Rev 6:9-17

David Johnson

Revelation • Sermon • Submitted 25 days ago • Presented a month ago

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Rev week 12: Who can stand?

Revelation 6:9-17

Many of you have had Revelation questions! And that is great…I love an engaged church that asks questions.

The Third Monday of every month during this series I am hosting a Q&R and that falls tomorrow at 6:30pm here…

So if you’ve got questions on anything so far then please come! I take a ton of notes on your questions and then I will record a podcast on them

ALSO: We have been announcing on our midweek minute and on our bulletins and fliers that our church has been invited to a private screening of the movie Cabrini that is next Saturday at 9am We only have about 20 tickets left so if you want to go you have to register online so we can save you a ticket….It is totally free…And if you want to go but dont know how to register then please go to the welcome table after church

So We are going to finish Revelation 6 today and just in case you were not here last week I want to give you a recap because it really matters for today!

Recap:

So If you were not here last week or if it is your first time here…We have been swimming in the preverbal deep end of the pool…Last week we talked about the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse

And if you remember we talked in terms of the politic of the empire and the politic of the lamb

The Lamb, is Jesus opening the seals on this heavenly scroll that only he is worthy to open…It is the scroll of his judgment

Just in case you missed I am going to give us a quick recap of last weeks sermon because today is kind of chapter 6 part 2:

So as you might remember last week the first seal was symbolized as a white horse…

That symbolized conquest and war…This is the empire, I believe John was referencing a specific threat from a group called the Parthians…But the white horse because of the grasp for power and the need to hold onto it is always in battle, always creating more war…

And the politic of the lamb is: We have no outsiders there are only insiders

And then the second seal was a red horse

Which is this internal strife and this politic that says, we need to watch people who are different, we need to do whatever we can to make sure that we hold on to power

The politic of the lamb is that the parts of the body that seem week are really indispensable

Then the third seal is the Black horse The poor get left out, the poor suffer and the rich are fine..

The politic of the lamb is radical generosity in every situation

And then the fourth seal which was a pale horse

Which is disease, and the politic of the empire is to simply shove those people onto an island and let them die…

Whereas

The politic of the lamb is to embrace those who society rejects.

So last week I talked in term of the politic of the horsemen vs the politic of the lamb

And it’s impotrant to note that the 4 horsemen together symbolize the power of human empire

The first human empire in the Bible is Babel…Later called Babylon…And that is what John will call Rome

The four horsemen literally ask the question, do you want the kingdom of Humanity or the Kingdom of God?

So in the opening of the first four seals there is this voice that shouts “COME” for each seal.,..

It is designed to ask the same question of Exodus if you remember…

Will you place your trust in Pharoah? because his power is just a myth…its just a parody…or will you trust in the passover lamb?

Same question here…Will you trust in Cesar or the Lamb?

So let’s get into Revelation 6:9-17 this morning

Revelation 6:9–17 ESV

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. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 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. 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?”

Do you see why people stop reading at this point? Tough right?

Remember I said that this is a book of contrasts right? It uses the entire old testament as words to talk about the present situation…

One of these contrasts we are going to look at is that later on in the book, John begins using the terminology “Babylon”…

And where that comes from is a time when Israel was disobeying God ultimately God allowed the nation to be taken away , the northern kingdom was taken to Assyria and scattered, really never to be heard from again…

And Judah was taken to Babylon and the fear of the generation who was there was not what will Babylon do to us, will it corrupt or kids, but will our kids even want to come home? We came here as Israelites but our kids are really Babylonians… Will they be so engrained in this empire that they won’t want to return to Israel? Will my kids worship Yahweh?

So I want us to keep that context in mind as we move through the next couple of verses…

So in seal 5 the scene shifts back to heaven…

And really it is this response

Revelation 6:9-10 (ESV)

Revelation 6:9–10 ESV

There are a couple of points to make here

Where does he see the Christian dead? Under the alter in the throne room of God…And they have this front row seat to what happens on earth…we know this because they are reacting to it, shouting HOW LONG? How long Must the empire rule? How long will sin continue to be on the loose? How long before the scroll is opened? How long before the kingdom of God comes???

The reason why they were there is they had been slain, just like the lamb! And why had they been slain? Because of the witness that they had borne! They were there because they were faithful witnesses!

