The Great Day of God

INTRODUCTION:

With summer time coming up it won’t be long before they start selling fireworks for the 4th of July. I don’t like summer because I don’t like to be hot but I love fireworks. (and it’s related family of gun powder!)

Anybody who has ever been to a fireworks show knows that the best part of the show is saved for the very end.

And when the end comes you won’t say “oh look at that one or ooo I like the blue sparklers...” You won’t be able to see a single firework because they all get launched up together at the same time.

Do you know what they call that time in the fireworks show? It’s called the “Grand Finale.”

You might think of today’s passage and this series we’re in right now as “The Grand Finale” of God’s judgment.

In some ways - the entire book of Revelation is a “Grand Finale” but in particular the grand finale of God’s judgment is reserved in what John describes as the seven bowls of God’s wrath.

Reviewing Revelation

Because today’s text serves as a climax to so much of what came before it I need to spend a little bit of time reviewing where we’ve been for the past several months.

So how should we understand the events described in the book of Revelation. How does it all hold together?

Views of the Millennium

The approach that I’ve been preaching from falls under the broad umbrella of what’s called the “futurist” interpretive grid. That means I believe the vast majority of the visions that John sees in this book of reserved for some point and time in the future.

Within that futurist approach there are many sub-views. The theological camp that I subscribe to is what’s called “Premillennialism.” The “millennium” is a word that describes the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth.

The Bible uses utopian language to describe this time. Jesus is in charge, he rules the nations, there is peace and prosperity and the world is recreated into God’s original design for creation.

So a “PREmillennial” believes that Jesus is going to come back to the earth BEFORE that so called “1,000 year reign” on the earth happens. There are other views.

Post millennial believes it’s happening now and we usher in the coming of Christ.

Amillennial means there is no actual earthly reign but that’s it’s a spiritual one.

The problem I have with the amil view and post-mil view is it requires a lot spiritualizing of certain passages in the Revelation and elsewhere that I don’t know the original author meant to be spiritualized.

The second problem is if post or amill is true then either one means we are living in the millennium right now and if this is the utopia that the Bible describes it to be then it’s pretty disappointing! Over promise and under deliver is an under statement!

Four Main Events

Now when you hold to the view that I hold there are people within that umbrella who disagree on the way the events are going to transpire leading UP TO the second coming of Jesus.

There are four events that are universally agreed upon regardless of ones view. They come from Daniels prophecy in Daniel 9:27, Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels, and the Apostle Paul’s teaching in his epistles.

The four fact are

the Abomination of Desolation

the Great Tribulation

the Day of the Lord

and the Rapture of the Church

CHART: Daniel 9:27 describes a seven year period that will precede the second coming of Messiah.

That seven year period will be started by the signing of a covenant between Israel and the Antichrist.

The antichrist will break that covenant at the midway point with what the Bible calls the abomination of desolation.

In Matthew 24:15-22 Jesus says after the AOD those living in Judea will undergo a Great Tribulation. So bad that if the days hadn’t been cut short nobody would’ve survived.

But he does cut them short through the rapture of the Church and Day of the Lord.

I believe the day of the Lord started with the trumpet judgments but it culminates with the bowls of wrath.

Views of the Rapture

The day of the Lord, the AOD and the Great Tribulation are generally agreed upon by premillenials. What isn’t agreed upon is the timing of what’s called the “rapture of the church.”

The purpose of today’s sermon is not to address this question but I do need to mention it to help orient us to the timeline of events in today’s passage.

CHART: Pre-trib rapture puts the rapture of the church before the seven years begins. (Church will be with Jesus in heaven for those 7 years then come back with Jesus in judgment on the earth) Most popular view.

CHART: Mid-trib puts the rapture at the mid-point of the final seven years. (simultaneous with the abomination of desolation)

CHART: Post-trib puts the rapture at the end of the seven years (simultaneous with the second coming of Jesus)

CHART: Pre-wrath puts the rapture after the Great Tribulation and before the day of the Lord (second coming of Jesus).

I hold to the prewrath position because I believe that the final generation of the church WILL go through part of the Great Tribulation but that we will be protected from the WRATH of God.

CHART: That means I place the rapture of the church sometime between the sixth seal and the 7 trumpet judgments. The trumpet judgments begin what we’ve entitled this series: “The Day of the Lord.”

The Day of the Lord

The Day of the Lord is a concept that the Bible addresses frequently. In many different times and in many different ways.

