The Worship of Wrath

As we crack open the seventh seal and begin to hear the trumpet judgments blow, we come face to face with the fact that not even wrath escapes the call to worship; that even wrath itself worships. That it invites us into the deepest stances of worship.

Big Idea: Even God’s wrath magnifies His holiness and moves both heaven and earth to worship the Lamb who bore our judgment.

Body

As we meander out of the interlude between the 6th and 7th seal; as we once more glimpse the coming wrath, we are confronted with the worship of silence. Let’s read Revelation 8:1-5

Revelation 8:1–5 ESV

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 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. 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.

Worship through Silence - Revelation 8:1

The seventh Seal, like the seventh trumpet, essentially introduces the next set of seven judgments.

The seventh seal introduces the seven trumpets

The seventh trumpet introduces the seven bowls .

The do not contain any judgments per say, of their own, but only awaken the next set coming.

With the opening of the seventh seal, however, we see a curious thing…

Revelation 8:1 ESV

1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Silence.

We at the beginning of chapter 7, the halting of wind temporary in this brief interlude between seal 6 and 7. On earth, we believe there will be a temporary halting of wind as a picture and embodiment of the temporary ceasefire while the 144,000 are sealed.

NOW, we see a similar hush falling over heaven itself.

You will recall up until this point, there has been significant noise in heaven.

Sounds and peals of thunder (Revelation 4:5)

The four living creatures 24/7 praise (Revelation 4:8)

The 24 elders song of praise (Revelation 4:11)

Loud voice asking, “Who is worthy?” (Revelation 5:2)

Combined praise to God when the Lamb steps forward to take the scroll ( Revelation 5:9-13)

Loud voices of angels each time a new seal was opened (Revelation 6:1, 3, 5, 7)

The saints and martyrs cries for vengeance (Revelation 6:9-10)

Earthquake with the sixth seal (Revelation 6:12)

Loud cry in the interval, stopping wrath until the sealing is complete (Revelation 7:2-3)

Another combined and escalating praise song (Revelation 7:9-13)

NOW comes, in heaven, silence.

This has to be as deafening as the roar has been.

We are in a stage right now, of life that we tend to hear the screams of children rather frequently. Both my wife and I at times, look at each and comment that we never seem to stop hearing the screaming, even when it is silent. When silence actually descends, it feels foreign, alien, and there is this ring/echo of the noise that came before.

This is how I liken this…

Silence has fallen. And it must feel foreign, alien, unnatural at this point.

The ring of the cacophony of noise that has been going on since the beginning is undoubtedly ringing in John’s ears. The silence, though only for 30 minutes, must feel like an eternity.

We are not told explicitly WHY there is silence.

There is connection to Habakkuk 2:20

Habakkuk 2:20 ESV

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Before God, silence is reverential. Sacred even.

Heaven is not merely silent here because it is shocked and stunned, but because God’s judgement is sacred and heaven is responding reverentially to it.

Truth be told, there IS an emotional weight to the moment. Weight that is rooted and grounded in the person of God.

As they behold God’s wrath, they are moved to silence in awe of God and who He is and what He must do.

Picture it this way…

Have you ever read something, heard something, viewed something that left you so shocked, struck, or dumbfounded by what you read, saw, or heard that your mouth literally dropped open, hung there; your hand came to you mouth; you shook your head; speechless? Ever been struck so that you sensed a deep sense of grim reality by what you encountered?

I had this moment when I was in college. I was sitting in class. Not sure which one, to be honest. Just know it was a Professor Colin Smith class. Man was brilliant. Chapel fell after our class and he was preaching that day. Someone came in, whispered into his ear, and just like that, class was over. It was September 11, 2001. And the first plane had just struck the first World Trade Center Tower. I remember thinking at the time, it did not seem real. Felt made up. Imagined. That is, until I got to the chapel, and the TV in the lobby was broadcasting the footage and you saw it happen. You saw the smoke billowing from the building. Dr. Smith had to address the student body that day. Needless to say, even he needed time to prep for that one. And he normally did not. The severity of what we saw that day is indelibly etched in our brains. I know some of you are too young to remember it; that it happened before your lifetime. Much like Pearl Harbor for me. But these moments are the ones that I think of when I imagine this silence in heaven. A silence of stunned shock and grim sobriety at what is beheld.

THAT I think, is what is implied in this silence.

They see what is coming. The bleak reality of it stills all of heaven to silence. In dark anticipation.

