Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Did you know there is Doomsday clock?

Yeah, there is.

It is not a real clock but one that since 1947.

The Doomsday Clock is a symbol which represents the likelihood of a human-caused global catastrophe.

Maintained since 1947 by the members of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board,[1] the Clock represents an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war.

Since 2007, it has also reflected climate change[2] and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity.[3]

The Clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as "midnight" and The Bulletin's opinion on how close the world is to a global catastrophe as a number of "minutes" to midnight.

Its original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight.

It has been set backward and forward 22 times since then, the smallest-ever number of minutes to midnight being two (in 1953) and the largest seventeen (in 1991).

As of January 2017, the Clock is set at two and a half minutes to midnight, due to a "rise of 'strident nationalism' worldwide, United States President Donald Trump's comments over North Korea, Russia, and nuclear weapons."[4][5]

This setting is the Clock's second-closest approach to midnight since its introduction.

The Bulletin's clock is not a gauge to register the ups and downs of the international power struggle; it is intended to reflect basic changes in the level of continuous danger in which mankind lives in the nuclear age...[7

There is another clock that is real and is running.

That is God’s clock.

And according to it.

Time is running out for the wicked to repent.

You never know when your time will be up.

Last week a 17 backed out of a parking space into the street and was broadsided by a truck.

Her mother died in that accident.

Someone else was riding a bicycle and was hit by a car.

We don’t know when our time is up.

Jesus said to his disciples when asked about the worshippers who were killed in the temple what he thought about it.

They wanted to know if they were wicked sinners and that is why they died.

Jesus answered “except you repent you shall all likewise perish.”

Your time is running.

The clock is ticking on your run in this life.

to say the least it is short.

Our text highlights this truth even more.

For in it John sees this colossal image of an Angel holding a little scroll, swearing an oath that “there should be time no longer:”

Then John is told not to write the message, but to eat the scroll and then that he would prophecy later.

What are we to make of all this?

Well, we have come through the 7 seals and 6 trumpets of judgment.

Over half the worlds population has perished.

The world is in a state of chaos.

The landscape of the world has changed drastically.

We ended the last chapter with the statement that “the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, . . .

.”

And this chapter opens with a change of scenery for John.

From chapter four until now, John has been in heaven seeing these judgments from that vantage point.

Now he is returned to the earth where he sees this image of a strong angel with a message.

To this chapter we now turn.

The message is this: time is short.

there will be no more delay.

We will see what that means.

In this chapter and the next we are introduced to three new witnesses to the truth of the message of God.

One is an angel, and then the two witnesses in chapter 11.

But we also have John as a witness.

So basically we have two sets of two witnesses.

At the mouth of two or three witnesses testimony is deemed to be true.

That is what we have here.

Witnesses that attest that the testimony of God, His message of doom to the wicked is the truth.

I.

The first witness is the Strong angel, v.1-7

I asked myself, why this angel in this part now?

What is the purpose here.

Many think this angel is Jesus.

Others that he is one of the archangels.

In our text it is really not that important who the angel is or God could have made that very clear.

What I want to address is why the angel appears and why is he described as he is?

Because much of this description does fit with other pictures we have of Jesus throughout Revelation as well as the OT.

So lets look at this.

He is described in our text as a strong angel, used of God in 18:8, but another angel preaching 'who is worthy to open the scroll' in .

Then in 18:21 it refers to another angel who casts a stone into the sea.

He is descending out of Heaven-Rev.

18:1 an angel descends out of Heaven and the earth is lightened because of His glory.

an angel has the keys of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

Here this indicates the angel comes directly from the presence of God.

Clothed in a cloud- in 14:14, 15, 16 the Son of Man is sitting on a cloud, in he comes on a cloud.

This angel is clothed with a cloud indicating that it is permanently affixed to him.

This recalls the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky.

Even the exodus with pillar of cloud.

God is robed in a cloud, .

We see a similar description in ;

Jesus often appeared in the OT as the Angel of the Lord, ; ; .

He is descending out of Heaven-Rev.

18:1 an angel descends out of Heaven and the earth is lightened because of His glory.

an angel hs the keys of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

Here this indicates the angel comes directly from the presence of God.

Clothed in a cloud- in 14:14, 15, 16 the Son of Man is sitting on a cloud, in he comes on a cloud.

This angel is clothed with a cloud indicating that it is permanently affixed to him.

This recalls the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky.

Even the exodus with pillar of cloud.

God is robed in a cloud, .

He has a bow upon his head- The words used indicate that it was like a crown on his head.

the only other place iris is in where John sees a bow around the throne of God.

I think the bow is reminder of God's covenant promise to Noah and us that God would not destroy with a flood the earth.

It is a reference to His faithfulness, maybe a code word or indication of His faithfulness.

This is what I wrote about it in ch. 4.

1. Rainbow

Then there was a rainbow with appearance of emerald encircling the throne.

this is something like the description in And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

this is something like the description in

And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

The word iris in Greek is often used of any bright halo surrounding another body, It refers to the circle around the eyes of a peacock's tail, and to the iris of the eye.

and so it may refer to a bright halo around or above the throne.

John does not see the form of God, but the brilliance of the flashing gems

“In the vision the flashing lustre of the ἰασπις [iaspis] and the fiery red of the σαρδ [sard] are relieved by the halo (ἰρις [iris]) of emerald which encircled the Throne” (Swete).

Robertson, A. T. (1933).

Word Pictures in the New Testament ().

Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.