Revelation 11 verses 15-19
Let us do a quick review of where we are in the book of Revelation. Back in September last year we began this journey with the opening chapters and the seven letters to the seven churches of Asia-Minor. We looked through the eyes of John through the open door of heaven and saw the book of destiny and order behind the helpless confusion of men. We saw into the dark hinterland of spiritual powers and principalities behind human history. Then we met the second set of 7 vision and we saw deeper still, beyond the principalities, powers and evil forces to the prayers of the saints and the fire of God as potent factors in the story of man. Now this morning we penetrate even deeper, right into the temple of God and the way He works out the redemption of mankind through the ages. So let us turn to our text this morning.
Verse 15- with the blowing of the seventh trumpet the parousia, the last day, has arrived. The total triumph of the Second Coming, the final and overwhelming display of God’s majesty is revealed for all to see. This seventh trumpet is also described in verse 14 as a the third woe. You see if men have not repented at the blowing of trumpets 1-6 then the blowing of the 7th, and final, trumpet will indeed be a woe to them. It is a final woe, the final trumpet and from it there is no appeal. Remember that this morning as we go through this text. From this trumpet there is no appeal, there is no turning back to God - time is no more, the day has dawned for judgment.
We have not heard a trumpet sound since 9.13 but with the blowing of the 7th trumpet great voices are heard in heaven - please note that - we are back in heaven here. The previous passage we were back on earth and watching from that perspective. We are back in heaven and the heavenly voices sound to announce the climax of the Revelation - but we will have to wait to hear what is happening. These voices herald the momentous consummation of all God’s purposes for mankind and the world as the Day of the Lord is reached. The absolute sovereignty of God is about to be clearly and decisive revealed to all creation.
The voices make and announcement - The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. The kingdom of the world - the place of chaos and confusion, of disorder, death, wickedness and evil has been replaced by the kingdom of the Lord God -- of harmony, peace, order and blessing. I want you to note the use of the past tense - even though it is speaking of the future. The heavenly voices speak int eh past tense because it is as good as done. There is absolute certainty about this when the seventh angel blows his trumpet. This is no temporary phenomenon - He reigns for ever and ever. This is an eternal change in rulers. This is the day all creation has been groaning for and awaiting since that dreadful day in Genesis 3, the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man. The curse will now be lifted from all of Creation.
I want you to think about this for a moment. Think about when the soldiers dressed Christ up as a king and mocked Him, or when they put the notice above His head on the cross - king of the Jews. They mocked Him but this verse says there is a day, when the seventh trumpet sounds, that all creation will see He is the King of kings and He reigns eternal. In Matthew 4 Jesus resisted the temptation of satan to surrender the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship. I do not know if you like Handel’s Messiah but one of the most powerful moments in that piece of music is when Handel has the chorus sing ‘And He shall reign for ever and ever.’ There will be no end to His rule. All the great empires of this world have faded and past away but His rule will never end. It is no wonder ‘great voices’ are heard in heaven declaring it. Here is the fulfilment of Isaiah 9.6 where we read, often at Christmas, that the government shall be upon His shoulders - it has come to pass.
Verses16 we encounter the 24 elders again. We last met them in 7.11. Normally the elders are seated but here they fall prostrate on their face before God and worship Him as the great voices in heaven proclaim the eternal reign of God. Now we hear their praise in verses 17-18.
Verses 17-18 - we have here an all embracing, universal reign of God.
We give you thanks - is only found in the book of Revelation - this sets the tone of the rest of this hymn. It is a hymn of thanksgiving to Almighty God.
Who is and who was - do you notice what is missing? We are used to saying the last part ‘and who is to come.’ But now He has come and so the elders do not need to say that final phrase. He has come to reign for all eternity over His new creation. The time of waiting and longing is over - He has come. It is no longer some day in the future - the day has dawned and He reigns eternal.
The elders then declare that He has taken this with great power. No one gives this kingdom reign to God - it is His, He has alone has the power to take it. God has great power and He defeats all His foes - He is the Lord God Almighty - 1.8 and 4.8. He has taken - the perfect tense - it is His permanently and then we read ‘begun to reign’ and in the Greek there is a change in tense to the aorist tense - which speaks of a an absolute certainty about the event that is to come. Here is an undivided simple situation - we have a statement of completed fact - He has begun to reign. God has decisively and eternally dethroned evil and entered on His eternal reign - things will never be the same again!
