Harvest of Wrath
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This section of Scripture is one of those uncomfortable ones we really would rather avoid talking about, but we must. And this sermon will largely have to do with those who are outside of Christ. If you are in Christ, this is a sermon about what you are escaping because of the grace of God. So I’ll say this as a preface: if you are not in Christ, this sermon should terrify you. And if that’s you today, I beg you to accept the grace of God extended to you in Christ so that you do not have to suffer under His wrath. This is the Gospel: that Jesus died on the cross taking upon himself the sin, suffering, hell, and the wrath of God that were owed to us. He sets free undeserving people to live in gratitude and joy.
EMPHASIZE GRACE AS A GIFT AND WE HAVE NO REASON TO BE SMUG.
And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
With that said, let’s get into the gift we who are in Christ have received:
6 And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7 “Fear God,” he shouted. “Give glory to him. For the time has come when he will sit as judge. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all the springs of water.”
8 Then another angel followed him through the sky, shouting, “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen—because she made all the nations of the world drink the wine of her passionate immorality.”
9 Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand 10 must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. 11 The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”
12 This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus.
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!”
You are what you do. You are which kingdom you align with. You can tell who the followers of the beast are by what they do. You can tell who the followers of the Lamb are because of what they do. I’m going to read this section again:
9 Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand 10 must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. 11 The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”
Do verses 9-11 bother you?
The gospel message is offensive. And I want to make sure that I take extra care with verses in Scripture that bother me. There is a fullness to the gospel that is more than just good news. And if we ignore the parts that make us uncomfortable are we really following the Lamb? So we are called to submit to all of what God says to us:
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
It is a travesty to stop at the end of verse 16. The tenor of the passage changes when you include those. The gospel includes good news and bad news. If we teach only about good news without bad news, what's the point? What's the good news in good news that has no flip side? If there's no punishment owed to us, what's the good news?
Savior/Lordship theologies- he is both. You can't understand Jesus without both. Let me suggest to you that if you claim Jesus as your savior, but do not also claim him as your Lord, he is neither to you and you are in danger of the fire of Hell.
Isn’t it interesting that the first time we see “Babylon the Great” in Revelation it’s a declaration of its destruction?
Where in OT is Babylon a key figure? Daniel. Why?
Israel is in exile in Babylon. They are everything that represents the opposite of who God is. The Babylonians destroyed the Temple and enslaved the people of God. Does it shock you that Rome might be referred to as Babylon?
Imperial cult saying, "you have to call me 'Lord and God.'" And a Christian in the 1st century would feel like they are in exile. And so the interpretation is that Rome is Babylon. That's what this would have meant to the first century Christians reading this book.
Peter does this in his first epistle:
13 Your sister church here in Babylon sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark.
The application is that Babylon is any society opposed to Christians. Any force or group of people or culture opposed to Christians. And they make us feel like we're in exile. And that's why this concept is going to be dealt with first. It's the most prevalent force of persecution that we see in our lives. It's the most pressing threat to the people of God, and as a result, Jesus will communicate first that he will deal with that which we can see first in this book.
The message is this: If you wage war on God with the beast, God will wage war on you. And anyone outside the grace of Christ has declared war on him.
But let me be clear: vengeance is not our mission. Right now, we are called to love people into the kingdom of God and bring them in so that they can experience the eternal life that we are experiencing. But at some point, that will change. What are the two greatest commandments? Which one's first? Which one's second? Idolatry of people sometimes because we elevate the second greatest commandment over the first.
At some point those two commandments will be set in their proper order, and God's judgement will come. And some people have and will spend their entire lives spitting on Jesus' name and kicking him in the teeth, and on that day, our job is no longer to love those people into the kingdom, but to applaud God's justice being poured out on them. This is why the gospel is urgent. We don’t know when it will happen!
And on that day, the people from the earth (those outside the grace of Christ) will never rest (14:11) people of God will receive true rest (14:13)- like Saturday afternoon, empty-to-do-list, kids-aren’t-doing-something-naughty kind of rest.
And even though this message can be disturbing and bother us, it can be beautiful, even if it isn't easy to swallow. But God deserves more than this world gives him, and he will get it.
Verse 13 is a beatitude: Blessed are poor in spirit.. theirs is the kingdom. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.... etc. There are blessings in Revelation and this is one of them.
There are 7 in Revelation. (Rev. 1:3 x2; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 22:7, 14)
Why do you think there are seven? Do you think John accidentally wrote seven? Of course not. They represent complete privilege of the followers of the lamb.
Death = bliss for this one, and we get this. Paul gets this. All the Holy ones, saints can identify with Paul when he says,
8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
This is now. Death was changed at the Christ event- Jesus' life, death, burial, and resurrection. It no longer holds us in fear like it once did. Now, we know that death holds no sting or victory.
14 Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
15 Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, “Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe.” 16 So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested.
17 After that, another angel came from the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. 18 Then another angel, who had power to destroy with fire, came from the altar. He shouted to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the earth, for they are ripe for judgment.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20 The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle.
When we think of harvesting, we often think evangelism, like John 4 (harvest is plentiful, workers are few) . This image is more like Matthew 13- harvesting of the wheat and weeds, especially with a focus on the weeds.
[[Winepress image]]
This is not grapes, this is evil people, and the winepress is not catching juice, but blood. This is not a pretty picture and because the blood is so plentiful, there are a lot of them. And the saddest part of all is that all that was required to redeem their blood is the blood of Jesus, which they rejected. Blood didn't have to flow so far, but they rejected the gospel.
And this takes place outside of the city because they are not God's people.
But there’s another way to read this. See, this plays itself out in each of our lives one of two ways: on us, or on Jesus. And if this is describing the experience of those in the grace of God, the judgement taking place outside the city is Jesus’ crucifixion, and the blood flowing is Jesus’ blood. Do you see the amazing gift you’ve been given? He is worthy of worship!
And worship is war.
To summarize chapter 14, "Don't get the mark of the beast. Don't worship the beast. Whatever you do, don't worship the beast. Because as bad as the world feels in how it persecutes you, God's wrath is infinitely worse."
Where’s your heart most of the time? What do you spend your time thinking about? What gets you excited? What do you spend the most money on? What’s the first thing you think about when you wake up? What’s the last thing you think about before you fall asleep? All of these questions combined will help to answer the question of who/what you worship.
So here’s our application:
Are you spiritually healthy? Because healthy things grow. Ask yourself this question: “how have I grown in the last year?” If the answer is “I don’t know,” or “I haven’t,” let me suggest that you might not be healthy. Because healthy things grow. The Spirit will bear fruit in your life. This is the evidence of his grace. So this week, ask God to reveal to you the areas where you’re not worshipping well- the areas where you’re not growing- and ask the Holy Spirit to come into those areas and submit them to him, and watch him use those areas of weakness for growth in new and major ways as you are led by him.