Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Revelation 4 | Date: January 10, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, please, to Revelation chapters 4 and 5. As Pastor Boyd mentioned, and as I mentioned in the email yesterday, we’d like to take some time this month to reflect on truths that are bigger than the circumstances at hand in our culture that are happening, and try to put everything into a biblical and a right theological perspective. So we’ll be doing that this month, Lord willing, and today, Revelation chapter 4 especially. But in the meantime, we will try to today give a jet tour of the book of Revelation as well. So settle in for lunch.

Revelation chapter 4. I will take the time to read chapters 4 and 5.

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, what a glorious passage this is. And all of us, the hearts of your people, in the midst of such cultural upheaval that we have in our country today, we want—as Pastor Boyd has already mentioned—we want something. Something big, something massive, something to anchor our hopes, something to make sense of it all. And we pray that you would give us a right perspective on things; help us to see our own lives, our own culture, and the events of today from the perspective of heaven, and give us from that a great sense of trust in the good and sovereign rule of our God. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

For many Christians of the 5th century, the fall of Rome was more devastating than anything you can imagine. The empire for a century now had been Christian. Now before that, it certainly wasn’t, and Christians were the object of persecution. But now, since Constantine, the empire had been Christian, and it was a haven for Christianity. And in fact, Christianity had made quite an advance in that last century. We talked about some of it in Sunday school with the early councils during that time. And the gospel made great advance during that century.

And for Christians, the fall of Rome was most devastating because it seemed to be the demise of Christianity itself. Now you look back at that and chuckle. But I suspect it’s not very different from what many Christians feel today, and that is how they felt: that this must be the demise of Christianity. We have it from the fifth-century theologian, Jerome, who was just overwhelmed with the news of the fall of Rome, and he said himself that he just wept for days, and he couldn’t get over it. For him, this was the fulfillment of 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 7. The restrainer had been removed and Antichrist has come. And he wrote, Jerome wrote, “If Rome perishes, how shall we look for help?”

Well, with many Christians of his day, he just couldn’t conceive of a world without Rome because this was the seat of Christianity and the advance that it had seen in the previous century. Now, the ironic thing, of course, is that a couple of centuries earlier, that kind of attitude is just unimaginable. A couple of centuries earlier, Rome is the persecutor of the church. Just look at how John describes Rome in the book of Revelation. It is Babylon, the persecutor of Christians and the archenemy of Christians. But for Christians at that point in history, the Roman Empire was the very climax of history. And with the fall of Rome, history itself now was just coming to an end. It must be the end time.

Augustine, another early 5th-century theologian, took quite another view. And writing in the wake of the fall of Rome, he wrote his classic book, The City of God. It’s not the book that you will pick up for easy nighttime reading this evening. It is like a quarter of a million words with a lot of ramblings and sidebars and various topics taken up, but the main theme of the book is to look at the city of God in contrast with the city of man. There are these two, not to be confused, very competing, very contrasting cities: the city of God and the city of man.

The city of God, that’s the city where all honor and praise God and give him unqualified obedience. The city of man, that is where men claim moral autonomy and revolt against God with everything that they have. The city of God is not to be confused with the city of man. The city of God is the true home of the people of God. It is the heavenly city. It is the new Jerusalem. But the city of man, that is what opposes the city of God and in fact seeks to exterminate the city of God. And I think Augustine had the more biblical view, and he reflects on the course of history of these two cities and sees not only their contrasting characters but also their very contrasting destinies as well.

Well, I think that reflects more the biblical view. In fact, Augustine drew a lot of his symbolism from Daniel and Revelation and other places in the Bible to show that these are two very different cities. In the biblical view, the rule of earth was wrested away by Satan and it belongs to him. He now is the god of this world. Now make no mistake, God is still God, and God reigns over all. But Satan now has come in, and he reigns over the earth. And God reigns, but that reign is contested, and there’s this revolt against God.

