Joy and Justice
The Conquering Lamb • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
On January 12th, 1946, New York City entertained the spirit of the entire nation when they held the World War II New York City Victory Parade. *PICTURE HERE*
13,000 men from the 82nd Airborne Division led the way down the street, including the historic African-American parachute battalion, the 555th—the Triple Nickle Association.
By the way—awesome name.
The United State military were eager to show off the prowess of the machines that helped win the fight.
Tanks and self-propelled howitzers
A formation of C-47’s flying overhead
The parade marched along a four mile stretch
The governor of New York was presiding over it, along with the current and former mayors of the city
This was the largest victory parade that took place in the country
Old glory was whipping in the winter wind every where you looked
What remarkable joy
And yet, across the world, in Nuremberg, Germany, it was a different scene.
There was no parade there. Instead, there was a tribunal.
The International Military Tribunal took 177 war criminals, including 21 of the most important leaders and conspirators of Nazi Germany, and they put them on trial.
For awful ethical transgressions in war
For crimes against the human race
For the especially heinous and unthinkable horror committed against the Jewish people
Over a period of about 11 months, there were 1300 testimonies
30,000 documents were put on the table for evidence
Nearly 133,000 pages of transcripts
Of the 177 on trial, 142 were found guilty.
25 of them were executed for what they had done.
The trials are looked at today by legal historians as a major contributor to codifying international law and ensuring justice is looked after by multiple nations
What remarkable justice
In one place, there was victory.
Symbols of war had become symbols of safety
There was peace and rejoicing
But in another place, there was judgment and justice.
The fire of consequence had come to lick up the water
There was weight and impending death
And in that contrast between New York and Nuremberg, we get a small picture of the contrast in Revelation 15.
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
As we enter into Revelation 15, the fifth cycle of the book is beginning. Verses 1-8 are a bit of a bridge passage.
In one sense, they are a carry over from what we have just seen in chapters 12-14.
I’ll try to show you that in verse 1 in a moment.
You’ll see that we are getting to peek at those who have overcome God’s enemies through the Lamb
But in another sense, these verses are looking to the next set of symbols to explain judgment.
We’ve had 7 seals.
We’ve had 7 trumpets.
And now we have the 7 bowl judgments that we are introduced to in verses 5-8
It is another look at the age of the church.
Another glimpse at the state of how things are until Christ returns.
But before we get the plague of wrath, we get the peace of redemption before the majesty of God
Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
CYCLE 5 BEGINS (v. 1)
CYCLE 5 BEGINS (v. 1)
We have the 5th Cycle beginning the same way the fourth did:
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.
We are moving on from the great epic battle of chapters 12-14
And John lets us know the focus of this cycle right off the bat.
Seven angels
with seven plagues
These are the seven angels that are given the seven golden bowls full of God’s wrath by the four living creatures in 15:7
Much like the seals and trumpets, the bowls of wrath held by the angels of plague are showing us the ways will be in the time between Jesus’ ascension and His eventual return.
But unlike the seals and trumpets, the bowl judgments seem to be specifically focused on the end
Seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last
Once they are poured out, the wrath of God is finished (v. 1)
It is accomplished.
There is no more to be done. And that means it is the end.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The transient and temporary things around us will be burned up
And once that is done, there will just be the new heavens and the new earth
And there will just be righteousness
The Lord’s wrath will have burned away every impurity
So you can see that there is this intensified focus on the events surrounding the end with the bowls—a focus on that time of dissolving that Peter speaks of
There is surely overlap with the seals and trumpets, but if we use the instant replay analogy:
In the seals and trumpets, Revelation is showing us how things will be throughout the entirety of the church age
But in the bowls, we are looking at the end of the play
It is like when they show you the receiver catching the ball in the end zone, and after showing you a couple of angles, they zoom just on where his toes are at the end of the play
THE JOY OF THE OVERCOMERS (v. 2-4)
THE JOY OF THE OVERCOMERS (v. 2-4)
But before we get to the angels and the bowls, we have a respite. We have a chance to take a breath.
We have an interlude.
We have seen this throughout the book of Revelation
After seeing the full picture of how Jesus’ church is suffering and being tempted and persecuted in the world, we get transported to the a scene of heavenly worship
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
After all of the seals are open and we see God’s judgment in the world, we got an awesome picture worship in chapter 7 and the tranquility of heaven to start chapter 8.
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
And now, after three chapters of seeing the Dragon hunting the church in the wilderness of the world
Calling beasts out of the sea and land
Deceiving the world into taking his mark and making war on the church
We get another respite.
We are back where we were in Revelation 4 and 5:
Revelation 4:6 (ESV)
and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
Revelation 15:2 (ESV)
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire...
