Revelation 6
Notes
Transcript
Prayer Requests
What stood out to you reading this chapter?
What unanswered questions do you have?
What is the central truth of this chapter?
Beeke—John’s second cycle of visions on the island of Patmos, recorded in chapters 4–7, offers a picture of the gospel age from God’s perspective. The first cycle of visions, in chapters 1–3, gives a picture of the gospel age from our earthly church perspective. It gives us a surface view of the church and its relationship to Jesus Christ. But the second cycle of visions opens with John being told to come up to God’s throne to view this age from God’s perspective. As we have begun unpacking this second cycle of visions, we have been shown two things: first, the throne of God (chapter 4), and second, the book of God (chapter 5). John goes on in Revelation 6 to show us the opening of that book so that we may know what to expect as Christians in this world between the two comings of Christ. Jesus Christ is the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes (5:6), who alone is able to expedite what is written in God’s book. He can break the seals, open the book, and unfold the plan of God for His church. I am so glad that chapters 4 and 5 come before chapters 6 and 7. It is comforting to see the throne and to see who holds the book before seeing the tribulation, suffering, and persecution that are to come. It is good to know that behind this sin-sick world of ours is the sovereign God, who works according to His plan and His timetable. He does all things after the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11). God wants us to see our entire lives, yes, everything that exists, from that perspective. That is why He shows us the throne and the book before He reveals what is in store for us, namely, tribulation. We already have tribulation in the world today; there is no escaping it. Jesus says to His disciples in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” [208]
Beeke— These seven seals are not to be regarded as seven successive phases of history, but as the complete picture of what God has in store for Christians in this world. [222]
Chester—Imagine an artistic representation of these events. Think, for example, of Pablo Picasso’s famous painting “Guernica”, created in 1937 (search for it online now if you’re unfamiliar with it). It’s a jumbled chaos of distorted body parts. It doesn’t portray reality in a photographic way. But it is nonetheless real. It powerfully conveys the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. The same is true of Revelation chapters 6–9. At first sight these chapters appear weird, alien—even surreal. But they’re not a newspaper report. They’re an artistic portrayal of the horrors of the first century. This is our world. [63-64]
Revelation 6:1-8
Overview of the four horsemen
This is an allusion to Zechariah 6:1-8
Beeke—There are four horses and four riders because each team rides to one of the four corners of the earth: north, south, east, and west. The number four in Scripture is the universal number. Just as seven is the number of completeness, four is the number for the world in its universal aspects. The point of four horses is that there is no area of the earth that they do not cover. There is no boundary they cannot cross, and no ground they do not ride over. [210]
Revelation 6:1-2
White suggests conquest (just as today a white flag symbolizes surrender)
This could be a reference to external military conquest
Some believe the rider in the white horse is Jesus Christ, and He’s conquering in the sense that the gospel is advancing throughout the end of the earth
Revelation 19:11 “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.”
Beeke—In Revelation 6, the first rider is Jesus Christ going forth to conquer. He is followed by His cohorts. This first rider is not the devil’s henchman, some modern-day Hitler, or a Roman emperor. It is Christ in the power of His gospel who is galloping across the plain of world history. Let us be comforted by knowing that the greatest force—the leading power in this world—is Christ and His gospel. This horse and its rider first advanced into Jerusalem, then into Judea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. This horse and its rider have advanced throughout history through the preaching of the apostles, the early church fathers, the Reformers, the Puritans, and missionaries in China, Africa, and around the world. Nothing can prevent the white horse and its rider from advancing throughout the world. [212]
Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Revelation 6:3-4
Red suggests blood
Beeke—The red horse and his rider are symbols of persecution, as well as of the killing and bloodshed of war. In the two thousand years since Christ’s earthly ministry, there has been a major war every century except for two. Thirty million people were killed in World War I and considerably more in World War II. Pol Pot slaughtered more than 1,500,000 Cambodians in less than two years. In 1994, more than half a million Rwandans were massacred in a hundred days. The twenty-first century has by no means been immune to war, as multiple conflicts in the Middle East attest. War is an ongoing menace in this world. [214]
Beeke—Throughout history, the red horse of bloody persecution has followed the white horse of the conquering Christ. Wherever the gospel is preached and believed, persecution follows. As Paul says, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). [214]
2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”
Revelation 6:5-6
Black suggests death
Chester—Famine with rampant inflation (Revelation 6:5–6). A denarius was a day’s wage for working people (Matthew 20:2). These prices are over ten times what they should have been. This is inflationary pricing, brought out by the scarcity of war. Also AD 92 saw a series of grain famines across the Roman Empire. [64]
Beeke—Christ is saying to His church: “Do not expect riches or luxuries, but poverty. Expect to lose your job because you are a Christian. Expect to be overlooked for a promotion because you are a Christian. Expect injustice and unfairness in this world, because that is the kind of world you live in. All of this is what sin has done.” The black horse and its rider are galloping through many parts of the world today. Will they come to our land during our lifetime? [216]
Revelation 6:7-8
The pale horse suggests a sick complexion or a corpse.
A clear allusion to Ezekiel 14:21
Beeke—The idea of paleness doesn’t quite convey the horror of the next horse and its rider. Literally, the horse is not pale, but the greenish, sickly color of a decaying corpse. [216]
Chester—Widespread death (Revelation 6:7–8). The combination of conquest, conflict and famine leads to death for one quarter of the earth. [65]
Beeke—The message is simple: none of these terrors, not even the worst of them, happen outside the sovereignty of the triune God. Many unbelievers complain that the God of the Christian gospel wants to interfere in their lives. Yet they also complain when things go wrong for them: “Why doesn’t God do something about this?” The church needs to know that nothing happens outside of the will of God. We can rest our hearts in the knowledge that no matter what disaster strikes the world, everything is under His absolute sovereignty. We may hide ourselves in the Rock and say: When all around my soul gives way; He then is all my hope and stay. [219]
Revelation 6:9-11
Beeke—To understand this verse, we must remember that it is part of a vision, not a literal picture of heaven. There is no literal altar in heaven, just as there is no literal throne. Also, there is no unhappiness, frustration, impatience, suffering, or thirst for revenge in heaven. No matter how we understand this outcry from beneath the altar, we are not to understand it as a thirst for revenge. It is clear from verse 11 that the glorified saints here are at rest and perfectly happy. The white robes they wear signify sinlessness, happiness, and acceptance with God. So they do not cry out for revenge; rather, they pray for the vindication of God’s holy name as “Judge of the earth” (Ps. 94:2). [227]
Beeke—Christians who suffer persecution will one day be adorned in white robes as they praise the triune God. White is a symbol of eternal justification by Christ’s blood and acquittal by the Father. It is also a symbol of sanctification, for in heaven the saints are perfectly holy before God in Christ. And it is a symbol of their victory. Just as the rider on the white horse symbolizes Christ’s victory, so the white robes given to souls under the altar symbolize that they are more than conquerors in the battle of faith. In short, white is the symbol of their perfected, glorified nature (Heb. 12:23). [229]
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
Revelation 6:12-17
The language of the sun turning black, the moon turning blood red, and stars falling from the sky in verses 12–14 is taken from Isaiah 34:4 and Joel 2:31.
Beeke—The symbols of this passage, including falling stars, the cries of the wicked, the quaking earth, and the rolling up of the sky as a scroll are all descriptive of the tremendous and terrifying upheaval that is coming on that day that God has appointed to judge the world. [232]
Jesus will judge the earth and vindicate His people!!!