Sermon Tone Analysis

HUDDLE— PK

INFORMAL START— ANDREA SWISHER

CLOSING HOST— CHRIS CANALE

DEVELOP TEAM— CHRIS CANALE

WORSHIP LEADER— ANDREA SWISHER

WHAT THEY NEED TO GO HOME HAVING DISCOVERED:

<<KEYS BEGINNING>>

Total relief.

It’s over.

IT IS FINISHED!

The most hopeful expression of the goodness of God comes when we understand that one day all this will be finished, but it is exemplified in the fact that on the cross it was all completed.

When Jesus said it is finished, the wrath of God was satisfied, the salvation of God was established and the choice of humanity was declared.

From that point forward, all of humanity was given the choice to believe in the goodness and completeness of God or to reject it.

For so many today the astounding reality is that they have made a choice.

They have come to the realization that they don’t need God or that they don’t care.

They’ve declared that he is less than what they need and want and they have given into the wrath of God.

The longsuffering and patient endurance of God is what is currently at play.

God is endlessly patient with us as he allows the movement of church to encompass the globe and seek to connect with all of humanity about the love of the Lord and the fullness of the his salvation.

But the retaliation of the dragon is always fervently at play here.

Knowing he’s been defeated and knowing what is contained in his future, he seek to wreck havoc on all of humanity.

His enemy is the population of Christ followers, but any breathing person will also do.

Why?

Because they were all made in the image of the creator.

What do we do with this?

We determine toward holiness.

He declare sin dead in our lives and we live by the relentless power of the Spirit of God day after day.

INTRO- ME/WE: (a) The misconstrued element of God’s wrath.

The completeness of wrath and the guilty nature of all humanity.

We have desensitized ourselves to the point of not being guilty of anything.

We’ve so steeped in the culture of acceptance that it’s become more and more difficult to see ourselves as sinners.

You can only accept the grace of God when you recognize your need of a Savior.

Until that spot, you are convinced of your own perfection.

We must must must must must (5 musts) realize that until we see our own sin, we are under the wrath of God.

And you might think that awful.

You might think that’s no fair.

No, not at all.

What’s not fair is that the enemy retaliates in such crafty and creative ways to distract you and get you off track.

To blind you to the truth of the gospel and the goodness of the Savior.

That’s what’s not fair.!

Pray with me right now.

I want you to repeat these words - God i need to see clearly.

No more obscurity.

No more distraction.

I need clarity so I can see the full nature of my own sin, but so I can also see the completeness of your grace.

I want to see it God!

What’s happening at this stage of the conversation is that John is recording what he is being given and guided into.

Remember he is unveiling this for readers as he sees it rather than as it.

We’ve got to remember that what we are reading and seeing through Revelation is the revealing of the nature of God.

We’re seeing the deep love of God through the expression of this wrath.

WHAT’S THAT MEAN?

It means that everything we have seen and studied about the goodness of God is true.

If God was indifferent there would be no wrath and his love would feel half-hearted.

The pervasive, seemingly excessive nature of his wrath also shows us the tremendous dynamic extent of his love.

We also know through John’s writing that what we encounter in Revelation is symbolism rather than actual.

We must be cautious that we don’t take this figuratively.

To do that, is to be totally confused about what is actually happening.

That’s why there are thousands of media portrayals of what the end times will be.

Don’t be confused by what that is.

The reality is that we have been living in the “end times” since the resurrection of Christ.

Ultimately we need to stop trying to figure out the times of when we think this might go down and start living as if it’s a real thing.

Are we actually going to see a dragon?

No.

But he’s like a dragon in his nature.

Are there actually beasts rising up out of the sea with multiple heads and horns and eyes?

NO.

Don’t be absurd.

Mostly because the sea is symbolic for the events of the earth.

When you go do the sea, what can you see?

You can’t see anything!

Do you get it!

He’s saying that it will come from a place you did not expect.

It won’t be visible right up until it’s totally visible.

It’s like a whale cresting out of the ocean right next to a kayaker.

- Video.. Total obscurity and then wham, it appears.

We need to be sensitive to this because if we are looking for the actual instead of looking for the appearance, we too will be deceived and confused.

Eyes on Jesus, off everything else.

– Nothing really shakes you when you keep your focused fixed on the Lord.

Psalm 18:29- With my God I can…

Constant in prayer, God guide me, show me, give me clarity, understanding, discernment.

It’s somewhat strange how John sought to roll all this together.

The content of what is delivered in Rev 15, actually begins in Rev 6.

In Rev 6. John begins to describe what he was given with the 7 seals.

And one by one those seals were sliced through and a response happened.

It was a cause and effect situation that was unveiling.

We had the prayerful petition from the angel and a heavenly response that followed it.

Then we seem to take this long break.

A lot of content is going to happen.

We’re looking through the windows of this unveiling and John is seeing so much go down.

Rev 7:9- After this i looked, and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, SALVATION BELONGS TO OUR GOD WHO SITS ON THE THRONE AND TO THE LAMB!

And all the fanfare and celebration that would erupt following that.

I can just imagine how that would go down and the tremendous celebration that would become of people.

(B) The nature of a repeating cycle.

Again and again and again.

The recapitulation of this story is what is happening over and over again.

Because of our preconceived filter, we tend to miss this point.

We end up thinking this happens, then this happens, then this happens and so we are looking for things that are not happening.

When we see these three groups of displays of the wrath of God written, we are therefore looking for completeness of wrath, but if you look close that’s not what you see.

You need to look at the alignment of them.

It’s as though John is recapturing the completeness, the severity of the fullness of God in three different ways.

In Rev 8:1 - Silence heaven, worship, finished!