That makes Revelation 15:1-8 a bit of a bridge text, connecting the epic battle of Revelation 12-14 to the bowl judgments in Revelation 16.
Much like my favorite bridge to drive on in our area—the James River Bridge.
One side of it touches Newport News.
One side of it touches Isle of Wight County, taking you into Carrollton
A connector between two lands
Here we have a text that works as a connector
On one side of the bridge, we have the overcomers celebrating the joy of heaven
On the other side of the bridge, we have the stark reminder that the world is in judgment and the end draws near
Let’s look closer at the joy of heaven before we look at the justice in verses 5-8.
With the conquerors standing beside the sea of glass and singing the song of Moses, which is also the song of the Lamb, the picture that we are supposed to have is clear.
Just like Moses’ generation stood on the shore of the Red Sea, celebrating God’s great act of Old Covenant deliverance, now those who have overcome in the Lamb, stand at the sea of glass celebrating His greatest act—New Covenant deliverance in Christ.
In verses 5-8, angels with plagues are about to judge the earth, much like in the days of Moses.
In Exodus 11:1, The Lord tells Moses he has one more plague—a tenth plague—that He will bring upon Pharoah for the way he has enslaved God’s people and refused to let them go.
For the way he has challenged God
That plague is the death of the firstborn, when the Lord’s destroyer enters the houses and the firstborn sons of Egypt will die.
The Israelites will be spared by keeping the first Passover and trusting in the Lord’s Word to them.
For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
The writer of speaks of it this way:
By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
We saw the end of those who cast their lot with the Dragon and his beasts.
They are gathered as grapes and thrown into the winepress of God’s wrath and judged outside the eternal city of heaven.
So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.
But whose who are standing and singing in verses 2-4 are the ones who trusted in the Lord’s Word and in His Lamb.
They have not bowed down and taken the mark.
They haven’t gone along with the world, calling Caesar a god and adopting the perverse sexual ethics around them
At the risk of their own lives, they did not take the mark—some of them even died for it.
People like Antipas.
“ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
Those like the martyrs crying out for justice in Revelation 6, just before final judgment comes in the opening of the Sixth Seal
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
This is a picture of all the saints of God, preparing to enjoy the freedom of eternity on the New Earth, rejoicing over the victory they have in Christ the Overcomer.
This is a picture of you and I—no longer on Jordan’s stormy banks
No longer casting a wishful eye
This is the church triumphant, shouting a song of praise in Canaan’s fair and happy land where our possessions lie
Let’s zoom in on the images and the words.
SEA OF GLASS
SEA OF GLASS
We start with the sea of glass in verse 2. It is mingled with fire.
We have seen a sea of glass before in Revelation. It was also in a heavenly worship scene.
and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:
There is no reason to think we are not dealing with the same sea of glass, considering that the same four living creatures are present in chapter 15, delivering the bowls of wrath to the angels of plague.
Ezekiel spoke of a sea of glass in the presence of living creatures that serves as heaven’s floor and earth’s ceiling.
Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads.
In the Old Testament, the sea is a picture of chaos.
But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
In Revelation 13, the first Beast comes out of the sea.
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
But here in Revelation 15, the image of the sea is redeemed.
There is peace before the throne of God.
Not chaos.
There is the order of His governing rule.
Not a rebellious beast trying to counterfeit His authority
The glassiness of the sea gives us the idea of purity.
Clear. Unpolluted and undefiled—a characteristic design aesthetic of the New Jerusalem
The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
How can pure gold be like clear glass?
Clearly, these terms are meant to convey the absolute holy, righteous, sinless environment of heaven.
The overcomers stand on or beside the sea of glass. The Greek preposition actually lends itself more toward them standing “on” the sea of glass, according to Thom Schreiner.
Hebrews–Revelation Comment
Nevertheless, the saints are standing without harm on the sea of glass, as the preposition epi here probably means “on” (so NKJV, CSB), not “beside” (ESV, NRSV, NIV).
Much as you and I love the beach, the ocean is terrifying. More people have been to the moon than the deepest parts of the ocean.
Think about that.
That is why the beast comes up out of the terrible chaos of the sea.
But in heaven, the saints stand on the pure sea of glass in a state of peaceful praise before the throne of God.
They stand on the sea of glass, in the presence of the Father as those who said no to the world and yes to the Lamb.
HARPS (v. 2)
HARPS (v. 2)
You also see in verse 2 that they have harps in their hands.
This is similar to the scene of heavenly praise that began chapter 14.
And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
In that scene, John says that the Church Triumphant have voices that sound like harps.
Here, the Church Triumphant are literally holding the harps and playing.
These are instruments of praise.
The harp is a stringed instrument that sounds ethereal and heavenly.
