Step By Step Through Revelation Chapter 8 Series

Revelation

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Chapter 8

REVELATION 8:1-5

(8:1-5) Introduction: remember what we have just seen. God has just handed Jesus Christ the great book of destiny, the book that tells about the end of the world. The book was so full and so mysterious that it was bound with seven seals. When Christ began to break the seals, the most unusual thing happened. A picture, a movie-like scene, began to be played out’ before John and the heavenly host. What they saw was the horror and the terrible things that are to happen at the end of: the world.

ð The first four seals showed the four horsemen of the apocalypse storming over the face of the earth. These~ four horsemen represented the havoc that shall be brought upon the earth by the antichrist. They show his gaining control of the world through war, famine, and economic controls. The events are characteristic of. Most ages, but they are to be intensified in the tribulation at the end of the world.

ð The fifth seal (Rev.6: 9) showed the martyrs who were slaughtered by the antichrist while he gained control of much of the earth and its economy (Rev.6: 6).

ð The sixth seal showed the rumblings of God’s judgment being prepared and simply says, "the great day of’. His wrath is come," the very threshold of the great tribulation (Rev .6: 12)

Now, it is time for the seventh seal to be broken. When it is broken,. There is seen the awesome preparation for judgement.

Picture 1: a shattering silence (v. 1).

Picture 2: the instruments of judgment (v.2-4).

Picture 3: the signs of the coming judgment begin upon earth (v. 5).

8: 1 Seal Judgments: when the seventh seal is broken, there is the picture of a shattering silence.

This was the silence of awe and of reverence before God, fearing what may be coming forth. The heavenly host had seen so much that they were stricken numb with silence.

When the seventh seal is broken, nothing happens.

There is stillness, complete and absolute stillness. Christ stands there in stone silence. He does not move or speak. Neither does anyone else

8:2-4 Trumpet Judgments:

There is the picture of the instruments of justice and judgment.

1. There are seven angels who suddenly lurch out from the Book of Destiny and immediately take their place before God.

God hands them seven trumpets.

Again note this: the seven angels come forth when the seventh seal is broken

Picture the scene:

ð Picture the heavenly host surrounding the throne of God.

ð Picture all the spectacular scenes; horror, and suffering that have been witnessed.

ð Picture the breaking of the seventh seal and the stone silence for thirty minutes-stone silences.

ð Then bursting into view are seven mighty angels taking their place before the throne of God.

Picture standing there tall, broad, and erect. The power they possess is clearly seen in their very persons.

The heavenly host knows something: when God hands these mighty messengers seven trumpets, the judgments about to take place will be coming directly from God Himself.

Trumpets always symbolize God intervention into human history.

God is about to move against the godless and evil society of earth.

The judgments of God are to fall only upon the unbelievers of the world,

Only upon those who have followed the antichrist,

Only those who have the mark of the beast.

"And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any

Green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their fore

Heads" (Rev.9: 4).

"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" (Rev.16: 2).

"So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that

judgeth in the earth" (ps.58: 11).

3 purposes for the blowing of a trumpet that are worthy of our note:

1. It can sound the alarm. It can waken from sleep or warn of danger. And God is always sounding His warnings in the ears of men.

2. It can be the fanfare, which announces the arrival of royalty. It is a fitting symbol to express the invasion of time by the King of eternity.

3. It can be the summons to battle. And God is always summoning His people to take sides in the. Of truth with falsehood, and to become soldiers of the King of kings

Judgment: there are the signs of the coming judgment beginning upon earth. Note the verse.

"And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake" (v.5).