The Mighty Angel

Good afternoon! I apologize for the crazy schedule that we have been running lately. We should be good with our normal for the foreseeable future. I hope that everyone is having a great weekend.

So, we have so far covered the first seven seals that have opened and then the first six trumpets were all sounded. But, if you remember that before we even got to the seals God took a moment to remind us all that even though this world may be crazy and that things are only going to get worse. HE IS IN CONTROL OF EVERYTHING. There is nothing that occurs outside of His will. And then between the sixth seal and the seventh seal he did so yet again. And guess what. We are going to again here in chapter ten be reminded after the first six trumpets that God is still the one who is in control of everything. There is absolutely nothing that happens around us that is not in his control.

And trust me I know there are times that our lives feel very much like there is no one in control of anything that is happening in our lives or around our lives. And there are times that the craziness of this life can begin to cause us to feel as though it is just going to close in and consume us. But God.

Look I’m not simply talking about hectic times in our life. That’s just normal. We have just finished looking at the first six trumpets. I am stepping away from where I was headed for just a moment. I have to be honest I read online all the time people quoting from the book of revelation as proof that we are in the end times. And listen real carefully to me. If anyone says that anything after the letters to the churches is proof that we are in the end times then they simply can NOT read. Has anyone here today seen anything even close to what we have discussed occuring in our world. Anything remotely. Listen real careful to me. When we enter into the end times. There will be NO DOUBT on anyones mind that the end has come. And for some strange reason it’s almost always dudes. Why? I don’t know. Listen we are definitely NOT right now in what could or should be called the end times. What we are experiencing is not even close to anything that we have read concerning what is still yet to come. The crazy that we are going to experience as a world is going to be so much greater than whatever is occuring in our crazy messed up world today that we are going to wish we were still here. Now listen here’s the real encouragement that comes from this book. As crazy and bad as it is going to become in the end times. Jesus is the one in control of those times. And so if somehow he’s got that. I think that whatever is happening in your life today. He’s got that as well.

And here’s the hardest truth you will perhaps ever hear. Sometimes it’s not going to go the way you hoped or wanted. But it was His decision. And it was His decision for His glory first and for your good second. It might not seem like it right now. But here’s the thing. It absolutely is. I have experienced some absolutely crappy junk in my life. And I’m telling you all of it was meant to bring glory to the name of Jesus and ultimately will be used by Him for my good. How? I may never know. I simply need to find peace in that truth.

Why does God keep reminding us in this book of this truth? Because we tend to only see the junk before us and not the cross that stands tall behind it all. And so just like God reminds John over and over again. Sometimes we need to remember to remind one another over and over again of this truth.

And it is this truth that Jesus is going to yet again remind us of here in chapter ten. and eleven and twelve. So let’s look at our first verse chapter ten.

Revelation chapter 10 verse one reads.

Revelation 10:1 ESV

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.

And so John looks and he sees before him in his vision a magnificent angel. And look we could spend time looking at each of the details given concerning the angel. But, I believe doing so actually puts too much emphasis upon the angel. This magnificent being appears in such radiant splendor not to show some special meaning behind his appearance, but rather to express the magnitude of the message that he bears. This is one of the major pitfalls of studying this book. And look you can go and study each of these attributes of the angel. I am simply going to say this. That none of what you read that people guess at concerning the meaning of each is supported in any way by the text presented here before us today. For instance most that I read say that the rainbow over the head of the angel is meant to present the “glory” of God as a crown. But, I didn’t see that at all when I first read this verse. I assumed that based on Genesis chapter nine it represented that the Angel was coming with grace and mercy to John. So I just want to warn us to be careful when searching for meaning in the details of this book. This is one magnificent angel that bears a truly magnificent message. And that is what is important for us to see here.

In verse two we read more about this angel and the message that he brings.

Revelation 10:2 ESV

He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,

In his left hand, we will see this detail in a few verses, he holds a little scroll. We will get to the message of the scroll in just a bit. Right now, though, John is focused upon the appearance of this mighty angel. So far we have this mighty angel that has descended from the heavenlies and now stands with one foot upon the sea and the other upon the land. What is interesting is that every artistic rendering that I have ever seen of this particular angel has this gigantic angel in it. And yet no where in the description is his size mentioned. When I first read this I pictured an angel standing on the sea shore, perhaps a bit taller than normal but not a giant, with one foot in the water and the other on dry land. I understand why we get there, I think. But that’s not doing justice to the words I believe God purposefully chose to describe this angel. He is a “mighty” angel. The greek word here can be translated as forcible, boisterous, mighty, powerful, strong, or even valiant. None of these though infer size. In fact I don’t believe that the angel is mighty because of either his strength or his size. But rather because of the force and weight of his message.

