Revelation 10:1-11

Review:

Last week we saw Angel come down:  Jesus Christ Himself

      *Clothed with a cloud

      *Rainbow on His head

      *Face as the Sun

      *Feet as Pillars of fire

      *Little book in His hand

      *Authority over the sea and the earth

      *Cried as a lion roared:  victorious

                  Great encouragement to Trib. Saints

                  Great encouragement to believers today as well

I.                   The Message from Heaven vv. 3-6

1.      Came in response to the Lion’s roar vv. 3-4  

7 thunder salute

Hear thunder often think of the voice of God

*i.e. somewhere when someone made a comment and then thunder rumbled:  felt that God must have agreed

2.      The Message shared was to be sealed up:  John was not allowed to share

Imagine what telling John not to write it down has done to Bible students

I have no idea what this message was:  possible too awful to hear

3.      The message is sworn v. 5

Sworn on the Creator of the heaven and earth

Some take this to prove that this is not Christ

Hebrews 6:13, 17-18

“For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself…Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.”

4.      The contents of the message:

1) “This is it”

Remember the prayers on the altar, “How long Lord?”

Not saying that time will be not more but simply the delay of God’s judgment is over:  time has come for God’s judgment to be complete.

Why does God delay?  2 Peter 3:8-9

“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Praise God by His delay we have been saved!!

2) Mystery is finished

Mystery is something that before was not revealed to us

Through OT prophets God spoke of a victorious reign and defeat of evil

Many have questioned why God has allowed Satan to reign for 6000+ years

II.                 A Mandate From Heaven vv. 5-10

1st time John has been asked to take part:  vv. 8-11 kind of weird

Ezekiel 2:8-3:9 Asked to take the scroll and eat it and then pass it on to the world

Eat = to assimilate – take into your person (we study, know, learn Word)

Revelation (Bible) is the way this book is described

            Sweet:  encouraging, exciting, etc.

            Bitter:  Just like in Ezekiel’s day can be hard to hear, etc.

            Jesus is described that way in 1 Peter 2:4-8

“Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”  Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,  “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and  “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.”  They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

Often it is too easy to preach the sweet stuff from Word and not the bitter stuff:  We must preach the whole counsel of God