Revelation 6. We saw last week, the lion of Judah comes forward to take the scroll. To our great surprise, we find that the lion is a lamb, and he alone is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll. God’s redemptive plan for the world, sealed inside, is now released because of Jesus. We look to the reading of God’s word if you join with me in prayer. Blessed are you, O God, the Father of all mercy, you have elected us, you have called us, you have justified and sanctified us, and you have glorified us all through your Son, who is the living word. ‘ And we ask then that you would feed us this day your words of truth by the spirit of truth working in us, that we would be continued to be made in the image and likeness of our savior, in whose name we now pray. Amen. Revelation 6, beginning verse one. Now I watched when the land opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, ‘Come. ‘ And I looked and behold a white horse, and its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to ‘Em, ‘ and he came out conquering and to conquer.
When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come. ‘ And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come, ‘ and I looked, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for denarius, three quarts of barley for denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine. ‘ When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come, ‘ and I looked and behold, a pale horse, and its rider’s name was death, and Hades followed him, and they were given authority over a of the earth to kill with a sword, with famine, with pestilence, and by wild beast of the earth. When he opened the fist seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
They cried out with a loud voice, ‘Oh sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? ‘ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who are to be killed as they themselves had been. The year 2000 was a bumper crop year for end times predictions. To give you a spoiler alert, they were all wrong. Almost every year since, someone or some group has made the bold prediction of the end of the world. Now, if we continually predict imminent economic collapse, war, and disasters, it hardly makes you a prophet because these cycles of history are fairly routine when you step back and you take a wider view. But we have always been preoccupied with the time of the end. When Jesus spoke of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, the Apostles asked him, When will these things be and what will be the signs? And Jesus responded, But concerning that day and hour, no one knows but the Father. At the last moments with Jesus, together before he has ascended in the Book of Acts, they again asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?
And Jesus again responded, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But that has not stopped us from trying. Catalogging failed predictions, it takes a while because there are just so many of them. People never tire of predicting, and they are ever so certain that this time they’ve got it right. He asked the question, why? Why is that? Why the preoccupation with getting the date right? When bad things are happening, it can be hard to think that the Lord is still in control of our lives. Somehow, if we think we get it figured out, finding the times and the dates, it makes us feel like we have a little more control over what’s happening. We think that we have some inside information that others don’t have, and so we have a leg up on everyone else. We don’t. We don’t at all. We don’t know. Because the Lord is the author of all human history, we can rest secure in him as he allows these events to unfold. We’ve come down to this part of Revelation where there’s so much speculation gets started here.
A series of seven seals are broken and things start to happen. How are we to understand these events? I tell you, from At the very start, it hasn’t been clear. You’ve heard me say, and I’ll continue to say, the literal way to understand symbols is symbolically. That is not easy for many people. The dominant view in parts of American Christianity, at least of recent times, have understood these events in what has been called dispensationalism. It’s the idea that God works differently through history in different dispensations, different periods of time. This view has been very concerned with these events in the last days and predicting when all this will occur. The broad view in the last 100 years in parts of American Christianity But this is relatively new in terms of church history. The early church, a medieval church, they saw these seals as looking, some of them as the life of Jesus unfolding from his incarnation to his resurrection to his second coming. Others saw it actually as the whole of history unfolding, either beginning with Adam or beginning with Abraham. So not everyone has understood these seals to be chronological in their ordering in this way or specifically speaking of just the final days.
I appreciate George Cair, he put it this way. He said, The unity of John’s book is neither chronological nor arithmetic, but artistic. Like that of a musical theme with variations, each variation adding something new to the significance of the whole composition. I think that’s really a helpful way of thinking a revelation, a musical drama, musical theme with the same melodies recurring back and forth and additions to that that fill it out all in a familiar way. But what we do know is as we look at chapter 6, we see both judgment and salvation being complained. We see at the start this act of judgment with the call of these horsemen to come. John says, I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say it the loud voice like thunder, ‘Come. ‘ And I looked and behold a white horse, and its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer. A quick note, there have been some who thought that this refers to Jesus coming and conquering with the gospel. In chapter 19 of Revelation, Jesus is depicted on a white horse.
