Waiting for the Other Shoe Rev, 8:1-7
Revelation 8:1-7 · Vern Peterman · Apr 14, 2002
Revelation (2001-03), No. 25
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826224291854

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. This morning we're going to be diving into Revelation 8, 1-7. But before we proceed directly into the passage, I thought this would be a good time for us to take a look, kind of circumspectly here, and see where we've been, where we are now, and then where we're going. So with that in mind, let's take a look here. Now, though there may have been some momentary exceptions, the general pattern of syncopation between the heavenly and earthly scenes that we've been talking about here has taken us from first the heavenly scene in chapter 1, starting off actually on the earth but then shifting into the heavenly scene, then the earthly scene in chapters 2 and 3 where it's addressing the messages to the seven churches, and then going back into the heavenly scene in chapters 4 and 5 and then the earthly scene in chapter 6 where we see the unfolding of the first seals and then the heavenly scene again in chapter 7 with the 144,000 and the great multitude and now this morning as we go into Revelation chapter 8 we're going to be going back to the earthly scene there will be elements described in heaven for sure But the impact is now dealing with what's going on on Earth. And so this syncopation, like we see throughout the book of John, is going to take us now back down to what's going on on Earth and this outpouring of judgments.

Then, just to keep ourselves in the right time context, I want to keep this timeline in front of us so that we see where we're at, I want to take a look at the big picture. This is basically an updated version of the overhead that you saw back in handout number 13. You remember those handout numbers, right? Well, never mind. God's Word, however, lays out for us a timeline that looks basically like we've outlined here.

We are now living in this, the Church Age, and my inclination would be to put us somewhere close to the end here, but now living in this, the Church Age, Though there will be events that will be in preparation for what is next. The next major event is what has been called the rapture. That is where those of this the church age who have placed their faith in Christ for salvation will be taken up to be with the Lord. All the believers from Pentecost up to the time of that rapture will be taken up with the Lord at that event. Then we've read about the events in chapters 6 and 7 that make up the early part of this seven-year tribulation period. What we'll be starting into this morning in chapter 8 is right about where you see this little green arrow here.

We're still in the first half of the tribulation period as we begin reading. As we go into this, there's one aspect that this picture doesn't show that I think is real important for us to keep in mind. There is no doubt, but what the events of this seven-year tribulation period are ghastly. As we've read through the first couple chapters, especially in chapter six, some nasty, awful things are being described for us that will happen on the earth.

And that's true. But the response that we are to have as believers is not fear, dread, and anxiety. That's real important for us to have. I come across believers from time to time that they get, boy, it's like they're nail-biting, nervous, you know, trembling in fear, and that is not what this is intended to convey to us. Instead, if you look at Scripture, it's intended to convey at least two things, and these things in parallel. The first one, we are to place our hope in Christ's coming. We're given some information about the Antichrist, But believers of this age are to be looking for the coming of Christ, not the coming of the Antichrist. And that's an important focus, because if we get our focus off track, we're going to end up falling into this fear-dread-anxiety syndrome. So it's a sharp distinction there.

As believers, we will not be subject to the events of wrath that we're reading about here in the book of Revelation in this section. The second thing, though, that learning about the events of this tribulation period should bring us to is, and I'm not talking about going off, you know, kooky and half-cocked, but warning unbelievers. It should give us a sense of, you know, there are some people that I love and know and care about, and I'd really rather not have them have this as a prospect. Yes, if they live into the tribulation, they will have a chance to come to the Lord during that time. But do you know anybody who really Would like to see go into that? Not really. So there is a sense of motivation of warning those. Now, I think it's important to look at this too.

The hope is in Christ. For the believer, the hope is in Christ. For the unbeliever, that unbeliever's only hope is in Christ. Outside of Christ, there is no comfort. Either way. But we can pray for those who are not believers out of love and concern. Alright, now with that, let's take a look at our passage here. Excuse me, I've got a prior one to point us to.

Revelation 1.3 says, and I think this is critical, as we're going into this, one of the verses that points us away from being full of dread and fear is what we looked at some months ago.

Revelation 1.3 says, Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are in it, for the time is near. This is the only book that starts off with a promise of blessing for those who read it. Should it then result in a lot of fear, dread, and anxiety on our part? No. It is explicitly stated, blessed are those who read it and hear it. That's a good thing.

