Ready for the End
Revelation: All Things New • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2 viewsTheme: God's Wrath is Complete. Purpose: That we are ready to face God's Wrath. Gospel: God's Judgment seperates the wheat and the chaff. Mission: Trust God's Wrath received by Jesus.
Notes
Transcript
I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”
So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”
The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.
They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.
And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God
and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened.
Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests.
Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever.
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”
The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.
The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: “You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were;
for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire.
They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
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 agony
and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
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.
Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!”
Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.
The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.
Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.
From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
Introduction: When you look at the world some of you are thinking, “It seems like the end is near.” Some of you are like, “I have not even thought about that,” And maybe some are like, “I don’t want to think about that.” How do we prepare and be ready?
43 - Recap of the Book of Revelation - Especially on the story of the Dragon, Beast, Prophet, and those marked by the Beast or by God.
So this passage is really about the end, and it focuses on the Wrath of God.
Whereas the 7 Trumpets were not complete (1/4 or 1/3 destruction), Here...
44 - God’s Wrath is Complete
44 - God’s Wrath is Complete
At the end of the pattern of 7’s we get a brief description of the coming of the Lord, but this passage is much more descriptive and detailed, and so it is the passage that really wants to warn us about what it means if someone doesn’t align themselves with Jesus.
- It appears that much of the imagry of this entire passage comes from Joel Chapter 3 where God judges the nations for what they did to his people. They get what they gave back to them, ie, they get what they deserve. This includes the ideas of
1. God's judgment, by way of war against the nations that Gather against God.
2. The harvesting of grapes as God pouring out his wrath.
3. The sun and moon going dark.
4. Earthquake
45 - God Gathers and God Judges.
45 - God Gathers and God Judges.
vs. 14:14-20 is about the great harvest Jesus spoke about at the end when he comes again.
He put before them another parable, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
But while his people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel in the midst of the wheat and went away.
So when the wheat sprouted and yielded grain, then the darnel appeared also.
So the slaves of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have darnel?’
And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ So the slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
But he said, “No, lest when you gather the darnel you uproot the wheat together with it.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the season of the harvest I will tell the reapers, “First gather the darnel and tie it into bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my storehouse.” ’ ”
- Jesus is clearly the son of man, he is commanded by the angel that it is time for the harvest, because in Jesus’ own words, He does not know the time and hour of the end, so Jesus waits for the Father’s command through this messenger Angel.
-This passage is about the choice we talked about in 14:1-13 on whether we align with Jesus or the Beastly world system (For John’s day that is the Roman Empire and its system of idolatry and empire worship, for us it is anything we put in place of God.)
The Wheat Harvest - Those who align with Jesus are gathered to Jesus and they will not receive the Wrath of God - The Tares or Darnel receive what all humans deserve - For the Wages of Sin is Death, All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. They are thrown out into the fires of judgment.
-The Grapes of Wrath are again those who aligned themselves with the beast, we will see they receive what they gave. They martyred the saints, they too will have their blood spilt. - The imagry along with the bowls, that God’s cup of wine is his cup of wrath. Jesus said, “Take this Cup from me.” He received God’s cup of wrath on our behalf so that if we align with him we don’t, if we do not align with him, the wrath we deserve because of our sin remains.
- Isaiah 63:3 and Lamentation 1:15 - Shows that the winepress is a common imagry used for God judging nations. Here in Isaiah we see God's clothes spattered with the people's blood while he tramples on them with his Wrath - perhaps a tie in here where Jesus is often already depicted with blood on his clothes.
Chapter 15
- The Harvest is like the third big exodus of scripture. That is why it is the song of Moses and of the lamb. It echos the themes of the song of Moses after God rescued Israel from slavery out of Egypt, and the Psalmists after the return from exile from Babylon (That beastly nation), but now it is the saints who washed their robes in the blood of the lamb (ie. those who align themselves with Jesus) it is a song of their Exodus from slavery to sin, the dragon (satan), and the beastly Kingdoms.
But just like in the Exodus Story of the O.T. God saved the Israelites through a series of plagues, and that is what is happening in Chapter 16. Just like those who aligned themselves with Egypt received God’s wrath through the plagues, but the Israelites who trusted God did not, so in this final Exodus, those who align themselves with Christ do not receive God’s wrath, only those who align themselves with something, or someone other than Christ.
A Few Words about the Plagues to connect the dots.
46 - These Plagues Mirror the Plagues of the Trumpets, and are allusions to the plagues of Egypt. - See Chart
As the full wrath of God, this is no longer a warning shot like the Trumpets, it is the final deal. This is the picture of the result of Aligning oneself to something other than Christ.
The sense of pouring out the bowls is the sense of emptying the bowls - It is the whole content of that plague poured out.
This again is everything we said about the Egyptian plagues and the 7 Trumpets. It is spiritual warfare against the gods working behind the scenes. - For Egypt, Ra, Set, Pharoah himself etc.., for Rome
And so here are some conclusions...
