Revealed, Consumed, Proclaimed
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Revelation chapter 10.
We will begin reading in verse 1 and we will cover the whole chapter this morning.
The visions in which we last left John in chapter 9 cascaded into a dark and difficult picture of the state of humanity.
John just witnessed six visions of six trumpets of warning blasting throughout this age of human existence.
With each trumpet blast, John saw an outpouring of God’s wrath.
First, in creation itself,
then, in the spiritual warfare and the plague of demonic forces on earth,
and lastly in global warfare which in the vision takes massive amounts of human life.
things are not as they should be,
Each trumpet judgment seems to represent a kind of suffering in this world that warns of a future and final judgment.
And The sixth trumpet ended with an explanation of the result of all these tribulations and judgments that occur in this world.
Though God has sent all kinds of warnings into the world that final judgment is coming, mankind as a whole still is not repenting.
Here is where we left off last time in our Revelation study….
look with me at chapter 9 verse 20.
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,
21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
That grim word concludes the sixth trumpet of warning….
So here is the picture:
Despite global displays of God’s wrath in
natural disasters,
through spiritual attack,
and in whole societal upheaval of war and conflict….
humanity still will not repent.
They refuse to turn to God.
It is a dark scene.
One that is interrupted by a bright being entering the scene.
In chapter 10…, we have an explanatory commercial break before returning to seventh trumpet.
This time John doesn’t just see a new vision…
he is uniquely invited to participate in the vision.
he is no longer a mere onlooker.
In this vision, he becomes a very real and experiential participant in the unfolding plan of God.
And I think, we are meant to see his role as representative of our role.
Lets read, and lets pray that we too would know how to not just be onlookers but very real experiential participants in what God is doing in the world.
1 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.
2 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,
3 and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.
4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven
6 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,
7 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.
8 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.”
9 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.”
10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
11 And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
Lets Pray
The last thing John sees is the rest of mankind refusing to repent….
Then suddenly a mighty angel descends from heaven wrapped in a cloud,
with a rainbow over his head,
a face shining like the sun,
and with powerful legs like pillars of fire.
At the very least, this is a powerful messenger coming straight from the presence of God.
but some commentators suggest that the language is so elevated and so divine that this must actually be an image of Jesus himself.
They understand the word angel to mean “messenger” here,
regardless the imagery is a reflection on the very character of God himself...
In the darkness of all the judgments we have seen…,
he comes with a face shining like the sun,
his legs like the pillars of fire that led Israel through the wilderness by night,
And over his head the rainbow - a symbol of God’s covenant promises being fulfilled,
he is the God who makes and keeps his promises,
it may also be a signal of hope, that there is a coming end to the storm, a coming end to the judgment,
one day we will gaze up and see a rainbow much like Noah and his family saw coming out of the ark as the waters of judgment dissipate...
the picture must have been a welcome sign for John.
and just like in previous visions of God on the throne,
…, John notices that this messenger of God has a scroll in his hand.
Presumably this scroll contains God’s written instruction…,
His word for his world….,
this powerful messenger of the Lord descends from heaven with scroll in hand and
one foot is placed on the sea and one on the land,
some commentators suggest that what is being communicated here is that this messenger has a message for all of creation covering both sea and land.
When the angel calls out with his mighty lion like voice roaring throughout the cosmos with the word of God…,
it either sounds like or is drowned out by what John describes as seven thunders.
You almost think to yourself here we go again,
we have had seven seals each with their own vision,
we have had seven trumpets which we haven’t even finished yet,
and now we have seven thunders about to unfold their visions to tell the whole story over again…,
and John hurries to write down what he hears perhaps thinking that there is about to be a bunch more visions coming from the thunderous voice of God’s messenger….,
but this time, John is told not to write down everything he hears in these seven thunders.
This is different from the instruction previously given to John.
Listen to the commands given to John thus far:
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet
11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.
This is also different from the instruction that John is given at the end of Revelation
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
John’s role has been to record and reveal what he sees and hears,
but now, the message in these thunders is, “don’t write these down.”
We aren’t told why.
We aren’t given any interpretation of the thunders.
Is this a sign that these judgments in the thunders are going to be reversed or held back or prevented?
Or are these coming judgments and events in the message of the thunders simply not for us to know or understand until the day they are revealed?