And all of the rest of history, from a biblical view, all of the rest of history, then, is God working toward reestablishing his rule in the earth—the kingdom of God. And it’s quite a story. And at the center of the story, of course, God the Son becomes incarnate and he gives his life, his sacrifice for the sins of his people, and redeems them to God and makes them a kingdom and priests as we have just read in chapter 5 here of Revelation. And he secures by that his right to rule. And then the climax of history is when the Son returns and takes the reins of the government to himself and brings about God’s kingdom on earth.

This age now, in between time, there is the kingdom of God, as we like to call it, inaugurated. It’s been established. Christ has gained the right to rule, and he is working out God’s purpose in this age, but that kingdom is being contested, it’s being revolted against. Men and women are still claiming moral autonomy, but he is working toward that final day when the kingdom of God will come in its consummation.

Now that message that I’ve just summarized we have throughout the Bible, but perhaps nowhere is it more graphically presented to us than what we have here in the book of Revelation. Revelation strikes us as a very strange kind of book. I’ve told you before that someone from another culture, one of the eastern nations, was given a New Testament to read and he had no acquaintance with it whatever, and he remarked after reading through the New Testament that he really liked that bit of sci-fi at the end. And well, I guess you’ve got to find a genre, a category to put it in, and that’s the closest he had.

I know a man who has written a small book on the book of Revelation, and he said many Christians seem to approach the book of Revelation like Dorothy approached the Wizard of Oz: “Beasts and dragons and harlots, oh my!” Something like that. It just seems so strange for us. But I assure you, it is strange only to us. We’re not familiar with the genre. In John’s day, this was a very familiar genre. It’s called apocalyptic. And in fact, that’s the name of this book, Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1: the apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now there had been many of these in the Jewish world of that day for a couple of centuries imitating what they read in Daniel. Many Jewish writers had picked up on it with the high symbolism and graphic imagery and so on. John is the one who did it at more length than any other. His is called an apocalypse, and so the genre takes its name from John’s book of Revelation. But apocalyptic literature is marked by visionary experiences, high symbolism, lots of imagery, lots of Old Testament imagery being employed. And so you have the Antichrist is a beast, Satan is a dragon, you have the world system is a harlot, and so on. And all of it takes us not only through this age and giving us the characteristic of this age, but it also takes us to the end of the age at its climax with the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

Now when John wrote, he used imagery then that was familiar in his own day. And let me give you just a couple of examples of that that I think you will enjoy seeing. Look at Revelation 1 and verse 16: “In his right hand, he held seven stars.” And then in verse 20: “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” So in verse 16 he has the symbol, the seven stars, in his right hand. Then verse 20 he gives the interpretation: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

Now, we don’t have the time to go into the discussion of who are the angels of the seven churches. There are several different views on that. At some level, we have to say that the angels of the seven churches refers to the congregation itself. It’s the churches themselves. So what we’re seeing here then is that these seven stars are in the right hand of Jesus. These churches are in the right hand of Jesus. They belong safely to him. The churches are held in his hand.

Now there’s more to it than that. The seven stars in the ancient world, that’s the seven planets, and they were thought to hold all the power. This is what determines what happens in earth. All the planets have to be in a line. And if the planets determined this, this is what we still have that expression today: “All the planets must have been lined up because such and such happened.” That’s old ancient astrology. That’s how they thought. Seven stars were the seven planets which held all of the power. And so in the ancient world, you have the Roman emperors minting coins with their image on it. And over the top of the image of the emperor, seven stars. And the imagery is: this emperor has universal authority, universal power.

Well, what we see here then is that the stars are the churches that are held in the hand of Jesus. And what John is telling us then through these symbols is that the rule of the world belongs to the saints who share in the reign of Jesus. Or to put it another way, the future of the world belongs to Christ and his people. All of this through graphic imagery. It’s not familiar imagery to us necessarily, it was to them, and it’s a graphic portrayal of the message John wants to give. And this kind of imagery then, and the rest of the book of Revelation, is given to explain how it all comes to pass.

