Sermon Tone Analysis

| *The Final Reaping of the Earth (Revelation 14:14–20)* |

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*Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.*

*And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.

Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.”

So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.

*(14:14–20)

 

*Intro:*   Jesus’ first coming was one of humiliation, a time when He,

* /“although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”/ (Phil.

2:6–8).

* Jesus came the first time as a servant; He will return as the sovereign King.

* In His first coming, He came in humility; in His second coming, He will come in majesty and splendor.

* The first time He came to earth/, “the Son of Man [came] to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); when He returns, it will be to “judge the living and the dead”/ (2 Tim.

4:1).

* Jesus came the first time as the sower; He will come again as the reaper.

*God’s final judgment on the earth is the theme of 14:6–11.

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* Verses 12 and 13 form a brief respite, presenting the encouraging, comforting truth of the perseverance of the saints.

* After that brief rest to encourage the faithful, the theme of divine wrath resumes in verses 14–20.

The judgment introduced in these verses will take place at the worst time in human history, the Great Tribulation (Matt.

24:21–22).

* After years of enduring Antichrist’s oppressive rule, demonic assaults, and the terrifying, devastating, staccato judgments of God, people will wearily hope that things are about to get better.

* It will seem as if life couldn’t possibly get any worse, but it will.

Cataclysmic “Day of the Lord” judgment is about to fall on Satan, his demon hordes, Antichrist, and all the wicked, unrepentant people of the world.

* That judgment is depicted in this passage as the final reaping of the earth.

In an unprecedented holocaust, the full fury of the Lord Jesus Christ will be released in devastating judgment.

* The theme of coming judgment is certainly not unique to Revelation.

Even before the Messiah preached the good news of the gospel, His forerunner proclaimed the bad news of judgment.

* In Matthew 3:7 John the Baptist said, “/You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” /

* During His earthly ministry, Jesus repeatedly warned of the coming day of judgment (e.g., Matt.

10:15; 11:22, 24; 12:36, 41–42; John 5:28–29).

* Paul wrote, /“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.…

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds”/ (Rom.

1:18; 2:5–6).

* In 2 Thessalonians 1:6–9 the apostle added, /“For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”/

* The writer of Hebrews warned/, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries”/ (Heb.

10:26–27).

* Peter also wrote of the coming judgment, warning that /“the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.…

by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men”/ (2 Pet.

2:9; 3:7).

The Old Testament, too, speaks of God’s eschatological judgment on the world.

In Isaiah it is written:

·         /Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the Lord of hosts In the day of His burning anger./

(Isa.

13:11–13)

·         The coming judgment is also referred to in Isaiah 24:21–23: /So it will happen in that day, That the Lord will punish the host of heaven on high, And the kings of the earth on earth.

They will be gathered together Like prisoners in the dungeon, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they will be punished.

Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, For the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.

/

·         Two Old Testament passages present striking parallels with Revelation 14. Isaiah 63:1–6 records a fascinating soliloquy of the Messiah as He comes to execute the bloody final judgment on the unbelieving world: “/Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength?

“It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?

“I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me.

I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment.

For the day of vengeance was in My heart, And My year of redemption has come.

I looked, and there was no one to help, And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; So My own arm brought salvation to Me, And My wrath upheld Me.

I trod down the peoples in My anger And made them drunk in My  wrath,  And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”/

·         This passage, like Revelation 14:19–20, uses the metaphor of trampling grapes in a winepress to depict the devastation of God’s final judgment.

The prophet Joel recorded the devastation caused in Israel by drought, fire, and a massive invasion of locusts (Joel 1:1–2:11).

Then the prophet used those temporal judgments to warn of the even more devastating judgment of the Day of the Lord (2:18–3:21).

In Joel 3:12–13 that judgment is described using the same imagery found in Revelation 14: /Let the nations be aroused And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to judge All the surrounding nations.

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.

Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great/.

Joel, like Isaiah, depicted God’s future judgment of the wicked, in the imagery of a winepress and of a harvest.

·         The Lord Jesus Christ also used the harvest analogy for judgment.

In the parable of the tares He said, /“Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn’ ”/ (Matt.

13:30).

·         Asked by His disciples to explain that parable Jesus said, /“The enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.

The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”/

(Matt.

13:39–42)

·         So Joel, Isaiah, and the Lord Jesus Christ all spoke of a coming harvest of divine wrath when the Messiah will execute final judgment.

That final outpouring of the judgmental fury of the Lamb is the theme of this chapter’s text.

·         This passage pictures the final harvest of divine wrath in two agricultural motifs:

o        the grain harvest (vv.

14–16)

o        and the grape harvest (vv.

17–20), raising the question as to why John recorded two visions of the same event.

·         There are many depictions of this event by the prophets, including those mentioned above, so it is not unusual for John to record two visions of it.

·         But there is also a specific situation at this point in the book of Revelation that suggests a purpose behind the repetition.

As the Tribulation nears its climax, two main aspects of God’s eschatological wrath remain to be poured out on the sinful world.

·         The first aspect involves the seven bowl judgments (16:1–21), a rapid-fire sequence of frightening and deadly worldwide judgments that will destroy the final Babylon—the Antichrist’s empire.

·         The second aspect is the Battle of Armageddon, at which point Jesus Christ returns to judge and destroy His enemies (19:11–21).

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*The Grain Harvest*

*/Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped./**

*(14:14–16)

#.

The grain harvest symbolizes the seven bowl judgments, the grape harvest the judgment of Armageddon.

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Both harvests involve a sickle and reaping, and both can be described by the same three points: the reaper, the ripeness, and the reaping.

#. *the reaper* */Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand./**

*(14:14)

1.

The familiar phrase *I looked, and behold* often introduces a new and important subject in Revelation (cf.

4:1; 6:2, 5, 8; 7:9; 14:1).

What caught John’s attention was a *white cloud,* an image drawn from Daniel 7:13–14: /“I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.

And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.”/

2.        John saw *sitting on the cloud one like a son of man*—the Lord Jesus Christ, coming to establish His kingdom in fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.

a.