The Seven Bowl Judgments (Rev. 14-16)
The book of Revelation is written originally by Jesus through John to 7 churches located in Asia Minor. In this message, we do a flyover of chapters 2 and 3 and discover what Jesus tells them then and us today about Satan's tactics in opposition to the church.
Transcript
For the last 20 years of TV and film, antiheroes have been very popular. People wanted to move past the overly simplistic good guys and bad guys of the 80s and 90s because that’s not how we experience life. We wanted characters who are more complex and more real.
Enter the antihero. Someone who lacks the conventional hero qualities, like morality, idealism, and courage, but still tries to do the right thing, even if not for the right reasons. They may be selfish, immoral, or vulgar, but you still root for them.
Batman is the classic anti-hero. But so are Deadpool, Jessica Jones, and Punisher. TVs got them also: The Boys, Walter White from Breaking Bad, or Zuko from Avatar. Even the Mandalorian or Boba Fett.
But lately, something has shifted. The brooding, morally ambiguous antiheroes aren’t quite as popular as they once were. Look at movies like The Batman, Morbius, or even Venom—all kinda flopped. And on TV, they’ve largely vanished.
Instead, we now have shows like Stranger Things, Ted Lasso, or This is Us—with characters who are still flawed but easy to love and aspirational. This becomes very clear when you go to Disney+ and compare Moon Knight to Ms. Marvel. One is a brooding, violent assassin, and the other is a cheery, optimistic teenager who loves her family and wants to do good with the power she’s given.
The drop of the antihero makes sense. In a world that seems to be falling apart—inflation, global warming, a broken political system, rising gun deaths—we want to see good triumph over evil.
We don’t want to see morally questionable characters on TV when they’re already dominating the news. Now more than ever, we’re seeking hope and comfort from our shows. We want to see good triumph over evil.
Well, that’s exactly what the book of Revelation is all about. Over the last 2 months, we’ve heard about The Lamb—the resurrected Jesus who is righteous and pure and worthy of our praise. And we’ve heard about Satan, the Antichrist, and demons who are corrupt, deceptive, and consumed with pride.
This week we move to chapters 14-16, part of which you just listened to earlier. We’re going to spend most of our time together on chapter 14, and then at the end, we’ll hit 15 and 16.
This block of Scripture has 4 main parts
The Lamb and the 144,000 redeemed (14)
The three angels announcing judgment (14)
The metaphor of the harvest of the earth (14)
The seven bowls of plagues (15-16)
There is one theme that comes up over and over again in chapter 14—the contrast between God and evil. In fact, we’re going to look at six different contrasts we find in this chapter. My goal here is not to study deeply each reference, but instead paint a picture. Together, these contrasts warn us of the hypnotic power of the world system and remind us never to lose sight of the present and future blessings of being a child of God.
Let’s start with one of the first: Zion, the city of God’s presence, is contrasted with Babylon, the center of idolatry and immorality.
Verse 1 begins: “1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”
In contrast, verse 8 says: 8 A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”
Each of these has literal and symbolic meanings:
Mt. Zion – Literally is hill on which the Israelites built Jerusalem. As a result, it also became synonymous with the Temple, the people of God, and even the future city of God (what we might think of as heaven).
Babylon – Major world power who captured Israel in exile and destroyed Jerusalem. As a result, they became symbolic of any enemy of God and a center of sin and immorality.
Next, the names and marks on the followers of the Lamb are contrasted with those on the followers of the beast.
We just read verse 1, which spoke of the 144,000 redeemed and righteous people with the Father’s name written on their foreheads. This is a direct contrast to the mark of the beast that we talked about last week. In fact, it’s even repeated in this chapter in verses 9 and 11.
This reaffirms what I said last week: the mark of the beast isn’t microchips or vaccines. It is a mark of allegiance. There’s the mark of the beast and the mark of the Father. You choose which one you bear.
Number three, the future of the redeemed differs radically from the fate of the inhabitants of the earth.
