End Times #5: Seven Seals, Revelation Chapters 6-8
Is today the last day for the world as we know it?
Is this the last week before the end?
Is this month that Jesus will return?
Is this the year of the end times?
We don’t know when,
All we are assured of is that Jesus is coming again,
And that His coming is soon.
We are continuing our teaching in the book of Revelation.
Here are some highlights:
Revelation is a book about Jesus,
Disclosing to us Jesus’ true nature,
The ultimate meaning of His ministry,
And how we as followers of Jesus are to live holy lives.
Revelation is about the end state,
It paints a picture of the check-mate,
But it doesn’t show us the moves of the players.
It doesn’t map how we get to the end,
It makes the end known to us.
When we know how the story ends,
Everything that has happened,
Everything that is happening,
Begins to make sense.
We have learned a great deal about who Jesus really is and how Jesus wins
the victory.
John of Patmos discloses that:
Jesus is the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead,
the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Jesus, is incarnate deity, holy, He is
Victorious, dangerous and He knows.
Jesus is our mediator, our protector, always with us.
He holds us accountable, disciplining and correcting us.
Jesus is the giver of life,
has authority over death and the grave,
granting entrance into New Jerusalem and
that He brings meaning to everything.
Then last week we discovered that love wins.
Jesus is the Lamb who wins the Lion’s victory.
Jesus posses a ferocious love that knows no sacrifice too
small to win you to God.
To bring you the kingdom.
We who abide in Christ, are called to follow His example.
After the service Mike Pratt made an excellent observation.
He said: Folks need to remember that Revelation isn’t about what has
happened in the past,
or what will happen in the future,
it is about who Jesus is.
[Has this already happened or will it happen?
“Eschatological events are foreshadowed in historical events” (Ladd 156)
What this means is that what has happened before is characteristic of
what is to come.]
That’s one of our keys to understanding the Book,
The Revelation is revealing Jesus.
Today we are going to consider the 7 Seals
Again let me remind you that this is a teaching presentation not a preaching
presentation. If you have a question please feel free to ask.
And I also want you to know that I’m teaching a doctrine.
A doctrine is a persons understanding of the scripture and their
response to that understanding.
Our greater faith community does not have a highly
developed doctrine about the end times.
There are a lot of good teachers, who have done good work,
And have come to an understanding of the book of
Revelation that is totally opposite of mine.
So what I am doing is presenting you an opinion,
Another view of the end times for your consideration.
This is not an academic exercise,
I really believe what I’m teaching.
You are free to disagree with me.
One of my hopes is that you will think things through for yourself.
And that God will settle things for
you so that you know what you believe.
Starting in Revelation chapters 6 we are told the vision of the 7 Seals
John will tells us six things that God is doing in an attempt to bring
everyone to repentance before the end.
At the conclusion of the sixth event, there is a break before
proceeding to the 7th event.
In between the 6th and 7th event John will describe what is
happening in the church.
Vernard Eller and Robert Mounce refer to this break as
an interlude, and we will adopt their terminology.
During the interlude we will find out what is going on
with God’s people during this time.
Then John will reveals to us the 7th event,
which is the completion,
the fullness and perfection of God’s work.
The 7th event is the end state.
Finally we will consider what the vision of the 7 seals reveals to us.
Two things will help us in our interpretation
First: Expect Dualism.
Dualism in a part of Apocalyptic genre,
We will see a balance of Good verse Evil,
There will be a symmetry.
This dualism is what you expect to see as
you read this type of literature.
John will use dualism to communicate spiritual truth to us.
Let me give you an example.
In chapter 5 John introduces us to Jesus, one should expect that
very soon John will introduce us to the anti-Jesus.
Jesus is the super hero,
Jesus opponent will be a super villain.
Here’s a preview
|
THE GOOD |
over against |
THE EVIL |
|
God the Father |
1 |
Satan, the dragon |
|
Jesus Christ, the Lamb |
2 |
Antichrist, the beast |
|
The Holy Spirit |
3 |
The False Prophet, the second beast |
|
The Woman Clothed with the Sun |
4 |
The Great Whore |
|
Jerusalem (Old and New) |
5 |
Babylon |
(http://www.hccentral.com/eller7/chap2.html or Eller p35)
This sort of dualism makes for a good Apocalyptic story.
