Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Claim - God ordains conquest, war, famine, strife, disease and death upon the world as a foretaste of final judgement that gives hope to the persecuted church.
Focus - Christians can remain faithful to the Lamb (even to death) who is in sovereign control of even the most terrible events in the world.
Function - To revere the Lamb, remaining faithful to Him in His terrifying sovereignty, even unto death.
PRAY
If your life was in danger if you came to church each Sunday, would you be here?
Why, if the Lion-Lamb has conquered, does the world continue to he a place of evil, violence, and misery?
If you could be severely beaten for reading the bible, would you read it?
If you were told to deny Jesus or die, what would you do?
And if you found yourself in any of those situations,
and were determined to be faithful to Jesus,
and the beating began, would you not be asking the same question we find in v10
How long?
If as we saw last week,
the Lion of Judah, the promised King of the OT is in the throne room of heaven.
If that great lion - who is also the slain lamb
- if He has died to pay for the sin of the world,
if he has risen in victory to reign in Heaven right now,
If he, and he alone is worthy to open the scroll of God’s sovereign plan for us all,
WHY, why do his people continue to suffer.
Why are Christian’s persecuted across the world.
And not just that,
but why is there war and distress, famine and natural disasters, poverty and strife, disease and death?
God has lost control surely.
Evil is winning.
Dispair reigns, the wicked prosper
Why, if the Lion who is the Lamb has conquered,
does the world continue to he a place of evil, violence, and misery?
We here in one of the most
It’s a question that we here in one of the most
privileged,
luxurious,
wealthy and safe countries in the world still .
Who hasn’t been affected by a relative with a sever illness.
Or struggled with finances,
Or even been anxious about a future Nuclear war.
In some countries you really might face death for coming to church,
War is in progress,
HIV and AIDS affects 1 in 4 people in some countries,
Famine threatens the lives of children every day.
Has God lost control.
Is the lamb actually just beaten and bruised, perhaps He’s not the Lion of victory after all.
You can see why some determine that there is no God.
Perhaps God is loosing the battle against evil.
--
Chapter 5 showed us into the throne room of God, where John,
Perhaps God is not only in control,
or winning.
Perhpas the Lamb who is a lion is far from weak,
but is the one sending forth the turmoil across the world that we see.
In total control.
Perhaps, we need to remind us of our place before the lamb who is the lion.
BY way of a quick reminder,
chapter 5 showed us into the throne room of God, where John,
who is receiving this vision
saw a scroll
- on which is the sovereign plan of God
for all of history until Jesus returns in the future.
But it was sealed shut by 7 seals.
7 representing the idea of perfection.
Perfectly sealed.
God’s plans cannot come to pass for these seals are sealing them tight.
BUT - there is one who comes forward who can open them.
The Lion of Judah - the promised King in the OT.
And that Lion is also the lamb slain for us.
Jesus is worthy to open the plans of God,
It is Jesus who rules over the history of which we are part of.
So why all the turmoil in the world?
Well chapter 6 addresses that question.
And so Jesus starts to remove the seals -
The first 6 in
Chapter 6
, so here goes:
Seal 1 - White Horse of Conquest
rev 6 1-
The 4 creatures that hold up the throne room of God
- the angelic creatures of untold power and might who guard the way to the throne room.
We met them in Ezekiel chapter 1 last year and chapter 4 of Revelation.
They exist to exult and worship God Almighty and to carry out His will upon the universe.
It is they, with the authority of the Lamb who call forward the first act that emerges from the first seal.
The first of 4 horses that will emerge from the seals - gallops ahead of the others.
It is white like we have to come to expect from the great military conquest leaders of history.
These are the 4 horses of Zecheriahs’ vision in , some 600 years earlier.
4 horses or judgement upon the enemies of Judah.
And so too here, 4 horses of judgement ride out under the authority,
and this is important,
ordained if you like by the lamb himself -
They ride out upon the earth and it’s inhabitants.
Theses 4 horses are part of God’s plan to reveal his full and perfect scroll.
These horses must ride across the earth,
for all of this age, until Jesus returns
- until - the 6th seal is opened, and something far more drastic happens:
So the White horse, which, as we’ve said, is set on conquest.
The Roman Empire of that time, set on conquest - at the expense of any in it’s way.
All of our world’s history is a cycle of conquest after conquest.
Dictators,
Empires,
Super powers.
More Recently,
The British Empire
Nazi Germany
Communism
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