But other than the white horse, there are really no other similarities in the images that are given to us. As you see this image, it fits well with the total of the four horses as a unit from the Prophet Zechariah, who speaks of these horses as well. Most commentators have seen this rider as one of these evil forces in league with the other three. That’s a matched set them. In rapid succession, we have the command given three more times with similar results, the command to come, and then the white horse, and now the bright red one. Its rider, it says, is permitted to take peace from the earth so the people would slay one another, and it was given a great sword. Another command in a black horse, its rider with a pair of scales in its hand depicting famine and scarcity. A pale horse is called next. In Greek that the color is actually a pale green. It depicts the color of a corpse. Its rider’s name was death, and Hades followed. It’s the only one that’s been named. They were given authority over a fourth of the Earth to kill with a sword with famine with pestilence, and by wild beast of the earth.
Now, in the Book of Revelation, when you read they were given or there was given, most of the time that refers to divine permission given to evil powers to carry out their work. You see that here, they’re given something in order to carry out their work. There are parallels with the four-colored horses in Zechariah 1 and then the sets of chariot horses in Zechariah 6. Ezequiel would speak of four acts of judgment. There in Ezequiel, he says, sword, famine, wild beast, and pestilence. See the familiarity of these. It also seems that as each seal is broken, its contents of scroll are revealed, not necessarily at all seven has to be opened first. That as the seals are open, there’s this understanding that comes with this artistic license in what John is saying. At the presence of these four symbols, again, it’s not chronology in history. War, famine, natural disasters, and sickness are not sequential but simultaneous. These judgments have always been present and afficting sinners and saints alike. In the life of John, he had witnessed the Emperor Nero persecuting the church in cruel and barbaric ways in 64 AD. Six years later, the temple is completely destroyed by the Romans.
79 AD, the city of Pompei totally covered by a volcanic pyroclastic flow from Mount Vesuvius, that everyone died. There were several great famines that devastated the Mediterranean region, particularly in 92 AD. Sickness and plagues would ebb and flow, of course. But what we see clearly is that these judgments are all bidden. They are told to come forth. These evils are subjected to the authority of him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. These judgments are under God’s control. What we see next is the very real response of God’s people then crying out because of the effects it has on them as well. They’re crying out how long. The image shifts to those affected. They are symbolically seen as being under God’s altar. It’s the place of sacrifice. It says in verse 9, The Fifth Seal, I saw the altar of the souls of those who’ve been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘Oh sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Now, some have had trouble with this call of retribution.
But that’s the biblical response to injustice and to tyranny. We are repeatedly told by the Lord, Vengeance in mind, I will repay, ‘ and it’s a clear implication that we are not to take vengeance with our own hands. We are called to call out to the Lord to vindicate his name and to vindicate his people. The greater the tragedies that are experienced, the more real this call becomes. We see that it is through suffering that God’s Kingdom is advanced. That’s seen most clearly in the cross of Christ. It’s the very picture of this. Jesus’ greatest moment of anguish and suffering is the very triumph over all the powers and principalities, the death of death and the death of Christ. It goes on. They were given each a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. That robe is a symbol of blessedness and purity. It’s a robe that indicates the salvation that they have received from Jesus. They have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. We also see in the very clear terms, it’s the Lord’s hand in all of these events, down to the very last individual.
God has marked his calendar by the suffering of his people. Not only is no one going to get away with anything, but the very time that the Father has set has a limit according to the fullness of this number. God sets limits. God is the one who determines the boundaries. And now this sixth deal, we get a multitude of images from the Old Testament, from the Prophet Joel, from Isaiah, from Ezequiel. Words that are very familiar to us. And mostly the sixth seal as the last judgment, though some see it as a temporary judgment just before the end. But there are great judgments taking place. Again, listen to what they convey and not to the literal details of what we think it should look like or what’s going on, because we’ll miss the point. The import of what they’re telling us. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, there is a great earthquake. ‘ ‘The sun became black, a sackcloth. ‘ ‘The full moon became like blood. ‘ ‘And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. ‘ ‘The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up.
