Choose Your Cup Wisely

Revelation 14

Choose Your Cup Wisely

Intro: Today is Palm Sunday where we recall the Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem where people thought he would become King. Jesus becoming King and how the Jew thought he would become King are a bit different.

When Jesus prays to God to take the cup away from Him, he also understands that he is the only one that can withstand the brunt of the God’s wrath and still live.

Read Verses: 14 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.

Main Idea: The promise of Eternity is Good News for those who Follow God and Praise Him

I. The Promise of Eternity is Connected to Jesus (1-5)

Here we start with the vision of looking at Mount Zion and we see the Lamb and with him stood the 144,000 people. God’s people. If this is the same Group from Chapter 7, then the group is the Jewish people and they have been sealed by God.

The King has his kingdom and his Kingdom includes his subjects.

Zion is a hill in Jerusalem and it is another name for Jerusalem. “The religious and emotional qualities of the name arise from the importance of Jerusalem as the royal city and the city of the Temple. Mount Zion is the place where Yahweh, the God of Israel, dwells (Isaiah 8:18; Psalm 74:2), the place where he is king (Isaiah 24:23) and where he has installed his king, David (Psalm 2:6). It is thus the seat of the action of Yahweh in history.”

We see the picture of the King in his capital city.

Hebrews 12:22 Hebrews 12:22–24 (CSB): 22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.

Like the rest of the Scenes in heaven, there is Music. And here the Song being sung by the 144,000 is their song. They are the only ones to know the words and be able to sing it.

While the phrasing may seem a little odd, but the bottom line of verses 4 and 5 are that these people were pure. They kept themselves put for God. And John goes on to tell us that they were the ones they were the ones that Followed Jesus wherever he went.

In the end to be a Christian is to be “a little Christ.” Certainly this means one who is redeemed and regenerated, but the church often forgets that a decision to follow the Lord is a part of that commitment. The 144,000 are characterized by their faithfulness in following Christ.

Application: You stay Pure by Following Jesus

You are saved by God’ grace through Faith by then sacrifice of the Lamb.

So this is not a works based system. But James 1:22 says But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Your faith requires the mirror of your works to be in complete harmony.

James goes on to say in his letter, James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

We are to be pure or Holy.

But how do we do this? Joel Beeke in his book Overcoming the World points out several ways to cultivate Holiness

1) Know and Love Scripture—God’s word is the Primary road to holiness and to Spiritual growth.

Jesus says in John 17:17 “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth”

Proverbs 2:1-5

2 My son, if you receive my words

and treasure up my commandments with you,

2 making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

3 yes, if you call out for insight

and raise your voice for understanding,

4 if you seek it like silver

and search for it as for hidden treasures,

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

After you learn and constantly talk to God and are open to the instruction of His word you can recognize and differentiate what is sin and what is God

2) You must be dead to sin and alive in Christ

Our dog cooper loves to hunt lizards. He is driven insane because he sees them and then goes outside to chase them and find them in the logs, between the bricks or stones in the wall or in our lavender or sage bushes. He's relentless until he gets them or when we call him in.

The Holy Spirit is a bit like Cooper only instead of lizards, he is hunting sin. He is sent to your life to root it out, to kill it. They are things that take over your heart and your mind and get it out from underneath the rocks.

HE the Holy Spirit wants to kill the sin. Sometimes Cooper needs me to go out and pick up the fire pit or the logs so he can get a better view of the lizard hole. And so you need to go in and pick up the rocks and move them, recognize that they exist in your heart so the Holy Spirit can kill it.

And Christ is what is replaced in that hole. You are made alive in Jesus. Romans 6:11 says Regard yourself as dead to the dominion of sin and as alive to God in Christ. The sin is no longer your boss. The sin no longer has control over your life but you are under the power of God.

And this transfer of control and freedom from sin should make us Joyful.

II. The Promise of Eternity is Joyful (6-13)

6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

The three angels give three messages

1) The first proclaims the Gospel and that the people should fear God and praise him.

2) The second proclaims that Babylon has fallen

3) The third pronounces that those who drank the wine with Babylon and taken the number of the beast will soon face judgment

With the first angel we see God still giving the Call to respond to the gospel message to take God's grace before the judgment because it is never too late to fear God and raise Him as long as you are alive.

But we also hear that Babylon has fallen. Who Babylon is or represents may be up for grabs, but the easiest way to understand what the writer means is Babylon represents the world. The world captures and captivates people. It causes a person to become unsure. This is the opposite of the 144,000 that are said to be pure because they follow God.