Another one that you may be familiar with is Revelation chapter 13, where we have the beast from the sea. This is a symbol of the Antichrist. The beast of the sea. Turns out he has seven heads. So we have a seven-headed dragon coming out of the sea. Well, that is, without question, a reference to the sea monster of the ancient Near Eastern religious traditions, and it was picked up by Christians, it was picked up by the Jews in the Old Testament, and became a standing symbol for evil political powers. You find that in Isaiah, you find it in Daniel, and now Revelation, John picks it up as well to be a symbol of Antichrist, this great sea monster with seven heads.

All right, so Revelation then is apocalyptic literature, highly symbolic, speaking of the activity of God in this world, but particularly with reference to the inbreaking of his kingdom and the struggle between the city of man and the city of God. But if you’ll notice back in Revelation chapter 1 in verse 3: in verse 1 it’s identified as apocalyptic, but verse 3 calls it a prophecy as well. “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy.”

John was a prophet. He’s called a prophet several times in this book. A prophet is a spokesman for God. The message he gives is a message from God. Very often, the prophet’s message from God had to do with the future, where God would tell what he is going to do, and that, I think, is the significance here as well. Look at verse 1: “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show his servants the things that must soon take place.” So this is a prophecy, a predictive prophecy of what will come.

So this is apocalyptic literature, this is prophetic literature, and this is also an epistle. John calls it that in verse 4: “John, to the churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before the throne.” And then you turn to chapters 2 and 3 and we have the letters, the epistles from Jesus recorded by John to the seven churches in Asia Minor. So it is apocalyptic, it is prophetic, it is an epistle. It’s also a narrative. It tells a story, especially in chapters 12 and following, where you have the three beasts, you have their attack against the people of God, you have these two cities, you have these two women, you have the antagonist and the protagonist, and you’ve got the winner at the end, and we’ll see some of that, how it goes along. And then all of it is the story of God’s purpose in history and how it will come to its grand conclusion.

Now for the historical setting of the book, chapter 1 in verse 9 summarizes it very well. Look at that, chapter 1 in verse 9: “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” So we are now nearly at the end of the first century, that is the closing years of the Emperor Domitian’s reign. There are many allusions to Domitian here in Revelation we can’t get into today. Persecution was widespread and John himself had come to face persecution himself and now he has been exiled to the island of Patmos because of the testimony of the word of God.

So the emperors were persecuting Christians. The emperors were also those who would claim deity for themselves in just magnificent terms. They would call themselves Lord and Savior. They would insist on being addressed as Lord and Savior with language that John picks up then and applies, of course, to Jesus instead. And the Christians in this kind of a setting were forced to choose. Domitian happens to be the worst of all of the emperors in terms of claiming deity, in terms of persecution, and that is saying something given how awful Nero was in his persecuting of the Christians.

But John is able to see in all of that setting that the spirit of Antichrist is already at work. Nero has come and he’s gone. Domitian is here. He’ll pass on one of these days. But you know what? After Domitian’s gone, another Nero or another Domitian will come. And all of those are prospective of a final beast who will come and attack the people of God. In this experience that they have, he sees the mystery of iniquity already at work, as Paul calls it in 2 Thessalonians 2.

And so the setting then is that the church is a tiny minority in this vast Roman Empire with all of its polytheistic religion and all of its opposition. The church is in small beginnings at this point. It’s under threat. John himself is in tribulation and in exile for his testimony for Christ, and he writes then this book of Revelation to encourage believers with regard to their hope, to call them to be faithful and to persevere with a steady eye on the hope of Christ. All right, so much for background and setting. Let’s do a quick overview of the book and then with special emphasis in chapter 4. Let’s see if we can do this quickly.

Introductory Vision and Letters

Chapter 1, we have the introductory vision of Christ. We can’t take time with that now. Chapters 2 and 3, we have the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. This is the epistles from Jesus recorded by John to these seven different churches. Pastor Boyd is considering taking us through these letters sometime soon.