Day of the Lord’s sacrifice (Zeph 1:8)

Day of the Lord’s wrath (Zeph 1:18)

Those days, the day, that day, the GREAT day (Joel 3:1, 1 Thess 5:4; Jude 6; Isa 2:11)

Judgment day (Isa 10:3)

The last day (John 12:48)

The Great Day of God (Rev 16:14)

On and on we could go. There are countless more examples. (Isa 13:13; Isa 34:8; Zech 14:1; Zech 14:7; Matt 13:39; Matt 24:37; Luke 17:26; Rom 2:5; Phil 1:10; John 12:48; 2 Pet 2:9)

Just because a passage doesn’t say “the Day of the Lord” doesn’t mean it’s not referencing this day of the Lord.

The day of the Lord is a day of God’s judgment for his enemies and a day of God’s deliverance for his people. Those who do not believe experience his wrath those who have trusted in the Lord experience his mercy.

In the OT the Day of the Lord was always “near.” Prophet after prophet conveyed a sense of imminence, nearness and expectation. (Isaiah 13:6; Ezekiel 30:3; Joel 2:1; Zephaniah 1:7)

Sometimes the prophets would refer to historical judgments from God as a day of his wrath but they always maintained a “future day” of wrath that was yet to come. (Joel 2:30-32; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi 4:1, 5)

In the NT the Day of the Lord was a day wherein God’s wrath will be poured out on the unbelieving world: whether Israel or the world in general (Israel: Isaiah 22; Jeremiah 30:1-17; Joel 1-2; Amos 5; Zephaniah 1; World: Ezekiel 38-39; Zechariah 14 Malachi 4:1, 5)

On the day of the Lord the proud will be humbled. God and God alone will be praised. (Isa 2:17)

The day of the Lord will be a day of vengeance. Whatever a person has sowed, that’s what they will reap. (Obad 1:15)

The Trumpet Judgments

Where is the Day of the Lord in the book of Revelation? I believe it begins with the blowing of the seven trumpets and completes after the pouring out of the seven bowls of wrath.

But the seven trumpets and seven bowls are proceeded by what? The seven SEALS. It’s like those little wooden dolls that have the doll within the doll within the doll.

CHART: Prewrath Timeline

The seals describe the birth pains before the second coming, the rise of the antichrist, his persecution of the saints and the cosmic signs that portend the day of the Lord.

After that time, there's a period of silence in heaven for a half an hour, followed by the trumpet judgments.

What comes after the trumpet judgments? The 7 bowls of wrath. That’s our text this morning.

With that in mind let’s look at today’s passage. We’re going to look at the first four of the seven bowls of wrath.

Revelation 16:1–9 (CSB)

1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.” 2 The first went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and severely painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.

3 The second poured out his bowl into the sea. It turned to blood like that of a dead person, and all life in the sea died.

4 The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 I heard the angel of the waters say,

You are just,

the Holy One, who is and who was,

because you have passed judgment on these things.

6 Because they poured out

the blood of the saints and the prophets,

you have given them blood to drink;

they deserve it!

7 I heard the altar say,

Yes, Lord God, the Almighty,

true and just are your judgments.

8 The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun. It was allowed to scorch people with fire, 9 and people were scorched by the intense heat. So they blasphemed the name of God, who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.

I want to answer three questions of understanding about this text and then make some points of application.

The first question is WHEN do these judgments happen,

the second is WHAT will these judgments look like.

Finally we’ll answer WHY do these judgments happen

The Question of Timing

The first question is the question of timing. Revelation 16 opens with the word THEN. When is then? When do these bowl judgments take place? To answer that I want to throw the chart back up.

CHART: If you look at this chart right under the seven bowls of wrath you’ll see a little time designation. How many days does it say? 3o days. That’s followed by another 45 days and then we see the 1,000 year millennium.

Where does that come from?

It comes from Daniel’s prophecy about the final seven years before Messiah returns.

Daniel 12:11–12 (CSB)

11 From the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 Happy is the one who waits for and reaches 1,335 days.

In that passage we have two numbers. 1290 days and 1,335 days.

If you have a really good memory you’ll remember a particular number from the book of Revelation as well. That number is 1,260 days (Rev 11:3; 12:6; 13:5)

1,260 on a 360 calendar = 3 1/2 years or 1/2 of the seventieth week of Daniel.

So we see a parallel between Daniel 9 and the time designation in throughout the book of Revelation but now here in Daniel 12:11-12 there’s an extension.

Now it’s 1,290. Not only that, he added an additional number at the very end of 1,335.

75 More Days

Well that’s different. We know the Bible can’t be contradicting itself.

If Daniel says there's 1,290 days but the book of Revelation says there's 1,260 days. How many days difference is that? 30 days!

