REVELATION 8-11

APPLICATION- WHAT IS THE POINT THE LORD WINS BY

DESTRYING THOSE WHO CONTINUE IN SIN

LOVING THOSE WHO CONTINUE IN REPENTANCE

THE LORD WILL VINDICATE HIS GLORY

I. BY DIVINE PUNISHMENT

These will be experienced by the unbelievers (the believers are protected from this). Unbelievers’ lives will be falling apart and yet the believer will be protected

- Spiritual chaos

- Psychological chaos

A. The Lord Will Alter the Environments That Support Rebellious Living

THIS IS THE FOCUS ON THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS

1. Trumpet 1: A third of land and plants destroyed (8:7)

Revelation 8:7 ESV

The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

2. Trumpet 2: A third of seas and marine life destroyed (8:8–9)

Revelation 8:8 ESV

The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.

Revelation 8:9 ESV

A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

3. Trumpet 3: A third of fresh waters destroyed (8:10–11)

Revelation 8:10 ESV

The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

Revelation 8:11 ESV

The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.

4. Trumpet 4: A third of heavenly bodies destroyed (8:12)

Revelation 8:12 ESV

The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

B. The Lord Will Unleash Demons to Devour Those Who Live In Rebellion Against His Glory

AUBURN UNIVERSITY (WAR EAGLE) MEANT TO STIR EMOTIONS IN THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE TO CONVEY STRENGTH, POWER AND COURAGE

AUBURN UNIVERSITY HAS THE WAR EAGLE; GOD HAS THE WOE EAGLE

WOE: GRIEF ANGUISH AND AFFLICTION

THESE ARE WORST THAN THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS SIGNIFIED.

THE FIRST FOUR AFFECTED THE EARTH; THESE NEXT THREE WILL BE DIRECTLY AGAINST HUMAN BEINGS

1. Trumpet 5: Humanity will experience organized and unquenchable demonic terrorism

As part of the Great Tribulation, God will allow demonic forces to torture unbelievers with pain, and other demonic forces will then kill a third of humanity.

A horrible part of the Great Tribulation will be a plague of painful misery that fierce and terrifying demons will unleash for a limited time.

9:1 - not a fallen angel: but one with the key to unlock the bottomless pit

THE LOCUSTS

They were given power (God is doing this - unlike the seals removed His hand) Now his hand is causing these things

THEY ARE like scorpions (STATED THREE TIMES -3, 5, 10,)

YET JESUS STATED TO THE CHURCH

Luke 10:19 ESV

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

The “locusts” that came out of the smoke from the unlocked shaft were unlike any that had ever appeared before. Clearly, they were supernatural, for they harmed only people, rather than plant life. Once more we see Christ’s people spared the brunt of the end-time judgments. These locusts harmed only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads (7:3).

So bad 9:6 says … (like 6:16 calling for rocks to fall on them)

Revelation 9:6 ESV

And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

LIKE REV 6 -

Revelation 6:15–16 ESV

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,

Death will flee from them

John means either that suicide will somehow become impossible during these months or that people will live in such agony they will wish they were dead

Who can imagine the nightmare of the world’s peoples all full of unspeakable physical agony, longing to die, yet remaining alive to experience even worse?

BUT THEN A DRAMATIC PAUSE:

Revelation 9:12 ESV

The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

2. Trumpet 6:

Revelation 9:13 ESV

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God,

Revelation 9:14 ESV

saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

Revelation 9:15 ESV

So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.

Revelation 9:16 ESV

The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number.

i. 9:15 - Their four evil leaders had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year.

The repetition of naming lengths of time in longer spans adds to the effect: The timing of this disaster is predetermined and under God’s sovereign control.

He knows precisely when he will issue the command, “Release the four angels.” (This is the only place in Scripture that piles up the “hour-day-month-year” combination.)

9:16 What John saw was formable, a demon host of two hundred million, arising from the east TO DEVOUR AND DESTORY

HE NOW DESCRIBES FURTHER WHAT HE SAW

Revelation 9:17 ESV

And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.

Revelation 9:18 ESV

By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.

II. BY DIVINE PROTECTION

God will vindicate His prophetic church

Revelation 10:5 ESV

And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven

Revelation 10:6 ESV

and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay,

But JOHN IS TOLD TOTAKE THE SEAL AND TO EAT IT

Revelation 10:9 ESV

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”

Revelation 10:10 ESV

And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.

Revelation 10:11 ESV

And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

THE TWO PROPHETS

1. The Identity of the Two Prophets (The Faithful Church)

The two faithful churches Smyrna and Philadelphia

SMYRNA: THEY WERE RICH (SPIRITUALLY FAITHFUL) IN TRIBULATION (REV 2:9)

PHILADELPHIA: They have kept His Word in tribulation (Rev 3:8)

WITNESSES REFERRED TO AS Two lampstands (v4)

Revelation 11:4 ESV

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

· These two congregations are models for the final end-time faithful, prophetic congregations.

They will witness to God’s truth and proclaim his coming judgment against those who refuse to repent.

Revelation 11:5 ESV

And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.

Revelation 11:6 ESV

They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.

2. The Suffering of the Faithful Church

One key to successful prophetic ministry of a church is for it to be clothed in sackcloth. A humble church, sorrowful and mourning for its sins and the sins in the world surrounding it, is always powerful

Revelation 11:3 ESV

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Revelation 11:7 ESV

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,

Revelation 11:8 ESV

and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

Revelation 11:9 ESV

For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb,

Revelation 11:10 ESV

and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.

BUT THIS WEAK AND BATTERED AND ALMOST EXTINCT CHURCH WILL RISE AGAIN WITH GREAT AUTHORITY AND POWER

Revelation 11:11 ESV

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

Revelation 11:12 ESV

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

NOT A LITERAL RESURRECTION BUT ONE THAT SUGGESTS THAT THROIGHOUYT THE AGES, THE CHURCH IS BATTERED AND BRUISED, ETC -BUT REAWAKENS

TODAY MUCH IS SAID ABOUT THE DYING OF THE CHURCH AND ITS INFLUENCE: BUT THE LORD TEACHES US THAT IF WE CONTINUE TO PROC,AM THE TRUTH - YEST THERE WILL BE PERSECUTION BUT NONE CAN SNUIFF OUT THE LIGHT OF THE WITNESS OF GOD ON THE EARTH

[1] Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 190). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[2] Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 191). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

What does all of this mean?

A. The Lord Hates Sinners Who Will Not Repent

Revelation 9:20 ESV

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,

Revelation 9:21 ESV

nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

God hates sin because it is the antithesis of what He is. It destroys us. It causes the pain and suffering of our world, the broken families, the violence, the mental anguish, the meaningless lives and purposeless deaths. Satan uses sin to try to thwart God’s plan and keep us from becoming God’s children. (Learn more in our article “What Is Sin?”)

· God brings punishments (the trumpets) and the preaching of the Gospel as means of the unbeliever repenting (rev 9:21 – after the 6 trumpets – they did not repent)

o The unbeliever in the visible church whose life is in rebellion against the Lord

o The unbeliever in the world whose life is in rebellion against the Lord