“What on Earth Does it Take?”
Notes
Transcript
Ever asked: What on earth will it take for an unsaved person to see the truth about Jesus?
We, as humans are a stubborn bunch…hard-headed…self-willed and so often…spiritually blind.
We have this inborn habit of disobeying…wanting our own way…questioning God’s motives.
All of this works against what God desires for us…humility and submission.
Even we, as believers who should know better…have a difficult time with the simple…trust and obey.
But for those who are apart from God…walking in darkness…the situation is even worse.
How can God…a righteous Redeemer…snare the attention of a wicked world?
“…pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains…it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Ex. Saul of Tarsus was literally heading down the wrong path persecuting the early church.(Acts 9:1-2)
Had an encounter with the risen Saviour along with a bout of blindness to get his attention.
In a similar way, one day…God will get the attention of the entire world.
Think of all God has done over the past 2000 years…
He has called sinners to repentance through the Gospel…
He performed many miracles…many more that are not written in the Bible…
He has demonstrated fulfilled prophecy…
He has changed lives…
He has warned of things to come.
Still…people REFUSE to believe.
The Bible says a day is coming…when hearts will get even harder.
When that happens…God will turn to other means to get through to a deaf & stubborn world.
In Revelation God is using a series of intensifying judgments to capture the world’s attention for the purpose of redemption.
In fact, it is clear that a major purpose of God’s judgements in Revelation is to seize the world’s attention when it refuses to listen.
The redeemed martyrs in Revelation 7 tell us that there will be many who will respond to God’s call.
The rest of Revelation, however, tells us that…most people will harden their hearts even more.
A Quick Review…
First, where we have been…the apostle John is taken on a heavenly journey to the throne room of God…where he witnessed the Almighty holding a seven sealed scroll…a title deed of absolute ownership of the universe.
Only one Person in heaven and on earth was found worthy to open the scroll…open the seals and begin the process of snatching control of the world from evil and forever vanquishing sin and death…Jesus
John witnessed…Christ opening the first 6 seals of the 7 sealed scroll (Revelation 6)
He saw 4 horsemen…white horse out for conquering & conquest…red horse…out for war & bloodshed…black horse…famine & scarcity…a pale horse of death. (God will use to get attention)
Then he saw the fifth seal of those martyred for the Word of God…seal 6
In the interlude of Revelation 7 John saw the many multitudes who get saved during the tribulation.
After the interlude…the next act of God’s judgement is ready to begin at the opening of the 7th seal.
1. Jesus OPENS the Seventh Seal…Revelation 8:1
1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Remember that up until this time of John’s visions…there had been sounds of enormous volumes.
There was rumblings and peals of thunder and lightening…4:5
There was extraordinary worship of all the creatures around the throne…4:8
The angels belting out their hallelujahs…
The loud voices of the four living creatures…6:1
The cries and panic of people because of all the earthly calamities…6:16
The reverberating praise among the redeemed…7:10
Yet after the interlude of Revelation 7 when Christ broke open the 7th seal…all the explosive noise turned to absolute silence in heaven.
How appropriate is that?
Have you ever been moved to silence?
Maybe a great wonder? Ocean, canyon
When God prepares to intensify His wrath, every creature is reduced to SILENCE.
In fact…SILENCE is the only proper response to looming judgment…
Scripture helps us understand…the significance of silence…it is often associated with God’s holy presence and His coming judgment.
8 From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still,
20 But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
7 Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near…”
Be sure to understand here…
This SILENCE indicates something very serious & very holy is about to happen…
The announcement of God’s judgments on the world. His wrath.
When God’s plan for judgment becomes visible…both the redeemed and the angels are reduced to silence…as they await the reality of what is written in the scroll.
30 minutes…must have felt like an eternity.
The time of God’s final judgments had come…
When the saints will be vindicated…
Sin is punished
Satan completely vanquished
And Christ exalted!
John McArthur refers to this as “…the greatest event since the Fall is about to take place…and all heaven is seen waiting in suspenseful expectancy.”
2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
We are introduced to seven angels who had been given seven trumpets.
TRUMPETS…If anything can get people’s attention…it’s the sound of a TRUMPET.
To get the attention of the world to God…these heavenly angels will sound a series of trumpets
Each one will be unmistakeable signs of God’s power over the earth.
For some the sounds will serve to DRAW people to God for redemption…
But for most they will become terrifying reminders of God’s wrath.
“trumpet” = salpinx an instrument used for pronouncing, alarm or call to arms.
In several OT passages a trumpet is used to announce the coming day of the Lord.
13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near…”
A trumpet will also sound at the time of our rapture. (1 Corinthians 15:52)
Each of these trumpets will unleash a specific judgement…more intense than the seals…
But before they sound their judgements something else significant…is about to happen…
3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.
During this reverent silence, another angel approached the altar holding a golden censer of incense.
This would have been familiar to the original recipients of Revelation.
“altar” rep. of the altar of incense in the OT Temple.(Ex.30:3) Same altar Isaiah saw Isaiah 6
“golden censer”…a saucer shaped bowl, fire pan…used in temple worship to hold burning incense…an “aromatic substance made of gums and spices.
Recall the Tabernacle/Temple…the priests would every day…morning & evening…take hot, fiery coals from the brazen altar (where sacrifices were offered) and take them into the Holy Place to the altar of incense…where he lit the incense…smoke/aroma rose toward heaven…this represented the prayers of God’s people. (Psalm 141:2; Luke 1:10) Ex. Zecharias father of John doing his duty…
Here it’s explicitly portraying the prayers of God’s people.
What were the prayers of God’s people?
Remember the prayers of the martyred saints? Revelation 6:9-11
For Satan to be destroyed…
For sin to be defeated…
For their deaths avenged…
and for Christ to come
Hey Believer! Is that not what we pray for?
