Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever seen something that was hard to look at, but it stirred something within you?

Let me share with you a few of examples of what I mean:

The Passion of the Christ - Although the movie is filled with questionable theology, the visceral image of Jesus being flogged and crucified helped me emotionally connect in a deeper way with the sacrifice Jesus made for me.

It re-enforced the idea that Good Friday is a solemn day for reflection, communion and repentance.

To a lesser degree, the movie Lone Survivor also sparked something in me.

The movie may be filled with more swearing than I can count, glorifies violence and promotes the American military, the way that it was filmed left me in a profound state of awe that made me pray for those serving in the military.

Finally, I want to show you a disturbing image: this photo was taken in 1863, right in the middle of the American Civil War.

His name was Gordon and he had escaped slavery in Louisiana and fled 64 km on foot over 10 days until he reached the union army in Baton Rouge.

This photo, which was widely published in a magazine called Harper’s Variety, dispelled the notion that slaves were treated well and galvanized many people in the North to join the Union army and work to end it.

It’s a photo that many people, even today, don’t want to see, but we need to see it because it changes things in us.

In a similar way, the seven trumpet blasts in chapters 8, 9, 10 and some of 11 are images and pictures I don’t really want to see.

I don’t really want to read them, much less preach and teach on them.

But they are important images that remind us of God’s power, his justice and, yes, his mercy.

Now, before we get into reading our passage today, it’s important that you remember that the book of Revelation is written in a style that is meant to draw pictures in your mind.

It uses symbolism, metaphor, exaggeration and other tools to spark your imagination.

Much of what is written is not designed to be taken literally at face value, nor is it written purely chronologically.

Many scholars look at the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets and the 7 bowls (which we’ll look at in two weeks), as three perspectives of the same thing - God’s judgment.

The seals show us the view of God’s judgement from the perspective of the people of God.

The trumpets show it from the perspective of the sinful world.

The bowls show it from the perspective of the throne room.

So our goal is not to get lost in the imagery, but to gain some insight for following Jesus in the here and now.

So let’s read starting in verse 6 of chapter 8.

Prayer: Oh gracious and all-powerful God of the cosmos, Lord of our lives, and Savior of our souls - would you illuminate these scriptures for us by the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth and through them, empower us to live more fully for you.

May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

We pray in the precious and holy name of Jesus.

Amen.

When it comes to the first four trumpets, there are two things I want to draw your attention to today:

1.

Notice the trumpet

Why are these catastrophe’s preceded by a trumpet?

The trumpet is about declaration, it’s about warning.

It’s a dramatic means to getting people’s atttention.

Look at what the prophet Joel says in the Old Testament.

The trumpet was about alerting the people that God was going to do something and it required action.

The prophet Ezekiel, who also wrote apocalyptic literature in his book, wrote:

The sounding of the trumpets is a warning to the world of the coming judgement of God.

We don’t like to talk about judgment in 21st century Canadian Christianity - at least in my circles.

It feels uncomfortable and it’s why so many Christians avoid the book of Revelation.

But we can’t be afraid of the truth.

The harsh reality is that God will judge all humanity at some point in time, no matter what you believe.

And because that judgment is coming, God, in his infinite mercy, gives us these seven trumpet blasts, as a warning - as a wake up call - for all of us to turn away from our idolatry and turn back to the living and true God.

2. Notice the 1/3

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, wrote:

Throughout the history of Christianity, those who follow Jesus and hold to an authoritative view of the Bible have always held that all of mankind has sinned against God in some way and that because God is perfectly just, the penalty for sin is death.

We all deserve death and to be cut off from God forever.

But God, in his mercy, forgives our sin and draws us into spiritual life with himself, through our faith in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, who is God incarnate.

The struggle is that our salvation from death is contingent on our faith, which means that not everyone will experience what we have experienced and what we will experience with God.

But God desires to see everyone choose life over death and put their faith in Jesus.

