The 7 Trumpets

Intro:

Start with 15 seconds of dead silence (to mimic Rev 8:1) then blow the horns from the wings to wake everyone up.

SAY: You guys awake now? This morning, we are studying Revelation 8-11, better known as “The 7 Trumpets.” Before we dive in, it is good to recap what we’ve learned so far.

What is “Revelation”?

Gk. word ἀποκάλυψις, meaning an uncovering/unveiling/revealing. Contrary to popular belief, apocalypse does not mean “the end of the world.” This book is a full revelation given to John the apostle of the Risen and Reigning Jesus

It’s a Letter

Written to specific people dealing w/ specific issues

Remember: Whatever it means for US must be rooted and anchored in what it meant for THEM.

This is true for ALL of the Bible, but is especially necessary to cover in the book of Revelation because of our modern tendency to want to decipher the meaning of the end times and make the Bible (especially Revelation) all about us.

It’s about Jesus, the Powers of Evil, and the Church’s response

Primarily serves to exalt and elevate the Church’s view of Jesus

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. ... Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.” - A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

This is especially true of the Church’s view of Jesus. How big is your Jesus? How majestic is he? How holy is he? How worthy is he? How mighty is he? How humble is he? How gentle and kind is he? How much of an overcomer is he? The answer to these questions will define your hope and outlook for the world and your life in the face of the kind of evil and persecution that is described in this letter.

Where have we been so far?

Defined the audience, describe setting and conflict (Rev 1-3)

Drawn into the Throne Room (Rev 4-5)

The Lamb opens the Scroll and breaks the 7 Seals (Rev 6-8:1)

Bottom Line: Even in the face of all of the evil and the chaos of the world, the kingdom belongs only to our Great and Risen and Worthy King Jesus.

< < P R A Y > >

Body:

There’s a LOT to unpack today, and I’m going to do my best to get through this material in a way that both does justice to the text and is kind to us as readers and hearers.

To start, we’re going to look at the first 6 Trumpets through a set of lenses that I hope will give us some clarity as to their overall message:

Old Testament Imagery/Hyperlinks

Theological Meaning

Modern Significance

Then, we’re going to look at the story of the Two Witnesses found right in the middle of the 6th Trumpet blast and see how that is connected to this cycle of 7 judgments.

Finally, we’re going to look at the beautiful Throne of God once again, just as we did in Chapters 4 and 5 as we see the 7th Trumpet.

Read Rev 8:2-13

The first 6 Trumpets speak of God’s justice and his mercy.

Notice that the first 4 Trumpets all seemed to be grouped together, both literarily and thematically

Literarily, they’re all given roughly equal word counts and are syntactically parallel, in comparison with the 5, 6, and 7th trumpets to come

Thematically, notice how each of these trumpet blasts bring plagues akin to the plagues of Egypt.

1st Trumpet = Hail

(Plus fire and brimstone) meaning amplified destruction. These Trumpets recall the plagues of Egypt in their OT imagery, but are a heightened version of those judgments.

2nd Trumpet = Water turned to blood

3rd Trumpet = Bitter Water

What’s interesting is that this, rather than being explicitly tied to the plagues of Egypt, is actually a direct reversal of what happens to the Israelites immediately after they leave Egypt.

Ex 15:22-26

Waters of Mara are turned to sweet, drinkable water, when God tells Moses to cast a tree into them. Now, a star that is called “Wormwood,” a type of bitter plant, is thrown into the waters to make them undrinkable.

4th Trumpet = Darkness in the Land

Read Rev. 9:1-6; 13-15

5th Trumpet = Locusts

But, like hardcore locusts. We’ll get there.

6th Trumpet (part 1) = Angel of Death

OT IMAGERY: All of this imagery of the Trumpet blasts is tied to God’s cosmic judgment against Egypt, his rescuing of the nation of Israel, and his appearance on Mt Sinai. That’s the biblical story we’re supposed to be pulling up in our minds as we read the Trumpet blasts.

Notice that God’s divine judgment and wrath is not what brings the nations to repentance. That’s not the intention here!

The intention is to display God’s glory, so that the world may know that I am the LORD, which was exactly God’s rationale for bringing the plagues on Egypt!