Revelation Chapters Four and Five

And then chapters 4 and 5. This is the theological center of the book of Revelation, Revelation chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4, which we’ve already read, presents us with God in his transcendent majesty, unthreatened, ruling over all creation. What is God doing on his throne in heaven? And the first thing you see from Revelation chapter 4 is that whatever else about him is so, he’s not nervous.

Chapter 4 and verse 2: “at once I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.” That is the center of attention, the throne exalted in heaven. And that’s all important for John and for his readers to know that above the throne of Caesar, there is another throne. And he wants us to see that from the get-go. Before we get into all of this beast chasing the people and all of that, we must know that above the throne of Caesar, there’s another throne.

And so he begins to describe the throne and the one who was on the throne. Verse 3, he describes the king’s appearance in terms of precious gems. Dazzling glory. No, you know the term, anthropomorphisms here. Nothing like man here. This is a God that you can’t draw a picture of. You can just describe him in terms of his dazzling glory and majesty. John’s intent is to present God as infinitely exalted. I wish I had time to develop it at length. Let’s just run through some of these others.

Verse 4, we have 24 elders who are on thrones wearing crowns. These elders are some high order of angelic beings. Don’t have time to establish that now. They’re somehow representative of the church with the number 24, but the elders themselves are a high order of heavenly and angelic beings. Now they have authority. They sit on thrones. They have crowns. So they have authority, but it’s a derived authority. They are attendants to the throne in the center. And they are there to serve and to worship God.

So imagine if you wanted to go to the White House to talk to the president. You’d stop at the gate, and there a guard would talk to you. Assuming you could go further, he would escort you to the door. And there at the door, you’d have another guard or another attendant of some kind. And then they would take you to another, and maybe there would be various layers of them. And finally, you’d see a secretary, and at some point, get in to see the president. Layers of attendance. That’s the picture here in Revelation chapter 4. Only in this case, the attendants to the throne are themselves highly exalted angelic beings. Again, the point is to draw our attention to the exalted majesty of God.

Verse 5 of chapter 4: “from the throne came lightning and thunder and torches of fire.” The imagery there is of Sinai. It’s dangerous here. Don’t get too close. Again, the ideas of the unapproachable majesty of God. Verse 6: “before the throne was a sea of glass.” Now the sea in the ancient world is regarded as a dangerous place. It’s rough, it’s turbulent, it’s restless. It’s often symbolic of turmoil. It’s a place where sea monsters are. It’s a difficult place, a troublesome place, a dangerous, fearful place. Glass in the ancient world was not smooth and transparent like our glass. This is glass like crystal. It is sparkly, shiny, bright, glistening, but again, reflective of the rough, turbulent sea. And so again, the emphasis in verse 6 is the distance, the set-apartness of God from all else. God and his exalted majesty.

And then verses 6b through 11, we have the throne surrounded by four living creatures. He gives a description of them. These are, again, a high order—it seems the highest order of angelic beings in heaven—and they are leading in worship. In verse 8, they cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” Speaking of the greatness of God’s lordship over all. The term “holy” speaks of God’s altogether otherness, separateness from all of his creation. He’s transcendent. He’s exalted. God is in an order all of his own. “Holy, holy, holy” may reflect the Trinity as well, but the point of “holy” is his otherness and his exaltedness. One aspect of that otherness of God, of course, is its moral character. And we have that emphasis of holiness in the scriptures too. The ideas of the exalted majesty of God of an order all his own.

And it says they cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty”—that’s where we get the hymn, by the way—”who was and is and is to come.” And it says they cry this, they sing this day and night and they never cease. And then in verses 9 and following, as they do sing this, the elders—this other order of exalted beings—they bow and they join in worship and they sing verse 11: “Worthy are you, O Lord, our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” The utter majesty of God reigning over all that is.

And notice here what the elders, as they sing, have to say about the situation here on earth. Look at verse 11 again. “You have created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” All that is, is because this God has ordered it. You see that? It is here by His will. Whatever is here is here to serve His purpose. And if it did not serve His purpose, it wouldn’t be here. He is God reigning over all creation, has made all that is. And so all of heaven sings a song in verse 11 that we still sing today in one of our praise songs: “Thou art worthy, thou art worthy, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, because you have created, of all things created, you’ve created all things, and for your pleasure, they are created. Thou art worthy, O Lord.”