In reverential awe…

There is a sense of foreboding; of “sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat” anticipation of what is to come.

Awe and terror at the unfolding events. Of that which God has prepared for the earth.

Why is the response of silence an appropriate response to the wrath of God?

Church, in the face of such wrath, silence, stillness, hush, a reverent awe may well be the only appropriate response.

Asaph knew. He knew why silence was fitting before judgment.

Consider Psalm 76.

Psalm 76 ESV

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song. 1 In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel. 2 His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion. 3 There he broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah 4 Glorious are you, more majestic than the mountains full of prey. 5 The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil; they sank into sleep; all the men of war were unable to use their hands. 6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned.

God is God.

And we are not.

That is what I read in these lines.

God is God. He establishes Himself. He proves Himself. He breaks the power and might of all who think themselves strong. And he does it without blinking.

After regaling the praiseworthiness of God, the might and power that makes all others pale in the face of it, we have these somber words…

Psalm 76 ESV

7 But you, you are to be feared! Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused? 8 From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still, 9 when God arose to establish judgment, to save all the humble of the earth. Selah

You are to be feared…

There should be a terror and reverence we have before God. Even as His redeemed children.

Who can stand?

Seen those words before?

(Revelation 6:17 - at the end of seal 6)

Remember the answer? Only those who are covered by the Son’s blood.

Remember church, WE deserved this same wrath. But we do not face. We will not face it, because Christ faced it on our behalf. Our accounts with God are settled. His wrath is turned away from us, satisfied, in the Lamb who was slain for us.

Why is this question appropriate when faced with the might and wrath of God?

It shows humility.

Rather than brash arrogance and defiance that raises its first to God, it acknowledge, “No one can stand in the face of such wrath. It acknowledges His might and our weakness.

And IN the face of HIS wrath, notice the response…

“From the heavens you uttered judgement…the earth feared and was still”

Stillness, silence in the face of wrath, judgment, anger.

There is a somber reality to the wrath of God.

There is a seriousness to it that we need to pay attention to.

Beholding the wrath of God OUGHT to increase our fear of God. Our reverence for God.

Application: When was the last time you beheld the wrath of God and came way trusting more deeply and loving more fully because if it?

Application: When was the last time beheld the wrath of God with the reverence and awe it demanded?

It ought not raise our hackles against God, but humble us to a right posture before Him.

The stance of the unrepentant is defiance.

The stance of the redeemed is worship.

Notice the difference.

Hear this: We are given mercy that we might behold His wrath. It is a grace that He does us His wrath.

Application: Take time to THANK GOD this week for His wrath, rooted and grounded in His holiness and goodness.

Beholding His wrath, enables us to behold His Goodness, His Justice, His Holiness.

AND is that not exactly what we do when we remember the gospel, the cross of Christ? Is not the cross, heaven’s most outrageous display of wrath? Frankly, even more so than what we see happening now? Wrath that crushed His own Son?

Imagine how silent was on the day…

Church, when we behold such wrath, we are invited to worship. We are too often conditioned to behold His wrath as a negative thing…but nothing about God is negative. Nothing. Thus, we must renew our minds, retraining ourselves to see even His wrath as a holy and good thing.

God’s wrath is an opportunity for us to behold Him and worship Him. It is an invitation to behold the holy righteousness that is the source of His wrath.

It is an opportunity to behold the grace He extends men through giving opportunity to repent BEFORE the wrath comes.

It is an opportunity to behold the profoundly perfect justice that is God.

What’s more, even Man’s wrath is an opportunity for the glory of God and for our good.

Psalm 76 ESV

10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt. 11 Make your vows to the Lord your God and perform them; let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared, 12 who cuts off the spirit of princes, who is to be feared by the kings of the earth.

Surely the wrath of man shall praise you…

How? How does the wrath of man praise God?

As man rails against God, EVEN THAT RAILING can be used for God’s glory.

Revelation 6:15-17 was our first clue…

Revelation 6:15–17 ESV

15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

As they cry out for deliverance, to nature, they ACKNOWLEDGE who is sending the wrath…they acknowledge the source, the power, the might of it.

THAT simple acknowledgment IS PRAISE.

To acknowledge the power and might of one, even as you curse them, is to praise the very power and might you resist.

They are acknowledging that His power and might is REAL, is DANGEROUS, is MIGHTY.

