Untitled Sermon

Introduction

The Dramatic Pause

Good morning everyone. It’s so good to be with you again this week. We had a great break from Revelation as we celebrated Pentecost. Last week was deeply meaningful as we  experienced the sacrament of communion and baptism.  These rituals that go back 2000 years to the time of Christ—to remember his death and burial and resurrection, and to join him in baptism—moving from death to life.   Affirming our faith. how Pentecost fits into Revelation. In fact, how it fits it right here at Revelation chapter 10. Who would have thought? 

Revelation used to terrify me!  My earliest memory of Revelation was my mother taking me and my sister to see the movie “A Thief in the Night.” It is aptly described as an “evangelical Christian horror film” and tells a story of the tribulation, the Mark of the Best, and missing the rapture.  I was 5. It absolutely terrified me. If I couldn’t find my parents, I was so afraid, thinking I’d been “left behind.” It wasn’t until my 30’s that I finally decided that I needed to get over this fear of Revelation, to study it, to understand. I remember opening to that part of my Bible with such trepidation and read the first words and had my first understanding and relief as I read, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” not the antichrist, or the rapture, not the tribulation, not the mark of the Beast. But the revelation of Jesus Christ.

In the big picture of Revelation, we are about in the middle.  And in the middle we have a dramatic pause. Two weeks ago, Justin led us through Revelation 9.  He aptly used the visual of a blender to take all the bits so we could see how those in the ANE culture would have interpreted this. If we take the imagery at face value, we are left with a fantastical picture of terrifying horse like people torturing locusts and fire and smoke breathing horses with tails like scorpions. Justin described how these would have been easily understood by the first hearers and readers of this book. If we take these images at face value, we miss the message. An opposite analogy would be like that culture trying to understand the Lord of the Rings.with its rings of power, walking trees, wizards, hobbits, and orcs trying to make sense of what it all means without the context.  But we are given keys in the Old Testament that point us in the right direction.  Overall, through Revelation 9, we have this concept:  God’s judgment alone will not bring repentance.  And there is no escape, humanly speaking from the self-perpetuating cycles of idolatry and falsehood.  Humans cannot save themselves.

Then we step into this dramatic pause of Rev 10:1-11:14. Today we will only be talking about Revelation 10.

Again, we have fantastical images and in John’s visions.  This painting, by William Blake[1] attempts to depict this scene.

(Read Rev 10:1-11)

  Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.  He had a little scroll open in his hand.  And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a roaring lion. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.  And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice, from heaving saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”

 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”  So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll.  And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the angel and ate it.  It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

THE WORD OF THE LORD.  THANKS BE TO GOD.

In this passage we find echoes of Revelation1, 4, 5 and Ezekiel and Daniel.  We encounter an enormous angel standing with one foot on land and one on sea, holding a small scroll. The imagery is striking—his face shining like the sun, a rainbow above his head, his voice roaring like a lion. When John attempts to record what the seven thunders said, he's told to seal up those words. Instead, he's commanded to take the scroll and eat it—finding it sweet as honey in his mouth but bitter in his stomach. This dramatic pause in the narrative of Revelation invites us to look deeper. Just as the angel bridges heaven and earth, this chapter bridges what has come before and what lies ahead in God's salvation story.  But remember: The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Up through Revelation 9, we've seen a sobering truth: God's judgment alone will not bring repentance. Now in chapter 10, we encounter an intermission—a dramatic pause in the unfolding of God's plan. This pause isn't empty space; it's pregnant with meaning. The mighty angel stands with authority over both land and sea—a detail repeated three times in this short passage. In ancient Near Eastern culture, the sea represented chaos, death, and evil—the unknown depths where danger lurked. It was a place to be feared.