And so the picture of God in Revelation chapter 4 is God as God over all, reigning over all of his creation, and all of his creation being directed to fulfill his own purpose and will. I can’t overstate the importance of this chapter for the rest of the book. I can’t dwell on it any longer. But you see the picture here of the exalted majesty of God reigning over everything else, and it is from this perspective now that we must view the rest of the book of Revelation.

Now, Revelation chapter 4 then is the setting for the grand event of Revelation chapter 5: the enthronement of the exalted Christ. Verse 1: “Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.” Now that’s familiar imagery to them. Written on the front and back is just an allusion to their paper. Our paper is smooth and it’s easy to write on both sides. Their paper was a little more difficult to produce; you had these strips of papyrus glued together. So on the front side, they’re laid out horizontally, easy to write on. But to hold them together, you’ve got vertical strips on the backside holding it all together. So generally, it’s written on the front side where it’s easy. But if it’s a very important document and you don’t want it split up into two different scrolls, you turn it around and you write on the backside as well. That’s the idea here.

So we have this scroll written on both sides. It’s evidently a very important one. And another indication of its importance is it’s sealed with seven seals. Very often these scrolls would have a wax seal on them. If it was very important, it would have multiple seals. If it was important like a last will and testament, you’d have a lot of seals. This one has seven, the number of completion. This is a very important document and evidently, then, this is God’s last will and testament for the world.

Now, this also harks back to some language in Daniel. You might remember in Daniel chapter 8 and Daniel chapter 12, God tells Daniel to seal up the vision, seal up the prophecy because it refers to many days from now. Well now, the seals are being opened. And this is going to happen now. This is the unfolding of God’s purpose. So the idea then is that—and this must be the case both with Daniel and Revelation and with the rest of the Bible—if this is God’s last will and testament as it were, it is his purpose for world history. This is the establishment of his kingdom. And the establishment of his kingdom entails both salvation of his people and the judgment of the wicked. The judgment is very important to the establishment of God’s kingdom. It’s fundamental to it. And so we have God’s purposes in world history in judgment and salvation. That’s what’s in the scroll.

And then verse 2, a mighty angel cries, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And the idea is there not just to open the scroll and to read it, but to carry out its purposes. Who is worthy to do that? Who is there anywhere? God has a purpose for history. He’s determined to establish his kingdom. But where could anyone be found who’s worthy to do that? Qualified, able. And so they search all over heaven and they can’t find anyone. Verses 3 and 4, there’s no one worthy of it. No one qualified to do that. And so there’s great weeping. How will God’s purpose be accomplished? How will his kingdom come if no one is worthy?

And so then verses 5 to 7, you have someone says, “Look, you see a Lion of the tribe of Judah.” That’s a reference back to Genesis 49, Jacob’s prophecy. He’s the Root of David. That’s Isaiah’s prophecy. This is messianic terminology. He has conquered. He can do it. And then you turn and you look and the imagery changes. It’s not a lion anymore; it’s a Lamb who has been slain. And he takes the scroll from the Sovereign’s hand. And verses 8 to 14, all of heaven bows and worships the Lamb. And it erupts in this great praise song of verses 9 and 10: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth.”

Here we have a champion who can take up the cause, someone who’s qualified, someone who’s worthy. This Lamb who was slain and now evidently raised in triumph and in glory takes the throne and takes the scroll. Now two things here before we move on. Notice what qualifies the Lamb for his work. What makes him qualified, worthy to take the scroll? Verse 9: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for [because] you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” It is a reference to the saving work of Christ in his first coming. He has come, he took the place of sinners, he secured their redemption—a redemption of a people from all the world over, from every tribe and nation under heaven—and because of his successful mediatorial work, now he is qualified, uniquely qualified, to carry out God’s purposes in the kingdom. That’s what qualifies him for it. It’s a big theme in the New Testament. You see glimpses of it in the Old Testament as well, that Christ has achieved his lordship by his death and resurrection.