But then what about this 1,335 days? If you subtract that from 1,260 days, what do you get? That's a little harder. It's a little harder 'cause you gotta use two columns. It's 75.

What you see is after the seven years is completed after Revelation 11 there's gonna be a period of 75 days.

If you’re taking notes, after the blowing of the seventh trumpet there will be a reclamation period on the earth for up to 30 days. That’s the time period described by these bowl judgments.

I believe those first 30 days are where Jesus is taking over on the earth. Many people teach that as soon as Jesus comes back it's over. No, he reclaims his Kingdom.

Reclamation & Restoration

The devil isn’t just going to wave his white flag of surrender.

Satan is going to gather armies to fight against Jesus during those 30 days. During which time there's gonna be bowl judgments poured out from heaven on the earth.

During that time Jesus will be supernaturally protecting his remnant (those 144,000 mentioned in chapter 14 and chapter 7.)

Jesus will make a tour though the middle east (OT scriptures we don’t have time to look at) and that’s how his robe is dripping with blood when He comes with heaven’s armies in Revelation 19.

At the end of these bowl judgments the world kings are gonna be invited by satanic deception into believing that they can take Jesus's which is why we're gonna get the battle of Armageddon. That's all gonna happen in that 30 day period.

When that 30 day period is over, then there's gonna be what's called the sheep and goats judgment, which you read about Matthew 24 and 25, where those who are still alive God separates.

Those who don't know Christ, go to hell. Those who do know Christ began to populate the millennial kingdom with him. That's where we get those 75 days.

The Main Thing

If none of that stuff makes sense and your brain is numb right now that’s perfectly okay. Repetition is the mother of all learning and we will go over it again.

What you need to know is that this week and next week we’re talking about the 30 days that follow the blowing of the seventh trumpet in Revelation. They are day of God’s wrath being poured out on the earth.

The main point is that once God unleashes these bowls of wrath there is no turning back. His wrath will be poured out over all the earth.

Regardless of the details on timing, the point of these bowls of wrath is to establish God’s justice on the earth and to vindicate his saints.

Here’s a SIMPLE chart for us SIMPLE minds. It's four boxes.

The first box represents everything we've been talking about. This is chapters one through 11 in the Book of Revelation. It's the 70th week of Daniel

followed by 30 days followed by 45 days, followed by the millennial reign of Christ followed by the eternal state.

The Question of What

Now that we have an idea of WHEN these bowls happen let’s look at the actual bowls of wrath themselves. The question of what.

This passage presents us with four of the seven bowls of wrath. We will look at the final three next week because they deal with the oft talked about “Battle of Armageddon.

Like the trumpets and the seals these seven bowls of wrath have a particular 4/3 structure.

There are some very interesting similarities between the seals, trumpets and bowls. Particularly the trumpets and bowls are similar

They both have similarities to the plagues in the story of the Exodus. (water/blood Exo 7:20; darkening sun Exo 10:21-22)

They have a similar sequence in how they land: earth, sea, inland waters, heavenly bodies respectively.

The fifth judgment of both involves darkness and pain (Rev 16:10; 9:2, 5-6).

The sixth judgment of both involves enemy hordes from the vicinity of the Euphrates. (Rev 16:12; 9:14ff)

The similarities are fascinating but the differences can’t be ignored. There are important differences as well.

Namely, the trumpet judgements are partial (1/3 of the earth, sea, inland water and sun Rev 8:7-12) whereas the bowls are universal and complete. (every living thing Rev 16:3, every island Rev 16:20) ect

The trumpets are aimed at soliciting repentance from the people who live on the earth. The bowls are not to solicit repentance but to complete judgment.

With the first four trumpet judgments people are indirectly affected (it targets physical creation only). The bowl judgments negatively affects people right out of the gate.

So while the seals, trumpets and bowls have important similarities they also have significant differences.

Each series brings us to the end but in each case the severity and magnitude of the judgments grow in their size and scope.

Grievous Boils

With that established lets look at these first four bowls individually.

The CSB describes the first bowl as “severely painful sores” that break out on the people who bear the mark of the beast and worshipped its image.

Revelation 16:2 (KJV 1900)

2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

Ironic: those who bear the mark of the beast now bear a mark of God’s judgment. One of the reasons I think Christians might be raptured at this point is because these judgments are falling exclusively on the kingdom of the beast.

The word translated sore is the greek word helkos. It usually conveys the idea of some kind of abcess or ulcer. A festering skin wound. Most translations use the word sore. But don’t think little skin scratch. Think “open skin infection.” Or a boil.