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”
That sin would be defeated…
That our testimony for Jesus would be vindicated…
And for Christ to come and be exalted.?
Side Note…We are commonly taught that God’s answers prayer with be “yes” “no” or “wait”
We see unanswered prayers…sometimes stored until God chooses to answer them in His time.
The smoke of the incense…with the prayers of the saints rose before God…
No doubt about it…these are the cries of the saints in the Great Tribulation against their persecutors and all who blaspheme God and Jesus Christ in that time.
Their prayers rose to heaven with the smoke of the incense…shows He agrees.
How should we then PRAY?
Pray that God to either save His enemies (those who oppose the gospel & God’s people) to bring them to repentance…
Or if He is not going to do that, that He would thwart all their efforts to keep people from worshipping God by faith in Christ.
Those prayers will be heard.
Pray that God would either redeem people who are right now under the influence of evil,
Or if he is not going to redeem them, that he would crush them and all their evil designs…
God will answer those prayers.
Don’t miss the connection here between the prayers of God’s people and God working out His purposes to save and judge.
5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
Then in a moment that must have stunned John and the multitudes in heaven…the angel takes the censer filled it with fire from that altar and threw it on the earth…
The results are of cataclysmic proportions…catastrophic…as God’s judgement falls on the earth like a massive fireball out of the sky.
Causing “…peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightening and an earthquake.”
Here God is answering the prayers of His saints. “The prayers of a righteous man avails much” James 1:16
The time has finally come for God to answer the desperate pleas for God’s intervention.
See also: Deuteronomy 32:35-36
We get to see here what a powerful force is the prayer of God’s people!
YOUR PRAYERS MATTER!
6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.
The First Trumpet…
7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
Targets the earth…taking out 1/3 of the earth’s vegetation and all of its green grass.
Decimating crops and forests …filling the air with smoke and ash.
Commentaries: this will affect food supplies, the global economy and health on a massive scale.
The Second Trumpet…
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
This Trumpet affects 1/3 of the sea…destroying life in its depths and the ships on its surface
The sea became blood.
Reminds us of God’s judgment on Egypt through Moses Exodus 7:17-19
John witnessed “something like a great mountain” engulfed in flames and thrown into the sea.
Imagine if an asteroid were to strike the ocean…a tsunami would be caused by the impact.
The death & destruction inflicted would be on a scale described by these verses.
And again those who depend on ocean life for food would suffer hunger and hardship on an unprecedented scale affecting trade…crisis of security when Navies of world powers are decimated.
The Third Trumpet…
10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.
As if the judgments on the land and sea were not enough to bring the world to submission
The third trumpet will bring another dreadful blow.
John saw an object like a star fall from heaven…fell on 1/3 of the freshwater, rivers & bodies of water.
These waters will be contaminated, rendered poisonous if drunk.
John says the name of the star is Wormwood (8:11)
wormwood= a bitter aromatic herb…with clusters of small, greenish yellow flowers
The Fourth Trumpet…
12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
WRAP UP…
Step away from the judgements…we follow the example of heaven & respond with stunned silence.
There is no natural disaster or act of war that can compare to what John has seen.
The hardship[s, tragedy’s we experience in life merely foreshadows what will come on the earth during the Tribulation
But…we cannot…we must not…we dare not let these troubling truths leave us unaffected.
Jesus Christ gave them to us for a purpose.
So let me share with you a few reflections…principles of application to hold on to…
Some which are very difficult for us to accept but are true none the less…
REFLECTION & ACTION…
God’s Harsh Judgments have a HOLY Purpose…
I think we would all agree that this is a harsh passage. Remember Moses & Pharaoh?
Here the first four Trumpet judgments are harsh…resulting in devastation, hardship and death.
But who are we to question God’s motives? Even in the face of God’s most severe discipline…we must submit, surrender and release our wills to Him as we accept His perfect plan.
I know it is tempting to shake our fist toward heaven and to doubt God’s goodness in the midst of suffering. Can I encourage-challenge you to read Hebrews 12:5-11 slowly out loud.
Think through the proper response of God’s children to His painful discipline.
2. God Uses Physical Disasters & Suffering…to Get Our ATTENTION…
God has used, still uses…and will yet use…physical disasters & suffering to get our attention & to communicate His truth. After disasters, tragedy people are more apt to talk about God…hearts are more open to spiritual things. Hopes & prayers are often transformed by tragedy.
This is a difficult truth to accept that God often uses trials, suffering or disasters to get our attention.
3. God Will Not Stop Until His Plan has been Accomplished…
This is another hard lesson to learn and an even harder one to live through.
The sad reality of this passage is that it is only the beginning…(3 more trumpets…and 7 more bowls)
4. The CHOICE…is Yours…
You can choose to HEED God’s warnings…or you can HARDEN our hearts.
Despite all the terrifying judgements…the world wide preaching of the Gospel by 144,000 Jewish evangelists…people during the time of Tribulation will still refuse to believe.
The unbelieving world rejected Jesus the first time He came…it rejects the life giving Gospel today.
They will continue to reject it…even during the outpouring of God’s wrath.
It seems incredible that…though they have seen and experienced God’s judgment and heard the message of salvation that people will still cling stubbornly to their sin.
But the sad truth is that the Light of the world has come into the world but men loved darkness rather than. the Light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
But for those who repent of their sins and come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ…here the promise of John 3:16-20 comes into play…
GOD HAS PROVIDED A SAVIOUR…His name is Jesus. He took God’s wrath for sin on the cross.
REFLECTION & ACTION…
God’s Harsh Judgments have a holy purpose…
God Uses physical disasters & suffering…to get our attention…
God will not stop until His plan has been accomplished…
The choice…is yours…
