ENDURE SUFFERING PATIENTLY
Revelation 6-9 (pp864-866) July 7, 2013
INTRODUCTION:
Last week we ended the message with Jesus, the Lamb which was slain, opening the 7 seals of a Scroll…In absolute selfless worship, the 4 living creatures, the 24 Elders around God’s throne, the countless number of angels call out with praise….”Worthy is the lamb…to receive glory, honor, power, wealth, wisdom and strength…and every creature in heaven, and on earth and under the earth and on the sea says, “To Him who sits on the throne…and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever. AMEN!
John has been called into heaven’s throne room to witness uninhibited, selfless worship of God on the throne, and Jesus, the Son who has accomplished God’s purpose of salvation through His death, burial and resurrection … “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29)…”The Lamb looking as if it has been slain.” (Rev. 5:6)
The Lamb, Jesus...is worthy…He’s worthy to receive all power, authority and praise because of His obedience and sacrifice for the One on the throne…He, and He alone has earned the right to open the seals which reveal God’s plan for the future. Listen as we read Rev. 6: 1-17 (p864)
That sounds a whole lot more like the Revelation we know and love, huh? Seals, trumpets, 4 horsemen, scrolls, famine, disease, and wild animals…What does all this mean?
I’ve never been real good at ignoring the Elephant in the room…. My nature, permanently, call it what you want usually walks in the room, looks around at all the other people ignoring a giant elephant …and says, “Hey, what’s with the Elephant?
Revelation 4:1 finds Jesus telling John…”Come up here (through Humans door) and I’ll show you what must take place, after this….I’ll show you what will happen next…The elephant?.... When is “after this”…when does “next” happen?
I don’t know….I have opinions and beliefs just as everyone else does...but I won’t stand behind this pulpit sharing an opinion as if it is “the Word of God”….Almost all views of the “The When This will take place” flow from this passage of scripture and some others…
Read Rev 20: 1-10 (p871)
When does Jesus return, when is the 1,000 year reign here on earth…that’s where the word (“Millennialism”) comes from. Is it a literal 1,000 years or figurative …does the church go through the Great tribulation recorded in these chapters or is it “Raptured” (word never used in scripture by the way) before the horrible stuff…or half way through the horrible stuff? John does not relate his revelation in chronological order…John jumps back and forth in time, and he also takes us back and forth between heaven and on earth.
John uses repetition to emphasize a key theme: When Christ returns he will come in judgment---to reward those who are faithful and punish those who are not. The conflict between God and Satan, and their followers flows through the entire book.
I THERE IS ONLY ONE FINAL COMING OF JESUS…THERE IS ONLY ONE END OF THE WORLD
Hebrews 9:27, 28 records these words, “Just as people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
The lamb was slain to take away our sin, all sin…but when he returns as the risen Lord of Lords and King of Kings it will be to bring judgment.
Rev: 6: 15-17 (p 864)
As the lamb opens the 7 seals…the first 4 are horses and riders…A white horse whose rider holds a bow, has a crown…conquering and bringing conquest….As the second is opposed one of the 4 living creatures, says “Come” and the rider of a fiery red horse comes out…taking away peace, people killing one another, the 3rd rider is on a black horse, He has scales in his hands…bringing famine and financial difficulty, and with the 4th seal…the living creature says, “Come” and there before John was a Pale horse…It’s rider was death….and Hades was following close behind him…people would die by the sword, famine, plaque and wild beasts of the earth.
Much of what John records has an immediate fulfillment…you could see each of those things taking place under the Roman Empire but there is also an ultimate fulfillment…yet to have occurred before Christ returns…when?... Well.
Jesus even answered the disciple’s private question about when all this would take place and what signs they should look for in Matthew 24.
Matt. 24: 3-14 (p693)
John witnesses those martyred for their faith under the altar of God when the 5th seal is opened…They cry out….”How long, Sovereign Lord, Holy and True, until you judge the earth and avenge our blood?”
Each of them is given a white robe and told to wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants are killed, just as they had been…and as the 6th seal is opened John is taken to the brink…The great day of judgment…”The great day of their wrath has come.” (6:17)
It the souls of those who have been slain that Johns sees…there’s been no resurrection yet. And these souls have been martyred because of the Word of God…and because of the testimony of their faith…they cry out in a loud voice.