These skin sores are similar to the ninth plague during the story of the Exodus (Exo 9:9-11) Job experienced the same thing during his torment (Job 2:7-8, 13).

Water to Blood

Bowls two and three shift from a judgment on people’s skin to a judgment on the waters that cover the earth. Both the sea water and fresh water turn to blood.

Angel two pours his bowl of wrath out on the sea water. The result is that the water turned to blood like that of a dead person and every living thing in the sea died.

Revelation 16:3–4 (CSB)

3 The second poured out his bowl into the sea. It turned to blood like that of a dead person, and all life in the sea died.

4 The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

I don’t know about you but the blood of a dead person is an interesting phrase.

Obviously once a person dies the heart stops beating and the blood just begins to pool in the dependent parts of the body. It’s called Liver Mortis. The skin turns purpleish but I’m assuming the blood is still some form of red.

The phrase “like that of a dead person” may be used to communicate the idea that the sea water will become putrid and stale resulting in the death of everything living in the ocean.

This also harkens back to the story of the Exodus (Exo 7:17-24). The first plague is God turning the waters of the Nile into blood, the river stinking like death and all of the fish dying as a result.

Angel three pours his bowl onto the rivers and “springs of water” and they too become blood.

After the sea water goes bad you can imagine people turning to rivers or springs or anything else but soon after the first judgments falls the second and third follow. ALL water on the earth is now harmful to drink.

We saw this same thing happen with the trumpet judgments. There a blazing mountain falls out of the sky into the sea turning it to blood and destroying one third. With the bowls it’s not a third it’s the whole thing!

Water is one of humanity’s basic requirements. Especially in the more arid regions of the earth.

The Burning Sun

The fourth angel pours his bowl out on the sun. As a result, the sun begins to scorch people with fire.

Revelation 16:8–9 (CSB)

8 The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun. It was allowed to scorch people with fire, 9 and people were scorched by the intense heat. So they blasphemed the name of God, who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.

Notice that as these people are being burned by the sun they know exactly who is causing the judgment and they don’t care to bend the knee. They are hardened in their unbelief.

Fire is the basic element of wrath in the day of the Lord. We’ve seen it earlier in Revelation to describe the fires of hell (Rev 14:10-11)

If this is to be taken literally (even kinda) it will be an unprecedented solar event.

The Question of Why

It’s easy to read this text and wonder why God is so vengeful and angry. It’s not because of any lack of justice in God. It’s because of a lack of understanding about our sin.

Revelation 16:5–7 (CSB)

5 I heard the angel of the waters say,

You are just,

the Holy One, who is and who was,

because you have passed judgment on these things.

6 Because they poured out

the blood of the saints and the prophets,

you have given them blood to drink;

they deserve it!

7 I heard the altar say,

Yes, Lord God, the Almighty,

true and just are your judgments.

The reason why God’s wrath is being poured out on the earth is because of people’s sin and unbelief and hardness of heart.

Our sin is an offense to a holy God and for God to be just sin must be punished.

These judgments are falling on people who have rejected Jesus Christ and decided to worship the antichrist. He is a charismatic and influential individual.

He has found a way to get people from around the world to bow down (either voluntarily or involuntarily).

God has pleaded with the earth to not bow down to the antichrist. He has warned that anybody who takes the mark of the beast will suffer eternally in hell.

But the peoples on the earth reject that warning and receive the mark of the beast to avoid the wrath of the antichrist.

Not only do they take the mark, many of these who are judged participated in the killing of the saints. They poured out the blood of the saints so God makes them drink blood. You reap what you sow. God is not mocked!

Conclusion

The same warning is relevant for us today.

The purpose of Revelation is not to create confusion for the Christian or cause division in the church or even to promote speculation about the coming of Christ.

This book was written to give hope to suffering Christians, to encourage holiness amidst a seductive culture, and to fuel mission among the unreached.

Even the wrath of God drives us to a place of thanksgiving.

Because this wrath doesn’t have to be our experience. This wrath is what Jesus endured through his death on the cross.

So the question you must ask yourself today is what will you do with your guilt? Who will make atonement for YOUR sin?

If you’ve never made a decision to trust in Christ as your personal Lord and savior then today is the day of salvation. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

This world is broken, hard and it’s getting worse. There is unshakable hope and power for change through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we take this Lord’s supper this morning let us do so as people who are eternally grateful to Christ for bearing the wrath of God FOR US on the cross.

Let us also commit ourselves to proclaiming the death of Christ on the cross to those who have never heard. Outside of Christ the wrath of God abides on all unbelief. It’s up to us to go and tell. So let us do so!