Revelation 16
Notes
Transcript
Good morning,
if you have your bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Revelation chapter 15.
Its my hope, that as a church family, we are starting to get the flow of the argument of the book of Revelation,
When you work through a book like this slowly and consistently…,
you start to get the feel for the way that the imagery is working..
This is a book of symbolism….
Jesus himself teaches John to look for the symbolism in the very first chapter of the book.
In chapter 1, John sees a vision of Jesus in all of his glory
and Jesus is standing in the midst of 7 golden lampstands and he is holding what appears to be seven stars.
Jesus says this to John…
20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
In other words…, the lampstands and the stars in the vision are symbolic
This book is also cyclical.. not chronological.
The book articulates several series of visions that recapitulate…
meaning they tell the same story over and over again with different imagery And emphasis.
We have now studied the:
7 trumpet visions
7 seal visions
7 sign visions
and now we turn our attention finally to the 7 bowl visions..,
each set of 7 visions are big apocalyptic pictures of the
spiritual realities that are going on in this world
between Jesus’ first coming
and his future second coming…
They tell us the way the world works…,
and the way the world will one day end…,
but these cycles of visions do not to simply exist to satisfy our curiosity…,
the repeated imagery is meant to ground us in what is eternal…,
what is true,
what is real…,
what is important,
In today’s set of visions we will especially see two responses to the just judgments of God..,
Two responses to what God will do in the end..,
two responses though that are no doubt represented in this room..,
One response is characteristic of those who will suffer the final judgment.
The other response is characteristic of those who will celebrate in God’s final victory.
They represent for us two kinds of dispositions
two options for the way in which we live and die.
These wild dreams and visions with all their symbolism are not just meant to entertain..,
They are meant to transform and sustain us spiritually…
We are meant to see ourselves in alignment either with those who will be judged in the end…,
or those who are being saved.
so lets read and pray for that work to be done in our hearts.
We are going to read from 15:5 all the way down to 16:11.
5 After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, 6 and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. 7 And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, 8 and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
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.”
2 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.
3 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.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 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.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
7 And I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
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.
10 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.
lets pray
Truth #1 God’s Wrath is Being Revealed Progressively
Truth #1 God’s Wrath is Being Revealed Progressively
John now looks to the sanctuary of God’s dwelling…, the heavenly temple..
From the temple comes the new series of visions…,
seven angels come with seven plagues...,
Immediately we recognize the allusion to the Exodus story that has been continuously referenced throughout Revelation.
The word plagues is an allusion to the kind of judgment that God poured out on Egypt for their hardness of heart.
John is seeing a vision of preparations being made for similar displays of God’s wrath on people with rebellious, idolatrous, and hardened hearts similar to Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
These angels are given bowls which are described to be “full of the wrath of God” who lives forever and ever…,
For those new to this concept…,
let me pause here and define some terms…,
What is wrath?
Wrath is more than just an expression of punishment…
Wrath is the displeasure of a Holy God against that which is unholy…,
Wrath is the kind of anger that you feel when you hear of a child being abused or neglected.…
Wrath is the desire for justice to be served on the pedophile, or the rapist, or the terrorist.
Anyone who is righteous must feel a sense of indignation against that which is wicked.
You naturally have a sense of this because you were made in the image of God.., Though your experience of it is not righteous because you are not totally righteous..,
Wrath in God’s case is different because he is comprehensively righteous…,
Wrath for God is the right reaction that perfect holiness and goodness has against evil and wickedness..
God’s wrath is HIS divine repulsion and his opposition to evil…
These next visions are about God releasing his divine wrath against the evil that is in the world..,
In this vision…, God is pouring out his judgment and his justice onto the world in response to wickedness in the world.
The world system is not spiraling out of control without justice being served…,
justice is being served
and justice will be served fully and finally.
John is seeing the preparations being made and then he begins to watch as each bowl of God’s judgment is poured out on to the world.
lets look more closely at the first three bowls…,
1 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.”
2 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.
3 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.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.