Alright, so what qualifies him for his work? That is his sacrificial death on behalf of people. Second thing, notice here, and that is that he has gained the kingdom not for himself only, but for all of his people. “You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth.” He will reign and they will share in his reign. And so we have this great forerunner, this champion who has secured the right to rule by his death and resurrection. And he is going to bring that rule to final consummation and his people will share in the reign and the glory of it with him.

All right, Revelation 4 and 5 then are the fulcrum of the rest of the book of Revelation. Everything else comes out of this. In fact, chapter 5 is the immediate setting of chapter 6, where we read that the Lord Jesus begins to slit open the seals. And as he opens these seals, God’s purposes for world history come to pass. Chapters 6 and following through the book of Revelation now are a graphic symbolic description of how the Lord Jesus will establish the kingdom of God in earth.

The focus is on judgments. We see much of that here. That’s fundamental to the arrival of the kingdom of God. And John is in no hurry. He develops this at length. We’ve got these cycles of judgments. Seven seals are opened: judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment. We have seven trumpets that are blown that announce seven more series of judgments. And then we have seven bowls—bowls of wrath—more judgments, graphic imagery. God has a bowl here, or the angel in this case has a bowl, which has in it the wrath of God and pours it out on the earth, pours out another bowl of wrath, pours out another bowl of wrath, and another, and another, seven times pouring out a bowl of wrath on the earth. And that’s the extended imagery of chapter 6 through 16, even through chapter 18 as well.

In chapter 6, 7, and 8, we have the breaking of the seven seals, and we have wars, and we have international rivalries, and we have famines, and persecutions, and earthquakes. Celestial signs—primarily this has to do with events of this age. It has a very close correspondence to the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24 where Jesus gives the picture of this age. We’ll see that another time. But then the sixth and seventh seals are the final cataclysmic judgments of God, and a fourth of the earth is destroyed.

Then later in chapter 8, beginning with verse 2, through chapter 9, we then have the blowing of the seven trumpets, announcing further judgments, each of them. And here, a third of the earth is destroyed. And then in chapters 15 and 16, we have the emptying of the seven bowls. And here the whole earth is destroyed. The earth, the seas, the inland waters, the airways—air, everything destroyed. Seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, symbolizing series of judgments that God brings against the rebellious earth to establish his kingdom.

Now in fact, in chapter 10, there’s a fourth series of judgments. There are seven thunders that John hears. But John is told not to write that one down. So we’re left to wonder what that is like. As I say, many of these judgments have to do with events in this age that will transpire, but climactically at the end of history, at the great judgment of God.

Throughout this section, one major theme that runs through it is the opposition of Satan against God and against his people. Chapter 12 has this graphic portrayal of Satan as a dragon finally chasing the people of God out into the wilderness where he will seek to devour them. We can’t develop any further here; time is getting away. Chapter 13, Satan calls up two helps. The dragon calls up two beasts, one out of the sea and one out of the earth. There’s the Antichrist, there’s the false prophet, and they defy God and they turn people away from God; they deceive, they persecute the people of God. If they refuse to take the mark of the beast, they’re persecuted further. And they are permitted a time of great success.

But finally we come to chapter 17, and we have this tale of two cities, or if you like, a story of two women. They’re called both. We have Babylon—Rome, figuratively called Babylon, the ancient city of the persecutors of the Jews. And Rome is symbolized or personalized, not in the goddess Roma as you might expect, but as a great harlot who has control over the cities of the earth. And then on the other hand, you have the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, and this is the bride of the Lamb, the Lamb’s wife.

And then we get to chapters 17 and 18 and we have finally described for us the overthrow of the city of Babylon. This world city, this world system and its opposition to God is finally destroyed. And it gives us some of the graphic descriptions of that. And finally the announcement goes out: “Fallen, fallen, Babylon the great has fallen.” And all the people of the world lament and they wail and weep for the loss of the great city Babylon. And by contrast, the people of Christ, the bride of the Lamb, they sing hallelujah over the smoldering ashes of Babylon.