“How long Oh sovereign Lord until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”
Revelations 6-9 is filled with war, famine, earthquakes, suffering…persecution and difficulties…
Maybe like the church at Philadelphia we have gone through suffering patiently..
Read Rev. 3: 10, 11 (p 863)
[Someone wrote that 10 years ago our world had Bob Hope, Johnny Cash and Steve Jobs. Now we have No Jobs, No Cash and No Hope.]
How long Lord? Maybe you’ve experienced those moments of “No Hope,” financially, a physical illness, family conflict…Jesus promise is true…”In this world you will have trouble.” Acts 14:22 records Paul saying, “We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”
You might know those hardships well!
Maybe you’ve struggled with a sinful habit that won’t let you go…you’ve poured yourself into another person and that person walks away…you’ve prayed for a lost friend for years, spent hours building this relationship, but she continues to resist.
Every spiritual leader I’ve ever known has experienced discouragement, pain and brokenness…Ministry is a contact sport that will leave you limping away in conquest…some even leap off the field…not sure if they’ll return.
This is why Revelation is written…may we not get so lost arguing over millennial views that we forget Rev. 1:1. “The Revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place.”…Take this prophecy to heart because the time is near. (Rev. 1:3)
Revelation is written to believers besieged by a corrupt and hostile culture…they are under attack from the inside and out…”How long O Lord?”
The Powerful answer: “No matter how bad things get, at the end of the story we win!”
7 is used over and over again to show perfection before God, and it’s in the 7th chapter we are transported before the throne again to be reminded of God’s Victory through Jesus, the Lamb. Listen -- Rev 7: 1-12 (p 864)
Sealed by God…144,000 from every Jewish tribe…12,000 x 12,000…perfection squared…is this what Romans 11: 25-27 refers to? Romans 11: 25-27 (p 789)
Clearly God has a salvation plan for Israel but also heaven’s praises will come from every nation, tribe, people and language…
Rev. 7: 9-12 (p865)
Then one of the 24 elders asks John “These in white robs –who are they? Where’d they come from?” John says, Sir…you know.”
And He said…Read Rev. 7: 14-17 (p865) It’s those who have come out of the great tribulation…their robes have been washed white in the blood of Jesus…
John sees an end of time tribulation unlike…anything we can imagine…”The great tribulation” before Christ’s return and the end of the world.
As the 7th seal is opened the prayers of God’s people are answered.
Rev. 8: 2-5 (p865)
How long O Lord? The answer to those prayers of “All God’s people…NOW”
Chapters 8 & 9 have the 7 trumpets being sounded, at least 6 of them anyways…John sees huge mountains being thrown into the sea, hail, fire mixed with blood, the water being bitter…darkness…It’s very similar to the plaques sent upon Egypt in Exodus…and Revelation, chapter 9 verse 6 says, “During those days people will seek death but will not find it, they will long to die, but death will allude them” And possibly the saddest words in these 4 chapters is found in Rev. 9:20,21 (p 866)
“Still did Not Report.”
How could you not repent through this experience?
There’s something special about the human heart…It can be hardened or it can be cut…Hardened hearts cannot be cut by God’s Spirit…
When God judged the world the first time in Noah’s day… Gen 6:3 has God saying “My spirit will not contend with humans forever.” And verse 5 says, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil, all the time.”…I believe Rev. 9: 20, 21 as very similar to Gen 6:5…
So my conclusion this morning….Jesus will return…He will come as the Almighty Lord of Lords and King of Kings…”And for His people He will be “the Lamb at the Center of the throne…He will be our Shepherd…He will lead us to living water…He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”
But for those who have been given the opportunity time and time again to repent and have rejected His call…He will judge them on their own merit…each accountable for their own sin…All those who have followed Abaddon, the destroyer here on earth…will encounter the same judgment as He…
I’m not trying to avoid anything, but as God’s people we’d better be more concerned about being His witnesses until the Eastern Sky rips open, than arguing about Amillennialism, Premillenialism , Postmillennialism….
We’re not on the planning committee…God is the planning committee…We are in the Welcoming committee…and there is a lot at stake!
