The Bowls

Text: Revelation 15:1-16:21

Thesis: Perfect justice will be completed.

Application: Be patient in waiting for God to bring justice, and remember that Christ paid the penalty for your sin.

Reading of the Word

Revelation 15:1-16:1

Intro

The Final Battle!

Rev. 12-20 depicts a climactic conflict where evil is ultimately defeated once and for all.

But the presentation of this final battle is not straightforward. Instead, we are given repeating scenes which grow in intensity with each repetition. For example, we see evil defeated over and over again:

Evil is Defeated

14:8 - “Babylon is Fallen” with The Harvest

16:19 - The Seventh Bowl Splits Babylon

18:2 - “Babylon is Fallen” again, The Lamb Reigns while Evil Devours Itself

19:20 - The Beasts are Defeated

20:10 - The Dragon is Defeated

20:14 - Death and Hell are Defeated

And we also hear “It is done!” declared two times:

“It is Done!”

16:17

21:6

The Glory of the Lord

A Familiar Scene

Reminiscent of Exodus 40:34-35, Leviticus 1:1, and Numbers 1:1

God Is Present

This scene reminds us that God is present with us.

God is Active

This scene reminds us that God is at work doing something.

What is God doing? The answer is found in seven bowls of wine…

The Bowls - A Continuation of the Theology of Wine

Setup in 14:9-10

Wine Represents the Most Intense / Ultimate Human Experiences

Positive Examples

Making Great Cheer in the Human Heart (Psalm 104:15)

A Picture of God’s Abundant Blessing (Deuteronomy 7:13)

A Joyful Celebration of Marriage (John 2:1-11)

A Blessing from Father to Son (Genesis 27:26-29)

The Intensity of Romantic Love (Song of Songs 1:2, 5:1, 7:2, 7:9)

The Recognition of God’s Good Gifts (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10)

A Picture of Peace, Safety, and Providence (Psalm 23:5)

A picture of God’s Justice Against Evil (Psalm 75:6-8)

A Recognition that We, and Everything We Own, Belongs to God (Deuteronomy 14:22-26)

As an Offering to God Which Makes a Pleasing Aroma to the Lord (Exodus 29:40)

A Prophetic Image of Jesus’ Sacrifice (Mark 14:22-25)

An Image of Discipleship (Philippians 2:17)

God’s Victory Over Death and the Unity of His People (Isaiah 25:6-9)

A Prophetic Image of The New Creation (Amos 9:13-15)

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

Negative Examples

A Picture of Being Led Astray (Proverbs 20:1)

As a Corruption of Judgment (Proverbs 31:4)

A Picture of Someone Who Confuses Evil for Good and Good for Evil (Isaiah 5:20-22)

A Picture of Destitution for the One Whose First Love is Pleasure (Proverbs 21:17)

A Symbol of Sin’s Corruption Through All Generations (Genesis 9:18-28)

A Symbol of Institutional Evil and Corruption (Revelation 14:8)

A Warning that the Drunkard Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21)

A Symbol of the Drunkard Walking in Darkness (Romans 13:13)

A Picture of God’s Wrath Against Evil (Revelation 16:1-21)

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,

“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 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. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

Complicated Pictures

From the examples previously listed, wine is used to symbolize both the beauty and distortion of the same topic!

Wine is used to represent:

The Beauty of Romance in Marriage / The Chaos of Sexual Immorality

God’s Protection of Creation / The Judgment Experienced by Evildoers

God’s Abundant Provision for His People / The Destitution of Those in Sin

The Abundant Joy to be Found in God’s Good Gifts / The Corrupted Revelry Found in Worshipping Creation

So if the bowls of wrath give you complicated feelings, maybe that is by design. The wrath of God should not be sanitized or simplified to make us feel comfortable.

But there are clear points which we need to understand regarding the wrath of God:

The Wrath of God

God’s Perfect Justice is Emotional

God is not a cold, distant, stoic judge. He does not exist to just “keep everything in balance.” God has an intense love and passion for His creation, and His response to the corruption and destruction of His creation is to enact wrathful justice.

Illustration: The Wrath of a Parent in Defense of Their Child

The Complete Wrath of God

“It is done!”

The negative examples of wine are limited - in the new creation there will only be positive.

Outro

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us