‘ ‘E Every mountain and island was removed from its place. Now, at Pentecost, Peter claimed that some of this comes from the Prophet Joel, that he’s saying this was being fulfilled at the outpouring of the spirit back in Acts 2. ‘And throughout scripture, we see that the Earth is shaken at the coming of God as a warrior, a common theme. Powerful and tumultuous events are being described in vivid and figurative imagery. And from this, there’s a response, and as we just heard the response of God’s people calling out. Now we have those who have opposed the Lamb calling out. In verse 15, it says, Then the Kings of the Earth, the great ones, the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and Everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountain. They call to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us. ‘ The language from the Prophet Hosea, chapter 10, where idolaters are hiding from God’s judgment, asking these mountains to fall on them. They fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
For the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? So the saints are waiting for the final wrap up as those opposed to the Lord are on terror of the judgment that has fallen on them. And much of this chapter follows the lines of Jesus’ instruction about the end of Jerusalem, the end of the world in Mark 13, Matthew Luke 17. In speaking of that destruction of the temple, particularly in Mark 13, Jesus told his disciples there will be wars, rumors of wars, false Christ, earthquakes, and famine. He also told them they would be persecuted for following him. Using similar apocalyptic language, he described this. And there he said, The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the heavens, and the power in the heavens shall be shaken. Very cataclysmic in these events. But strangely, talking about these same events, Jesus and Luke 17, he said, Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them.
So it will be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. That describes business as usual. So which is it? The heavens falling apart or ho-hum day-to-day living? The figurative language describes one level of reality and the day-to-day language another. And this is Exactly what we see all the time on life on the Earth. Even the great events of Jesus, death and resurrection, they had amazing signs, but most people missed them entirely. The sky was darkened. There was an enormous earthquake. The events that happened were quickly forgotten as they had quickly come. The world sees and experiences judgments of war, plague, and famine, but it does little to move them. The Lord’s people, though, they see his hand behind the events of history, and they’re continually move towards him. That’s the very ground or the rationale for the Saint’s perseverance in the midst of hard times. We know we live in this tension between the Lord’s gracious offer of repentance and the rejection of that offer. That’s the message that’s depicted in Revelation is the war of these tensions. We know the ultimate outcome, the Lamb triumphs. Think about today, the mighty Empire of Rome is nothing more than a tourist destination of ruins and museum exhibits.
Well over a thousand years, Rome carried the day. And since nations have risen, nations have fallen, and the the Lord tarries, the number is going to continue to grow. When you look around and you see the events and the circumstances that fill your life, know that all of it, the good and the bad, have their ultimate significance in fulfilling the divine purposes of God’s judgment and salvation that comes from his hand. But that is not the case for those who reject the Lord. One writer captured it well. He says, Terror without purpose produces despair. Terror without purpose It produces despair. When you don’t know why things are happening, when things seem to be chaotic and arbitrary, you don’t have anything to anchor the whole flow of history. It’s just happening hither and yon. And there is a terror that comes with this lack of purpose. And we see that in the world around us. We see that in the fear that grips people. The things that people run to for comfort because they have no place to anchor these events. We also go through these same events as everyone else does. And at times, we’re actually persecuted for our faith because of them.
There are moments when it feels like God and his angels sleep. But regardless of what we may be experiencing at any one moment, we are eternally safe in God’s hands. That question is asked by those in great fear, who can stand in that terrible day? Chapter 7 is going to answer that very clearly. Those who have been marked and sealed by Jesus. Jesus enables his people to stand. Charles Spurgeon, that great English pastor, he said, The fact that Jesus is coming again is not reason for star-gazing, but for working in the power of the Holy spirit. Know that there has always been someone, and often it’s from within the church, proclaiming loudly, definitively, This is it. No, you don’t understand. This is it. Nazi Germany, Italy, the Empire of Japan, the Ax of the Evil. It’s the end of the world, people. I don’t know how I can put it any more clearly to you. 1940s, it’s over. It was a terrible war. The Korean War came. This is it. You don’t understand this is it. And because we’re Americans, everything revolves around us. So when Vietnam came, it was the end of the world.
