Sweet and Sour

Introduction

*Getting Sick Illustration* Have you ever had something that was just so sweet and tasted so good, yet after you ate it you got sick to your stomach? Obviously the first thing I think about is eating way too much candy. In fact when I was in middle school this happened to my best friend. See my birthday is November 1st, the day after Halloween. I was so excited to have a party at school with all of my friends, but sadly my best friend Lucas did not show up. I was very disappointed. As it turned out Lucas had eaten so much candy the night before, that he woke up so sick the next day that he couldn’t come to school.

I’m sure we’ve all had those times. Even if it’s not candy it’s really easy to eat something that tastes incredibly sweet, or really good, and then suddenly we are eating so much of it that we can’t stop and the next thing we know we are sick to our stomach. John knew this feeling as well. Except for him, it wasn’t with candy. It was with a scroll. But we’ll get to that in a minute. First of all we need to understand what’s going on in Revelation that leads up to this particular scene, so go along with me on a quick adventure.

Now of course I want to know, how many of you have ever eaten paper? Is it good? Is it gross? Did you get a paper cut on your tongue? I’m not really sure how hungry someone has to be to want to eat paper but I’ve heard it happens. I knew another kid in middle school who sometimes ate paper just for fun. Maybe it’s appetizing, I don’t really know. But John was told to eat a scroll in our passage today in . But why did God tell John to eat this scroll? First we need to understand where we are in the book of Revelation.

Background

I want you to imagine that you are entering a small theater for a private showing of the greatest play in history. As you walk into the lobby you see the Main Actor standing there, in full costume ready to perform. You barely recognize that man who is a very close friend of yours. He smiles at you and tells you that he’s glad you are there. He reminds you that this is simply a dress rehearsal, and he wants you to take some notes. See his kids are at home waiting for him to get home, and they won’t get to see the real show until the very end of the tour and so he asks that you write what you see down so that they can get an idea of what the real show will look like, even if your notes and descriptions are very basic. He then gives you some specific messages for all of his kids to remind them that He loves them and to keep behaving while he is gone. The Main Actor then makes his way back stage. You are ushered in by some of the nicest, and strongest looking, ushers you have ever seen. The Main Actor himself has handpicked each of them to lead you to your seat as well as sit with you to answer any questions you might have throughout the show. Once you’ve taken your seat, the lights go down, the curtains open, and the show begins....

This is exactly how the Book of Revelation begins, with John being the audience, the angels being the ushers, Jesus is the Main Actor and Star of the Show, and the 7 letters are the notes He leaves for his children, and the Book itself is John’s basic description of the Greatest Show on Earth for us to try to experience until our Father comes home, and we get to go see the real thing.

That is what the entire Book of Revelation is. Every scene, no matter how odd it is, is just another scene being described by John as best as he can by stretching the very concepts of language. It’s like he’s trying to describe the great show, but can barely find the words for it. And so scene by scene passes. Eventually we come to Chapter 10.

This actually happens to be a set change during the show. Like in an actual play, most of the scenes flow together nicely with minimal set changes, however we are at a point in the story where the set needs to be completely redone, and so we have an interlude. We have just witnessed the first 6 trumpets be blasted, which is actually a repeated scene of the previous 7 seals that were broken. However this time the scenes of the trumpets are much more intense than the seals were. Worse yet, as we know after this the same scene is repeated a third time with the seven bowls of God’s wrath. But for now we are watching the scene of the trumpets unravel. The sixth trumpet sounds, four angels are released to kill 1/3 of the Earth’s people, and the rest did not repent. The suspense is high. John is on the edge of his seat, while also trying to write. Finally the suspense reaches it’s climax and the curtains close. The 6th trumpet has sounded.

And so the set change begins. And naturally, it’s the perfect time to get a snack. John sees another usher, that is an angel, coming from the back, with what appears to be a small scroll in his hand. The great and powerful Angel takes his stand and suddenly hears a loud voice that tells him to go and get the scroll from the angel. He also overhears some conversation about the show that he thinks is important, but is told not to write it down, it’s a secret! So John walks up to the concession stand, and the angel hands him the scroll and tells him to eat it. But there’s a catch. This isn’t your standard buttered popcorn, or even printer paper. This scroll is going to taste sweet at first, but then it will turn sour in his stomach.