But it’s not just God’s glory and justice on display here. We also see an incredible picture of God’s enduring patience and mercy!

The Message of Revelation (5. The Fourth Trumpet: The Sky Stricken (8:12))

the damage is partial (‘one third’), not total; which seems to show that the Trumpets are sounding not doom, but warning. The majority of mankind is allowed to survive, being shown God’s wrath against sin, and given the chance to repent. Paradoxically, therefore, the miseries...are really kindnesses.... the Trumpets show the wicked world being offered mercy. The offer is not accepted...but let it never be said that God has not done all in his power, even to the devastation of his own once perfect earth, in order to bring men to their senses.

THEOLOGICAL MEANING: Think back, what happened when God sent the plagues on Egypt? They got progressively worse, God displayed his power and glory, but did Pharaoh repent? No. He continually hardened his heart. And that’s what John sees as all of these trumpet blasts continue. The world continues its evil. Look at the response:

“The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts,” (Rev 9:20–21).

MODERN SIGNIFICANCE:

"Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception...Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses?” (Heb 3:12-13, 15-16)

Read Rev 10:8-11; 11:3-6

The witness of the Church is vital to God’s plan for all of history.

So, at first glance, this little bit about the Two Witnesses and the eating of the little scroll feels like a giant intermission, or break in the action. But I think it would be better for us to see this section as the blowing of the 6th trumpet.

First, John sees an angel with a scroll. Remind you of anything? Yeah, we’ve seen this before.

Except now, John’s told to eat the scroll. That’s weird.

Now, I know a lot of you think the Bible is full of weird stuff like that—and, to be fair, it kind of is—but someone eating a scroll is pretty rare. In fact, this whole section is so unique in the biblical story that it only happens one other time in the whole Bible. And that is EXACTLY what John is referencing.

Ezekiel 3:1-14

When God commissioned the prophet Ezekiel to prophesy against the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, to warn them of their pending doom and the coming judgment on their faithless disobedience, God gave him a scroll to eat.

God even said that the scroll would be sweet as honey on his lips but then it made his stomach bitter!

What does it mean for the words to be sweet to the lips but bitter to the stomach?

It means that the message itself is sweet. It’s Good News!! Literally, when the angel tells John to “announce” this message, it’s the Greek word “evangelion” —he’s telling John that the sweet words written on the scroll are the sweet words of the gospel!

Revelation (The Angel with the Open Scroll (10:1–10))

The purpose of the mighty angel’s oath is to assure John that the “bad news” of the first six trumpets is not God’s last word. But in order to transform “bad news” into “good news,” John himself must be drawn into the action, and with him all the people of God.

John is taking on the role of Ezekiel here as the new prophet foretelling God’s judgment against human wickedness!

But, just like when God commissioned Ezekiel to go and speak to Israel who were “hardheaded and hardhearted” and they refused to listen, so too, John’s audience that he sees in the rest of the prophecy is unrepentant.

And that’s why the words that are sweet to the lips are also bitter to the stomach, because in the actual act of proclaiming the good news, the message makes the prophet bitter because he will be rejected and scorned and will suffer on account of it.

That’s what brings us to the Two Witnesses!

There has been lots of speculation throughout church history as to the identity of these “Two Witnesses.” Rather than engage in unhelpful speculation, it is best for us to see the meaning of these Two Witnesses and see that they represent the ongoing mission of the Church as witnesses to the world of God’s message.

Just as in chapter 10, John was given the scroll to eat and told to proclaim the message, so now these Two Witnesses are the instruments of proclaiming this message to the world.

And their message is sweet as honey, I mean they’ve got SUPERPOWERS while they preach their message. That’s pretty sweet!

And do you notice all these superpowers that the Witnesses have?

They’re indestructible (Rv. 11:5a, implied)

They breathe fire (Rv 11:5b)

They close up the sky and bring drought/famine (Rv 11:6)

They turn water to blood (Rv 11:6b)

First of all, their indestructibility in the face of the world’s evil recalls Jesus’ claim that he would establish his church and even the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Mt 16:18).

Truly, by this point in John’s vision, the gates of hell have been released and these Two Witnesses are untouched by even them while they proclaim their message.

