The Seventh Trumpet
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Revelation chapter 11.
as you turn there,
let me remind you of the Exodus story that Revelation so often parallels.
For 400 years the people of God suffered tribulation in Egypt.
They were enslaved.
They were beaten and abused.
Their children were murdered.
but God heard their cries.
He sent Moses.
He sent plagues, one after another, each one like a trumpet warning that greater destruction was coming.
Pharoah hardened his heart,
but God prevailed over him,
God delivered his people through the parted waters of the Red Sea,
He crushed Pharoah and his army under the weight of His wrath in the waves of the Sea,
And on the other side of that total and decisive victory…
The people of God stood on the beach and responded the only way they knew how….
they sang….
We read much of it just a moment ago, but here are some highlights.
1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
16 Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O Lord, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
The book of Revelation picks the themes of this story up,
but applies them to the story of the whole world,
the story of the Christian person,
We too dwell in a time of tribulation,
a time of plagues, disasters, and outpourings of God’s wrath on the kingdom of this world…,
the seven trumpet visions we have walked through describe these various plagues inflicted upon the world system…,
but there is coming a day where the victory will be decisive and total,
for those who trusted the blood of the spotless lamb,
There is coming a day where the King of Kings will reign forever and ever…,
The end of Revelation chapter 11 describes a victory song that heaven will sing, when the seventh trumpet is blown and the end of all history has come.
What we find at the end of chapter 11 is the heavenly celebration over what Christ will accomplish.
It is meditating on this future end which kept persecuted Christians in the first century persevering.
And I think the more we meditate on this future end, the more our priorities will be shaped even today.
lets read.
14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17 saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
Lets Pray
In 1860, Charles Thomas Studd was born into a wealthy family in England.
He became famous early in his life as one of England’s best cricket players.
and then he experienced a dramatic conversion to Christ Jesus.
In his late teens, he left the fame, the inheritance, and the comfort.
He left everything that Victorian England said was important to pursue life as a missionary in China.
Some of Studd’s most famous words come from a poem that he wrote that encompassed his entire approach to life once he began following Jesus.
he writes…,
“Only one life, twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”- C.T. Studd
C.T. Studd embraced a theology and philosophy of life in this world that I believe the whole book of Revelation is trying to instill in us.
Revelation tells the story of the world again and again and again with this emphasis…
Truth #1 Christ Will Conquer Man’s Kingdom
Truth #1 Christ Will Conquer Man’s Kingdom
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
At the seventh trumpet, all of heaven irrupts into loud praise.
They are celebrating the fall of the kingdom of the world.
Christ will accomplish total and comprehensive victory
Now this has both a destructive implication and a constructive implication.
by destructive implication, i just mean that when Christ comes…,
he will destroy things,
he will tear down things,
he will do a way with any and all competing kingdoms.
It is in the very nature of man that we build Kingdoms…
It goes back to the tower of babel,
were man kind bands together to build a kingdom…,
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
Babel represents the kingdom of the world…
a kingdom constructed not to make much of God,
but a kingdom constructed to make much of man.
Humanity has always been building that kind of kingdom…,
but Revelation shows again and again that…,
The Kingdom of the World with..
all of its values,
all of its rules,
all of its expectations,
all of its aspirations,
and ambitions…,
The very Kingdom of the World will face the same fate as Pharoah and the Egyptians.
The very Kingdom of the World will fall at the seventh trumpet just as the walls of Jericho crumbled to the ground after the blast of the seventh tumpet in the book of Joshua.
Empires will crumble.
Russia, Iran, North Korea, and the United States of America will be but facts of history much like ancient empires gone by…,
but only one kingdom will remain.
Brands like Tesla, and Nike, and Google, and apple, will come to absolute nothingness.
Roth-IRA’s, crypto-currencies, and all that stored up PTO will be like the Psalmist says, “chaff in the wind.”
The meaning and significance of trophies, and championships,
and athletic records will suddenly evaporate….
it will become as wind passing by that we are trying to grasp to no avail.
the effort you give to
your social media following,
your reputation,
your persona
the way you want people to feel or think about you and your gifting and your accomplishment and your wisdom
it will all suddenly feel very silly…,
when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ…,
Every attempt of man to glorify himself,
or make a name for himself,
or find his primary identity in anything other than his creator will prove itself vanity….
Thats what we believe as Christians…
It is the fleeting nature of this temporary world that shapes our decision making in this life.
There is a kingdom that we can build that will go on into eternity,
and there is a kingdom that we can build that will quickly crumble at the seventh trumpet blast.
