Sermon Tone Analysis

ME

Suffering.

We all do it.

Whether it is private knowledge or public knowledge, we do not get the luxury of avoiding it.

In the sermon last week, Tom talked a lot about suffering as well.

We saw how suffering can be good for us as Christians, how it can help cleanse us, it can call us to examine ourselves and seek God.

Suffering reminds us that God is with us and that He is on His throne and that one day we can look forward to His restoration of everything in which suffering will be no more.

And a lot of times, we need those reminders.

And Tom also told me a joke the other day and sometimes, listening to those can be classified as suffering (just kidding) but he told me this one and it was pretty good:

Now, there was this guy that was hitch hiking one day.

And for hours and hours and hours, he was hitch hiking.

Finally, a good Samaritan shows up and offers the guy a ride.

The guy was surprised that someone finally picked him up after hours of walking somewhere.

The driver says, “Sure, I don’t care to take you.”

“Wow, that is so nice.

I have been hitch hiking for hours and no one even stops to ask or anything.”

A few minutes go by and the hitch hiker asks, “Why did you stop and pick me up?

Why were you different?”

The driver responds with “Just a nice guy I guess.”

They go on a little further.

The hitch hiker asks another question: “Why would you take a chance on me though?

What if I were a serial killer or something?”

The driver responds with “Well, the odds of two serial killers in the same car is very unlikely.”

Now, being in that awkward situation would be, as some would say, suffering.

WE

But sometimes, I think we undermine the meaning of suffering.

Just like we do with positive words, I had a discussion with my nana the other day about how we undermine the gravity of the word ‘love’ when we say things like I LOVE pizza or oreos.

I really like those things, but when I use the word love there, how much does that cheapen love.

And I think the we do the same thing with other words, and suffering is one of them.

When we say we are suffering in a situation, maybe it is one that is uncomfortable or one we don’t want to be in, how much does that cheapen what it means to actually suffer?

How much does that change how we view when others suffer?

GOD

Today, we will be looking at another passage in Revelation that describes suffering.

However, the previous passages that were looked at were comforting passages for those that are a part of Christ’s church and suffering, just like we had talked about earlier.

The passages we will be reading today, are passages contrasting the suffering of those who suffered for awhile in this life and are now going to be comforted, compared to those who hardened their hearts against God and His people.

Now, I think we need to be reminded about some things in Revelation before we really dive deep into today’s passage because if we don’t remember these things, well things will get complicated.

So, here are some things we need to remember in the Book of Revelation:

It is dangerous to read everything in Revelation as literal.

There are some things in Revelation that were personified and written in a way that represent something else without being literal.

For example, the locusts we are going to read about in today’s passage.

It is dangerous to read everything in Revelation as figurative.

There are some things in Revelation that are true descriptions and depictions of things.

Not everything is personified or written in an over-embellished way.

It is dangerous to read Revelation without properly understanding the Old Testament.

This is a big one, because what happens with a lot of people that run to Revelation, is missing out on a lot of the Old Testament allusions that are sprinkled pretty much in every verse in the book.

John was an Old Testament Scholar, and he knew it well, so some of the little things that we might misread in Revelation, are a lot of times Old Testament allusions that might be so obscure that we miss them and then that changes how we read the book.

In Tom’s sermon last week, we talked about some horsemen, what they meant and represented, and then there were 6 seals that were mentioned.

And no we are not talking about the animals.

And no we are not talking about the popular R&B artist from the 90’s who famously sang the song “Kiss From a Rose” on the Batman Forever soundtrack.

The seals we looked at last week are to be pictured like an envelope seal, and they bring about judgments, and that is where we pick up, because Revelation has this cool little rhythm in which it will have parallels of 7’s and the way those are portrayed is the first six things, an interlude, and the 7th thing usually comes a chapter or two later, just like what we see with the seals.

The seals were in chapter six, there is an interlude where the 144,000 are sealed and then it picks up with the 7th seal in chapter 8.

Ok, so we are 1 verse into our text today and we already have two points, because each of these things are significant.

The first being that in the first part of verse one, we see The Seventh Seal.

