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

The book of Revelation has long been criticized for being violently judgmental. God is constantly judging humanity with suffering and even death. Just way too much of God’s judgment.

Wanna know a secret? We all want judgment. We want to see wrongdoers punished.

• When we read of someone shot in St. Paul (there’ve been 20 so far), we want the killer caught and judged fairly.

• When we hear that the Southern Baptism denomination has buried hundreds of cases of sexual abuse against women by church leaders, I want to call down God’s judgment on them.

• When we hear of Supreme Court rulings, we want to believe that they are judging impartially and not simply echoing partisan politics.

We all want judgment. But we each might want different outcomes from it:

• Some want justice for innocent victims.

• Some want the punishment of criminals.

• Some want accountability for men in power like politicians, pastors, or police.

• Some want equal treatment under the law, especially for people of color.

• Some might even want public shaming on social media for a restaurant that treats its employees unfairly.

We all want judgment—whether it’s for justice, punishment, accountability, or equal treatment. We all want judgment.

But what does God want out of judgment? Revelation is literally filled with God’s judgment. In fact, it’s about half the book.

What does God want out of all this judgment? If we want things like justice, punishment, and accountability, what does God want?

The answer can be found in a very surprising place [pick up sign]—the crazy guy on the corner. “Repent. The end is near.” Ever seen a guy like this, in person or maybe in a movie. Crazy person on the corner. Usually messy hair, mumbling or shouting or both.

Just because he’s crazy doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

In the Bible, the purpose of God’s judgments is always to bring people to repentance. To drive them away from their rejection of God and turn them to follow his ways.

Why all the judgments? Repentance. So, let’s see what God does and how people respond.

We are in the middle section of the book. We see three sets of seven judgments of God against humanity.

• Last week was the seven seals

• This week is seven trumpets

• In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about the seven bowls

Rather than seeing these as linear, sequential events, think of them as retelling the same themes three different ways. Go forward, then back, then loop again. It’s like an apocalyptic Groundhog Day—just different versions of the same events.

Today, we’re talking about the second retelling of the judgments. Rather than seals and scrolls like last week, this week we have trumpets. (Not a funnel.)

We’re covering four chapters today—8, 9, 10, 11— so it’ll pretty high-level. I highly encourage you to read it all yourself, like, say, in a summer Bible reading plan.

We’re going to start with an overview, watch a Bible Project video, and then dive into a few of the sections.

Chapters 8-11 are separated into five sections

1. It begins with the prayers of God’s people

2. Trumpets 1-4

3. Trumpets 5 & 6

4. Interlude

   1. Angel, John, & a scroll

   2. The two witnesses

5. Trumpet 7

Verse 8:1 begins with the seventh seal, which initiates this next phase.

“1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.”

“3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

It begins with something we’ve seen before, back in chapter 5. The prayers of God’s people being represented by incense.

If you’ve ever felt like your prayers fall on deaf ears—I know I have—this shows you that they don’t. Your prayers, my prayers, are heard and even stored up by God.

Then the first four trumpets blast. Why trumpets? Probably because trumpets announce that something or someone was coming.

Trumpets:

1. Hail and fire mixed with blood

2. Burning mountain that made the sea turn to blood

3. Blazing star that fell into the rivers and made fresh water bitter

4. Sun, moon, and stars darkened

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s probably because it is. If you grew up going to Sunday School or have read the book of Exodus, or even seen the movie Prince of Egypt (it’s awesome, btw), you might be saying this sounds a lot like Moses, Pharaoh, and the plagues of Egypt.

Yes. That’s exactly what God is doing here.

Remember that the purpose behind God’s judgments is repentance. What was the reason behind the plagues of Egypt? Repentance. God was breaking Pharaoh down so that he would let his people go. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and stubborn, and he refused to back down. The plagues got worse, and he refused. That continued until Pharaoh lost his oldest son, and then he relented.

