Sermon Preview
Today and next Sunday, we’ll see the Tale of Two Cities. Have you cut down a large tree where someone shouts out, “Watch out! It’s going to fall!” And moments after he says this, you watch a large tree first creep slowly to the earth and then pick up speed. It stood aright for so many years and it fell in a matter of seconds.
Series Preview
We’re doing a series on God’s Big Story where we are tracing the central storyline of the Bible. The aim of this series is to see the big picture of the Bible. I want to offer a bird’s eye view, if you will.
The Bible’s story can be unpacked in these four sentences:
God made the world.
We rebelled against our ruler.
God reentered the world to redeem us.
And God will remake the world.
We traced the primordial pivotal points of the Bible’s storyline in Genesis from God’s actions before anything came into existence to His placing of Adam & Eve in a lush, pristine, perfect garden. We watched carefully as the First Couple “cut their own path.” We witnessed their rebellion bring misery into the world. And we were surprised that God kept His hand on the world and did give us up to our choices and desires. Instead, He promised to crush the head of the evil serpent, Satan and He promises to start over again with His chosen man, Abraham (Genesis 3:15; 15:1f). Hope emerged like the phoenix rising from the ashes. So climb on top of the observation deck with me and let’s get a better perspective of the Bible before us.
Today’s Scripture Passage
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 2 And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;
5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
7 As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’
8 For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”
9 And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. 10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.
14 “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”
15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
16 “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls!
17 For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?”
19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste.
20 Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!”
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more;
22 and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more,
and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more,
23 and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”
(Revelation 18:1-24)
Within a generation of leaving the Garden of Eden, humans were building cities (Genesis 4:17). From the earliest chapters of Genesis, people are city-builders. It’s in our nature to build cities. And today, their world has never been more urban. From New York to Seoul and from London to Mumbai, our world population marches to the tune of cities. In 1900, only 14% of the world’s population lived in cities where today some 74% of the world does. And while there are numerous cities throughout history and in our present day, there are really only two cities throughout history – the city of God and the city of man. According to the Bible, there are in essence only two cities: Babylon and Jerusalem.
Babylon is more than Babylon. Babylon rose to legendary status as the primary enemy of the people of God as far back as in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 18). Babylon is synonymous with the spirit of godlessness that in every age lives in those who worship themselves, their successes, and their possessions-anything but the Creator.
In the Bible Babylon becomes a kind of symbol for paganism that runs amuck and is finally destroyed.
These two cities have two different origins (God and Satan)… These two cities have two different natures (love for God and a love for oneself)… And these two cities have two different destines (heaven and hell). In fact, this chapter is linked to a larger section of Scripture beginning in Revelation 17:1-19:5.
God invented the city, and sin has corrupted the city. God is going to wipe the city clean of all the corruption of sin, so it can do what it was built to do. We will look at the two cities in sequence with the city of man this week and the city of God the following Sunday. Today, I want us to see the necessity of judgment, the essence or the reasons for God’s judgment, and lastly the results of judgment.
1. The Necessity of Judgment
Notice an angelic being comes with an announcement from heaven: “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 2 And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” (Revelation 18:1-2a)
In essence, a heavenly being comes down from the throne of God to announce judgment is coming. Today, we have an allergy to churches and pastors speaking about judgment. Have you noticed this? This really is an allergic reaction in our day to the judgment of God. The problem for us is the “mighty voice” of the angel and we just cannot ignore it. As much as we would like to, we just can’t seem to turn down the volume on the voice that cries for judgment as much as we’d like to.
I hear stories where people no longer go to church. They essentially quit church and quit Jesus. They got tired of the whole judgment thing.
There’s an allergic reaction to God’s judgment in our day. A century ago, people wanted the Bible’s morality without the miracles. Today, we want the miracles without the morality. Yet, far more is happening here than simply one city being judged in the annals of history. Far more.
You are witnessing nothing less than the long and weary history of sin itself being cast off like a worn-out garment. In fact, this isn’t the first time John has predicted God’s judgment being poured out on the evil in the world.
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” (Revelation 14:8–11)
God’s wrath poured out in full strength? The image is drawn from wine-drinking practices in the ancient world. When you produce wine, it comes out about thirty proof, that is, about fifteen percent alcohol. It can go up or down a bit, but it is not a distilled product where you can control the amount of alcohol. It is a fermented process, so it depends on the sugar content, the temperature, the kind of berry, and so on, but commonly wine is about thirty proof. In the ancient world, however, it was very common to “cut” the wine with water, somewhere between one part in ten (one part of wine to ten parts of water) and one part in three. Most table wines that people drank in the ancient world were cut. This image is a way of saying that in the past, God's wrath has been diluted. It is as if the text were saying, “This is now the wine of God's wrath poured out full strength. Any manifestation of God’s wrath that you have seen up to this point …
… for example, plagues in the Old Testament, disease, war…
… all of these things that you have seen as horrible displays of God’s wrath…
… they were the diluted form. Now God’s wrath is poured out full strength.”
The Bible says God is a good judge. And God does what good judges do. Remember, even a dead fish can go with the flow.
2. The Essence of God’s Judgment
Much of the passage has to do with the luxurious living the world enjoys.
Lex Talionis
“Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’ (Revelation 18:6-7)
What has the city done that is so bad?
2.1 It’s a Home for Demons
“She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.” (Revelation 18:2b)
3. The Results of God’s Judgment
When God wants to destroy a city, He utterly destroys a city: “If Edom says, ‘We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,’ the LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’” (Malachi 1:4)
This isn’t the first time God has told someone to get out of an evil city (Revelation 18:4).
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” (Genesis 19:15-17)
“Flee from the midst of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans…” (Jeremiah 50:8a)
“Flee from the midst of Babylon; let everyone save his life!” (Jeremiah 51:6a)
I think of Lot’s wife who would not come of out Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:26).
The people of God were to take this command seriously both physically as well as spiritually. First, physically. The command means to get out of the city lest they be destroyed with the pagans. But this command is also meant to be taken spiritually. The saints, or the holy ones, are to separate themselves (the very meaning of “holiness”) from the things of the world. Three times John tells us that evil empire will fall suddenly, quickly, and with little warning: “You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.” (Revelation 18:10b) “For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” (Revelation 18:17a)
“For in a single hour she has been laid waste.” (Revelation 18:19b)