And then when you had Israel in a six-day war, oh, this is it. In fact, books, myriads of books and seminars written on everything happening around this event. This is No, no, you don’t understand. This is it. People terrify me in the ’80s with these predictions of the end. Books written of… No, no, you don’t understand. The Gulf War. Come on, people. Look at this. The Gulf War. Okay, the Gulf War II. Come on, people. This is it. Look at it. Year 2000. And today, even we see the horrific news of what’s taking place in Iran. Someone is running out claiming this is it. Could be. Maybe we are in the very end. I don’t know. But all I know is that this is it has been said to dime a dozen now. Those books are in the grab bins at all kinds of places collecting dust. They were thrown away for free. None of them are right, but all of them were certain. All those things causing fear in God’s people, causing anger and anxiety. That’s not what Revelation is doing. Revelation is doing just the opposite. It’s telling us that Jesus is it.
The times and the dates are going to happen according to his will and his purposes, that the Father alone is determined. Nothing is happening outside of his control. And some of that includes the very terrible things that are happening in the lives of his people. And we live in that. That’s the world we live in now. As we wait, even as you hear the saints calling out and saying, God, how long? How long will this be? And there is a definitive number in time. There’s a limit set that God will bring this about according to his purposes. And the good news for us is we’re here because God has taried. We’re here because of the patience that he has on humanity, that repentance would come to us. And if he tarries longer, then you and I are also a part of this message of hope going into the world, that men, women, and children would come to saving faith in Jesus. That’s good news. We’re not to be afraid. We’re not to look at the news and suddenly throw everything up and find a bunker and start like we did in year 2000, storing all of our water into all of our our food, all of our things, and waiting and hoping for that it would be the end.
That’s not what Jesus calls us to do. He calls us, as Spurgeon has said, not to star gaze, not to count days, but to be working in the power of the Holy spirit. That he is at work, and he’s at work through his people. That’s us. And we then have been released into the world, even into a world that is experiencing these great judgments for sinning and rebelling against God. The hope of Christ is going to the world through us. And we then become agents of that hope, agents of the good news, of the transformation that the gospel brings to a world in desperate need of knowing their God, knowing their creator. Jesus is it. He is it. And because he is it, then we are resting secure in that. Even if our lives moments are spun upside down because of the things that are happening around us. Jesus is it. He is the one who is worthy to open before the Cosmos the redemptive plan of the Father. That he is the one who is set in motion through his sacrificial death. He has conquered the powers and the principalities of the world by laying down his life in order that we would be able to take it up in him at the resurrection.
Brothers and sisters, that is good news for which we are living in. And so when you are looking at the newspaper, when you are listening to the various things that are out there, run it through that grid first. Because if you are running it through something that’s moving you in places of terror, fear, and anxiety, that is not from the Lord. The Lord’s desire for his people is that we would rest confident in the work that he has begun and the work that he will complete, even using the chaotic forces of evil in the world for his sovereign purposes. Pray with me. Father Almighty, we do thank you. And Lord, we confess, we really do get worked up about the wrong things. Father, we really do miss Misjudge, misunderstand, and misapply. We ask, Lord, not only that you would forgive us, but, Father, that you would redirect our hearts, that you would redirect the purposes for which you have called us. And Lord, that you would be pleased to use us to bring glory to our savior Jesus, that you would use us to bring the good news, the peace of Christ, into a world of chaos and anxiety and fear.
Lord, we would also pray, how long? And until then, Lord, that you would be at work using your church to be a blessing to the world as we wait for that day when all things will be revealed. This we pray and ask to the name of our savior, Jesus. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.