Now, one more overhead for orientation purposes here, and this is similar to what you have on page one of your handout. So we pointed out some weeks back, these are what I call the three sevens. You got seven seals, and following that, and we'll be introduced to that this morning, seven trumpets, and then there is going to be an interlude. That's this set of descriptions in here.

And then the last series, seven bowls. And it's those sets of three, sets of seven judgments. that will constitute the judgments of the tribulation period. That kind of fixes in our mind to keep us consistent. Each series of the seven judgments is going to be more intense than the last one. So just as we're completing one series and starting the next, we're going to see that this next set of judgments gets more severe than the one before. The final judgments will be followed by Christ's personal coming to judge the global rebellion, right here at the end.

He will defend the Jews from utter destruction. So it's not simply a matter of His coming in judgment, it is also coming in defense. And we'll be looking at that more in detail. He will also be coming to establish His earthly kingdom, when He comes at that point in time. And when He returns to reign, we here who believe will be returning with Him. We won't be here when this is going on, but we will be returning with Him as He comes in victory, as He comes to set things right, as He comes to reign on the earth. We will be there.

Now we're about to read of Christ opening the seventh, that is the last of the seven seals. Opening this last seal will release the last of these seven seal judgments. These will include these seven trumpet judgments that come after as a result of opening that last seal, and will also result in these bowl judgments. So this last seal is really opening up the rest of what is to take place, isn't it?

Okay? Now, One of the other things that I'm hoping for, when you go through the book of Revelation and you take it literally, interpreting it is a piece of cake. Nobody's laughing, okay. When you see the book of Revelation and you take it literally, I was recently at a Bible study, for instance, where one of the guys there talked about Revelation, and just kind of a quick offhand statement is, who knows what it means? When I look at this, and I look at it literally and study it carefully, it all makes good sense. And I hope you're finding that too. It's really not all that mysterious and puzzling and quizzical if we take it one step at a time, and we take it consistent with the rest of Scripture, and we take it literally. It makes good sense. It is a prophetic masterpiece.

Now, let's begin and take a look at the first verse of chapter 8 there. When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Now, I have it by good authority, this is Bertha, that the reason the silence was there is because there was no women in heaven yet. Now, I wouldn't quote that except that Bertha told me. Okay. Now, the Greek here actually does not say Lamb.

It actually uses the pronoun which we would say in English, He. But it's very clear, because we know that the Lamb is the exclusive one with authority, that the Lamb is the one breaking the seal, and so a lot of your translations will put it exactly that way. So the one who opened the seventh seal is clearly Christ the, as the Greek word actually says, the Little Lamb. So we have here a stark contrast with all the other seals, because when the other seals were opened, immediate ghastly consequence came upon the earth.

Now this one is open, and lo and behold, we have what John estimates to be a half hour of silence. Kind of amazing, isn't it? So this one, this one seal brings silence in heaven for what John estimates to be this half hour. Now you've had these kind of long moments, you can think back and think of some of them, where A certain period of time seems like a lot longer, like when I'm up here preaching. Anyway, if you've had a period of time like that, it seems like a lot longer than the time is particularly allotted. I thought back, I think, what are some times when I thought it was a lot longer? And one of them I thought back of is several centuries ago when I was in high school.

I was at a basketball championship. And our team was vying with this one other team for championship in this one particular event. And right towards the last buzzer, our team was one point behind. A shot went into the opposing team's basket, but bounced off. And one of the guys from our team, Rick Couples was his name, grabbed the ball on the rebound, hurled it just like that across the court. And it went flying and it was amazing as up to that point the basketball court was just roaring with noise. All of a sudden it went dead quiet. And the ball went and it hit the rim and it went bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. And then it went around the rim several times.

Still quiet. And then it stopped going around the edge and it just sat there and teetered. And then dropped in. And I'm sure that only took a few seconds. But it seemed like hours went by and this otherwise just mad crowd was willing to be absolute still quiet while the thing went through this antics. Meanwhile, just torturing us with anticipation. And there are moments like that. I'm sure this must have been one of those kinds of moments. Like John's thinking, all right, what's next? He's thinking, what's going to happen? The seal's been opened. It's the last one. The Lamb opened it. This is momentous. It's of historical significance. Nothing!

Now, we get into situations like that where we're wondering, God, what are you doing? You been in that? God, what are you doing? Lord, I'm wanting some action here. I want something to happen. It's high time for something to take place. And we figure that God's timing should be such that right now, this would be a real good time for something to take place. And yet the Lord waits. And this is one of those kinds of instances.