And that brings us to chapter 19, where we have portrayed for us the glorious return of Christ, the final judgments, and the establishing of the kingdom of God. I think you’ve heard me say it before. It’s a wonderful description. I love this description of Christ in chapter 19, the various figures that are used. One is he has a sword coming out of his mouth. It’s a wonderful image. He comes to do battle against the nations in revolt against him, but it’s not going to be much of a fight. All he has to do is speak and they will fall. The beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire. The dragon himself is confined to the abyss. When the Lord Jesus comes, all evil powers are subjected to him.

And so we have the establishment of the kingdom. Chapters 20 to 22, we’ve got the aftermath of Jesus’ return, the consequences of it, in a spectacular description of the city of God, the kingdom of God in its final consummation. This is the story of this age all the way to the end of history and beyond. And again, all of this flows out of chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4, we have the majesty of God enthroned, reigning over all that is, handing over to the Lamb the right to rule and to carry out his kingdom, and all the rest is flowing from God carrying out his purpose through the victorious Lamb. And so, in essence, Revelation chapters 4 and 5 teach us to view the rest of all of this from above. This is God working out his purpose.

Well, there you have then the book of Revelation, at least in a quick flyover. Very quickly before we close, what are some lessons we should take away from all of this? And I want to mention three.

God Reigns

Number one: God reigns. That just lies on the surface of the narrative, doesn’t it? That was the setup in chapter 4. God in unapproachable majesty, unthreatened, sovereignly ruling over all that is, above all the restless nations. It’s also something that’s emphasized through the book in the various titles that are given to God. Revelation chapter 4, if you are still there, look at verse 8, where the living creatures sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” This “God Almighty,” that is a title for God that’s found elsewhere in the book of Revelation pointing to his omnipotence. All might, all power belongs to him.

And then notice the rest of it: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.” That one is repeated over again and over again and over again through the book of Revelation. The one who was and is and is to come. The one who is and was. Over and again in the book of Revelation, pointing not only to the eternality of God and his self-existence, but speaking to the scope of his reign. He always reigned. He reigns today and he’ll reign forever. He’s the one who was and is and is to come.

Brothers and sisters, surely there are few things more important for us to remember during a time of cultural upheaval that we have in our own country today. Few things more important to remember than this: however he may try, Caesar will not interfere with the purpose of God. Antichrist will not interfere with the purpose of God. We might as well say it: the devil will not interfere with the purpose of God. No evil politician—well, how particular should I get? No evil politician. No bungling president. No fraudulent election. No political upheavals, no cultural upheavals—none of it will interfere with the purpose of God; none of it will even set it back for a moment. But God who reigns unthreatened over all is carrying out his purpose through the Lamb who is qualified to rule.

All of that we are seeing this week, all that we see in world history, in our own culture, in our own country—it is all the outworking of the purpose of God himself. There are so many posts on Facebook this week addressing the issues that have transpired. I had my share. Many emails grappling with understanding things that are happening. I think the one that has to get the prize, so far as the ones that I saw, came from Marina. Many of you saw it. The third stanza of the hymn, “This is My Father’s World,” just capsulized so wonderfully what we’re seeing here:

This is my Father’s world.
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seem oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world.
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord reigns. The Lord is King.
Let the heavens ring.
God reigns. Let earth be glad.

We have a way of saying whenever some tragedy or some upheaval is happening, we have a way of reminding ourselves of this. And we use an expression to remind each other and to encourage one another. We say, “God is in control.” That’s a glorious truth. But let’s make sure that we don’t misunderstand that. He is in control, not in the sense that he comes along behind and is able to steer it to his own purpose. But in all of this, it is his purpose being carried out for earth. Number one, God reigns.