The Apostle Peter writes,

When we read about these terrible catastrophes in Revelation, we see that over and over in the first four trumpet blasts, it keeps saying 1/3.

Remember, numbers within this book are symbolic, not literal.

This is a picture of God’s mercy to us.

Instead of destroying everything and everyone, like we deserve, he has mercy and only destroys 1/3 as a warning to us.

The first four trumpets are a warning of a more complete judgment that is still to come so that more people can turn to God and put their faith in Jesus.

That’s the first four trumpets and they follow a pattern - a rhythm.

Whether it’s the seals, trumpets or bowls, the pattern is a quick blast of the first four, then two lengthy descriptions for numbers 5 and 6, and then a pause, and then the 7th.

Now that we have done the first four, let’s look at trumpets numbers 5 and 6 which mark the beginning of what are called the three “Terrors” or the three “Woes”

From this section I have two things I want you to notice:

1.

Notice the protection for God’s people

Last week, when we looked at chapter 7, we talked about how the people of God are sealed by God and that seal protects them from the judgments that are poured out.

We see that again here in chapter 9 as the people of God are once again protected from the catastrophe that accompanies the fifth trumpet.

But I think it goes farther than that.

I think that we, the redeemed of Jesus, those who are sealed with the Holy Spirit, are protected from all the judgments.

It’s easy to read these passages and become afraid of the future and think that if what is written happens literally to this world, then we have no hope.

But the people of God have nothing to fear because our future is secure and we are protected from the catastrophic judgment of God.

2. Notice the purpose of the judgments

These judgments are terrible to behold.

Demonic attack, torture, death, and destruction are rampant and everywhere.

And many of us want to cast our eyes away from this gruesome image.

But we can’t or else we will miss something important: the purpose.

God is giving these judgments as a dramatic, last ditch way to bring as many people into the kingdom as possible.

For some people, it takes the literal end of the world before they finally will see their need of Jesus and for others, even that won’t be enough.

God doesn’t want anyone to perish but wants everyone to come to repentance so they can have eternal life.

God knows that there are worse things than death.

Living unrepentant and missing out on life with the Living God is worse and so God gives humanity these judgments to draw as many as he can into life with him.

Let’s move on to the seventh and final trumpet in chapter 11.

The seventh trumpet shows us two very cool things:

1.

The Victory of God

The kingdom of God finally comes in its fullness; God the great judge, stops letting any evil and sin have any place in this world and fully asserts his sovereign reign.

Evil doesn’t win, injustice doesn’t win, sin doesn’t win.

God wins and he is on the throne enacting his perfect justice and setting things right.

We called this teaching series Unveiling Hope because that’s what Revelation does - it gives us a peek behind the curtain to give us hope that no matter what we are going through, in the end, God wins.

2. The Third "Terror”

The first terror is the fifth trumpet that sees Satan fall to earth, demonic attack and torture on the world.

The second terror is the sixth trumpet that has 1/3 of the earth killed by smoke, fire and burning sulfur.

The third terror is…worship?

How is worship terror?

Earlier I mentioned that the trumpets are written with the perspective of the unbelieving world in mind.

Earlier, in chapter 8, John wrote

“to all who belong to this world” is a euphemism for those who are opposed to the Lamb and his ways, whether by apathy or hostility.

They are the ones who the warning judgments are directed to.

So to them, the declaration of God’s rule is a woe because it is something they don’t want - it’s something they are against.

For us, this worship is encouraging and gives us hope.

For those who oppose God, this worship is terrifying because it means they lose.

Conclusion

We have taken a very fast ride through the seven trumpets and there is so much more we could say about them.

But I think it’s important that, as we close our teaching time, we take a quick look at three things the vision of the trumpets teach us:

1.

The Importance of Repentance

God is passionately pursuing each of us and he calls us into repentance because it is through repentance that relationship is restored.

The seven trumpets are God’s call to the world to repent - to re-align their lives with God’s way.

The uncomfortable truth for the world is that God is real and this is his world.