Jesus compares two ways of building a life in Matthew 7…,
One builds it on the rock of God’s word…,
while the other on the sand of man’s will.
Else where, Jesus puts it this way…
25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
We Christians live different kinds of lives because we are convinced in faith that what C.T. Studd wrote is true.
“Only one life, twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”- C.T. Studd
We Christians live different kinds of lives because we are convinced by faith that what John wrote will be a reality.
15 ….“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
and we believe that this is a GOOD thing.
Because the Kingdom of Christ is a better Kingdom than the Kingdom of Man.
The pleasures promised in man’s kingdom were poison.
They weren’t real!
They weren’t lasting!
They weren’t saving!
Christ’s final conquering of all the world system means a final conquering of all that is evil.
This conviction doesn’t just effect our decision making,
it effects our ability to endure hardships…,
because we know that for us who trust Christ Jesus,
our tribulations, as terrible as it may be, is temporary.
One day Satan will have no rule or reign in this world.
Sin will have no more place,
Death will have totally lost its sting,
No rebel power will remain when Christ Jesus brings his kingdom to earth fully and finally reign forever and ever.
Thats why the response of heaven to Christ’s final conquering is a response of thanksgiving and worship!
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17 saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
Notice that in every other vision where God is worshipped in this way in Revelation thus far, he is referred to as he who is, and he who was, and who is to come…,
But from the perspective of this seventh trumpet vision…, this is foretelling the day where he has already come.
Now he is worshipped as the Lord God Almighty who is, and who was…
no more waiting for him to come because he has come.
He has taken his great power and he has begun his eternal and total reign over the world.
That’s what we look forward to..
Thats what the Christians of the first century persecuted by the Roman Empire needed to remember…,
that one day Caesar will no longer reign.
Christ will.
no matter how the nations rage,
no matter how the rebels sin,
no matter how the persecutors seek to destroy God’s people,
one day the rebellion will be crushed
Truth #2 Christ Will Stop the Raging of Rebels
Truth #2 Christ Will Stop the Raging of Rebels
18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged,….
As we progress through the next several chapters of Revelation, we will see more clearly images and visions of the raging enemies of God.
Kingdoms both spiritual and physical that hate God and hate God’s people will rise to center stage of the visions to come.
Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Rome, and so on have opposed God. T
hey have despised the Kingdom of God,
raged against him and his authority and his people.
Just as nations have done this, so have individuals.
But there is coming a day where every ounce of man’s raging against God’s rule will be accounted for.
No sin will go on punished.
The wrath of God will be poured out.
Even those already dead will rise to be judged by the judge of all the universe.
As Paul puts it.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin
Christian, why is it that you should not be the kind of person who takes vengeance…
Why can you turn the other cheek, rather than get even?
How is it that you can go on about life peaceably without getting the last word?
Well there is a sense that you know the last word is not yours to have….
its God’s.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
We live in a period of mercy…
Every day is a gift of grace,
because there is still time to repent, before time runs out.
but one day,
time will run out and every sinner will pay the due penalty for their sin…,
unless they trust in Christ’s payment for that penalty on the cross.
Christ Will End the Raging Wickedness of Men…,
how encouraging this must have been to a people who felt very acutely the raging of an evil empire…,
how comforting this must have been to believers whose loved ones had given their lives in the gladiator arena as a means of entertainment for the raging world….
Christ will have the last word…,
But his conquering is not just one of judgment….It is also one of reward.
18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
The King will judge the rebel…,
he will destroy the destroyers…,
but he will also reward his servant
Truth #3 Christ Will Reward His Servants
Truth #3 Christ Will Reward His Servants
First, lets note who is referenced here in contrast to the raging nations.
I think there are only two groups described here.
There are the raging nations who will be judged.
And there are those who will be rewarded…
The angelic beings string several descriptions together of this rewarded group…
They are servants of Christ Jesus meaning they gave their lives to following Jesus as King and not the kingdom of the world.
They are prophets meaning they proclaimed what is true about the King rather than what is false.
They are saints meaning they are those who are made holy in God’s sight by covering of Jesus.
They are those who fear God’s name…. meaning they are those of real faith. They know who God is and they lived their lives in light of his reality.
They are both small and great.
What makes them special is not the criteria of man’s kingdom.
They are not rewarded for fame or fortune or power or influence.
Some of those who will be rewarded on that day will be very surprising indeed to the great powers of the world.
While presidents of nations are judged…
repentant prisoners and prostitutes will find their reward on that day.