The nations who are in league with Babylon or Worldly are committing sexual immorality. This is both literal and figurative. It is literal because the world sees no problem with sleeping around, whether you are fornicating or committing adultery. They also violate God’s standards by having unnatural relationships, but the worldly want to do what makes them feel good and they live for and live to sin and they are dead to Christ. To be clear this But this also extends to all sins that go against God’s law and there is no sin worse than another. Not just a specific kind.

Figuratively, the world cheats on their relationship with God. Just Like Israel, who played the harlot by worshipping other gods in their lifetime, we in our modern society do the same thing. We replace God with gods for a myriad of reasons. Usually because the little “g” gods, are more available, and are easier to access. My phone, car, job, money, or people have more impact in my life than I think God does. So it is easier to worship these idols. I can see them, touch them, or get something from them, usually immediately.

And for their unfaithfulness, they will drink the full strength of God’s wrath.

I am not advocating for drinking alcohol but the illustration for this is pertinent. There is a Vodka brand called Spirytus Vodka that is 95% alcohol. The manufacturer warns the consumer to not drink it neat, or by itself or straight. They encourage you to mix it with juice or use it with other substances to dilute the alcohol. In fact, some of those stronger alcohols are outlawed in the US.

But verse 12 gives Those of us who are faithful great hope. 12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

When you are taken into heaven, when the final judgement comes and is finished, you are blessed. You are resting in heaven in God’s presence. While you may be tormented on Earth by the world, You are not tormented in heaven. You will have rest. You can be joyful and blessed then you die to yourself and die to the Lord.

Again, this situation is flipped from the world. They will get all the pleasure they can handle here, but they will experience eternal torment and pain in the afterlife.

And we see that the path splits and the roads lead to either Heaven or Hell because the Promise of Eternity is Inevitable

III. The Promise of Eternity is Inevitable (14-20)

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

Jesus is seen on the Cloud, which fulfills or matches Daniel’s prophecies and Also Jesus’ prophecies in Matthew and Luke. Luke 21:25-28 says

25 “And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

The harvest is ready and “In John’s vision, however, people do not tend the crops but become the crops; the present age no longer moves in cycles but is a single growing season with a final harvest; and the reaping of grain and treading of grapes no longer undergird the current world order but signify its end.”

With the two angels, there are two distinct harvest. It is thought that one of grain and one is grapes.

“Revelation relates Joel’s imagery to two distinct harvests—one of grain and the other of grapes—and seems to take the first as redemptive and the second as condemnatory. The writer also combines imagery from Joel with Dan 7:13, where the seated figure looks like a human being, or “Son of Man.” Revelation assumes that this figure is Christ, who is to come on the clouds (Rev 1:7). By combining these texts, Revelation identifies the coming of Christ as the fulfillment of Dan 7:13 and the time of God’s victory over the nations.

The grain harvest represents those who are saved, They are God’s people. The Grape harvest represents those who are of the world. And they are placed into the wine press and trampled. And the blood of the sinful covered an area about200 miles long and it was 5 feet deep all the way across. The 200 miles happens to be about the length of Israel from top to bottom.

This calamity for those who do not fear God will surely learn fear when the harvest comes due.

Conclusion:

So what does this mean? Does this mean to walk the straight and narrow or you will die. Live a perfect life or you cannot get into heaven. NO! Jesus is the living Word. He is like the Law. Both were given to us to teach us what perfection is and that we cannot obtain perfection by ourselves.

But you see Jesus is nothing like the Law because it cannot save you.

Only the sacrifice of Jesus saves you. He purchased each of his people with his blood. You are justified before God.

If you are one of his people, then your actions should speak volumes, as you accept the gift of Grace and follow Jesus in your life. You are being sanctified. Everyday you are being made more and more holy, more like Jesus. But when you sin and you will, you are still washed clean by Jesus because of your repentance.

But unlike a pig who constantly goes back to the mud puddle, we must resist the mud as much as possible because it is in Jesus that we find our happiness and not sin. Jesus told the adulterous woman That he did not condemn her but he also said to go and sin no more. We can rest in Christ’s love and know that there is no more condemnation in Christ as Paul tells us in Romans.

And that should Give us Joy because we know that we will spend an eternity somewhere.

So it is worth a little pain on Earth knowing we will be given an immeasurable treasure and pleasure we will experience in heaven.

So the question is what cup do you want to drink from, the pleasant perfectly mixed cup of the sweet juice of the Loving Father or the full undiluted wrath of the King and Judge?