On one hand, you have the 144,000 redeemed ones. BTW, this is another one of the symbolic numbers. 12 represents God’s people (12 tribes, 12 disciples). 12 x 12 = 144 represents a lot of God’s people. And 1,000 represents a really large amount. So, this group stands for a huge amount of God’s redeemed people.
Their future is described as singing and worshipping before the throne of the Lamb. But for the followers of the beast, it’s a very different story.
“If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever.”
Very different futures. Here the wrath of God is contrasted with blessings of God.
Also, there’s a contrast between those who rest from their labor and those who find no rest.
The last line of the description we just read says: There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.
And here’s the contrast: “13 I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
The difference between truth and deceit appears again.
In the last chapter, we saw the two beasts deceiving people. And now we have the 144,000 and they are described as having no lie in their mouth; they are blameless. Truth vs. deceit.
Lastly, some follow the Lamb wherever he goes, while others are led to their deaths by the beast.
All of this is fundamentally a contrast of following. The redeemed people follow the Lamb. And others, the ones deceived by the beast, follow him too. But it’s to their death.
What do we do with all these contrasts? These over-the-top images of redemption and condemnation? I can answer that in one word: chose.
We have to choose sides in the conflict between God and evil; neutrality is not an option.
But isn’t it obvious? Nobody listening to these chapters would possibly choose the beast over the Lamb.
Craig Koester, a local professor at Luther Seminary had a great response to this: “John did not make such a sharp distinction because the alternatives were obvious to his readers, but because the alternatives were not obvious.”
And we can see this if we go back to chapters 2 and 3, to the letters God wrote to the seven churches. Nearly every one of them was compromising their faith.
They abandoned their first love
They follow a foreign God into idolatry and immorality
They refuse to repent of their sin
They look good on the outside but are dead on the inside
They’re lukewarm in their faith
Christians in the seven churches were torn between compromise and commitment. I think we can be torn as well. You might have even been torn this week or yesterday.
These are all examples of following the beast. It’s the slippery slope of following the world instead of following God. It’s putting your wants, your family, and your culture on the throne where the Lamb really belongs.
Evil is subtle and can rob us of what God desires if we give ourselves to things that are worthless or wasteful or worse, destructive.
What sorts of shows do you watch or articles you read?
Does the humor your enjoy honor Christ and others?
Do your words tear down or build up?
How do you spend your money?
What about your time?
Is your life energy directed inward in selfishness or outward in service to others?
Are you generous with things or protective?
Are you more like the world, like your culture, than you are like Christ? Worldliness is a subtle poison to our faith. And the consequences are grave.
So, what do you do if you see right now that are some parts of your life that are sliding away from the throne of the Lamb and toward the way of the beast? What do you do?
That’s where chapters 15 and 16 come in. They describe another round of plagues. As you might recall from previous weeks, we had the 7 scrolls of plagues and the 7 trumpets of plagues. This time is a final series of 7 bowls of plagues. Sores, poisoned waters, rivers drying up, burning sun, darkness, earthquakes.
All of these are meant to echo the original set of plagues back with Moses, Pharaoh, and Egypt.
And their purpose has always been the same: repent. Remember this sign? It’s back. Repent.
What is repentance? In the Old Testament, it’s words like:
Turn back to God
Return to Him
Seek His face
In the New Testament, it’s ideas like:
Turn around
Change your mind or purpose
That is what God is calling you to today. And tomorrow. And the next day.
The book of Revelation isn’t here to give you timelines, buzzwords, or YouTube videos. It’s here to call you to repentance—to look into those dark places in your heart, turn to God, and allow the light of Christ to bring healing and redemption into them.
We’re going to close with two songs here because I wanted to give you an extended time to listen to God and respond to you. I want to give you time…to repent.
And during these songs, I’ll be down front to bless you. And if you repent, in whatever way God leads you to, and you need a reminder that you are forgiven and belong to God, come down front and see me.