God judges sin—whether slavery and oppression by an ancient world leader or anger and selfishness in you or me. God calls every one of us into repentance, just like he did Pharaoh.

Trumpets five and six are different. Instead of plagues, they’re more like invasions.

• The fifth trumpet releases a fallen angel, a demon from the “Abyss,” and with it comes a hoard of scorpion-locusts that sting and torment people so bad that they wanted to die.

• The sixth trumpet released a demonic army of millions on horseback that killed a third of humanity.

There are a couple of things that make these trumpets different:

• They are distinctly demonic.

• But God is in complete control of them. He releases them. He sets their limits, gives them rules.

And there are two really interesting verses in the middle of all this.

First, about the locusts, “4 [The scorpion-locusts] were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.”

Also reminiscent of the Exodus story. And in a few weeks, we’re going to be talking about the mark of the beast, and it’s important to know that there is a mark of God as well.

Second, at the end of all this, here was the people’s response.

“The rest of mankind who were not killed…still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons and idols… nor repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.” (9:20-21)

They still didn’t repent. That was Pharaoh. That’s sometimes you and me. Remember, the purpose of God’s judgment is always repentance, to turn away from sin. And repentance demands a response.

In this case, it was stubbornness and hard-heartedness. But that’s not the only possible response.

If we jump ahead to chapter 11, we see an interlude before the last trumpet. It’s like a little intermission story meant to encourage the Church to faithfully endure. It involves two powerful witnesses, possibly angels, who are killed by the beast from the Abyss, a demon, possibly Satan himself. And the people of earth gloat and celebrate over their death. But then, three days later, they are resurrected and taken up to heaven. (Sound familiar?)

Then this happens. “13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

Here we have people turning to God and giving him glory. That’s the other response to God’s judgment.

Two groups of people; two different responses. Remember, the purpose of God’s judgment is always repentance, to turn away from sin. And repentance demands a response. There is no neutral response to a call to repent. You either do or you don’t. Repentance demands a response.

The passage wraps up with the seventh trumpet. “15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Then the twenty-four elders get in on it: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small—and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

God’s rule and reign in his kingdom is finally announced. Evil will be judged, and the righteous will be rewarded. And all God’s people will experience his presence.

And another chapter ends with another worship session of God and the Lamb. That is the response God wants.

God judges to call people to repentance. And repentance demands a response. There is no neutral response to repentance. You either do, or you don’t.

Either you see God’s unequaled power and his absolute sovereignty and turn to him. Or you close your eyes, harden your heart, and turn away from Him.

Repentance demands a response. There is no neutral.

I believe that most people reject the judgments of God in the Bible, not because they believe it’s untrue or immoral, but because they don’t want to look at the wickedness inside them.

We all want judgment. We just don’t want it for ourselves. We want judgment against those people, not me. Those are the bad people. But I’m generally a good person.

But the Bible challenges us to admit that we have wickedness inside us.

• We’re selfish

• We hurt others

• We worship idols of our own making

• We refuse to give up our sin

• We murder with our words

• We lust with our eyes

• We steal people’s joy to feed our insecurity

We all have wickedness inside us. But in Christ, you can be forgiven. The slaughtered Lamb is victorious in defeating sin. In him, you are transformed from being drenched in sin to being robed in white.

And all you have to do is repent. Admit your sin. Turn away from it and toward God. Ask him to give you a new heart and a new future with Him.

Repentance demands a response. What is yours going to be?

Prayer Reflection

Prayers as Incense

• Exodus 30:1 - “Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense.”

• Psalm 141:2 - “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”

• Revelation 5:8 - “Each of the four living creatures and twenty-four elders were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.”

• Revelation 8:3 - “An angel was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people,”

Prayers to Offer

• “Father, forgive me.”

• “We give thanks to you, God Almighty.”

• “Have mercy on us, Lord.”

• “You are worthy to receive glory.”

• “I am ready to repent, Lord.”

• “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”