The Church Will Be Called to Suffer and to Remain Faithful

Lesson number two—and you’re not going to like this—lesson number two: the church will be called to suffer and to remain faithful. The city of man is no friend to the city of God. Chapter 13, the city of man gladly complies with the beast, takes its mark. In Revelation chapter 11, the city of man cheers when Christians are put to death. That’s the city of man. And so Revelation is written as an epistle with this exhortation, Revelation chapter 2 and verse 10: “Be faithful even unto death.”

The keynote of the book in terms of its exhortation is just that: be encouraged, be expectant, remain faithful. The Lord Jesus, of course, is the hero of the book. He’s the champion. But we should notice also that the faithful are also spoken of in those kinds of terms. Those who are faithful are called overcomers, conquerors. Chapter 12 and verse 11: “They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” There is a picture of Christians refusing to surrender to pressure from the beast. We will not take his mark; we will not shut up. Bring what you will; we will follow the Lamb. And in fact, that’s the language of chapter 14: they follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They will not take the mark of the beast. Number one, be faithful.

Christ Wins

Number one, God reigns. Number two, the church will be called to suffer and to remain faithful. They won’t take the mark of the beast. Why? And that’s our third lesson. They won’t take the mark of the beast because they know Christ wins. That’s the big message of the book. Christ wins, and we want desperately to be on his side. He is steadily and he is perfectly carrying out God’s purpose today. He will bring it to consummation. Babylon has its day. The beast has its day; it’s permitted a time of great authority. Babylon will have another day. And Babylon will be destroyed. The city of man will give way to the city of God. In the famous words of chapter 11, verse 15: “The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and forever.” This is what defines our hope. Christ wins. That’s it.

When Jeremiah wrote to Daniel and the exiles in Babylon, he had a very interesting piece of counsel. He told them: “Seek the good of the city.” You’re in Babylon, you’re in the city of man. Seek the good of the city. You see Daniel doing that, serving the king in his court, seeking for the prosperity of the king and the kingdom. Seek the good of the city. And I think we can take from that that we have the right, we have the responsibility even, to pursue policies, to support candidates that would best promote human flourishing, freedoms, happiness, all of that.

But through it all, we have to keep in close mind that our hope is not in any way grounded in any human accomplishment or any political game. Our hope at the end of the day is in this one who has come and secured the right to rule and who will come again and take the reins of the government to himself. And Revelation assures us in graphic terms that he will do just that. God is on his throne, he has given it to the Lamb to carry out his purpose in world history, and he will do that. One day he’ll break into history himself, he’ll take the government into his own hands, and when that happens, there’ll be no protests, there’ll be no riots, no upheavals, no champion of some twisted immoral rights causes, but whether they like it or not, whether they want to or not, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Christ wins.

And then with the end of this great drama, the book of Revelation comes that final exhortation to the people of God in chapter 22. Up front, chapter 2, there was that exhortation: “Be faithful unto death.” It’s a call to the people of God. Be faithful. Christ wins. Then at the end of the book, toward the end, we have a call to the people of Babylon. We find it in chapter 18, verses 4 and 5: “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part of her sins, lest you share in her plagues, for her sins are heaped high as the heavens, and God has remembered her iniquities.” It is absolutely imperative we must declare our citizenship, declare our loyalties. You may follow the beast, and if you do, you will share in her destruction forever. Or we can follow the Lamb and share in his glory. Those are the two roads.

And John concludes in chapter 22 with those words that remain the heart cry of the church. He who testifies of these things says, “Surely I’m coming soon.” And John responds with the rest of us: “Amen. Come Lord Jesus, amen.”

Let’s pray. Our Father, how we long for that day when our Lord will return. There is nothing we want more than to see our Lord and to see the whole world bow before him and acknowledge his Lordship. We ask that you would hasten that day. Until then, Lord, help us to see that you are in control of this world, that you rule over all things, that your purpose is being carried out, and help us to be faithful until that great day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Our RBC songbooks once again. And we’ll sing number 164, “There is a Higher Throne.” Let’s stand and close our service out by singing number 164 in the RBC songbooks. Let’s sing together.

“There is a higher throne than all this world has known, where faithful ones from every tongue will one day come.”