New Testament scholar Tom Schreiner attempts to make sense of it, writing,
“ The point isn’t that judgments are in principle withdrawn. Instead, the sealing of the seven thunders indicates that there are dimensions to the future judgment that are hidden from us. The end is coming, but God is granting people time to repent.” - Tom Schreiner
I think if I were to take anything away from the concealing of the message in these seven thunders… I am only left with this truth.
Truth #1 Not All of God’s Plans Are Revealed
Truth #1 Not All of God’s Plans Are Revealed
We do need to come to terms with this in our study of Revelation.
We as finite, limited, people need to come to terms with the fact that God reveals to us what he wants to reveal when he wants to reveal it.
God says it this way to Isaiah.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
There has to be a point in all of theology where we bump up against our limitations…,
in our limitedness we inevitably will run into God’s limitlessness.
We are finite beings trying to understand what the only infinite being has determined to accomplish within the timeline of his creation which he created out of nothing.
We are not free to make up things that we think should happen.
We are not free to create our own version of God so that he might meet our own expectations
We do not get to determine how God acts or what he should do or allow.
We are dependent entirely upon what God reveals to us.
While in seminary I took a class called Theological Method,
Its basically a class on how we know anything at all,
and in that class we studied a lot of opinions,
a lot of assumptions,
a lot of philosophical guesses about ultimate reality…,
but in that class I only grew in my conviction that if I am to know God at all, he must be the one who reveals what he is like.
The theologian i decided to write on in that class wrote several volumes of books making this simple argument:
“The Christian religion rests on the conviction that God has spoken. Without divine revelation, man is left with only human opinion about God.”
— Carl F. H. Henry - God, Revelation, and Authority
“God is not discovered by human ingenuity; He is known only as He reveals Himself.”
- Carl F. H. Henry - God, Revelation, and Authority
That means there are certain things about God
and about the end of all things that God has chosen not to reveal to us at this time…
And we need to be comfortable as Christians with the words “I don’t know”
God’s will is not a cosmic easter egg hunt.
He has not left for us some kind of indiscernible divinci code in the number systems of the New Testament.
Christianity is not like the movie national treasure,
where we are forever looking for clues that God has hidden in his universe.
God speaks clearly what he wants to be known when he wants it to be known..,
and that includes the details of the plan for your life.
God purposely does not reveal all things at once.
We are left to trust in what we know he has said.
This vision makes clear to John, that there are some things he will just not be able to explain in his ministry.
but at the same time, there are revealed words that he must explain.
The angel moves from declaring what is unknowable,
to declaring what is absolute
what is confirmable.
5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven
6 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,
7 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.
Truth #2 All of God’s Promises Will Be Fulfilled
Truth #2 All of God’s Promises Will Be Fulfilled
We cannot lose sight of the state in which John received this letter.
We cannot lose sight of the state of the churches that first received this letter.
The groan of the soul of Christian people who first read this book can be summed up in the cries of the martyrs back in chapter 6.
10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
How long is the cry of the first century readers who were first encouraged by these visions…,
And in this vision they behold God’s messenger acknowledging both that there are somethings they will not know and will not understand…,.
but they can understand this…
One day a final trumpet will sound throughout the world,
one day there will be no more delay,
one day the mystery of God will be fulfilled exactly as he announced to the prophets of old.
This angel swears with right hand raised to heaven by he 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 when that trumpet sounds there will be no more delay…
If he was speaking out of turn he would have been smited, but he does just as Hebrews says God does.
Abraham was promised an offspring,
in a situation that was physically impossible for him to have one,
not only was he promised an offspring, he was promised a great nation, from whom one would come who would bless all the nations of the world…
Abraham did not understand all of God’s plans…,
but Abraham did understand the faithfulness of the God who made the promises….
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,
14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,
18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
Listen Christian,
You have more proof of God’s faithfulness than Abraham had…
Jesus was born…,
Christ has come…,
The promises to and through the prophets of the Old Testament came to pass…,
He lived,
he worked miracles,
he spoke the word of God,
he died a substitutionary death like a perfect sacrificial lamb,
He rose victorious over humanity’s greatest enemy - sin and death itself.
You have the resurrected Jesus himself who has gone before us,
who has sent his Holy Spirit to us,
who has gifted us the Scriptures to encourage us while we wait.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
In this vision John is reminded again, that the world is not out of control.
Even in the darkness of the trumpet judgments,
where it seems that no one will repent,
there is a God working all things to accomplish his purposes.
So what is John to do in the mean time?