Now I want to know, how many of you have ever eaten paper? Is it good? Is it gross? Did you get a paper cut on your tongue? I’m not really sure how hungry someone has to be to want to eat paper but I’ve heard it happens. I knew another kid in middle school who sometimes ate paper just for fun. Maybe it’s appetizing, I don’t really know. But John was told to eat this scroll.

The Word of God is Sweet

This is weird! Why would he have to eat a scroll, and on top of that one that made him sick later? There is more going on here than we realize. In order to understand Revelation, you really need to have a grasp on your Old Testament. There are more illusions and quotations from the OT in Revelation than any other book of the New Testament. This passage is no different.

See, John is not the first person told to eat a scroll in the Bible. In fact, the prophet Ezekiel was the first to do so. Back in , God tells the prophet to eat what is given to him, and suddenly a hand reaches out with, you guessed it, a scroll in it. Ezekiel ate the scroll and it tasted as sweet as honey in his mouth. Suddenly we have a realization. John is walking in the footsteps of one of the greatest prophets to ever live. We also now know that this tiny scroll that John is given to eat is in fact the very Word of God! How do we know this? Because when we read Ezekiel, we discover that after he ate the scroll he was commanded to preach to the people. He had to eat the Word in order to tell the people about it. This is why in verse 11 of , God tells John, after eating the scroll ‘You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and language and kings’. Exactly like Ezekiel had to do, only much much bigger. Ezekiel was only sent to Israel. John and the church, that’s us, are sent to the whole world, to preach the Word!

But in order to do so, we must eat the scroll first. We must devour the very Word of God and let it nourish our bodies. It’s no surprise that it tastes oh so sweet. We start to read Scripture and we get hungry for more, and so we eat more. Jeremiah puts it this way, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, LORD God Almighty.” The Word of the Lord is delicious! But John discovers something that Ezekiel came to discover over his lifetime. The Word of the Lord can turn our stomachs sour.

The Word of God is Sour

Just like when we eat something that is too sweet and our stomach’s get sick, the Word of God can also make us sick. How can this be? If you’ve ever read your Bible it probably hasn’t taken you too long to come across a passage that wasn’t quite as sweet as you wanted it to be. It wasn’t quite the words you were looking for. In fact, maybe it hit you in the wrong spot. It convicted you. Suddenly this Book you love to eat so much makes you sick as you come to terms with things we don’t want to hear. These are hard things! They make us sick to our stomachs, as the Word of God goes from being so sweet to so sour so quickly! We do not want our innermost selves to be stripped bear before the all-seeing eyes of God. But that is exactly what happens when we begin to eat this scroll. And if this passage is a parallel to Ezekiel, we know that the scroll he ate was covered on both sides with “lament and mourning and woe”, Sour indeed!

But it doesn’t just turn our stomach’s sour, it also turns the world’s stomach sour. John is called to prophesy and to preach to the nations, just as Ezekiel was and they both knew that this sweet Word was not going to go down so well with many people. That’s why in the very next chapter, John sees 2 Martyrs who are killed for preaching the Word of God. It may be sweet to us, but the World hates the Word, they can’t stand it’s sourness, and how it brings their sinfulness and shame to light, and they want it snuffed out.

It’s Our Turn to Eat the Scroll

Where does that leave us Church? It leaves us in a dark and evil world, with a mission to bring light to every single corner of it. That means we have to eat the scroll. We have to devour the Word of God so that, just like Ezekiel and John, we can then proclaim it to the world. That means we watch as the sweetness turns to bitterness, and we might have to become the 2 martyrs John sees. Killed by the world, mocked by the world, and amazed with fear by the world as we are raised up to be with our King in the end. So eat this Book church! Taste it’s sweetness, experience it’s sourness and go tell the world about Jesus!

But hurry. We’ve gotten our snack, it’s almost time to find our seat. The lights are going down and the next scene is about the begin. You won’t want to miss the end of the Show.