They acknowledge their powerlessness to stop it.

We see it again in Revelation 16:8-9

Revelation 16:8–9 ESV

8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

THEY CURSE GOD WHO HAD POWER OVER THESE PLAGUES.

They acknowledge His power.

Even as they curse Him

Though they do not repent, in their wrath, in their cursing, they point out and acknowledge the glory of God’s might and power.

While the word “worship” is typically reserved for voluntary adoration, there is truth here that the wicked’s acknowledgment of God’s glory will bring honor to God. It will result in God being worshipped more fully and deeply, even if it is not by them, but by heaven and the saints alike.

The wicked will recognize His supremacy…and that will produce worship of God.

This does not mean that all of man’s wrath is inherently worshipful and glorifying to God.

However, God can use even evil to glorify Himself and accomplish His purpose. That is what we are seeing here.

And as we behold man’s wrath, God’s omnipotent power, His perfect justice, His holy goodness, WE ARE DRAWN to delight in Him as our highest good. We become more deeply satisfied in Him. And as we do, He is even more glorified.

So, even man’s wrath, though sinful and rebellious, is overruled by God for His glory—as He uses even evil to bring about His purposes (Genesis 50:20; Acts 2:23)

So much so that we are told…

The remnant of wrath you [God] will put on like a belt…

God will wear wrath, both man’s and his own, as a means to make much of His glory.

Man’s wrath will still be an acknowledgement of His glory, even if in curse form.

God’s wrath is an acknowledgement of his justice and goodness to justly punish evil and those who commit it.

He will wear wrath as a visible display of His weighty worthy for all the world to see.

As we behold wrath, we need to behold it as the tool of praise and worship that it is.

Even when that wrath takes our breath away in stunned, grim silence.

Silence is the reverent awe of the redeemed in the face of God’s holy wrath.

Application: Ask God this week to replace your frustration at evil with reverence for His justice. Don’t let the world’s anger drown out heaven’s stillness.

But silence isn’t the end of worship…it is only the beginning. Silence is the prelude to action.

Sometimes that action is nothing more than prayer or trust in the one who controls all.

Sometimes it may be more tangible.

For heaven, who will know silence for a period of half an hour, that silence is a trust in the one who sits on the throne, who has been acting, who intends to act still.

The silence is trust. It is the surety that what must take place, will; grim as it may be.

That silence is setting the stage for what we see next.

It will lead to worship in waiting.

Worship in Waiting - Revelation 8:2-5

Revelation 8:2–5 ESV

2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 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. 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.

The Seven Angels…

The presence of the definite article “the” in front of the seven angels seems to set them apart from any of the previous angels introduced. These are new. Distinct.

Throughout scripture, we are introduced to various types of angels.

Cherubim - Genesis 3:24

Seraphim - Isaiah 6:2

Archangels - 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 9

Thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities ( Colossians 1:16)

Powers (Ephesians 6:12)

We know little about angels.

Even when we are given these names/designations, we are not given much detail.

BUT, these ones who stand in the presence of God appear to be a higher ranking in terms of position and authority.

Gabriel, when introducing himself to Zacharias, introduced himself as the one who stands in the presence of God. - Luke 1:19.

Whether he is one of the 7 here or not, we do not know. But since Gabriel is one of the few angels we actually have a name for and see repeatedly throughout scripture, he appears to be rather significant.

And HE stands in the presence of God.

And if he stands in the presence of God, he holds a higher value than some angels (I would guess)

And since these seven are said to stand in his presence, we can likely IMPLY (at the very least) that they too have a highly favored place in God’s economy of angels.

The word “Stand” is written in a tense (in the Greek) that denotes ongoing activity.

Their continual STANDING in the presence of God, ready for service is a display of their devotion and worship

In the same way that when we wait upon the Lord, when we stand ready to obey, to serve, we show our devotion and worship.

Thus they were standing in the presence of God and had been for quite some time.

TO these 7 angels, 7 trumpets are handed.

These 7 trumpets will unveil the next set of judgments coming upon the earth.

And once again we see angelic hands involved in the implementing of God’s wrath, Gods judgment on earth.

Trumpets themselves are significant instruments in scripture.

Revelation 1–11: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Sounding

In the Old Testament, trumpets were

used to summon the congregation of Israel (

With each trumpet, a new judgment opens and falls.

These are more severe than the seals, but less severe than the bowls.

