill the body and after that have nothing more than they that they can do okay that's not a human phrasing if someone was like you don't want to go there it's really dangerous if you're telling somebody hey don't go to that that part of the city don't go to that place it's really dangerous it's really rough right.
Now and they looked at you and said what what do they do just kill the body yes exactly that's what they do well can they do anything else or is that it that's what else would what you know what go I don't I don't know what to tell you Jesus doesn't have death in mind y'all know everybody dies there are very few people who haven't and all of us are going to unless Jesus returns the first death isn't the thing he has his eyes on and it's not the thing he wants us to have our eyes on it's the.
Second death it's Eternal death Eternal dying Eternal punishment this is what fuels mission all they can do if we send missionaries to the hardest places in the world that don't want the Gospel all they can do is kill the body and create Victors that's all they can do we we support the international Mission board we support 1040 hope it's actually a member of our Church that started 1040 hope it's designed to send missionaries to the 1040 window which is the hardest place to send missionaries we want some of you by God's grace.
For him to get a hold of your heart and take you somewhere else to tell some other people about Jesus and we want you to do it without fear knowing that the worst they can do is kill your body and after that they have nothing more they can do that's what he says I'll warn you whom to fear fear Him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell yes I tell you fear Him and some of you right.
Now are so worried about your body what you're going to eat what you're going to drink what you're going to put on where you're going to live and you've given no thought to Eternal death but Jesus is more to be feared than anything else he's more fearful than anything else he's better than anything else but he's more be feared because he's the last this letter went to the City of Smyrna there was a young Christian there who was actually a disciple of John named polycarp polycarp eventually becomes a leader in the Church in Smyrna and is martyred in the City of Smyrna that's not in our Bibles it's in our Church history and we have.
Some of his sayings written down some of his letters written down and we've got an account of his death that does say that there were some miraculous things it happened since it's not in the Scriptures we don't exactly know doesn't have the same Authority but about 50 years after this letter went out six years after this letter went out they were uh again persecuting Christians in Smyrna he's known as the 12th martyr of Smyrna but they were coming they went and got him from his home he was about 86 years old they bring him in front of everybody and the authorities at that point seemed like they were a little bit felt a little bit.
Bad about executing an 86y old and so they said we just need you to recant we need you in front of everybody to make a sacrifice to Caesar and to say Caesar is Lord and polycarp says if you imagine for a moment that I would do that then I think you pretend that you don't know who I am hear it plainly I am a Christian not going to do it they keep pleading with him they say just recant just say that you don't follow.
Jesus just say that you Jesus that uh Caesar is Lord he says 86 years I have served Christ and he never did me any wrong how can I blaspheme my king who saved me they told him they would feed him to wild animals he said bring them out they got so frustrated with him they said we're going to burn you at the stake and he says you threaten with fire that burns for a short time and is soon quenched you don't know about the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment that awaits the Wicked.
But why are you waiting come do what you will and they burned him and stabbed him with Spears and he died and he was crowned with life and he's been alive ever since and it seemed that he had read the letter that was written to a city and he knew about death but he also knew about the second death until he face death without fear I'm I'm burdened as I teach this because I think there's a I think there's a couple of ways.
For us to hear this my My Hope Is that you would hear it and that you would be so convinced of the glory of Christ of the reality of death and Eternity that you would trust him with everything and that you would follow him with everything and that you would do whatever he tells you to do My Hope Is that a year from now two years from now 3 years from now some of you aren't here because you're somewhere else telling people about.
Jesus because you've gone to go plant a Church you've gone to go Pastor you've gone to go be a missionary that's that's my hope my hope is that some of you who are facing fear right now at work to to articulate this sort of things would begin to tell people how good Jesus Is My Hope Is that for someone who came here today because you think that what is needed from you is to be good is that you would trust Jesus and his sacrifice that he died and that he rose and that you would be made I think there's a way.
For us to listen to this though where we go neat and we go home because none of us are facing this kind of tribulation or persecution none of us have watched someone be burned to death and have a moment right before where they could have just burned a little incense and gotten sent home I think it's easy for us to just hear this and go that's great yeah Praise Jesus we'll sing a song and go home I think there's a way.
For us to sit right now and tell ourselves I would do that I'd be faithful into death but again you're going to leave and I don't think anyone's going to try to kill you today for being a Christian there's a there's a song by King's Kaleidoscope that's always stuck with me one of the lines in the song is Judas sold you for 30 I'd have done it for less and Jesus here says be faithful unto death and that's what actually all of us want is that in.
If facing death we would hold fast to Jesus and until we Face death that we would hold fast to Jesus but my fear is that none of us are close to death and that we're not going to be persecuted into faithfulness but we're going to be comforted out of it and then instead of being faithful unto death we're going to be faithful until money we got to raise and suddenly we just aren't going to follow Jesus The Way We Were faithful until relationship I've love.
Jesus I'm following Jesus until you get a boyfriend or a girlfriend and then well I I'll reject him here because the stakes don't seem as high but we're playing the same game with our souls will be faithful until difficulty suffering we won't stick it out in a marriage we won't stick it out with our Church faithful to following Jesus until suddenly your group is difficult and complicated and hard to deal with and they're Sinners and instead of being faithful to Jesus in those things and repentant to.
Jesus in those things and obedient to Jesus and those things we'll tell ourselves no I still love Jesus I'm just not doing that part and I feel like it's really easy for us to say booyfriend is Lord and burn a little incense money is Lord and burn a little incense Comfort is Lord and burn a little incense my time is Lord and burn a little incense what I want my preferences are LED and burn a little incense and not realize that we're doing it and the hope is that we would be people who with Clarity would.
See how good Jesus is and be faithful unto death and every step from here to there that's my hope that we would gain courage to face whatever the Lord has in front of us knowing that he knows the time he knows the situation he has it planned out and one day we'll stand before him as the last of all things and if you trust Jesus we're crowned with life and it will have all been worth it let's pray Jesus you are sovereign you're the.
First and the last you died and came to life so that we have hope in any circumstance that we're in for life and joy and peace and rescue we have hope in any circumstance we're in for forgiveness so Lord may we see you and Lord in so many ways we fear the first death we think about the first death build our lives around all the things that will protect the body and fail to see our hope is eternal Jesus we trust you in all the ways that we fail to forgive us to redeem us to help us we ask that you would give us ears to hear.
So that we might hate sin and love you that we might not compromise and Lord I pray that you would help us to be faithful unto death to the glory of Christ in Jesus name amen as the band comes back up I would encourage you to take a moment to ask the Lord to help you hear what the spirit has to say to just take a moment to Bow your head and say Lord what what do you have to say where do I need to grow where do I need to repent where do I need to believe where do I need to trust what would you have me do and just take a moment to.
Listen and then we're going to sing and Praise Jesus.