So expect dualism.
The second interpretative tool is one I’ve drawn from Vernard Eller and his
book, The Most Revealing Book In the Bible.
We’ll call it surrealism.
According to Eller, John of Patmos is not laying down a time line for
us with the visions of the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls,
rather he is painting a picture with his words for us to
invoke an emotional response from us.
We’re trained to be linear thinkers,
And most of the stories that we read are written such that first
Event A happens, then Event A leads to B and Event B
leads to C.
Eller suggest that we will miss the point of the vision if we have
that kind of expectation.
Eller says take what is written as a
characterization of the end and
not a linear sequence of events.
This characterization communicates a feeling to us.
To help us understand his observation Eller offer us a picture painted
by Pablo Picasso of the devastation that occurred in a Spanish
town after it was bombed.
http://arts.anu.edu.au/polsci/courses/pols1005/2007/Images/Picasso.Guernica2.jpg
This painting communicates to us at a visceral level.
And it speaks of trauma, death, pain, and chaos,
And it speaks to every generation that views it.
It characterizes the event
This picture may communicate a similar message
http://www.britsattheirbest.com/images/f_wwii_ruins_children.gif
But it is locked in a specific time, in a specific place, and a specific situation.
Where as Picasso’s painting is both timeless and universal.
Eller suggests that the visions of the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls are
best understand from a surrealistic perspective,
rather than a linear snap shot of the future.
So I am going to follow his line of thinking as we look at the vision of the Seals
To bring all things to a conclusion the Lamb must release the Four Riders of
the Apocalypse.
[John draws his imagery from Zechariah 6:1, Dan 7:2, Jeremiah 49:36 ]
http://www.kirwanesque.com/gallery/images/Four_Horsemen.jpg
Revelation 6: 2, 4, 5, 8
I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest…Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword… looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand … I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Conquest, War, Famine and Death are set loose upon the earth.
They have a purpose,
And that purpose is to help humankind see the error of its ways;
That estrangement from righteousness is the reason for these
plagues among the nations.
The pain they inflict is intended to motivate people
seek God to end the madness.
Mark 13:5-7 (NIV)
Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
Remember the school of hard knocks?
The difficulties are to get us to examine ourselves and look to God to help us
overcome the deficiencies we find.
The pain that is being inflicted upon the world is to make us
realize that nothing is right between us and our Creator.
And we must become right to fix the problems.
The world has a habit of taking revenge out on believers instead of repenting.
Revelation 6:9-11 (MSG)
When he ripped off the fifth seal, I saw the souls of those killed because they had held firm in their witness to the Word of God. They were gathered under the Altar, and cried out in loud prayers, "How long, Strong God, Holy and True? How long before you step in and avenge our murders?" Then each martyr was given a white robe and told to sit back and wait until the full number of martyrs was filled from among their servant companions and friends in the faith.
Under the Altar speaks of a place near to the Throne of Heaven.
This place of honor is reserved for those who have been martyred for their
faith.
They too want to know “when,”
They are given a very scary answer—
Not until more followers of Jesus in love sacrifice
their lives for the kingdom.
Mark 13:5, 9 & 12-13 (NIV)
Jesus said to them… You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. …"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
To stand firm is Spiritual fidelity.
To stand firm is to abide in Christ.
To stand firm is not surrendering your faith.
Even in the face of physical death.
The sixth seal is opened and matters just go from bad to worse.
Yet the people still refuse to repent.
Revelation 6:15 (MSG)
And then pandemonium, everyone and his dog running for cover—kings, princes, generals, rich and strong, along with every commoner, slave or free. They hid in mountain caves and rocky dens…
For civilized people to take up residence is caves is a picture of the collapse of
civilization.
Everything is shaken, everything comes crashing down.
Then John’s vision looks at the church.