And so I think that what we have here is an angel, and no I don’t believe that this is Jesus as some have supposed. Why? Because every time Jesus is present in the book of Revelation he is called Jesus or the Christ. He is never referenced to as an angel. This would have to be the only time. And yet we have a lot of angels present throughout the book. No one assumes any of those are Jesus except perhaps this one. In the end if it were Jesus I believe that would be stated. Instead John identifies the one before him as a mighty angel. And, well, John kinda knew Jesus. I don’t believe he is getting him confused. And when Jesus clearly speaks the voice comes from the heavens and not from the angel.

And so what we should see is a truly mighty angel who stands with one foot in the sea and one upon the land. Most likely to show that the message that he brings affects all of creation.

Then in verse three we read concerning this mighty angel.

Revelation 10:3 ESV

and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.

Ok. So we need to pause for a moment because everyone has a tendency to get caught up looking at what this image looks like and as a result we tend to miss what is clearly stated before us.

So, the angel calls out with a loud voice that sounded like a lion roaring. And when he calls out the seven thunders sounded. So, here’s my take at this point in time. We had seven seals, and then seven trumpets, and we know that seven bowls are coming. This angel just unleashed what are called the seven thunders. And of course it is positioned right after the six trumpets, which is where we would expect the next seven judgments to take place.

So what are the seven thunders and what judgments do they release upon the earth.

Well in verse four we read.

Revelation 10:4 ESV

And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”

So whatever judgment is meant to be unleashed along with the seven thunders will not be known until they finally come upon this world. Here’s what we do know. That a voice from heaven speaks. And everyone that I have ever read assumes that this is the voice of Jesus. And John is told to not record what was just revealed by the seven thunders. I actually found where people are pretty certain that they have figured out what the seven thunders revealed. Here’s my answer to this.

In Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 29 we read.

Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

So, whatever the seven thunders revealed to John were not meant to be revealed to us. And so it was not written down.

This is where we need to reign in our curiosity and trust that God is in control of all things. I believe that what is contained within the seven thunders is something that we will need to know only when the end times come upon us. And we need to rest in and find peace in the fact the God knows everything that is going to happen and he is in control of all things. Just hold on if this is causing you to struggle right now. I am going to dig into this idea more and more as we continue.

In verse five we read.

Revelation 10:5 ESV

And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven

Then this mighty angel lifts his right hand to heaven to swear. This is pretty much like placing your left hand on the bible and raising your right hand and swearing to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That’s pretty much what we have here. Verse six is going to continue this idea and it reads.

Revelation 10:6 ESV

and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay,

And so the angel lifts his right hand to heaven while holding the little scroll in the palm of his left and states that the time of the end has now come. And that in that time there will be no mystery that remains. Verse seven continues this theme and reads.

Revelation 10:7 ESV

but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

All that has been referenced as the mysteries of God throughout the scriptures will finally be revealed. The divine “mystery” throughout the scriptures has been a reference to something hidden concerning the kingdom of God. At the sounding of the seventh trumpet that mystery will be revealed. And at that time everything that God has promised throughout the entirety of the scriptures will be fulfilled.

Then in verses eight and nine we read.

Revelation 10:8–9 ESV

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”

Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapters two and three is commanded to do something very similar. Ezekiel was commanded to take a small scroll and to eat it. This is a picture of the prophet taking in the message of God. The message that God gives isn’t simply words in a book that we are meant to read and simply gain knowledge from. They are meant to be consumed and to become a part of us. They are meant to nourish our very being. And the truth for John is that the message that he has been given contains both wrath which is a bitter pill to have to swallow. And yet it is also a story of immense grace and mercy given to those who do not deserve and this message is the message of the grace of God and it is the sweetest truth we have ever tasted.

And in verse ten John takes the scroll from the angel and he eats it and we read.

Revelation 10:10 ESV

And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.

No surprise here this is exactly what Jesus said would be the case for John.

So the question that everyone has at this point is - what is written upon the scroll. The truth is the contents of the scroll remain a mystery. Again many people have tried to guess. Some say that it is the contents of the book of revelation. I think this is odd because just about everyone is in agreement that the contents of the sealed scroll is the content of the book of Revelation. So why would we have two of them that contain the same thing. Some have guessed that the contents of the scroll are the remainder of the book of Revelation. Simlarly that seems a bit odd if they are already contained within the sealed scroll. Some have guessed that the contents are whatever the seven thunders announced. This I believe makes more sense than the other two and that the content of that message remains a mystery until they are finally revealed in the end times. And there are other “guesses.” But all of them are “guesses.” Here’s something I believe all Christians need to become comfortable with. But we all at times struggle with. And that is the unknown.

The mysteries of God. Throughout the Old Testament there is a “mystery” that is said to yet be revealed to the people of God. That mystery was the identity of Jesus as the messiah. And that His presence was the very presence of the Kingdom of God. Now there are other mysteries as well. And some of those still remain a mystery to this day and will remain so until we see the return of Jesus. And we all need to learn to be ok with this.

Jesus addresses John again in the next verse and says.

Revelation 10:11 ESV

And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

And so John is called to prophecy concerning “many peoples”, nations, languages, and about kings. But what is the content of his message? We know the content. It has been revealed in the book of Revelation. And I believe he was given even further insight through the scroll as to what is yet to come.