And John just has to look and to listen and wait because it is not his place to act. Let me ask this little rhetorical question. What would have happened if John had tried to do something? Nothing, probably, right? Probably nothing. So John's just waiting. Can you imagine the sense of anticipation? And there wasn't like some clock to watch either.

Sometimes something's going to happen. Sometimes God's going to do something. And this was one of those kinds of moments. One more thing that we need to take note of here. This is the last time that Christ will be recorded as opening a seal. We're not going to see any more seal recordings. It is not the last time that God is sovereign. It's not the last time that God knows what's happening. You see the distinction there?

God will, and this is true not just in this situation, but in our lives as well, God will set things in motion. And just like this moment here, it's just as important for us to recognize that those times when we don't see God's hand specifically evident, He is nonetheless acting and doing and carrying things out. He is just as sovereign at those times when we can see Him acting and doing things as when we can't, as when we cannot. Either way, if we don't see the Lord's specific action, it doesn't mean He isn't acting. If it doesn't look like He's acting sovereignly, He's still sovereign. Because that's His character. That's who He is. He is sovereign. God's sovereignty isn't thwarted just because we don't see what's going on.

Let's look at verse 2. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and the seven trumpets were given to them." Simple verse, right? Now, John is the eyewitness here, and notice he seems real explicit about this number seven. Have you noticed that? These seven angels are given these seven trumpets. It's not about seven, more or less, give or take, seven is the number.

And what's real interesting is this is the first time these seven angels are mentioned, but this isn't the last time we're going to see them. There are, in fact, after this, a number of different references where we're going to see it, not only in the passage we're studying today, but also subsequent passages we get on further on. And even as we get into the period of time where it's getting into the new heavens and the new earth, you'll see the seven angels mentioned again. So these This is the first time we're seeing some players who are going to continue to come onto the scene as we begin studying into the Tribulation period here. Now, there are some meanings that come out of the Greek text behind the English translation of this one verse that I think are valuable for us to take a look at. So let's do so.

The angels stand before the presence of God. This is in the active voice. So it means that the angels are taking the initiative to stand in the place where God has put them. God's given them the place, but they've taken the action to stand there. The next thing is they stand before the presence of God. The Greek here literally means the face of God. So this is kind of an anthropomorphism, if you will, speaking in a figure of speech, human terms, saying this is before God, this is in God's very presence.

But here's something else. The trumpets were given to them. And this Greek verb, given, is in the passive voice. What's that tell us? That says that they didn't grab them. They didn't give themselves these. They were given outside of them. The trumpets being in their hand wasn't their own doing. They were given that action.

And you know what? We can learn from that. Because there are a great many things where it's valuable and important for us to recognize what has the Lord given? What has the Lord done? What has the Lord already accomplished? And if we think about those things, it'll drastically change our perspective because we recognize it's the Lord who gives us what we have.

It's the Lord that allows us the accomplishments that we have. And if we're not careful, we'll really easily mix those up and think that it comes from ourselves. So these angels are given a powerful place in history, but it is given to them, not something that they themselves can take credit for. The Lord allows us to be used of Him, but it's His using, isn't it? It's His doing, it's His accomplishment.

Before we move on to the next verse, though, the trumpets these seven angels are using are not musical trumpets. They're military trumpets. And you know as well as I, that for centuries trumpets have been used to announce a military attack, to call the forces to battle. And that's the kind of trumpet he's referring to here. It's the word that he's using. These are military trumpets announcing God's attack on the earth. This is the Lord's war.

And it basically, with seven trumpets, what do you have? Seven calls to attack. Seven new attacks. one after the next, after the next, after the next. You can probably think in your own mind, just kind of the melody that comes to mind when the trumpet calls out, charge! Right? And if I go to ball games and things like that, they'll use that. Same thing here. People saw this as, this isn't just, hey, we're going to hear a nice tune. This is a call to attack.

Verse 3, Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer, and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints in the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand.

Now we studied some passages in the weeks past, and here's one of them, Revelation 5.8. in which some of these same words have popped up before. This word golden, the word incense, and prayers of the saints showed up just a couple chapters back.

Now, the use of the word golden in both these passages indicates great value. You don't take a golden container and put junk in it, right? If you have a golden container, it means that something is valuable, and in this case, sacred. Now, so that's the first thing, but look, what does this bowl hold? The golden bowl in this earlier passage especially.

