Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Revelation 13:11-18

Theme: Take your stand with the redeemed; otherwise you will ball with the condemned.

Date: 09/23 /2018 File name: Resurrection31.wpd

ID Number:

Martin Luther King, Jr in his powerful ‘Our God is Marching On!’ speech said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

King is actually paraphrasing Theodore Parker, a 19th century Unitarian minister.

Here’s the original quote: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe.

The arc is a long one.

My eye reaches but little ways.

I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight.

I can divine it by conscience.

And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”

What does Theodore Parker mean?

In looking down the corridors of time, Parker does not fully understand the events of history and where they are ultimately leading.

To the natural eye they seem chaotic and willy-nilly.

He wants to believe that we live in a moral universe where good and evil actually exist, where the good will ultimately win out, and life will — in the end — make sense.

His conscience tells him this must be so even though experience may contradict it.

In the end he is of the firm conviction that justice will prevail.

Revelation 14 assures us that the long arc of the universe does, indeed, end in justice.

The righteous will be saved, and the unrighteous will be condemned.

God has promised it will be so.

• Position of the Lamb

• Protected by the Lamb

• Praise to the Lamb

• Purity of the Lamb’s Followers

I. POSITION OF THE LAMB

“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, ... .”

(Revelation 14:1, ESV)

1. the apostle John has just finished giving us a terrifying glimpse at two “beasts” who will rise up at the end of the age, and who will deceive the world

a. we know these beasts better as the Antichrist and the False Prophet

2. but immediately after that vision John receives another

a.

I’ve told you on several occasions that John did not receive merely one continuous vision

1) he was bombarded with vision after vision after vision

b. so when John writes “then I looked, and behold” he is seeing a new vision, and yet it is a vision that is obviously connected to all the other visions

1) the word behold in vs. 1, is a word that demands our attention of what is about to follow

2) John is saying “now pay attention, because what I am about to say is really, really important”

3) but before I tell you how important the vision of Chapter 14 is, let’s review —

3. let me take a moment to recap for you the chronology of events that we have seen in the book of Revelation to date

a. 1st, with the opening of the Sixth Seal in Revelation 6:12-17 we witness the opening days of the tribulation period

“ ... the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

They called to the mountains and the rocks, “fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?”

“ (Rev.

6:17)

1) the opening of the sixth seal contains the announcement of seven Trumpet Judgments that represent God’s wrath upon a sinful and disobedient humanity

2) but before the trumpet judgments are poured out John shows us a picture of God’s saints before and after the tribulation period

a) the 144,000 are a picture of God’s people on the cusp of the tribulation period — he marks them with “the seal of the living God” (Rev.

7:2) which will supernaturally protect them against God’s wrath

b) the great multitude is a picture of God’s people on the other side of the tribulation — it’s a number that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people and language — all standing before the throne and before the Lamb

b. 2nd, is the trumpet judgments are sounded, and catastrophic wrath levels entire areas of the globe, probably leaving millions dead

1) the implication is that the world knows that this is the wrath of God, and still they did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood… Nor do they repent (Rev.

9:20-21)

c. 3rd, when the seventh trumpet judgment is sounded it is announced that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Rev.

11:15)

1) when this announcement is made there are still 3½ years of Great Tribulation left

2) during that time the reign of the Antichrist is supported by the miracles of the False Prophet

3) they will, according to Rev. 13:7 wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them, and it will be a time of persecution that God’s people have not experienced since the beginning of the Church age — the list of martyrs will grow long during this period

d. 4th, just before the commencement of the last seven great plagues that God will pour out upon the Antichrist and his followers John reminds us of our ultimate victory in Christ

1) that’s what Chapter 14 is all about

4. the chapter opens with the position of the Lamb — he is standing, and he is standing on Mt.

Zion

A. THE POSITION OF THE LAMB IS ONE OF AUTHORITY

1. while the Antichrist appears to rule as the supreme potentate in the world and countless multitudes worship him, the Lamb stands in sovereignty on Mount Zion

a. he has been there all along as the King of kings, the commander in chief, the supreme ruler in heaven and on earth

2. when the saints on earth are persecuted by anti-Christian forces and are commanded to worship the Antichrist or die, they should not despair

a. when they open their spiritual eyes, they see the Lamb standing on Mount Zion who gives them the assurance that they are safe and secure

3. the days of the Antichrist are numbered because he is going down in defeat

B. THE POSITION OF THE LAMB IS ONE OF GLORY

1. the Lamb is standing on Mt.

Zion

a. it is a fulfillment of an Old Testament assurance given by God

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.””

(Psalm 2:1–6, ESV)

2. certainly at the end of the age the nations will rage against God and His authority

a. God’s answer to their raging is simply to let the Son reign in majesty and glory

b. is Revelation 14:1 a picture of Jesus literally standing on Mt.

Zion in Jerusalem — the peak where the Jewish Temple once stood?

1) many believers through the ages have thought so

2) but at the same time, Mount Zion was a standard 1st century name for heaven

a) we find an example of this in the Book of Hebrews

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,” (Hebrews 12:22, ESV)

c.

I believe it’s merely John’s way of reassuring believers that though the Church, and the Jewish remnant that turns to Christ during the Tribulation period will be sorely persecuted by the Antichrist, that we will stand for eternity before the Lord of Glory — he is the Lamb of God who takes away sin

1) the Antichrist may take away our physical life on earth, but he cannot take away our eternal life in heaven

2. as Jesus stands on Mt.

Zion his prayer to the father has been answered

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

(John 17:4–5, ESV)

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

(John 17:24, ESV)

II.

PROTECTED BY THE LAMB

“ ... and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

(Revelation 14:1, ESV)

1. the purpose of this vision is to remind John’s readers that, as awful as will be the reign of the Antichrist, chapter 14 shows that God’s people emerge victorious from the Great Tribulation

a. the 144,000 of Revelation 14 are the same people mentioned in Revelation 7, and represent the entire body of the redeemed throughout the history of the world

b.

I believe this number is Spiritual Israel, and not Ethnic Jews

1) the Apostle Paul deals with this extensively in Romans 9-11

“A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.

Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.” (Romans 2:28–29, NIV84)