47 - God’s Wrath is Receiving What You Deserve.
47 - God’s Wrath is Receiving What You Deserve.
vs. 5 - vs. 6
Jesus said that in the same way You Judge, You will be Judged. In other words using the same measures.
so the Beast here, and those who align with the beast are getting what they gave, and we said with the 7 seals this is the pattern of the world. Babylon got from the Persians what it gave when it conquered Israel, The Persians got what they gave when they conquered Babylon, and so on.
This is the eye for an eye concept, that culminates into total distruction. Eye for eye is limiting in the O.T. - the culture was whole body for an eye.
Jesus tells believers not to do eye for an eye. Why because we are lousy judges. we are not true and righteous like God is and so our judgments can be wrong and we receive what we give.
But in the final judgement, everyone gets what they gave, except those who align themselves with Jesus, because Jesus received the wrath on their behalf.
48 - God’s Wrath is Receiving What your Idols have to Offer.
48 - God’s Wrath is Receiving What your Idols have to Offer.
So, on the message on the 7 Trumpets I made this point. These plagues are a direct attack on the gods of the Roman Empire including Emperor Worship.
It is really allowing these God’s to unleash their full control without God’s Common Grace holding back the full destruction.
God’s wrath is simultaneously active and passive. It is passive in that God allows the idols full control and the result is destruction, but it is active in that God is allowing this to happen so that all evil, and injustice collapses in on its self to be fully destroyed from His good creation.
This is why it is so important to align ourselves with Jesus. When we align ourselves with Jesus we give up on our idols, we allow him to remove them from our lives so that they don’t ultimately destroy us in the end. This is the Exodus that God is taking us from.
49 - How to Prepare for God’s Wrath.
49 - How to Prepare for God’s Wrath.
Again their are two responses in this passage to the Wrath of God.
Those not aligned with Jesus = Non-repentance, beligerence, stubbornness. Unilke in the Trumpets where there was a partial warning, The Church’s role is to connect the dots and some do repent. However, this is the end, and we get the picture that it is too late for them.
There response, however, is quite a common response of atheists and agnostics today. They see bad things in our world, and they say, “How can a good and loving God allow this to happen?” and then they reject God. This passage addresses this.
When God’s full Common Grace is in motion it holds back the evil that is in this world. We all receive the goodness of God when our life is sustained, when we enjoy friends and the abundance that supplies our very needs, but we often don’t acknowledge that coming from God. However, when things go bad, then we often say, “See God isn’t good.” “How can God let this happen.”
Well what is happening? God is giving those who hate God what they want, and the results of a life without God. They are receiving the wages of their sin, of their idols and of the total destruction as life as we know it by the withdrawing of his Common Grace Completely. It is not God’s who is unjust here, it is us, it is our idols, it is our sin.
How could a good and loving God be so cruel?
- What is being depicted here is God's righteous Justice.
- We all want justice - meeting someone in the community, talking about a news report of a child kidnapped and killed by a neighbor. He said that if that happened to one of his children he would be found in Jail, because he would take justice into his own hands.
- Somehow we have things mixed up - We want to bring justice at our own hands, but we are lowsy at it, because we are not righteous, but we don't want a picture of God to bring justice even though he is fully righteous.
- Our Culture says, take justice into your own hands.
- The Bible says, you are a lowsy judge, so leave justice to God who is righteous.
The Second response is the one I want to encourage you with and it is the one that prepares us to survive the End.
verse 15. - The Short interlude between the 6th and 7th bowls.
Always be ready - “I come like a thief in the Night.”
There are many Christian Teachers who make timelines to help us prepare for Christ’s 2nd or 3rd coming etc.... Some of them have predicted dates and as they say (According to the Book of Revelation). Here is the problem, the Book of Revelation does not have these timelines, and it clearly teaches that it will come like a thief - So, Don’t Try to figure out the timing, and Stop listening to people, no matter how Biblical they are in any other way when they predict when Christ Comes back.
This imagry of the thief is intended to instill in us a perspective that Jesus could come at any time, and that we should be ready now, or maybe now, and if not now, then now.
There is only one thing to do to be ready. Keep wearing your robes washed in the blood of the lamb on at all times.
Align yourself with Jesus, and Keep standing with Jesus, no matter how high the heat is turned up. No matter what the surges of COVID are, no matter the political divides in our country, no matter the ridicule by others about being a follower of Jesus, no matter sicknesses, diseases, deaths that we experience, no matter the riots, the evil we see in this world.
There is no taking up of arms here, there is no fighting with flesh and blood, because as Paul says this is not where our fight is, it is with ultimately the dragon.
Our fight is Spiritual Warfare, and the continued drumbeat of the book of Revelation is those who conquer align themselves with Jesus, and Patiently endure. These are the ones who conquer and will be gathered by Jesus, who are a part of the Exodus from sin, death, and destruction.
Conclusion:
Are you ready, do you want to be ready? To align yourself with Jesus.