Verse 18 - Now the reign of God is established by a great demonstration of divine wrath against the defiant anger of this world. Inevitable judgment has come. The background to this verse is Psalm 2. God tailors the punishment to fit the crime and sins of men. Romans 2 verse 5 tells us that there is reserved the wrath of a righteous God. The judgment of the unrighteous begins and ends this verse and in the middle we have the reward of the righteous faithful people of God. Sometimes we are uncomfortable speaking about God’s wrath but it is a core teaching in Scripture and we need to understand this morning that His wrath is His righteous opposition to sin at any moment in time and not just some final divine outpouring. I haven’t seen the The Exodus, that is in the cinemas at the moment, but I am reliably informed that God is depicted as a vengeful, revenge filled, little boy in the film. Brothers and sisters that is so far far removed from the truth. We need to understand not just in our heads but also in our hearts - God is holy, totally pure, righteous and wholly other. He cannot, He will not, He must not tolerate sin in any form, shape or size in His presence. He abhors sin. He sacrificed His only begotten Son to deal with sin - that is how much He abhors it. It is quite literally an abomination to Him. Often the Greek says it is anathema to Him. Friends if we could, if only for a moment, grasp a fraction of God’s abhorrence and opposition to sin we would recoil in horror at our lives and our tolerance of sin. But there is a day coming when He will judge the sins of men.
There is a day coming when He will right every wrong, correct every injustice and judge mankind for all the wickedness, for every lie, for every sinful action, for every sinful thought and word spoken. Every sin, no matter how small and insignificant you thought it to be will be laid bare and judged by Almighty God.
Look at the next line - the time for the judgment of the dead has come. The word of time there is ‘kairos’ - literally the text says ‘This is the moment that the dead should be judged.’ Friends, the time of repentance is passed at that moment - it is the time of judgement. It is the God appointed, the time is fulfilled, moment for judgment and punishment. It will be a decisive moment and righteousness will be seen to be done. God will set the scales at last. Even thought they have died and have disappeared from the face of the earth they do not escape judgement. Those who have inflicted injustice and those who have suffered injustice have not been cut off from the holy justice of God - remember that today. Remember - no one is forgotten and no one is overlooked in this judgement. There is nothing arbitrary about the judgment of God.
There is also reward for the faithful people of God - those who feared or revered the name of God. There is recognition of their faithful service - but this is not earned - 1 Corinthians 4.7 - they have nothing they did not receive. Matthew 5.12 they have been but faithful stewards of all that God has given them. Philippians 3.8 tells us that Christ Himself is their eternal reward. Do you notice what the elders say - the great and small - the social inclusivity of all in Scripture. It matters not your status, your economic power or where you stand in this world - the faithful believers are rewarded - and if we listen to our Lord and Saviour - the first will be last and the last will be first, it is the servants who are the greatest in the kingdom of God, no matter how this world views them.
‘and for the destroying of the destroyers of the earth.’ This appears a strange saying. It would be easy to misunderstand this today - especially if we take it literally and think only of ‘environmental damage.’ However, it is much more than a green issue. There is in fact a play on words in the Greek - which in a literal sense speaks of complete destruction with its figurative counterpart ‘to ruin’ in the sense of ‘morally deprave.’ The destroyers - are the ungodly, those filled with hatred, with impurity and unforgiven sin. Let me linger here a moment - when we hear a phrase like the ungodly, or the destroyers, we are often quick to dismiss it and to say to ourselves ‘that is not me.’ Ask yourself this - you told lies ...you are a liar. You taken what does not belong to you...you are a thief. You taken God’s name in vain...you are a blasphemer. You looked with lust on someone...you are an adulterer. You lost your temper with someone...you are a murderer. You been jealous of what someone has or achieved? You passed on that piece of information about someone...gossiping. I could go on...still think you are not ungodly and not a destroyer. You see this phrase speaks about the effect of sin on this earth - it destroys. It is a killer. God said so in Genesis 2 and Adam and Eve brought death and destruction into creation with their sin of disobedience and this morning so do you every time you sin. The day is coming when God will judge that sin and He will punish that sin - but the good news is that you do not have to take that punishment because in His eternal love for you He sent Jesus to die in your place on the Cross that you might know His grace, receive forgiveness and be rewarded with salvation on that Day and not eternal damnation. That is the good news this morning. So, as humbly, as gently but as firmly as I can say to you all this morning - when that seventh trumpet sounds and Lord Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead - which side will you be standing?
