A mighty angel
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles please turn to Revelation 10:1
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars.
As we begin Chapter 10 , we find ourselves in between the 6th and 7th trumpet. So chronologically we are taking a pause in the story before the full judgement of God happens which is started with the 7th trumpet. This is the same as before when the chronological order stopped between the 6th and 7th seal.
Here we get another glimpse of the gloriousness of God this time in the form of a mighty angel. Here we get more information and the ability to see how much bigger the world is than we think it is. We get a look at this angel and it is no wonder why troughout the whole record of the Bible that people are afraid of angels when they visit. This angel is very important and so we are going to breakdown each part of the angel because the description is very important. Again as I have said over and over, everything in the Bible is important and particularly when we get into details like what is given to us about the angel.
First He was robed in a cloud, is the emblem of God coming in judgment.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “ ‘Wail and say, “Alas for that day!” For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near— a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.
Over and over again all throughout scripture God has given us the keys to see the world and ourselves for what it is. Revelation while it is a tough book , we can break it down and work off all that God has given us and we can see what it is. This angel is both a reminder of that and a foreshadowing of what is to come
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Now Daniel gives us the vision of Jesus’ second coming and from there we can look Jesus’ own words. The lines of connection are all throughout the Biblical record.
“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Jesus speaks of the end times more than any other person in the Bible, everything that Jesus said would happen is given to us in the book of Revelation. Everything is leading up to this. The rainbow above the angel is a sign of God’s covenant mercy with us. This goes all the way back to Genesis 9:12-16
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Even at this moment when the final judgements of God are set to be put in place this is a sign that people can still repent. God is still listening to us despite that fact that we continually turn away from God, He never turns away from us. The patience that God has for us is astounding to me.
His legs were like fire of pillars , God while he was leading the Israelites in the wilderness lead by a cloud of smoke and pillar of fire Exodus 13:21
By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.
He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.”
What the seven thunders spoke of we do not know. We know that through God’s mercy it is better that we do not know. These are the true mysteries of God. To many times we use the mystery of God as a simple answer for things we do not understand. However maybe we asking the wrong questions. Perhaps if something is a mystery, perhaps it is something we are better off not knowing. we have this constant need to know everything, and it honestly comes down to us wanting to control everything. The truth is that we cannot control everything and we cannot know everything. For example, we have mapped only 27% of the ocean floor. We have physical explored less than 1% of the ocean. DNA — While advances have been made; the function of the remaining ~98% of non-coding DNA is still largely a mystery. I know someone who knows all that information. My point is that you have to look at your life and base it on a firm foundation. Trusting God means that we completely trust Him and that includes the things that we do not know about.
Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”
This begins the culmination of Daniel Chap 12. and it will begin what we talked about in revelation 6 and the martyrs that are in heaven with God. If you remember they cried out for judgement. Now that judgement is coming and there will be no more delay once that seventh angel sounds his trumpet. The mystery of God will be accomplished. All that was told to the prophets, all that Jesus taught us and all that Jesus did on the cross is coming to a head. The fulfillment of His kingdom on earth and the glorious return of the Son of God. Satan will no longer have any power at all and peace will finally be at hand on the earth. This is what will happen.
Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’” I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
The words’s of God are sweet to the mouth. The words of God when your heart and mind are open are the greatest words we can hea.r
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
however the persecutions of the church, the judgement of God caused it to be bitter because it grieved John to know what was going to happen to those that did not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And here is really the crossroads that the modern church has found itself in. We want the mercy of God and the love of God. We do not want the holiness of God. We want to be able to skip over and rationalize all the other parts of the Word of God that cause judgement. It truly grieves my heart to see churches and professing Christians that stray away from the Word of God. Over and over God gives us chances to come to Him. and for some reason we think that we know better. We think that we can build our own way to heaven just like the tower of Babel but we can’t. There is one way and that is the only way but that way is here for anyone and everyone that truly believes in Jesus.
Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”
John is now told to go tell the people. To tell us. He isn’t told to sit on this knowledge and never share it with anyone. He is told to go out and you have to spread the Gospel
John was already out spreading the Gospel and now he is told to go back out. The church needs to get back to it’s core missions. Enough of trying to be with the world, because as we are seeing here in revelation the stakes are way to high. We are talking about eternal judgement. But we are also talking about the this moment in your life right now. I look at my son and the kid’s at this church, the kid’s on his baseball team, my nephews and nieces. What can I do to leave this world a better place ? I cannot do much but I can tell people about Jesus. I can help people find a firm foundation that they can stand on that will withstand the world and the enemy. The best thing you can do is talk about Jesus.
The best way to keep the enemy out is to keep Christ in. The sheep need not be terrified by the wolf; they have but to stay close to the shepherd. It is not the praying sheep Satan fears but the presence of the shepherd.
A.W. Tozer
This church isn’t about me and Lord let it never be about me. It is about the Lord Jesus Christ and always it should be. I pray that presence of the Shepherd Jesus will always be leading us
Let us pray.