When you think about it, the Christians who died in Rome, were killed by the policies of the Empire…By the Red Horse!

So they ask…How long Lord until your justice comes? This is not a cry for revenge, this is a cry for vindication…God when will you make all the wrongs of the 4 horses right?

This is something we ask all the time right…

That foster child who was taken away after 2 years of bonding with her family…How long lord?

The continual loss of Babies to abortion, how long Lord?

For the Christians who stand up for their faith in christ and are now rotting in prisons around the world…How long Lord?

This is just our general reaction to the injustice of the world…

And I both love and am frankly a little dissatisfied with God’s response…Because I want him to act like a lion, but He is the lamb…and his way is right

Here is God’s response to the Martyrs:

Revelation 6:11 ESV

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.

The white robe is this contrast to the crown that the four horsemen each have…and it is a symbol of purity

And then they were told to wait…Just wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants were killed…

At first blush, you look at this and go…WHAT??? Is God rooting for us to die?

And the answer is no…There isn’t some magic buzzer that goes off in heaven…

BUZZZZZ we’ve reached our 1 millionth martyr, time to judge the world!

I don’t think this is what this is about, although there are some scholars who would say that God counts down the days to his coming by the martyr’s blood…

There are scholars who are all over the map on this verse…

Here is what makes the most sense to me…

1. that God doesn’t stop people from being killed for the sake of the gospel, just in the same way he didn’t stop his son from dying

2. that just as way back in Genesis that Abraham’s family had to wait 4 generations because the Amorites had not yet reached the full measure of their sin…so maybe he is saying hey we just need to wait till the horsemen are fully deserving of judgment

3. Wait a little longer: What God is essentially saying is that you have to wait! God is patient and that is something that we see over and over again in the scriptures…He doesn’t operate on the same kind of time we do!

There is something unsettling about this right? We hate waiting…

Especially when our life is built around now!

Everything just works now!

I think John is trying to tell us is that Jesus isn’t going to come on our calendar, we have to wait. Be patient

Let me make a little side point here on patience. I think Patience is so important because

1.It will help you get through this revelation series

Patience roots out selfishness

Without patience your prayer life will never be productive

…We are told to wait on the Lord, to continually bring your request before Him…Without patience, we might pray one thing and forget about it, but Jesus tells us to be patient and persistent!

And what happens next the 6th seal!

Revelation 6:12–14 ESV

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.

With the opening of this seal the focus returns to earth…

So maybe you were savvy enough to notice that John describes 7 events of destruction, which is John’s way of saying that the evil that the horsemen are doing will eventually end in total destruction! Almost like God’s creation will implode on itself because it can’t handle the evil

And I want to throw this point in here.

Part of God’s judgment or his wrath that is talked about here in such vivid language is simply to give us what we want.

Last week I made the point that this is how God judged Egypt…he turned their sin back on their own heads

Are the 4 horsemen inviting Jesus to be at the center? No they want all the power….

So part of all of this destruction is God responding to the evils of humanity…Oh…You don’t want me? This is what life looks like without me

Also

Part of what we need to understand when we read all of this is the power structures of the day…

I’ve shared before that rulers and leaders looked to the stars to get their supernatural vindication…

in ancient cosmology stars were actually divine beings

So For example, Octavian deduced that his father Julius Cesar had become a God after his death because when they held games to avenge his death, a comet showed up in the sky…so then Octavian said, if my father is God, I am the son of God…

See what John is doing is saying that this empire…Rome, which he will later call Babylon, its power structure is falling apart…

The thing it trusted in most was these horses…but now even the divine power structure of Rome is falling apart.

The stars and the moon and all these things are descending into chaos because as we get closer to the scroll being opened up…

and God’s purposes being revealed, evil will not be able to stand!

See part of

The final judgment of the lamb will be to remove the power and authority of evil kingdoms that rise up as a parody to the kingdom of God

So when the very things…The sun, moon, stars, heavens…are things in which people place their trust in are gone what happens?

Lets keep reading

Revelation 6:15–17 ESV

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?”

And then did you see it again there were 7 sets of people who were affected by this destruction

Kings

Princes

Generals

The rich

The mighty

Slave

Free

Basically this is John’s way of saying that there is no one high or low enough to escape God’s judgment!