We already talked about the rhythm of 6 things and then the 7th thing coming a couple chapters later (we are seeing that with the seals right now, we will see that with the trumpets as well today and Tom will get the 7th next week) and then there are 7 bowls.

The last part of the 7s (seals, trumpets and bowls) represent judgment.

And this is the final judgment.

So, with the Seventh Seal being broken, we have God’s final judgment (and that same thing happens with the trumpets and the bowls) and so, that means that this is the same thing happening just described in three different ways.

The world is not ending three different times, one time at the end of each of the 7s.

No, it ends once at God’s final judgment, it is just being described in three different ways with Seals, Trumpets and Bowls.

Then, the second thing we see in this verse is The Silence that occurs after the last judgment, and Mark Moore says this about the silence:

“The seventh seal is broken and all heaven stands in awe for a half an hour.

Why?

Because the seventh seal (as well as the seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl), represents the final judgment of God.

The courtroom always sits in silence as it awaits the reading of the verdict.”

(How to Dodge a Dragon, 47)

Here, we are introduced to The Sevens - Angels and Trumpets.

Now, Tom will probably cover this later when he talks about the Mark of the Beast (and I know a lot of people get hung up on that but there is a Mark of God’s people too by the way and if you want to talk to me or Tom about that particular topic I would be happy to).

But seven was a holy and complete number as was viewed in this time.

So, a lot of symbols and stuff that you see in Revelation are tied to very important numbers.

In the last chapter, we saw the number of God’s people (144,000).

Well, if you have 12 tribes and 12 disciples and added some 0’s… boom.

Some of these symbols and numbers need to breathe a little bit.

We are about to enter into another cycle of 7’s (just like the seals) but if the seals ended in God’s final judgment, how can that happen again?

Is the world going to end 15 times?

No. Just another way of showing and explaining the same thing.

Now, comes The Sacrifice.

And one of the things that we see throughout the book of Revelation is a church service.

I know, you probably think I am crazy.

But listen to this New Testament scholar elaborate on this:

The Mishnah’s explanation of the background of the liturgy of the daily sacrifice in the temple makes even more cogent the association of prayer with the silence in Rev. 8:1 (cf.

m.

Tamid).

The order of the service roughly resembled the order of some of the significant images in the Apocalypse: (1) trimming of the seven lamps (Revelation 1–3), (2) slaying of the sacrificial lamb (Rev.

5:6), (3) pouring of the sacrificial blood at the base of the altar (Rev.

6:9), (4) offering of incense, during a time of silence and prayer (so Luke 1:10; cf.

Rev. 8:1, 4–5), (5) the burnt offering and drink offering (Rev.

16:1) together with the sounding of trumpets (Rev.

8:6), and (6) singing of psalms (19:1–8).

Now, that is all pretty cool and everything, but we haven’t even gotten to the trumpets yet.

Each trumpet represents a judgment (and that is important because these are punishments and judgments - NOT WARNINGS), where something is judged, so that is important for us to remember.

The 1st Trumpet: Hail, Fire, and Blood.

This has some parallels with the fire and hail plague that we have in Exodus (and a lot of these do and that is why you’ll see the references next to the Scripture on the back of the bulletin but I would encourage you to look those up and compare/contrast them to what we have here later).

Another parallel with Exodus that these have:

Consequently, while the exodus plagues may be conceived as warnings, they are not ultimately meant to cause Pharaoh and the majority of Egyptians to repent but to demonstrate that they are being judged because of their hardness of heart and to demonstrate Yahweh’s incomparability and glory.

This first trumpet could be connected to the famine depicted by the third horseman from Rev. 6:6, and that is also the connection to Ezekiel 5. Notice that a third of the Earth, a third of trees, and a third of grass is burnt up from this.

The 2nd Trumpet: Mountain of Fire/Sea of Blood.

A sea of blood has connection to Exodus once again with the plague of blood in the Nile, and with the mountain, that could be a metaphor for a kingdom.

It being on fire would mean that it is an evil kingdom.

And that makes sense that an evil kingdom is judged based on the next trumpet.

Remember: a third of the sea becomes blood (unusable), a third of sea creatures die and a third of ships are destroyed.