The 7 Bowls of Wrath

Bottom line

We need to be a people who praise, even when times get tough

Opening Line

I don’t want you to put your hand up, but has anyone here ever doubted God’s goodness?

Introduction

Now that is a really loaded question, and if you’ve been in church for a while, you would never admit to doubting God’s goodness. That is one of the fundamental aspects of who God is. He is benevolent, which means he is perfectly good.

But knowing God is good doesn’t always translate to believing that God is good. See believing something isn’t just knowing it. To believe something means that it penetrates every aspect of life. To believe means that it comes out in your speech, your thoughts, and your actions.

So with that, it is easy to believe that God is good when things are going your way, and it can be really hard to believe God is good when things aren’t going your way. When that prayer you’ve been praying for a while goes unanswered, or not answered the way you think it should be answered. When you do everything right and still get sick. When you love someone who is hard to love and they never love you back. When you feel like you are doing everything right, and nothing seems to be working.

Main Point

You belief that God is good will only get stronger when it is challenged. James 1:2

James 1:2–4 NLT

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

The problem is that the very thing God uses to make your faith stronger can also be the very thing that causes you to lose faith.

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Why it matters

Life is full of challenges and struggle, and one of the greatest deceptions that the church has bought into is this idea that as a believer you should never experience hardships. There have been some who have taught that if you do experience hardship, then something is wrong with your faith. But that simply is not true. You and I live in a world that has been corrupted by sin, and even when you do everything right, you have a spiritual enemy that is bound and determined to make sure that it still goes wrong.

This is important because as we dive back into our study of Revelation, you need to remember that this letter was written to a group of people that felt like things were going wrong all the time. Their brothers and sisters in the faith were being killed simply because they loved Jesus. Some of them were being tossed out of families, and they had to meet in secret out of fear of death. The early church knew a thing or two about being a believer in Jesus and still living a life that sucked.

But for them, and for you and I, the hope isn’t that there will be no trial, but that God is still good in midst of the trial because God still wins the victory in the end.

Scripture

We are in Revelation 15 this morning. As a quick reminder, since it has been a month since we looked at this. We left off with the emergence of the dragon and the two beasts, known as the Antichrist and the false prophet. John warns that those who accept the mark of the beast will experience the wrath of God. So we pick it at verse 1

Revelation 15:1–4 NLT

Then I saw in heaven another marvelous event of great significance. Seven angels were holding the seven last plagues, which would bring God’s wrath to completion. I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name. They were all holding harps that God had given them. And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”

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The scene opens with the seven angels holding the final seven plagues that will bring God’s wrath to completion. What is going to follow is going to be different then everything that came before. The trumpets, the seals, they were simply warnings compared to what is to come, which is slightly terrifying in light of everything that we have looked at up to this point.

If you are interested in getting caught up, the whole series is on our website, YouTube, and Spotify. Make sure you go check it out because we would hate for you to miss something.

But then John also sees those who were victorious over the beast, the statue, and the number or the mark. Question: what is required in order for someone to be considered victorious?

interaction

You need to conquer something, right? In order for the Jets or the Leafs to win the cup, they need to defeat every team that stands in their way. In fact, they had to defeat multiple teams multiple times in order to have the opportunity. For my football fans, the only way the Riders win the Grey Cup is if they can beat Winnipeg. It’s true. There is no victory without struggle. There is no growth without trial. The one thing that Revelation says over and over again is that there is blessing for those who persevere. In order for you to persevere, there needs to be a trial for you to overcome.

What are these victorious believers doing? They are worshiping. God has given them harps, and they are singing the song of Moses. There is no victory without struggle, and there is no growth without trial.

Meanwhile, as the victorious believers are worshiping, what is happening to the unrepentant on earth. Let’s keep reading.

Revelation 16:1–7 NLT

Then I heard a mighty voice from the Temple say to the seven angels, “Go your ways and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.” So the first angel left the Temple and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse. And everything in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs, and they became blood. And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying, “You are just, O Holy One, who is and who always was, because you have sent these judgments. Since they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is their just reward.” And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”

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I really don’t think there is any mystery to what is happening here. If you’re familiar with the Bible, this will sound a lot like what happened to Egypt in the Exodus story. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that is OK because I think you still get the idea. Horrible sores break out on all who have taken the mark, and all the water turns to blood. This isn’t just affecting people anymore, but the animals too. The animals in the sea die, and everything on land has lost its drinking water. But we are only half way through.

Revelation 16:8–11 NLT

Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, causing it to scorch everyone with its fire. Everyone was burned by this blast of heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over all these plagues. They did not repent of their sins and turn to God and give him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. His subjects ground their teeth in anguish, and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God.

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Now there is something significant mentioned in these two plagues that I want to draw attention to. Both times it concludes with the fact that the people didn’t repent and turn to God. I want you to grasp the significance here. What could very easily be interpreted as wrathful judgment on a world full of people who have turned their backs on God and done evil in his sight, is actually an act of mercy, just like it was for Pharaoh in the Exodus. Pharaoh could have stopped the plagues on his nation at any time by simply letting the people go, acknowledging that their God was the true God, but he didn’t and Egypt was crippled as a result. The same is happening. The people could repent, turn from their ways, and be saved. The final wrath is being poured out and there is still an opportunity for salvation.