What are the believers in Ephesus, and pergamum, and smyrna, and laodicea, and philadelphia, and sardis and thyatira and saint rose supposed to do in this age where trumpet judgments are blasting, and people aren’t repenting, and all of God’s plan is not revealed to us?
Well lets look at verses 8-9
8 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.”
9 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.”
Truth #3 We Consume What’s Been Revealed
Truth #3 We Consume What’s Been Revealed
This is where the vision becomes interactive.
The scroll in the hand of this messenger is given to John and he is commanded to eat it.
This may seem strange to us, but to John the scene would have been somewhat familiar.
It mirror’s the prophet Ezekiel’s calling to proclaim God’s word To Israel.
1 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat.
3 And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.
The sweet as honey language also comes from the Psalms
David writes about the word that God had revealed to Israel.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
The apostle Peter uses a similar analogy in his instruction to the churches in 1 Peter,
but rather than honey,
he refers to God’s word as milk for the born again believer.
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So why this experiential commercial break for John to consume the scroll?
Well firstly it communicates a responsibility that John has to consume the revealed word of God.
Not just to hear it,
not just to read it,
but to feed on it just as Jesus said,
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
John is to make the revealed word of God a part of him,
There is a difference between reading about something, and experiencing something for yourself.
Before I moved to Louisiana, I had never even heard of a crawfish boil.
I suppose I could have read about a crawfish boil.
I could have studied the process of the boil,
I could have read the different recipes,
But studying the topic is not the same thing as standing around a table with your friends and family in 100 degree whether and being unsure whether you are sweating from the sun or the spices that are causing your lips to swell a little bit…
Tasting is different than reading.
And God doesn’t just want John to just read a scroll of God’s revelation,
he wants him to taste,
to experience God in his word,
There is a reason that the Psalms begin with this picture of the blessed man, not just reading about God but meditating upon his instruction.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
Christianity is experiential.
It is real, not just conceptual.
We are meant to know God,
to fellowship with God,
to taste his goodness…
If you feel far away from God, 9 times out of 10, you can trace the thread back to this fact..., you have not spent time in the place where God has preserved his word for you.
Tasting the goodness of God happens at the intersection of meditative reading what God has spoken and our dependent praying to the God who hears us.
This is one of the reasons we want to always make available a Bible reading plan to our church family , where we can meditatively work through Scripture together throughout the year.
This year we will be slowing down a little bit in our Bible reading with an emphasis on meditative reading, and Scripture memorization.
We have new Bible reading plans printed on the shelf in the foyer that you can grab and make plans to read with us beginning in January.
Our church will only be as healthy as our members are saturated in the sweetness of God’s presence in his word.
This also happens when we gather together though.
The church assembly is the family meal where we taste the goodness of God together.
We do this in the preaching, the fellowship, the singing, and the praying.
But we also do this in the ordinances.
God gave both baptism and the Lord’s Supper to be physical, real, tangible, experiential expressions of his presence with his people.
Baptism is the very first act of obedience when someone puts faith in Jesus.
Baptism actualizes and publicizes someone’s faith.
It is your declaration that you trust Jesus, and it begins with a very real physical, experiential, expression of that faith for both you and the church community you are entering into.
This is why church membership is reserved for those who go public with their faith in baptism.
Baptism is the physical, visible sign, of faith…, it is the way we know yand recognize you as a follower of Jesus…,
When we observe the repentant person plunge beneath the waters of baptism and rise out of it, we are reminded with visual symbolism that God is still saving,
he is still cleansing sinners,
he is still raising them from spiritual death to join God’s people.
the second sign is the Lord’s Supper.
Really you should not partake in the Lord’s Supper if you have not first been baptized as a believer in Jesus.
There is an order to these things.
The baptism symbolizes entrance into God’s people,
and the Lord’s Supper symbolizes the ongoing inclusion and fellowship with God’s people.
When we take the bread and we eat it, we are physically reminded of our unity with Jesus and each other through his body being broken for us.
When we drink the cup, we are physically reminded of our unity with Jesus and each other through his blood being shed for us.
The infinite God of heaven, has given to his people these means of tasting and experiencing that the Lord is good while we wait on his return.
Christianity is not meant to be merely intellectual, theoretical, or even mythical… it is representative of true reality.
It is the story of the very real world we live in and the very real God who creates, and redeems, and judges.
When we take the word of God together on Sunday morning, it is sweet as honey in our mouths…,
but…., its not all honey…
When the angel hands John the scroll, he warns that the word will be both sweet and bitter.
look at verses 10-11.