I once experienced this visceral fear firsthand.  One day my friend and I decided we were going to kayak to an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea.  We had heard there was a beautiful island a few miles out that we could spend the day. We had just finished a weeks long alphabet development workshop and were looking forward to a day away. The day was stunning.  Beautiful sun, a cool breeze, and clear blue water, …so clear we could see the ocean floor even though the water was deep.  We had taken our snorkel equipment in hopes of finding shells.  As we neared the island, the waves literally thrust us onto the island. We didn’t think anything of it. It was idyllic. White sandy beaches, palm and fruit trees to give shade and a shoreline waiting to be explored.  We jumped into the water, snorkeling—brilliant tropical fish, sea anemones, my favorite the Christmas tree anemone, and clown fish poking through corral and sea vegetation. I kept swimming further out.  Suddenly the water turned colder.  Looking down, I saw light being sucked down into pitch darkness. It felt like a bottomless pit.  No one told us that this beautiful little island was like a citadel set on an underwater trench.  Fear leached into my soul as I rapidly swam away from the trench.  What lurked in those depths, just beyond what I could see?  This primal fear helps us understand why the angel's stance—one foot firmly planted on the sea—was so significant to John's audience.

The angel's authority over both realms signals that God's power extends over all creation—even the chaotic forces that threaten to overwhelm us. Nothing lies beyond His reach or control. The lion roars out and the seven thunders answer.  This angel raises his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, the one who created the heavens and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it. Echoes again of OT, perhaps ringing back to the first chapter of the Bible…in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

This angel introduced at the beginning of the chapter bursts on to the scene offering a welcome contrast to the darkness and horror of the previous section. This Angel, sent from God, carries a divine message for the earth. He's enveloped in a cloud, which suggests that God is present but hidden within this message. The rainbow above his head suggests the throne vision from Revelation 4 and echoes ancient biblical themes found in the book of Daniel.  His face shines like the sun, reminiscent of the son of man in the first chapter, and his feet resemble fiery pillars, evoking the pillar of fire in the desert—a symbol of God's personal presence. This is no ordinary Angel, and his voice, like a roaring lion, makes that clear. He speaks with the authority of the lion-lamb, the Messiah, embodying the creator God's sovereignty over all creation

And this angel blazes with a message. There would be no more delay, but that the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to the prophets!

I suspect that many of us enjoy a good mystery—whether in a book or movie, or perhaps even in life. I like a good mystery as long as it is solved by the end of the book or the movie. When I’m watching a movie with my family, they will take my cellphone so I can’t do any research, because I want to know the end of the story! I want to know what the outcome will be.   A good storyline misdirects us, but gives occasional clues along the way to keep us guessing and engaged.  Although the clues can be misleading, by the end, we know what the mystery is and how it is solved.

This mystery of God was hidden for centuries.  Like any good mystery, there are clues.  These clues were hidden in the OT.  And the prophets who delivered God’s messages to the people, recognized the clues, but they could not put them together. Thousands of years passed since the prophets of the OT foretold the coming Messiah. And the time finally came for this mystery to be revealed.

I wonder what Jesus felt as he prepared to announce that the Kingdom of God had come. Imagine the excitement Jesus must have felt as He announced, that the kingdom of God had come. I love Mark’s rendition of this moment.  This moment when what has been a mystery is revealed. The unfolding of God’s plan. One of my favorite translations of Mark 1:15 is this, “At last the time has come,” Jesus announced.  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe this good news.”

 The moment when he begins to proclaim that HE is the answer to the mystery as he explains the clues found in the Old Testament and continues to drop clues, now in parables, to his listeners and his disciples.  Confusion continued, because they also didn’t understand the mystery.

Jesus’ revelation, “At last the time has come,” was not merely a statement of timing, but a declaration of divine revelation—the invisible Kingdom of God breaking into the world! This mystery is not an enigma wrapped up in a riddle [2]; rather, it is the glorious truth that God’s Kingdom has arrived through Jesus. The prophets foretold it, but the fullness—the how, when, and who—was revealed in Christ. In Jesus, God is made known to all mankind. Jesus declared in John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Still the disciples struggled to understand.  Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples still didn’t get it.  In Acts 1, the disciples are still asking the wrong question.  They ask, “Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” It isn’t until Pentecost and Holy Spirit coming to fill each one, that they finally get it! The mystery is not about a physical kingdom, but a spiritual one. This is a profound and timeless truth—the “mystery” of God revealed through Jesus Christ.  As Paul writes in Ephesians 3:5, it was a truth once concealed but now disclosed: “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ,” though the mystery of the cross which is both profound and paradoxical. That losing is winning, that power is in weakness, love involves suffering.  It is the symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection, suffering and salvation, God’s hiddenness and revelation. [3] 