While Kings face God’s wrath, beggars from the street will step into glory.
God’s standard is not the world’s standard.
God’s understanding of success is not the world’s understanding of success.
Thus Jesus’ first sermon flipped the world’s cultural ethic upside down.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Who will be rewarded?
It won’t be the powerful,
it will be the believers in Jesus who were changed by his grace…
Now, why exactly are they rewarded though?
Isn’t our salvation by grace alone?
We cannot earn our entry into the kingdom of God.
Our sinful condition was such that we needed God to resurrect us by his grace.
We needed him to make us new.
To give us new birth, new life.
I heard an analogy at the conference this week about God’s grace to us being like a birthday present.
Think about how strange it is that you get a birthday present on your birthday. You did nothing to accomplish your own birth.
Really your parents should get the present for 9 months of carrying the baby, and many more months of sleepless nights…,
but your the one who gets the present for the work that someone else did.
Even more so is our salvation and the gifts of grace that follow…
We are rewarded first and foremost for the work that someone else did on our behalf.
We are rewarded for the righteous life Jesus lived for us and in our place.
We are now in Christ and we receive the rewards that are his…,
additionally, however, there does seem to be real reward for the ways in which we pursue God according to his grace in this life through the means he commands.
This was our memory verse this week in our Bible reading plan.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Jesus himself says that there are rewards for our pursuit of God.
We are rewarded for our endurance of persecution
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
We are rewarded for our prayer:
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
We are rewarded for our work unto the Lord in everything we do.
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
We are rewarded for faithfulness in the small things.
23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
We are rewarded for our generosity
33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Christian we live our lives looking forward to the great rewards of heaven, crowns of glory we will cast at our savior’s feet.
The ultimate reward as emphasized in revelation over and over again…
is our access to God himself.
Verse 19 ends with powerful imagery that communicates both the wrath being poured out and the reward being given.
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
The lightning, and thunder, and earthquake, and hail represents the wrath of God pouring out on raging nations…,
and the open door to the heavenly temple represents the true reward.
The end of the story isn’t that we will get cool cars and fancy mansions.
The real reward will be that God’s covenant keeping presence will be with us forever and ever and ever.
The ark of the covenant led the way into victory after seventh trumpet blew in the fall of Jericho.
I think its appearance here in the conclusion of the trumpet visions signals that the same will be true for all christians.
God’s presence will lead us in victory over all our enemies as the walls of the kingdom of man come crashing down.
and we will step into the forever presence of our God.
#1 Christ Will Conquer Man’s Kingdom
#2 Christ Will Stop the Raging of Rebels
#3 Christ Will Reward his Servants
How then shall we live?
How do these truths shape you?
Let me leave you with four quick takeaways.
#1 Rest Easy
#1 Rest Easy
The ultimate victory will be won,
and much of the things that you worry about most, will prove to be fruitless anxieties in the end.
Our little kingdoms are not as important as we think they are,
nor are they as satisfying as we wish them to be.
Christ has freed us from our obligation to the anxieties of the world…
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
#2 Invest Wisely
#2 Invest Wisely
If its true that the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord…
lets joyfully and eagerly invest our time,
and our talents,
and our resources into the kingdom of our Lord.
lets live now for the things that will still matter 1,000 years from now.
#3 Worship Gratefully
#3 Worship Gratefully
Remember that this whole text we are reading is a worship set,
it is a musical expression of thanksgiving
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17 saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
We have so much to be thankful for this morning…
and one of the things that increases our joy
is actually expressing our gratitude to God for his grace to us!
We were made for worship and there is a sense that,
when we do that together here and now we taste a small piece of heavenly reality.
#4 Witness with Urgency
#4 Witness with Urgency
This is good news that needs to be shared.
Every human being will either be rewarded for Christ’s work through faith in Jesus…,
or they will be judged
And we church are the witnesses,
we are those who have tasted both the sweetness and bitterness of the word,
we are the servants,
the prophets,
the saints,
with a mission to fulfill,
and only a short time to fulfill it.
I’ll close with a fuller reading of C.T. Studd’s poem and then we will pray.
Only One Life
C. T. Studd (1860–1931)
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes only one,
Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in that day my Lord to meet,
And stand before His judgment seat;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, the still small voice,
Gently pleads for a better choice,
Bidding me selfish aims to leave,
And to God’s holy will to cleave;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, a few brief years,
Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;
Each with its clays I must fulfill,
Living for self or in His will;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes only one,
Now let me say, “Thy will be done”;
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say “’twas worth it all”;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
