Sermon Tone Analysis

Good afternoon!

For the last three chapters we have been in this interlude between the sounding of the seven trumpets and the pouring out of the seven bowls.

Chapter sixteen, which we are looking at today is the last of this interlude.

And it is going to serve as an introduction so to speak to the seven bowl and the final pouring out of Gods wrath upon this earth.

And we need to remember as we look at todays chapter that the purpose of the Gods wrath is that Gods grace might be experienced in the forgiveness of sins.

All of this wrath towards sin is meant to bring mankind to its knees before Christ Jesus before it is too late.

With all of that said you might think well none of this is for me, for the church.

All of this should be meant for the unbeliever.

But that is simply not the case.

The book of Revelation was written to the church.

And it was written so that we might see the dire need that all of those around us stand in every day.

And so if you have been uncertain or fearful of sharing the good news of Jesus.

Which honestly is almost everyone in this room.

This position right now in the Church in America is not the exception it is the norm.

If this characterizes your walk with Jesus then this book is really for you more than anyone else.

We all need to begin to see this world through eyes that are stained by the blood of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that is more than anything else the purpose of todays passage.

So let’s start with verse one where we read.

A sign is given in the heaven of what is about to happen.

This is the grand finale we might say of the whole of history as we know it right now.

A sign is given not for unbelievers, but for you and I to see the dire need that this world stands in, and they stand in this position completely unaware.

They have absolutely no clue of what might be unleashed at any moment upon this world.

We the church are the ones who have received the warning.

And so none of us now may know the time of the end, but we will not be caught unaware if it were to come tomorrow.

And so now here on the eve of the pouring out of the bowls of wrath, John is given a vision of those who overcame the beast and endured until the end and faced both persecution and martyrdom.

All for the name of Jesus.

The are called conquerers.

They have conquered the beast through their faith in Christ Jesus.

They stood strong in the face of the influence of the culture around them and they refused to worship the beast, they refused to bow before its idol, and they refused to take its number.

And even though the beast is given the power to kill them, their deaths bring about their ultimate victory over the beast.

Just as we are told that the death of Jesus overcame both sin and death.

Their deaths are what ultimately bring about the eternal downfall of the beast.

So what about this sea of glass there are a couple of way that this is interpreted and that interpretation is often times affected by the next verse which speaks of the song of Moses.

And so we see an allusion to the Red Sea where the people of God crossed through the sea on dry ground in order to escape the Egyptian Army.

I’m not certain if this is specifically what is in mind.

If so then the sea of glass represents the escape of the saints from the beast, but the problem is that it is through their deaths at the hands of the beast.

This makes the connection a bit difficult.

I believe that the sea of glass that is mingled with fire is most likely symbolic of the fact that this is a time of judgment for those who dwell upon the earth.

And that there will be some who come through that period by the grace of God.

Again it is very similar to the idea of the parting of the Red Sea, but we just need to be careful to make clear the differences.

In one none of the people of God were touched by the enemy and in the other those present were all martyred by the beast.

Then in verse three we read.

So this song is very interesting when compared to most of the songs that are sung within the book of Revelation, particularly those sung by the Church.

Up to this point the songs that are sung by the church are songs of redemption.

This song is a song that praises the mighty works of God.

The other part is that this song is not attributed to Moses anywhere in the scriptures.

That doesn’t mean that Moses wasn’t the first to sing it, but that we do not have any historical writing attesting to this.

This is a very common theme found within the Psalms.

And I would say that when we begin to see the world through eyes that are stained by the blood of the Gospel then our prayers will often times take on this quality.

We will begin to see the work of God all around us and we will give thanks for those might works within our lives and the lives of those around us.

The other thing that I want to point out is that there is a manuscript difference that is found within the greek texts that we have available to us.

There are two primary families of texts.

One of those is called the critical text which is what the ESV that we use most Sundays is based upon.

The other primary text family is called the majority text which is the family that the KJV and the NKJV are both based upon.

The majority text is called this because it represents the majority of the ancient greek manuscripts that have been recovered.

The critical text is the older of the two going back about two centuries older and therefore closer to the original writings historically.

Most of the differences in the manuscript families have little bearing upon how one translates a passage.

However, in this passage we see a fairly big difference between the two.

In the critical text which is what most bibles use we have this last phrase that reads, “O King of the nations.”

However if you are reading the KJV or the NKJV it reads in verse three.

O King of the saints.

So which is it.

Because the truth is that these two interpretations have significant differences in meaning.

I believe in order to come to the best understanding of the passage and the best possible translation.

We have to ask which of these two fits best within the context of the passage and the book as a whole at this point.

And, I think it’s pretty obvious in this instance that nations is a better translation.

God has not at this point in the text declared himself simply king of the saints.

But rather because he has both protected the saints eternally and is now pouring out his wrath upon the nations, he has shown himself to be the king of all mankind.

And so believe that King of nations is a much better translation.

Finally one last not on this phrase.

There is another translation that you may find out there.

It is found in the American Standard Version for instance and reads.

Where this idea comes from I am uncertain.

I believe that this is more of a contextual translation on the part of some rather than a word for word translation.

The word that this version translated as ages literally means nations.

So how they got to the translation ages I am uncertain.

But, just something that if you study this passage you might find.

The translation actually makes sense contextually but is not I don’t believe what the original intent was.

Moving on though.

I eventually have to stop geeking out about the details of the text.

I just love this stuff though.

So verse four reads.

So, if all we had were this single verse to understand who it is that will be saved and who will worship Jesus we would say that it is all the nations.

And so everyone must be saved.

Oh! Didn’t see that did we?

But on the surface it is there.

We see something similar in Philippians chapter two verses ten through eleven which reads.

Must be true right?

In the end no matter what you believe everyone gets a pass and goes to heaven.

Some of you are looking at me like.

What the heck?

This is the problem when we come to conclusions by picking and choosing what verses we want to support a preconceived conclusion that we simply want biblical support for.

Look no one likes the other option right?

Look even the end of our story says that all of the nations will be healed.

We read in Revelation chapter twenty-two verse two.

However this does not mean universal salvation.

What this means is that the Kingdom of God will be made up of people from all the nations who will bend their knee in worship and devotion to God.

Then in verse five we read.

Now the seven bowls are about to be released and this picture of the sanctuary of the tent of witness which is a reference to both the temple in Jerusalem as well as the tent which was the tabernacle of God that Israel carried with them as they traveled from Egypt until finally placing it in Jerusalem.

The dwelling place of God Most High is opened and from his very presence these seven angels will come forth and we read in verse six.