We have already noted that these parallel the plagues upon Egypt in the book of Exodus…,
but also notice that these visions parallel earlier visions in Revelation.… especially the 7 trumpet visions.
Trumpet vision parallel
The first trumpet in chapter 8 impacted the Earth.
The second affected the sea
The third affected the rivers and springs
this is a new picture of God’s wrath with new imagery…,
but the symbols depict similar realities.
There is a sense in which God’s wrath is already being revealed in all these areas of the created order…,
We see the effect that God’s curse on sin has had in each of these realms of existence…
the very brokenness of the world system is a result of the wrath of God on Adam and Eve’s sin. His wrath has been poured out…
on the land,
in the sea,
in the waters of the world..,
All of creation groans because of the wrath of God in this age…,
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Creation itself suffers the wrath of God because of sin in the world.
There is a reason that we see in the trumpet visions earlier in the book
that only 1/3 of the earth is impacted in each of those visions…,
The sufferings and trials and tribulations are viewed as partial in that vision.
They also serve a kind of purpose of warning.
Trumpets warn of greater judgments still to come.
but in these bowl visions the entirety of the world is impacted..
In verse 2, it seems that every person engaged in false worship received the painful and harmful sores.
In verse 3, “Every living thing died that was in the sea”
In verse 4, all the rivers and springs of water are affected.
Things are escalating in this cycle…,
We are moving toward the climactic end…
and the expression of God’s wrath is intensifying As the visions recapitulate.
This is why I articulated truth #1 in this way.
#1 God’s Wrath Against Evil is Being Revealed Progressively
God’s wrath is revealed Partially Today
and will be revealed Fully on the Last Day
The very existence of natural disasters,
Disease,
and death in this world is a result of God’s wrath being put on display.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
But as we saw earlier in Revelation…,
those displays of wrath today are simply trumpets…,
Every disaster that happens in this world functions like warnings to a greater outpouring of wrath in the future on all of creation and especially God’s enemies..,
Jesus uses this logic when he is asked about a specific tragedy of a tower falling upon a group of people.
4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
So Jesus clarifies…,
its not that every bad thing that happens in the world is a direct result of someone’s individual sin…, but it does foreshadow the future and final disaster thats coming…,
It does give opportunity to repent and believe…,
Anne Marie had a pretty gnarly cold soar this week and now I’ve got one too…,
Does this mean we are among those who break out into painful sores because of the mark of the beast…, no…,
but does it remind us to look forward to a day Where we will live with God forever with no more cold sores…, yes.
Just as Paul says in Romans 1 that God’s wrath is being revealed in and through the corrupted creation…, he also says that there is a significant degree of God’s wrath that is being stored up…
It is being held back by his grace for a season So that people have time to repent And believe.
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
This is the position of many people today…,
They presume on the kindness, and forbearance, and patience of God…,
In other words they assume that God should just be patient with their sin forever…,
when that patience is supposed to lead us to repent and turn to God for salvation…,
Both God’s patience and God’s just judgments are meant to turn us to him..,
the uniqueness of this vision though…,
is the specific focus being given to the people who refuse to repent.…,
In this vision….
Those suffering the wrath of God are those who worshipped the beast..,
Now…,
we know from previous weeks that the beast is symbolic for the world system that is opposed to God…,
It stands for every structure of power and influence in the kingdom of man and it thrives off of idolatry…,
the worship of false images rather than the worship of the true God.
In this vision it is those false worshippers who are breaking out in painful sores..,
Now, let me just pause here and highlight this fact…,
The greatest sin of humanity is first and foremost that we worship the wrong thing.
The first four commandments of the 10 commandments are about right worship.
You may think that you are good person in this room primarily because you haven’t lied much in your life,
or committed adultery,
or killed anyone recently…,
but the first half of God’s moral law is about worshipping him alone and worshipping him rightly..
our great evil is that by our very nature we replace God with something else
or we reduce God to be less than he really Is.
That is the ultimate evil that leads to all other evils.
When we come to faith in Jesus
he begins to transform us into true worshippers of the true God...