What’s happening with God’s people at this time?
We know they are being killed because they refuse to renounce their
faith in God.
What else is happening?
In Chapter 7 John has two visions of the church.
He has a vision of an earthly church,
And a vision of a heavenly church.
As we read through the book
we will discover that the earthly and the heavenly
church are moving closer and closer to each other.
They are moving towards a time of unification.
That time of unification occurs at the second
coming of Christ.
John tells us first of the faithful upon the earth.
Revelation 7:3-4 (NIV)
"Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
This is not the first time the scripture mentions God’s faithful receiving a seal or a
mark on their foreheads.
Ezekiel 9:1-7 tells us that the mark separates God’s faithful from the
idolaters.
And judgment begins in the Sanctuary.
Whether this seal is physical like in Ezekiel or spiritual, John doesn’t tell us.
We agreed to use a figurative stance for our interpretation so I want to lean
towards the seal being spiritual.
“an assurance of knowledge regarding who you are and to
whom you belong.” (Eller p 96)
We may pick up this discussion again when we reach Revelation 14:1 and
22:4
[Great time to speak about the Direct and Indirect witness of the Spirit.
In Wesleyan theology we have a doctrine of assurance. We believe a person can know that they are abiding in Christ by the direct and indirect witness of the Spirit. To simple summarize the teaching, the direct witness of the Spirit manifests as a sure knowledge being right with God, the indirect witness of the Spirit manifests in the fruit of the Spirit—lifestyle changes consistent with true discipleship; when both are present, one can be assured that they are abiding in Christ. For further study
http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/010.htm
http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/012.htm
http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/21-25/23-12.htm]
[Recall John’s dualism, if Christ’s faithful get a mark on their foreheads, what do you think will happen the followers of the Anti-Christ? They are going to get another kind of mark.]
We do know for sure that the seal will protect the church from the
The most heinous of the judgments that are coming.
The number the faithful that are sealed is 144,000.
We can fall into the trap of thinking that less than a quarter million people
are faithful to God.
But John’s got a bigger vision.
12 is the number that symbolizes God’s people.
Earlier we speculated that the reason that there are 24
elders was to represent both the people of BC faith and
the people of AD faith.
If we apply that same logic 144,000
is the Old Testament 12 times
The New Testament 12 and
that 1000 times over.
“Which symbolizes the generosity,
The expansiveness,
The lavishness of God’s grace and
salvation for all who respond to His
invitation.”
144,000 really means a whole lot of people.
I have a further discussion on what is meant by 144,000 from the 12 tribes of
Israel, it will be posted in the manuscript for this teaching on our hbcc.org
website.
[The scripture reads:
Rev 7:4-8 (NIV)
Then I heard the number of those who were
sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.
John’s list of the twelve tribes does not coincide with other such lists in scripture, specifically Genesis 49 and Ezekiel 48
Having taken a figurative stance we know that John can not be speaking of the literal nation of Israel. We need to ask the question, “who is saved from God’s judgment?” The answer is believers who remain faithful. Believers will be held accountable for the behavior but they are not going to be condemned like the unrepentant. The Apostle Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit sealing believers.
Eph 4:30 (NIV)
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ladd says, “This sealing of believers is an assurance of spiritual safety on the grounds of divine ownership. It is an inner spiritual fact which cannot be observed with the outward eye.” (P 122)
The Apostle James address his letter to “To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (James 1:1 (NIV). The 12 tribes is a reference to the Church.
The Apostle Paul devotes 3 chapters in the letter to the Romans (9-11) discussing the fate Israel. A quick review of his thoughts:
Romans 11:11 (NIV)
Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
Romans 11:17-21 (NIV)
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
Romans 11:25 (MSG)
This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house.
Romans 11:26-27 (MSG)
Before it's all over, there will be a complete
Israel. As it is written,
A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion; he'll clean house in
Jacob. And this is my commitment to my people: removal of their sins.