And as they are played in the Psalms to celebrate the praise of God, they are played here.
This is a reversal of what took place when the people were in Exile in Psalm 137:3
On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
In Babylonian Exile, the Babylonians wanted the Jewish sojourners to play them the songs of Yahweh’s praise on their harps so they could mock them.
The Jewish exiles hung their harps in the trees
But God’s people are no longer on the run in the wilderness, being hunted by the Dragon.
They have overcome.
They are in heaven, standing beside or on the glassy sea.
The harps are not hanging in the trees.
They are plucked around the throne by the fingers of the conquerors for the glory of God.
SONG OF MOSES, SONG OF THE LAMB (v. 3)
SONG OF MOSES, SONG OF THE LAMB (v. 3)
Along with the playing of the harps, they are singing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb.
These are not two different songs. These are the same songs.
The Song of Moses refers to the song that Israel sings on the shore after the Red Sea swallows up Pharaoh’s army
Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord rescued Israel by judging Egypt.
The only reason that Israel wasn’t judged along with them is because God mercifully had a plan of salvation—the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts.
But here is the thing—when the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, he tells them to purify the church and put away the old way of living.
And the motivation for them to do this is that the ultimate Passover Lamb has come:
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
So all those Passover Lambs on that appointed night of judgment in Egypt...
All those Passover Lambs in between the generation Moses and the generation of John the Baptist...
It had all been leading to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ at Calvary.
So you can see all of the parallels here, right?
God rescued Israel from slavery with a servant, named Moses, while Egypt was judged.
But that was only a shadow of what we have Here in Revelation 15.
For here we have God rescuing all of His children from spiritual slavery with a greater Servant of God, named Jesus, while the world is judged.
So in this way, the Song of Moses is the Song of the Lamb because the Song of the Lamb is the fulfillment of the Song of Moses.
The Song of Moses cannot be finished without the song of the Lamb.
Another way of saying it is that the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb give us the full sound of the praise of God’s people.
The Old Testament Church—the church under the Law—lifts up the Song of Moses
The New Testament Church—the church under grace—lifts up the Song of the Lamb
But in truth—it is one song, singing about the history of God’s saving work in the midst of His people
In verse 3, the song is made up of two couplets.
Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!
These are statements that can only be made about God.
No one else does deeds that compel you to proclaim them as the Lord God the Almighty.
No one else is completely and utterly just in everything that they do
No one else can claim ownership over the nations
In verse 4, the song presents a question and then provides an answer.
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
This is a question that makes use of the Hebrew tool of parallelism.
To fear the Lord is to glorify the Lord
To glorify the Lord is to fear the Lord
They are two train tracks that the steam engine of worship barrels along when someone is exalting the Lord in spirit and truth
And God is worthy of this reverence and glory because not only is He the unique holder of the descriptions given in verse 3…
But because He is holy
There is no one else like Him
He is the object of the worship of the redeemed in the nations
He has revealed His powerful and praiseworthy character in his righteous acts
What else would the overcomers in heaven do but play their harps and belt out a symphony of praise with their voices?
SULLIVAN BALLOU
SULLIVAN BALLOU
During the Civil War, a woman named Sarah Ballou received some letters that she had long been waiting for in 1861.
They were from her husband, Sullivan, a private in the Union army.
In the letters, Sullivan told Sarah about the war, about the uncertainties on the battlefield and about how his love for his country was unwavering.
But nothing shined more in the letter than Sullivan’s love for Sarah and his desire to get home to her and their kids.
But Sullivan never made it home. If he did, his letters probably would not have become famous.
But as history played out, he was killed one week later in the First Battle of Bull Run.
That is why his letters became so famous. They were a tragic record of love and patriotism.
We are like Private Sully Ballou, wearied from living in this world
Our backs are weathered from carrying crosses
Our feet are calloused from standing for Christ and refusing to bow to the Beast and take his mark
Our hands are cut and bleeding from the rugged work of keeping on the narrow path
Paul gives this apt description of those who truly live on adventure with Christ, representing Him in the world and clinging to Him.
The Gospel is a treasure, but we are jars of clay holding it. And some days, it feels like the jar is one small teeter away from falling down and smashing to pieces.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
Notice what Paul says though. Afflicted, but not crushed.
Perplexed, but not abandoned.
Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Struck down, but not destroyed.
Though we limp along, we will not be gunned down in this battle.
Even if they can take our very lives, they can’t take our souls.
And Paul is so sure of this that he calls on Corinth to recognize that the present sufferings of life are nothing when compared with the glory to come:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
The story of Sullivan Ballou is not the story of the church.
We will make it home from this war.
And when we do, we will find that we have overcome.
Not in our own strength and wisdom, but in the strength and wisdom and power of Christ the Lamb.