10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
11 And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
What is the result of John’s eating the Scroll?
There is both good news and bad news,
sweetness and bitterness,
that must be proclaimed to those who have never heard.
Upon consuming God’s revealed word…,
he is commanded to preach God’s revealed word to many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.
Truth #3 We Consume What’s Been Revealed
Truth #4 We Proclaim What’s Been Revealed
Truth #4 We Proclaim What’s Been Revealed
What’s John’s role in this world of trumpet judgments and hard hearts?
He is to preach.
He is to use his lips to proclaim both the sweetness of the good news of God in Jesus….,
and the bitterness of the wrath of God to come for those who refuse to repent and believe.
The bad and bitter news of the world is that humanity is sinful
and deserving of punishment for their moral corruption,
and for their rejection of God.
the bad and bitter news is that God will judge the world.
hell is real and eternal
this world is corrupted at every corner
every ounce of pain and suffering on this planet points to this fact that things are not as they are supposed to be…, they create in our souls a longing for something better…,
the good news is that God has promised to make it all knew.
Jesus took the penalty for sinners on himself,
and he offers eternal life to all who will trust him.
but the bitter news is that not everyone will trust him…
many will continue to harden their heart…,
but our responsibility is not to change hearts...,
Our responsibility, like John is to prophesy…,
to proclaim,
to speak to many peoples, and nations, and languages, and kings….,
that the king of kings and lord of lords is coming…,
and that we must turn and trust him today…. before its too late.
There is an order to this vision…
Consume the revealed word of the Lord…,
taste it,
experience it,
and then overflow with it to others…
We must daily encourage our souls with the sweetness of God’s promise to us.
and we must daily remind our souls of the bitterness of God’s coming judgment for those who refuse him.
if we consume the word rightly…,
it will be to us like it was to the prophet Jeremiah.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
I was so encouraged this week by a church member calling me excited about the gospel conversation they had had.
They saw an opportunity with an individual who was describing the heartache and the brokenness they were experiecing in our world.
and this church members simply asked the individual…, “Do you know what the gospel is? Have you ever heard the good news?”
And then they shared the message of Jesus.
Revelation chapter 9 ended with a bleak picture of a world where people are not repenting….
But Revelation chapter 10 interrupts that picture with a bright heavenly messenger,
who employs John in the mission to speak .
but this vision wasn’t just for John…,
it was for us.
John wasn’t going to get to all the peoples, all the nations, all the languages, all the kings....
St. Rose Community Church, his commission is our commission in our neighborhoods, and our families, and our work places.
I want to conclude with a few questions for you….
Are you regularly tasting both the goodness and the bitterness of God’s Word for the world? If not, why not?
Who are you laboring to share the good news with in your life right now? Write their name down.
Do you need to confess your limitations to God? We can grow frustrated that we can’t see all of God’s plans, but in our frustration we can forget the goodness of his promises. Do you need to confess that frustration to God this morning and ask him to help you to trust the promises he has given you?
Lets Pray
Lord I pray during this Christmas season, that our church members will meditate on your living word…, and that they would be bold in their witness with those who have never heard.
Lord I pray during this Christmas season, that our church members would will come to terms with the things they do not understand, and cannot control…, and that they would rest in the very clear promises that you have given them.
Help us lord to taste and see that the Lord is good.
Lord’s Supper
This morning we are taking the Lord’s Supper, so allow me to give a few instructions.
Up front we have two stations on each side of the room.
This part of the service is only for believers in Jesus who have professed their faith through baptism as believers.
If that does not describe you, then please wait and pray and ask God to reveal to you what your next steps need to be.
Do you need to pray right where you are and confess your sins to God and your need for forgiveness through faith in Jesus for the first time?
Do you to step out in faith and be baptized as a believer for the first time?
do you need someone to talk to.
to answer your questions, to pray with,
We have our welcome and hospitality team in the back who would be glad to speak with you. They are standing in the back with blue lanyards.
The most important thing in the world for every person in the room, is whether they have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus or not… and we want to help you anyway we can.
Drew is going to play a song for us to meditate upon while everyone who is ready comes forward and gets the bread and the cup.
When you get the bread and the cup just hold on to it for a moment, and pastor Cole will come forward and lead us to take it together as a symbol of our unity together.
lets spend a few moments with the Lord reflecting and tasting of his goodness