But then, do you notice the similarity between the power that these Two Witnesses have against their adversaries and the plagues of the first 4 Trumpets? It’s as if John is symbolically linking these Two Witnesses with the first 4 Trumpet judgments. Just as in the Exodus, when God carried out his divine acts of judgments by the hand of his servant Moses, so now John envisions these dramatic plagues of divine judgment being carried out by his human agents.

This also, then, gives a more nuanced motivation for the bringing of the first 4 Trumpet judgments. It’s not God’s unbridled, unwarranted anger against the world that unleashes the plagues. It is God’s divine and holy response to the evildoers and workers of darkness that stand against his purposes in the world.

But the message that is sweet as honey results in bitterness for the Witnesses because a) the nations do not repent--just like Israel in Ezekiel’s day, and b) the Witnesses are eventually martyred because of this message

Notice what happens though: these innocent sufferers, who are killed because they proclaim God’s gospel, are then vindicated on the Third Day (ring any bells?) and what is the response of the nations?

“The survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven,” (Rv. 11:13b). The first sign of repentance in all the Trumpets.

It’s not the mighty plagues, the displays of cosmic power, the destruction of the world or the judgment of the wicked that brings the nations to repentance. It’s the substitutionary death of the innocent servant of God. You see, what the Trumpets show is that it is not God’s judgment that leads us to repentance, but his mercy (Rom 2:4).

APPLICATION: What is our response?

Witness—be prepared to tell the world of the gospel of Jesus, and do not shrink back in the face of opposition.

Empowerment—just as the witnesses were agents of the Holy Spirit, so too we are filled with the empowerment of the Spirit. It is not our role to convict the world of “sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come,” (John 16:8) that is the Spirit’s job! Rest in that

Humility—notice that the Witnesses are not “successful” in their preaching. They aren’t out there “winning souls.” The nations reject them. Remember Jesus’ words, “if the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you,” (John 15:18). As we witness to the world, we must be humble and realize that our role is to embody the life of our Savior Jesus. He came preaching a message of humility and love and he allowed himself to be killed by the beast to save the many. John’s vision shows us that this is also the mission of the Church.

Read Rev 11:15-16

The 7th Trumpet speaks of God’s final victory and triumph.

Notice how this final Trumpet, or “Woe” doesn’t look like your traditional “woe” or act of judgment.

There’s no depiction of death or destruction, no more locusts, in fact this final “woe” begins with a cosmic call to worship!

But this arrival of the Ancient of Days, the One Who Sits on the Throne, the One is Is and Was and Has Now Come is a terrible woe to those who remain unrepentant on the earth.

Indeed, his final coming is the greatest woe. He has waited patiently, desiring all men to come to repentance (2 Pt 3:9), but he will not delay forever. He will show faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love him, but will be no means leave the guilty unpunished (Ex 34:7b).

This is like when you get in trouble as a kid and your mom says, “Just wait until your dad gets home.”

There might have been some woe’s along the way while you waited (e.g., no toys, wait in your room, no TV), but the final woe, the arrival of Dad, is gonna be worse.

But, notice, in sharp contrast to all the terrible destruction and martyrdom and death of his people in the previous chapters, this 7th Trumpet, along with being the final “woe,” is also God’s final vindication of his people!

Do you see how Rev 11:16 perfectly mirrors Rev 4:10 ?

The judgment of God against the wickedness of the nations is encased in the praise of his glorious name and the vindication of his faithful people!

All of history is heading towards the Throne of God! Where will you stand in the Temple of the Holy One?

APPLICATION:

Worship—we spend our days on earth modeling and anticipating this great Throne Room of Heaven! We fall down and worship the King who is Coming. The Lamb who was slain, the Ancient of Days who is our loving and kind Father.

Practice the Kingdom—notice what happens in the 7th Trumpet, the one that has no end, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,” (Rev. 11:15). This is the ultimate fulfillment of the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:10)! This is where all of history is heading. Are you practicing life in the kingdom today?

Conclusion:

Bottom Line: Even in the face of all of the evil and the chaos of the world, the kingdom belongs only to our Great and Risen and Worthy King Jesus.