The fact that our world still exists in this cursed state…,
is the ongoing evidence that we live in a world where right worship has not been fully restored yet..,
In fact…, the bowls of wrath are interrupted at this point in Revelation 16…, by worship.
One of the angels interrupts the unfolding visions with an interpretive word of praise…,
look at verse 5-7
5 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.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!”
7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”
The angel praises God for being Just..,
Meaning He does what is right…,
he will not let evil go unpunished..,
He is a good judge.
He is holy, set apart, without error, without mistake, without sin.
The angel even comments that the persecutors of Christians,
the murderers of Christians,
the ones who put John the apostle in exile on the island of Patmos…,
They would all in fact get what they deserved.
They had shed the blood of God’s people…,
and they would in the end drink their own blood..,
In other words they would suffer the consequences of their own actions and decisions.
Or as the angel puts it…, “they get what they deserve..”
After this, the alter chimes in..
Its unclear whether this is the alter in the heavenly temple itself or whether this is symbolic for the prayers of the saints as it was earlier in the book..,
But it lifts up its voice re-affirming what is being sung.
And I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
All this leads me to Truth #2
Truth #2 God’s People Will Praise Him for His Just Judgments
Truth #2 God’s People Will Praise Him for His Just Judgments
this is very important for us…, but its hard to swallow…,
This is the teaching of Scripture…,
Every person in hell deserves to be there.
This is without exception.
Every person on the last day who drinks the wrath of God, does so because they deserve it, because they refused to worship the God who gave them life…,
God does not make mistakes.
God is not evil.
God is not unjust.
One of the reasons we will praise him in joy on the last day will be because of his total comprehensive eradication of everything that is sinful.
Nothing accursed will remain in God’s new world when he returns..,
The sin of every human being will be paid for…,
For us…, the recapitulation of these apocalyptic wrathful images… they do not scare us.
Rather they intensify our gratitude and our humility…,
Because we know that we too failed to worship our God…,
we know that we too deserve this justice…,
but this is the good news of the gospel we celebrate here every week…, ,
The sin of every human being will be paid for…,
either by the individual on the last day…,
or by Jesus on the cross where he drank the cup of God’s wrath for us.
Paul explains it this way:
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
The question is not whether you deserve all this wrath being poured out on the world in these images…,
the answer to that question is yes we deserve it…,
the question is, rather, whether you have trusted Jesus to pay that penalty for you or not…,
Either way God’s justice will be served either upon the unrepentant or upon the willing and perfect sacrifice of Jesus.
And we Christians will one day praise our God for all of his just judgments…,
We will praise him for his judgment of the wicked..,
and we will even praise him for his just judgments in our own lives..,
he makes no mistake even in our own trials and tribulations…,
one day we will all say as the alter in this vision says..,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments.”
That is the response of a believing person…,
That is our response to his last day judgments…,
but Christian we fight for that to be our response to God’s every day judgments…,
We are in a process of sanctification where we are learning to trust God with all things..,
we are learning to say “just and true are your judgments” even in
his every day decisions…,
his every day displays of sovereignty in our lives…,
even when and especially when we do not understand why God would allow something to happen in our own lives…,
We say in faith..,
“True and just are your judgments.”;
That depends is a miraculous perspective of life in this world only made possible by a miracle in our hearts.
But that is not the response of all people…,
Revelation 16 is very much about those who will have the very opposite response…,
You would think that the false worshippers in these visions would see the outpouring of God’s wrath…,
and they would quickly change their tune…,
You would think they would quickly repent and recognize the true God for who he is…,
But this is not The case..
Look at verses 8-11.
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.
10 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.
This leads us to our final truth for this morning.
Truth #3 God’s Enemies Will Curse Him for His Just Judgments
Truth #3 God’s Enemies Will Curse Him for His Just Judgments
Here again we are reminded that the story of Pharaoh is the story of the human heart…
God sent plague after plague…,
God showed his power…,
God showed his patience…,
and Pharaoh hardened his heart…,
and hardened his heart…,
and hardened his heart…,
until he was finally plunged in total destruction.