Paul still maintains that is only by faith in Christ that Jew and Gentile can enter into the Kingdom of God. The Gentiles (in this instance referring to non-Jewish believers) have been grafted into God’s Chosen People. In a sense they become part of Israel. Paul speaks of the hope that in the end times there will be a change of heart among the Jews and they will return to a position of fidelity with God. From this we can say that eschatological Israel includes both believing Jews and Gentiles; or that the Church is the new Israel.
Gal 3:29 (NIV)
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Romans 2:29 (NCV)
A person is a Jew only if he is a Jew inside; true circumcision is done in the heart by the Spirit, not by the written law.
Romans 4:11 (NCV)
So Abraham is the father of all those who believe but are not circumcised; he is the father of all believers who are accepted as being right with God.
The 144,000 represents inclusiveness, both BC and AD believers who are the true people of God]
I believe we should understand the 144,000 to represent
“the faithful believers who are about to enter the final turbulent period which
marks the end of human history.” (Mounce, 168)
What that means is that believers may face 6/7ths of the tribulation before the
second coming of Jesus.
I know that is not a very popular opinion.
Nobody wants to suffer tribulation.
Yet I think the way Jesus went, his church must follow.
Then John’s vision shifts to the heavenly church.
Revelation 7:9-10 (NIV)
After this I
looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from
every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in
front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches
in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."
The heavenly church is populated beyond count.
White robes and Palm branches are symbols of victory.
Their song is a song of salvation.
Of them the angel says
Revelation 7:14 (NIV)
"These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
These saints have achieved victory by passing through the tribulation of this world.
John tells us of the rewards of the faithful.
No longer will hunger, tears, thirst, oppression and death be a concern
for them, because the Lamb has become their Shepherd.
And the Shepherd will lead them to the springs of living
water. [additional ref: John 4:14; Matthew 5:6]
There are rewards for the faithful.
John is telling his readers to stand firm,
Even if your earthly life is snuffed out,
There is an eternal life waiting for you.
James 5:7-8 & 10-11(MSG)
Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master's Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time. …Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.
Finally we arrive at the 7th Seal,
The 7th is a picture of the end,
The culmination of the work and ministry of Jesus.
Are you ready?
Revelation 8:1 (NIV)
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
I think this is a great literary device to build tension and drama and anticipation.
It like the curtain going up just before the performance.
We are left with this trembling suspense of what is to come. (Mounce 179)
Next week we will hear the 7 trumpets blow.
What do we need to take away with us today from the vision of the 7 Seals?
1. The end times are a time of great trauma.
The Driving need for Conquest leads War, Famine and Death to ride
across the face of the earth
There are natural disasters.
Civilization as we know it collapses.
Even though the world is crashing down around us we know that
2. Jesus is in control, He holds the scroll.
The purpose of the trauma is to motivate repentance.
We seldom change when we see the light,
but we start to jump when we feel the heat.
3. The followers of Jesus are persecuted,
People are martyred for the faith,
Their death is a testimony to those who resist God’s invitation into the the Kingdom.
Remember that believers go the way of their savior,
By being lambs of love they win the lion’s share of the
victory.
And since Revelation is about Jesus it comes as no surprise that we learn
4. The Lamb is the Shepherd.
Psalm’s 23 tells us what a Shepherd does.
In times of tribulation verse 4 just jumps out at you:
Psalms 23:4 (MSG)
Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side.
There is no fear of death for those who abide in Christ for they can
say with the Psalmist
Psalms 23:6 (NLT)
I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
All of this begs a question:
Are the rewards of heaven worth trading anything for?
Is there anything in our earthly existence too precious to surrender in order
to remain faithful to Christ?
You may be tempted to think in terms of ultimate sacrifices.
But what about daily dying to self in order to bring the kingdom to
Others?
What about saying no to what you want to do in order to
do what God has gifted you to do?
Who are you being broken and spilled out for?
What is your ministry?
How do you function as a priest in the kingdom?
The question again is this: Are the rewards of heaven worth trading anything for?
2 Peter 3:17-18 (MSG)
But you, friends, are well-warned. Be on guard lest you lose your footing and get swept off your feet by these lawless and loose-talking teachers. Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.