But like Pharaoh, the people remain unrepentant, and suffer the consequences. Hebrews tells us the same thing about believers. God is a good father who disciplines his kids for their good. Sometimes you go through hard times because God is disciplining you. You may not like it, but it is for your good. The same is here. God is pouring out his wrath, but it is meant to lead the people to repentance. It is not God’s fault that they don’t turn to Him.

Revelation 16:12–21 NLT

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and it dried up so that the kings from the east could march their armies toward the west without hindrance. And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty. “Look, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their clothing ready so they will not have to walk around naked and ashamed.” And the demonic spirits gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne in the Temple, saying, “It is finished!” Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And a great earthquake struck—the worst since people were placed on the earth. The great city of Babylon split into three sections, and the cities of many nations fell into heaps of rubble. So God remembered all of Babylon’s sins, and he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath. And every island disappeared, and all the mountains were leveled. There was a terrible hailstorm, and hailstones weighing as much as seventy-five pounds fell from the sky onto the people below. They cursed God because of the terrible plague of the hailstorm.

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Now there are few things of significance happening here. For a long time, the idea of the Euphrates River drying up was thought impossible. It is 1,800 miles long, an average of 30 feet deep, and spans between 300 and 1200 feet wide. This was one of the arguments that the Bible is not reputable. But in 1994, there was a dam built at the headwaters, and the dam had the ability to stop the water for 8 months. On top of that, satellite images show entire sections of the river have actually completely dried up. What was once thought impossible is becoming a reality.

These armies gather to battle against God. How do you fight against God? You fight against his people. These armies have gathered to wipe out Israel, which should surprise no one since Satan has been trying to wipe out Israel since the beginning. On top of that, you fight against his people, which the beast has been actively trying to annihilate trying to destroy the church since he emerged on the scene.

Which brings the final bowl. It is important to remember that Revelation is not a chronological listing of events. Each section of seven, the trumpets, the seals, and now the bowls conclude with earthquakes. Either the world is going to experience a lot of earthquakes, or the trumpets, the seals, and the bowls are all going to happen simultaneously in some way we don’t fully understand and hopefully aren’t around to experience.

But I want to point one final thing out about the bowls. The rivers of blood, cities falling into heaps of rubble, islands disappearing, and mountains being leveled… these are all the results of nuclear war.

Even the hailstones. In 1950, when nuclear bombs were being tested, water has being shot into the air so high that it would freeze before it fell back to earth. The bombs that the nuclear powers are packing now make those ones look like BB guns. The idea of 75 to 100 pound hailstone falling isn’t actually that far off.

Yet the people still blaspheme the Lord in the midst of this.

Transition to Application

There are two things that you should take away from this morning’s passage. The first is never underestimate how hard someone’s heart may be. If Pharaoh’s heart remained hard in the midst of the plagues, and the people’s hearts will remain hard in the face of extreme judgment, don’t be surprised if it takes an act of God to soften the heart of someone you have been reaching out to. Even God’s offer of salvation in the midst of extreme judgment isn’t enough.

Main To Do

The second is back to where we started. Chapter 15 started off by describing those who had conquered the beast, the statue and the mark. What were they doing? They were worshiping. I don’t think they were worshiping only because they had conquered. I believe they were worshiping even in the midst of the trial and challenges.

Why it matters

When we worship, and I mean really pour our heart out to God in praise, it keeps our mind on the fact that God is good, even in the trial. Are things not going your way? Maybe, but they could be a whole lot worse. So praise him that he has given you the strength to persevere. Praise him that you do not face your trials alone. Praise him that you have breath in your lungs, a beat in your heart, and church family you can lean on to get you through. Worship keeps our focus on how good God is instead of how bad things are.

When you stop worshiping, you begin to forget how good God is. When you forget how good God is, that is when your faith begins to weaken and fade.

You need to find ways to worship God more. They say even if you sing one song of praise a day will make a world of difference. Could you find time to praise God for the duration of one song? I’m willing to bet you can’t stop at one, once the goodness of your Father takes over.

Communion

Which brings us to communion. Paul warns us to not take communion in an unworthy manner. When you hear the word of God preached, the appropriate response is to reflect. So take a moment as the gentlemen come around, and ask God to reveal any area in your life that is lacking worship. Is there a part of your life that you need to be reminded of God’s goodness? It could be anything, but allow the Holy Spirit to bring something to light.

pause for reflection

Communion is a reminder of the victory that Jesus won on the cross, and it is a reminder that he is coming again to win the final victory. You can know the strength and victory of Jesus in you life because of what he has done and what he is going to do. In the west we often take communion solemnly, but this morning I invite you to take it victoriously, embracing the new, good covenant you have been saved into.

Discussion Questions

What stood out from the message?

How can we practice praising God in the midst of our struggles?

What are some ways you can remind yourself of God's goodness during challenging times?

When have you found it difficult to believe in God's goodness, and how did you overcome that doubt?

Why do you think it's important to continue worshiping even when life gets tough?

How can the knowledge of God's ultimate victory encourage us to remain faithful in trials?