Verse 19 - you know how at the end of some TV programmes, just as the tiles are rolling, up comes ‘next time’ and you are given a glimpse of what is in the next episode. Well this verse serve just such a purpose. In fact this verse is a pivotal verse because it concludes the interlude of chapters 10 and 11 and leads us into the visions that run from chapters 12 right through to 15.8. We now meet a vision of God’s sanctuary. A reminder of God’s faithfulness to His people. The sanctuary of God is opened and it reveals the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant was made of acacia wood covered in gold in which the two tablets of the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai were placed. It also contained Aaron’s staff that budded and a gold pot of manna - the food of the wilderness wandering. On it rested the mercy seat which intervened between the Law of the Covenant and the glory of God’s presence between the cherubim above it, and on which the blood of atonement for the sins of the people was sprinkled each year on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest. In the sixth century BC the Ark was lost or destroyed when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem.
There are three parts to this verse:
Opening of the heavenly temple or sanctuary
The disclosure of the Ark of the Covenant
The description of the portents which follow their manifestation
The temple - established the presence of God and the Ark of the Covenant is the location of God’s throne - Exodus 15.17. This brings us back to theme of God’s sovereignty and reminds us that God is faithful to His Word - He keeps His Covenant promises.
The Ark signifies the awesome presence of God. Interestingly only here and in Hebrews 9.4 is the Ark of the Covenant mentioned in the New Testament. It is the sign of God’s abiding presence with His people. However, whereas in the OT access was restricted and denied - now because of Christ access is open to all. The cross is the mercy seat between the Law of God - which tells us of our failures and sin and the awesome holy presence of God that would punish us for those sins - the Cross is the mercy seat that intervenes, that atones and on which the blood of the Lamb was shed for the atonement of our sins, and the sins of this world. You see God’s Law is the constant standard of His holiness and justice and apart from the blood of Christ, the blood of the everlasting covenant - Hebrews 13.20, the law-breaker, who is everyman, is under condemnation and subject to judgment.
The cosmic portents - do you notice the Ark appears between two earthquakes - verse 1 and the end of verse 19. It calls to mind the fall of Jericho which signalled the successful conclusion of the Israel’s entry into the Promised Land after the wilderness wanderings. It signifies here the entry of the people of God into the Promised Land of God’s eternal kingdom.
These cosmic portents, or signs, disclose the imminent judgment of God and also of the salvation of God of His people. God’s voice that shook Sinai will once again shake the heavens and the earth. These signs are in heaven but their outworking is on earth. We find this order of heavenly portents frequently in Revelation. The heavy hailstorm reminds us again of one of the plagues of judgment on Egypt (Ex. 9.22-26).
Yet again we are brought to the brink of that Day. John never tells us ‘when’ this trumpet will sound but he does tell us that it is certain that one day it will sound. I have often told you that a good question to ask when you have read the Bible is ‘So what...now?
This in some aspects is quite a frightening passage. It is a picture of the full glory of God - which is terrifying to His enemies but an uplifting promise to the people of Christ.
It is a very sobering passage. It is a passage of judgment and punishment and yet also of redemption and reward. There is encouragement to know that one day every wrong will be righted and every injustice will be dealt with. It is sobering to think that one day every one will be called to account and every evil will be dealt with and put away for all eternity. Yet, many hear this passage and leave untouched, unchanged and unchallenged. Their ears do not hear the tune or the song being sung by the heavenly choir or the elders. This morning I pray that the Holy Spirit opens the ears of your mind and your soul that you would know and understand the eternal significance for you of these words. Beneath all the complications of your life and the terrifying events of this world one day a song will ring out over all this universe as that day dawns and the final curtain falls on human history. Tune your ears this morning to the Word of God. The superficial news of the media is temporal but this is the song of eternity. This is the eternal truth - One Day the seventh angel will sound His trumpet and the Lord Jesus Christ will come and the kingdom of this world will be the kingdom of the of our Lord and His Christ. When that day breaks He will come to judge the living and the dead. Those who are not His He will send to eternal damnation. They choose to live without Him in their lives, they choose to live in opposition to Him and so they will spend eternity without Him, lost in hell. Those, great and small, who by faith believed will enter into their heavenly reward to live with Him for all eternity in the Promised Land.
Time and eternity cohere in revelation - maybe nowhere more so than in these verses at the end of chapter 11. We stand, quite literally, on the brink of eternity - do you know your eternal destiny this morning? Do your ears hear the heavenly song of the redeemed? Do you want to hear it? Or, sadly, do you hear it and are ignoring it?