And the ironic thing is that the response of people to these events is to hide in a world that is descending into chaos

The preference of a world that loves the horsemen is to die by the wrath of the lamb rather than to receive the grace of the lamb

humanity will seek to hide from the wrath of God and the Lamb at the cataclysmic end.

John himself the writer of revelation also wrote this:

John 3:36 ESV

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.

See wrath is a function of love. God’s Wrath is anger at sin, Sin is what disconnects us from God Sin is the great vandalization of shalom…And God is angry at this because he wants relationship with you …And sometimes we shy away from this but Jesus has wrath…But again it is a function of love…

Think of someone whom you love dearly and unendingly and then tell me with a straight face that you’ve never been angry with that person…Its because wrath is a part of love…Wrath exposes the things that harm love

So John even says, hey…If you don’t have your faith in Jesus…Then God’s wrath remains on you!

And there is only one way to change that

Come under the protection of the lamb! To surrender to the lamb!

And in Revelation 6, the wrath of the lamb is so terrible that people would rather get buried under mountains than to experience it

There is no hiding place when the earth quakes and the mountains are uprooted…

For those who embrace Babylon’s norms, values, and beliefs – a world that is passing away – the Lamb’s victory is experienced as wrath.

The cosmic battle between evil and good and between the old order and the new order requires a complete overhaul of creation.”

But in the wake of this type of “overhaul of creation” who can stand?

The chapter ends with this question that is brilliant

The wrath of the lamb has come…who can withstand it?

And next week we are going to see that there is a whole multitude of people who will be able to stand at judgment and be just fine and it is not by the social status or wealth or power but because of the grace of the lamb!

But that is all next week…and don’t miss it, it is an incredible hunk of scripture!

But this last question strikes me…for a certain reason…Toward the beginning I talked about Babylon and how the major worry for people in exile was not will they forget God but the worry was, once their kids got Babylon in them, would they even want to leave?

Folks, we are a people submersed in the culture of the four horsemen…We are Christians raised in a world full of empires…do we reflect the lamb, or the empire?

At the end of the day, who can stand when the lamb comes in all of his wrath and glory?

And this is something I am passionate about so excuse the coming rant..

The main reason for the church is to give you the tools “to stand” to hang on to the lamb, to grow in his identity…

Discipleship to Jesus gives us the tools to stand

This is called discipleship…Discipleship to Jesus!

Jesus teaches you to stand firm with the lamb…

And I think back the way my parents raised me and the way my youth pastors discipled me…and it took time, I went through trials…But I was taught to stand…

discipleship is so central to what we do, this is why this year we have been launching these groups called foundations

Why? Because at the end of the day we need to be able to stand before God and have our identity tied to him and not to Babylon!

Maybe you are of the older more mature generation…and you were taught that your word is your bond…that you show up 10 min early, if your 5 minutes early your late, you were taught to keep your word…You were discipled, intentionally at church. You went Sunday morning, Sunday night…You went Wednesday and any other time it was open…

You may be wondering…man…will my kids be discipled like was?

Will my kids maintain a Christian life through college? Will my kids disciple their kids?

Will my kids be able to stand?

Will my grandkids be able to stand? Or

Will they be formed by Babylon

So in the scripture we read today we read that people were killed for the WITNESS THEY MAINTAINED!

Rome

didn’t kill people who recanted

didn’t kill people who changed their mind…

They killed people who stood up for their faith…

How well do we do at Maintaining our witness?

I’ll say this in another way?

How can you expect your kids to put Jesus first if you consistently put him 5th?

I mean if we don’t put Jesus first, isn’t it ludicrous to expect our kids to put Jesus first…

How well do you model maintaining your testimony? How do you model discipleship…

Next week, John answers this question…who will stand…

But this week, as we go…Will you be able to stand? Will you heritage of faith in Jesus stand for years?

Or will your kids be entangled in Babylon?

I guess I will end with this statement

Lastly: You get to choose how you experience the victory of the lamb

You can either trust in the 4 horsemen and experience it as wrath

or you can trust in the lamb and experience it as grace and joy

PRAYER AREAS

HOW LONG OH LORD? WHO CAN STAND THE WRATH OF THE LAMB?

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