The revealed mystery is revolutionary, and it leaps from the pages of Paul’s epistles.  The wall that divided the Jews from the Gentiles is torn down.  2000 years after these words were written, we often take it for granted. I’m not sure we fully appreciate what this means. Afterall, if we really understood that God is calling everyone, not just people like ourselves would we not be much less selective in who we reach out to with the gospel?  Would we not embrace all members of the body of Christ as brothers and sisters?  Would we not be spending more time in God’s presence?[4]

I often think of the more modern example of the Berlin wall.  This wall that divided East Germans from Western Germans. I went to school with a woman who was on the “wrong” side of the wall. She was a teenager when the wall came down. They were “remade” into one people, but even so they were ideologically and experientially they were still “different.”  But, even after the wall came down, the division remains and continues to this day including socioeconomic differences, political divisions, stereotyping, and belittling the other side.  This is a difficult even for us today. 

We know the “mystery” that was revealed, yet it is still something we struggle to live out.  Does anything we do make a difference? Sometimes it feels easier to be merely the audience especially when we see ongoing division and nothing “seems to change.”

But we are not spectators in this Divine drama. Let’s reread vs 8-10. In these verses John draws a strong parallel to the scroll in chapter 5 where God presents the scroll to Christ. Here Christ gives the little scroll to John, and by extension to the church.[5] All authority comes from Christ, but he chooses to invest in His church a measure of this authority. And John, for the first time in Revelation is told to do something other than be a scribe.  He is told to “Take and eat.”

These words are sweet and life giving.  There is a sweetness to the gospel as we experience God’s grace and work in our lives.  Yet there is also bitterness.  How many of us have a sense of grief/bitterness for family, friends, coworkers, who have not yet turned to Christ?  The gospel which embodies God’s “yes” to humanity, can also be offensive.  It is vulnerable to rejection and this rejection will be aimed not only at the message, but also at the messengers.

And how do we actively participate?  How do we become actors on this Divine Stage? Let’s turn to Matt 28…all authority has been given me in Heaven and on Earth.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The authority Christ has given to the church is to be messengers of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. To make disciples we must be disciples. 

Discipleship is active. I know I used to think that discipleship meant “oh, I need to read my Bible more, do more, pray more, meditate more.” Spiritual disciplines are important and life giving.  Yet, this decision to be like Christ comes out in concrete ways—loving our enemies, blessing those who curse us, walking the second mile with an oppressor. The question is…where are the places in the Church, where are the places in myself that we do not look like Jesus?  Like John, we are called to “Take and eat,” to internalize the message before we can live it.  Where are the places or who are the individuals, I have erected a wall—those I don’t want to associate with, or be kind to, or seek to understand? Will you take and eat it?  Will I take it and eat it?  Will we join the Christ, Lion-Lamb in the ministry he has given the Church?

The time has come…there is no more delay.  There is an urgency in this time.  The 7th trumpet will sound and the revealed mystery will be fully complete.  Yet we live between this 6thtrumpet of judgment and the 7th trumpet of completion. The now and the yet to come. The mystery is revealed and someday in the future, we don’t know when this mystery will be fulfilled.  What God began through Jesus will be fulfilled.  We live in this dramatic pause.  The Kingdom of God is not distant, but near, accessible to all who believe. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. And the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as he announced to the prophets.

CLOSING PRAYER

As a closing prayer, I will pray the doxology of Romans 16:25-27

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

[1] https://blakearchive.org/images/but518.1.1.wc.100.jpg

[2] Winston Churchill

[3] Henry, E. (2024). The mystery of the cross. Lottcarey.org

[4] Jarret, E. (2025). Ephesians: a mystery revealed (3:1-13).  Aclayjar.net

[5] Beale, G.K. (2015). Revelation: a shorter commentary. Willam B. Eerdmans Publishing, 212.