The judgements get progressively worse as the 7 year period progresses.

After being handed these trumpets, another (of the same kind) came and stood at the altar with a golden censer.

A censer was a fire pan in which the incense was burned as fragrant offering.

The priests would twice daily take hot coals from the brazen altar and move them to the incense altar.

They would use this to light the incense, the smoke of which wafting to heaven was a picture of the prayers of the saints.

Given that this angel brings this censer to the altar…it is likely that what John is seeing is a heavenly counterpart to the temple’s altar of incense. Not the altar where animals are burnt, but the one were incense is burned to represent the prayers of the saints.

He is given, with this censer, an abundance of of the prayers of the saints to burn.

Once again, we see the prayers of the saints playing a part in the judgment to come.

As their prayers go up, we will see the judgments come down.

While not explicitly stated, it is inferred at least that these prayers are of the martyred saints that have come out of the tribulation.

As their prayers are offered up, they invoke a storm.

Thunder.

Rumblings

Flashes of lightening

An earthquake

Again, the fact that it is thrown down in connection the burning of the saints prayers, shows that there is a direct connection between their prayers and God’s acting.

God is answering their prayers for vindication, for justice. He sends His wrath, in part, in response to their prayer.

Here is yet another example of wrath’s result of worship

As God responds to their cries for vindication, there is worship.

They had been previously told to wait a little while longer.

Now their waiting is turning to fulfillment as God responds to their prayers with judgment.

Their waiting was worship

And now, their worship is responded to…provoking more worship.

There is worship in the waiting.

Church, do you worship while you wait for vindication?

Will you worship when God responds with action?

Do you see the wrath of God as a means, a tool by which worship becomes the posture and stance?

In all of wrath’s terrible fury, especially God’s, there is reason for worship. Will you make much of Him in it?

Application: Church, keep praying even when it is hard, when it hurts, when you don’t see a response. This text is testimony to the fact that God hears each prayer. He may be storing them up for the day he responds, but God hears the prayers of His saints. They are not in vain. So keep praying.

The storm that follows the burning of the saints prayers is every bit as bad as things that have come before it.

Another earthquake will rock the earth. Probably fair to say, at least equal in power and devastation to that of the one we saw in the 6th seal.

And as the trumpets sound one after another, we will see His righteous fury. But instead of angst and anger at its coming, it ought to provoke worship.

Interestingly enough, no less than 5 will reflect the same plagues that fell on Egypt.

But to that, we will return next week.

For today, understand this…(Big Idea)

Conclusion

Big Idea: Even God’s wrath magnifies His holiness and moves both heaven and earth to worship the Lamb who bore our judgment.

From the silence invoked by the wrath of God…

To the just response of man’s wrath…

From the prayers for vengeance from the saints…

And the worship in the waiting…

Wrath leads us to worship.

“For the redeemed, wrath isn’t the end — it’s the backdrop against which grace shines brightest. Because the Lamb bore wrath, we can worship in peace.”

We don’t have the face wrath. And time remains for others to avoid facing it too.

Whether spared by the wrath Jesus bore, or the wrath that God pours out on the unrepentant, or even man’s wrath against God, wrath leads us to worship.

God’s wrath results in His worship.

Man’s wrath will result in His worship.

Even when that wrath stuns us to silence, we ought to meet it with the worship that it is due.

We ought to wait, with joy, knowing that He will bring His wrath to bear, in perfection and holiness, and that it will be good.

Will you let wrath lead you to worship? Will you worship in the silence? Will you worship in the grim reality of His just wrath? Will you trust, even when it costs you to do so; especially when it costs you to do so?

Will you permit wrath to be a tool God uses to help you grow, together with us, to become more like Jesus for the glory of God?

Application

How can we cultivate a mindset that sees God's wrath as a magnification of His holiness?

In what ways can acknowledging God's wrath deepen our worship?

What steps can we take this week to respond to God's wrath with worship rather than fear?

How can we encourage others to view the silence in God's wrath as an invitation to worship?

How does our understanding of Jesus bearing our judgment affect our view of God's wrath?

What do you think it feels like to experience silence in the face of God's wrath? How should we respond?

How do you think the concept of worship in waiting can be applied in our daily lives?

How can you apply the idea of worship during difficult times in your own life?

In what situations do you find it hardest to trust God, and how can you find peace in those moments?

How can understanding and accepting God's wrath lead to a greater appreciation of His grace?

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