And one day, the chaotic things that threatened us will dissolve like a clump of ice in the middle of a white-hot desert.
We will stand on the sea of glass.
The ceiling of the earth will be under our feet.
Cancer
Pride
The sin that so easily entangles
Abuse
Blasphemy
Eating disorders
Mental health problems
Poverty
Persecution
Governments that hate the church
False prophets that speak lies
And the Dragon himself
You need to look to this.
When you are discouraged and you are scared
When you are thinking of giving up
When you are thinking of giving in
When sin seems alluring and worth more than Christ
When you are ready to sacrifice holiness for pleasure
When you are ready to compromise truth for approval
When you start to think about life and death like an unbeliever
When you are despairing over current events
That is when we have to stop looking at the enemies of God
That is when we have to stop looking at the chart on the health app
That is when we have to stop looking at the news
And that is when we look to the eternal:
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Church—you will stand on the sea before the throne.
You will sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb
Your fallen fingers will be glorified, plucking the taut strings of the Potter’s praise
You will conquer the Beast and the number of his name.
And you will do it all in Christ.
THE JUSTICE OF CHRIST (v. 2, 5-8)
THE JUSTICE OF CHRIST (v. 2, 5-8)
But with that said, we have to go back to verse 2 for a little reminder that this beautiful scene in heaven is not the fate of everyone who lives.
For there was a little hint in the glory of heaven that there is judgment on the earth
Sea of glass, mingled with fire
Remember, the idea here is that heaven’s floor is earth’s ceiling. It is the prophetic picture from Ezekiel 1...
While there is glory above, where the overcomers stand and praise the Lord before His throne, there is judgment beneath.
The glorious praise of God is seen in heaven.
The glorious justice of God is taking place on the earth.
This idea is backed up by what we see in verses 5-8.
There are seven angels with seven plagues who emerge from the sanctuary of the tent of witness.
We have seen God’s sanctuary open up before in Revelation and it signaled judgment:
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
When did that happen? At the blowing of the 7th Trumpet. At Final Judgment.
So then, as the seven angels emerge, they are coming to bring history to its close.
As verse 1 said— “With them, the wrath of God is finished.”
The way the angels are dressed tells us something about who they represent.
The pure, bright linen and the golden sashes resemble the priestly clothing worn by Christ at the beginning of the book.
and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
The fact that they dress like Jesus shows that they represent Jesus.
They are carrying out His judgments like the angels gathering the grape harvest in chapter 14.
The four living creatures, who we have seen around God’s throne in chapters 4-5, as well as in the heavenly scene in chapter 7.
They give the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who is eternal.
The number seven is significant.
There are seven angels with seven bowls because seven is the number of completion and perfection.
They carry seven plagues in case there could be any confusion about what the angels are coming to do:
They will bring God’s judgment, just as when the plagues came down upon Egypt in the days of Moses
God’s complete and perfect wrath is being fully and finally poured out in these judgments in chapter 16.
Final Judgment will not be partial.
It will be exhaustive.
In fact, verse 8 shows that to us.
The sanctuary is filled with smoke from God’s glory and power and no one can go in until the wrath is completely poured out
Meaning, God will finish His work.
No one can stop it or halt it.
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
This includes God’s wrathful purpose of justice, in which He will bring every work of every human into His court room
Every soul will be called to account for their lives
And if you have not surrendered to the Lamb.
If you have not received His righteousness by faith...
Then you will pay for your own sins on that day
The mingled fire in the sea of glass will represent your end.
You won’t be on the shore with the Conquerors.
You will be under the waters of God’s judgment with Pharaoh’s army
Turn from your sin and repent today.
For God’s final wrath has not fallen and heaven is opened to you in a gracious way
The time for heaven to open up in judgment has not arrived yet
Christ holds open the door and invites you in by faith
Say no to the world and yes to the truth of God and the love of God, which have come to us in the Person of Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
For the men who tried to destroy God’s creation with Adolf Hitler, there was no getting off of death row.
Rightfully so.
But that is not the case for you tonight.
We have two scenes.
New York and Nuremburg.
Heaven and the Hell of Judgment.
Will you receive the reward of praising God with your feet on heaven’s floor?
Or will you rebel against God and put yourself in danger of the fire of His judgment, which will fall from earth’s ceiling?
Eternal joy or eternal justice?
There is only one sensible choice.
Don’t let sin and the things of this world fool you into thinking that this is all there is.
Look past the transient to the eternal tonight--
For the days of short, and the time is coming when the wrath of God will be finished.
It can be finished for you tonight, if you trust in Jesus.
For anyone who trusts in Christ will never taste the wrath of the bowls.
He already drank it up.
Trust in the Lamb and join in His song.