And this is what is going to come. God will one day bring everything around us to an end. Everything. Nothing that we know today will continue as we know it. And this is a hard pill to swallow but we must understand many peoples will not continue, many nations may not continue, many languages may not continue, and many kings or rulers or heads of state will not continue. The hard pill of the book of Revelation is that the time of the end brings massive destructive forces in the form of Gods judgment upon sin in this world.

The sweet part of the book is that we, the children of God, will not be touched by that judgment. The judgments will land all around us and we will live life untouched by any of them. This is Gods grace and mercy. Because none of us here today deserve to be spared.

Amen.

So What?

A couple of quick points that I want to make. I started with five points and backed it off in order to bring greater stress to just two.

The First of these is the idea of “mystery” or the unknowable.

The Unknowable

One of the things that is revealed to us in this passage is that there are things that are simply not ours to know. Deuteronomy 29 says that the hidden things of God belong to Him alone. Paul reiterates this idea in first corinthians chapter thirteen verse nine where he says that we know only in part. Now hear me well, this doesn’t mean that we don’t seek knowledge. But, what it does mean is that God has set boundaries concerning what it is that we are to know. And this is the difficult part. We need to accept those boundaries. As a result we need to avoid undue speculation about matters on which we might be uncertain. And that means that we need to also avoid speaking in a manner about those mysteries as though we have somehow figured out something that we simply have not.

This is a hard pill to swallow. God knows the future perfectly every single minute detail is known to him. Wait that’s not hard to accept. Oh wait here it comes. We do not need to know. I’m not saying that it is simply hidden and will one day be revealed. Nope. You and I do not NEED to know. Right. It’s as thought his are Kingdom secrets and you and I are not on the need to know list. And we need to be ok with that.

I believe that the seven thunders may provide anyone who studies the end times the greatest of all the lessons that we might learn. There is much that we do not need to know. And so those details are simply not revealed.

And we need to stop trying to connect events here and now with events within the book of Revelation. Those who do are what are called prognosticators and they may satisfy are curiosity about what the future holds. But no one has ever been called to be a biblical prognosticator. An expositor on the other hand, which is always my goal, has as their goal to help us to hear and obey the Word of God. It is never to add to the scriptures or to guess beyond what the scriptures have revealed. We need to recognize when we have crossed the line from what is called exegesis, which is simply taking knowledge from what is clearly revealed in the scriptures. And we cross over to speculation about what is being said this is the practice of what is called eisegesis which means to read knowledge into the scriptures.

We need to accept at times and particularly when studying end times events that there are clearly things that we can not know. Because God has chosen not to reveal them.

Next I want to discuss this idea of “Control”

Control

I’m sorry, but if you are seated here today and you struggle with not being in control of the things around you. Like I tend to. Oh wait. At times that’s every single one of us. Then this is a bitter pill to swallow.

We are given a picture here of this awesome, amazing, mighty angel who is completely obedient to God Almighty. Why? Because God is the one who is truly in control. The angel has accepted this truth and as a result he is able to live his best life now. Look if God is in control of beings that appear far more powerful and far more mighty than we are. And if we understand and accept that God is also in control of all super natural forces in this world. Then why do we try so hard to take control from God.

Many of us here today struggle with mental difficulties at time. Whether that be anxiety or depression or something similar. Look the answer to most of these is a singular response. Are you ready. It is revolutionary. The answer is COURAGE.

Whatever crisis you face or the people of God face we must take courage in the fact that God is continually reminding us throughout the scriptures that WE are not in control. He is the one who is in control of every circumstance. No matter what that circumstance may be. And that means that those circumstances will always work out for His glory and for our good. We may disagree on what our good looks like. But in the end, we need to learn to find peace in the fact that God knows best and he will always do what is best for us. Why? Because we are his children and He is our perfect Father who is in heaven. Amen.

Please listen when we stop trying to control those things that are clearly in the hands of God we will then begin to find peace in the uncontrollable events of life that might otherwise bring anxiety or depression.

I say this knowing that right now there are events that are outside of my control in my life and the truth is individually they are not significant burdens. But combined they bring a heavy weight and I have been depressed for a while now. And so this message may in the end be more for myself than anyone else here today.

I am struggling with this very thing myself. And so when I say these words I know just how difficult it can be to do what I am asking.

But please hear me out. When you accept the things that God has brought into your life as trials he intends for you to overcome through His power and through His strength and through His wisdom. Then you stop trying to control the uncontrollable around you. When you do so. You will find the courage to do those things that often times seem so difficult. And let’s be honest when anxiety and depression come everything seems difficult. But when we give God control of our lives. Courage will flow from within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we will find a peace that transcends anything we could ever attain on our own. Because it’s source is the God who created all things and who sustains all things by the very words of His mouth.

Amen.

Amen.

Let us pray.

The Mighty Angel

Prayer

Benediction

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.