Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Illustration - Every Great Book From Bible

Every Great Book From Bible

So closely is the Bible allied with the literature of the world that DeWitt Talmage said, “Every great book that has been published since the first printing press was lifted has directly or indirectly derived much of its power from the Sacred Oracles.

“Milton’s Paradise Lost is borrowed from the Bible; Spencer’s writings are imitations of the parables; John Bunyan saw in a dream what Saint John had previously seen in a vision; Macauley crowns his most gigantic sentences with Scripture quotations.

“Walter Scott’s characters are Bible men and women under different names; Hobbs stole from this Castle of Truth the weapons with which he afterward attacked it; and the writings of Pope are saturated with Isaiah.

The Bible is the fountain of truth from which other good books dip their life.”

—Herald of Holiness

—Herald of Holiness

[Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 190.]

Main Thought: [Inductive - See Conclusion]

When God tells us how it will be before it happens, when it occurs, it’s just like He said it would be.

His Word Is Trustworthy!

Sub-intro: Provide context and brief review of preceding chapters… (esp.

6ff).

a

Six trumpet judgments have been blasted across the face of the earth.

The earth has been hit with …

• a fierce storm and a massive volcanic explosion that destroys much of the world’s industry and shipping commerce

• a meteoric mass that contaminated one third of the water supply

• an astronomical eclipse that temporarily wiped out one third of the daylight

• a demonic-like locust attack that caused unbearable torture upon the ungodly of the earth

• a second demonic-like military attack that killed one third of the ungodly and evil of the earth

It is now time for the seventh trumpet judgment to blast forth.

But before it does, so much horror and destruction has hit the earth that the human heart cries out, “Is there no hope?

Is the earth doomed?

Is it to be a dead planet?

Is it to be nothing more than a ball of molten lava floating through space like so many other dead planets and stars?

Is all life to be destroyed?

Is this the pessimistic and hopeless future of the earth?”

No! A thousand no’s!

All the destruction and devastation will take place upon earth, but there is to be a final triumph over evil and destruction.

This is the great announcement of this passage.

God’s eternal plan for salvation and for a new heavens and earth will be consummated.

⇒ All the prophets of doomsday are wrong.

God is going to save all who will give their lives to Him, and He is going to make a new heavens and earth that will be perfect and last forever and ever.

⇒ All the prophets of humanism (man is his own god) are wrong.

The earth is going to suffer convulsive and catastrophic horrors.

The earth and its time are running down, and man himself cannot stop the process.

But this is the glorious message of these next four passages (chapters ten and eleven).

God is going to conquer evil.

This is the great announcement of the final triumph over evil.

[Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Revelation, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 1996), 140.]

a

describes the events that will occur at the middle of the seven-year Tribulation.

This explains John’s repeated mention of the three-and-a-half-year time segment in one form or another (; , ; ).

At the beginning of this period, the Antichrist began to make his conquest by promising to protect the Jews and assist in their rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.

But after three-and-a-half-years, he will break his agreement, invade the temple, and begin to persecute the Jewish people.

However depressing the events of this middle segment of the Tribulation may be, God is not without His witness to the world.

In are three important testimonies: from a mighty angel (), from the two special witnesses (), and from the elders in heaven ().

[Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 596.]

Body:

I. God’s Invitation ().

A. "Go & Take...” (v.

8).

The voice - from verse 4 above, God.

Spake … again - I’m glad that God “speaks again...” even after He tells John to “seal up” the content of the seven thunders.

Go take - When God speaks, He instructs and commands… “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”

Little book which is open - See JFB:

a little book—a roll little in comparison with the “book” () which contained the whole vast scheme of God’s purposes, not to be fully read till the final consummation.

This other, a less book, contained only a portion which John was now to make his own (, ), and then to use in prophesying to others.

The New Testament begins with the word “book” (Greek, “biblus”), of which “the little book” (Greek, “biblaridion”) is the diminutive, “the little bible,” the Bible in miniature.

a little book—a roll little in comparison with the “book” () which contained the whole vast scheme of God’s purposes, not to be fully read till the final consummation.

This other, a less book, contained only a portion which John was now to make his own (, ), and then to use in prophesying to others.

The New Testament begins with the word “book” (Greek, “biblus”), of which “the little book” (Greek, “biblaridion”) is the diminutive, “the little bible,” the Bible in miniature.

[Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 574.]

The angel which standeth… - See Thomas, who references Walvoord.

a

The symbolic stance of the angel reminds him for the third time in this chapter (cf.

vv. 2, 5) of the angel’s complete authority over the whole earthly situation (Walvoord).

[Robert L. Thomas, : An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1995), 72.]

B. "Give me the Little Book" (v.

9a).

John did as he was told, no questions asked, simply trusting obedience.

C. “Take…& Eat...” the Little Book (v.

9b).

John followed instructions VERY CAREFULLY.

e.g.

“Eat it up… I… ate it up...”

Belly - or, koilian, literally has the sense of the entire digestive tract.

Bitter…sweet - Understanding - Bitter in the Stomach; Sweet in the Mouth (God's Perspective).

a

As the great scroll of chapter 5 outlined the destiny of the entire human race, so the little scroll unveils the lot of the faithful in those last days of fierce Satanic opposition.

It tells of the two witnesses who, when they have finished their testimony, are destroyed by the beast out of the Abyss (11:7).

Like the crucified Lord their dead bodies are exposed for public contempt (11:8).

The people of God as they faithfully bear their witness to the world are not delivered “from martyrdom and death, but through martyrdom and death to a glorious resurrection.”53

The prospect of no further delay in the fulfillment of God’s eternal purposes is sweet indeed.

That it will involve a bitter prelude is hard to swallow.54

52 Taking ἐπί in the sense of “to” or “about” rather than “against,” as in .

53 Erdman, 99.

54 Lilje holds the book to be sweet and bitter at the same time since the commission includes both the announcement of wrath and the promise of succor (157); Beasley-Murray favors the same interpretation (175).

Peterson writes of the “polarity of sweetness and bitterness” experienced by every witness (109).

Others reverse the order and refer the sweetness to final blessedness (Kepler, cited by Morris, 139; Blaney, 462).

[Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 210.]

II.

Our Meditation ().

A. John “Took… and Ate” the Little Book (v.

10a).

a

Eating the book symbolizes internalizing its contents, because the eater can then prophesy (; ).