A part from God’s saving grace and your repentance… this was or is your trajectory.
The false worshippers here curse God even though they know he is the one who has the power over these plagues.
They refuse to repent.
and they refuse to give God glory…,
This will be the response of the wicked in the end…,
but this is the response of the wicked to God’s just judgments today as well.
Every human being who endures hardship in this broken world is faced with a choice…,
They can either humble themselves before God and hope in his promises
Or they can harden themselves against God in anger because things are not presently what they wish them to be.…,
They can either repent of their sin which separates them from the grace and love of God…,
Or they can double down on their sin in their arrogance..,
and they would rather go on worshipping the false gods of this world…,
then submit to the true God…,
according to this vision…,
the human disposition is to curse God,
To refuse him glory,
and to hold tightly to sin…,
This is why, salvation is such an astounding miracle when it happens…,
It is the total transformation of a human’s heart…,
the familiar text in Ephesians describes the glory of the miracle in this way.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
The vision of Revelation 16 is a vision of humanity in its natural corrupted state…,
hell bent on going to hell.
cursing God until the very end and on into eternity…,
Hell will not be a place full of people who wish they were in the presence of God…,
It will be full of people who never wanted the true God, and who still do not .…,
that is our trajectory unless the grace of God opens our eyes,
and brings us to spiritual life through faith in Jesus.
And when he does…,
though imperfectly…,
we begin to be shaped into the kinds of people…,
who praise God’s name rather than curse it,
Who repent of sin, rather than cherish it,
and who give him glory rather than glorify ourselves…,
The last day will be a day where the Christian person is perfected in his pursuit of God…,
and the non-Christian person will be permanently hardened in their hatred for God.…
Three Truths from our text this Morning.
Truth #1 God’s Wrath is Being Revealed Progressively
Truth #2 God’s People Will Praise Him for His Just Judgments
Truth #3 God’s Enemies Will Curse Him for His Just Judgments
So what’s the takeaway for us?
Why would this vision matter to the apostle John who was himself suffering at the hand of wicked men?
Why would this matter to the churches who were fighting to survive and to persevere to the end?
They were not immediately getting out their charts and seeing if they could reconcile all the cycles of visions in Revelation so that they could figure out a date as to when these events would happen.
Rather they would have inspected their own hearts with some questions like this:
Here are a few application questions:
Application #1 Do I Trust the Just Judgments of God?
Application #1 Do I Trust the Just Judgments of God?
When I do not understand how God could let this evil Roman Empire triumph over his people like this…,
can I give all my suffering and heartache and and all the injustice I see before me…, can I give it to the Lord in faith that every wrong will be made right?
Am I more prone to shake my fist at God and curse him when I see evidence of his judgments on earth…, or am I more likely to praise him as holy, eternal, almighty, just and true?
Application #2 Am I Glorifying God or the Beast?
Application #2 Am I Glorifying God or the Beast?
the marker of the wicked in this vision is that they are compromisers with the world system…,
they have pledged allegiance to the kingdom of men and they have lived their lives worshipping the images that the evil one has set up….,
Sometimes we need to do some self analysis and just ask the question…, Am I a worshipper of the true God?
Do I rejoice in giving him praise…,
Or is my greatest joy the praise of another or the praise of self?
All this wrath in this vision is being poured out on those who refuse to give God the glory that is due him…,
so it stands as a reminder to us to always be asking…, “what is it that we glory in?”
Application #3 Am I Walking in Repentance?
Application #3 Am I Walking in Repentance?
The receivers of wrath in this vision are those who refuse to repent..,
They refuse to admit any wrong…
They refuse to confess any sin…,
They harden themselves to any acknowledgment of their own wrong…,
rather than softening themselves to God’s correction and leadership…,
But brothers and sisters that is not the way of Christ Jesus…,
Christians we are not perfect people..,
We are not earning our salvation from this wrath…,
but we are a people being sanctified to look differently then the world headed for judgment…,
we are a people being sanctified to trust God’s just judgments, glorify God in all we do, and walk in repentance as we fall short…
Lets pray to that end