It says it holds the incense, which is the prayer of the saints. And what that tells you is that the Lord values our prayers. You see, we may think, I'm just saying my prayer in the hallway, and I'm saying it quietly in my bed, and I'm just riding in the car, talking to the Lord, and we may think it's just words and maybe even just thoughts. But this tells us what God thinks of those prayers.

Isn't that something? We may think, boy, I sure hope this is doing something. I sure hope this matters. The reality is, this is telling us it matters. It is not only in the fact that you have a golden bowl, but whose presence is this in? This is in God's presence. The Lord does value our prayers. And I think that's important for us to remember as we're going about the course of life and just thinking of this casual prayer, it doesn't matter much. No. The Lord says, I value it and I want it to be right in my presence.

Right there. Isn't that neat? That's a good thing. Something else comes up. The word incense. Incense, in those days, was not something cheap. Incense was something you paid a lot of money for, and it was expensive, and one of the reasons it was expensive is you had to bring it in, import it from quite a distance, and they couldn't just fly it in, right? So it was something that, with great care, and actually with a chance of loss, because anything valuable in those days, because of the way a lot of the remote highways and things were, a chance of loss, and it made whatever made it through more expensive. So the fact that you've got incense here mentioned increases again this picture of value. So here the prayers of the saints basically define incense or the prayers of the saints. It's again another message, this is valuable. God values it.

And then the last point in there We got this censor. It might be a good idea for us to get an idea of what John meant when he wrote about the censor. There were censors sort of like a fancy bucket of this type. This is a drawing from about the third century. A lot of us, if you hear the word, we tend to think of that. And that's been kind of what a lot of the traditional churches have brought along over the centuries as the picture, this sort of holding a bucket. But the Jewish word, and what you find in a lot of the mosaics that were used on the floors of the synagogues of the time, and using the other, looking at the other terms there, This is more likely this kind of a censer, almost like a shovel. It's a fancy shovel.

And even that it describes as being golden. So, then in verse 5, here's how he describes using the censer. It says, And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there followed peals of thunder, and sounds and flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Now, this angel does something that might sound kind of shocking and puzzling all at the same time. Hey, wait a minute, you've got this golden censer and you take it and fill it full of coals and toss it to the earth, okay?

But, before we think that this angel is sort of jumping the gun, because after all, no trumpet's been blown, right? Let's take a second look at it. Let's ponder this a bit. Here's what we see. The angel can't really be acting outside of God's intent, because where is God in this? Right there. He's in the presence of the Lord. That's one thing. And God is sovereign. That's another.

The altar is the source of the fire, and if you look through, especially the Old Testament, you see fire being used as a figure of God's judgment and wrath. And here's some examples of that. Verse shows up in Numbers 11.1, Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord. And when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. And you find similar kinds of verses just listed throughout the Old Testament.

Just as, for instance, Ezekiel 22.31, Here it says this, Thus I have poured out my indignation on them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their way I have wrought upon their heads, declares the Lord.

So here's an instance of where, again, this word, you know, picture of fire, this is the wrath of God. So all this is an expression in anticipation of these seven trumpets. Here is the wrath of God being poured out on the earth, being cast to the earth. Now, the fact that the fire from God is consistently described as being the wrath of God, coupled with the three passages that promise that church-age believers won't be subject to wrath, tells us one more thing. There's another evidence of a pre-tribulation rapture, of the church being taken out before. Here's wrath. This is the fire coming from out of heaven. This is the wrath of God.

Now, the angel didn't just toss the censer. The Greek preposition here gives the idea that he didn't just toss it towards the earth, he threw it into the earth. This was a violent thrusting. This isn't some sort of a light sprinkling of fire. This is a violent thrusting into the earth. Notice the consequences that get described in this verse. Basically, he comes off here and describes lightning as being one of the things. Flashes of lightning. This is just kind of a small-scale historical sample. Basically we're talking about something that is apparently large-scale, evident, and global.

Do you remember when we were looking at Revelation 4, verse 5? You remember that, don't you? By way of reminder, there were some lightning passages we looked at. Exodus 19 and Exodus 20, what we notice is this phrase that John uses here with the lightning and thunder and that kind of thing has been used before with the Lord on Mount Sinai.

And now after centuries of time, basically about 15 centuries, now we see this same set of phrases returning again. And as we head now into Revelation, we're seeing passages, Revelation 8-5 being the first of these three, and then going on into these next two, we're seeing the same sequence where you see the lightning and the thunder and the sounds coupled with an earthquake.

Now, the last of these series of earthquakes, as told in Revelation 16-18, will be a great earthquake. That one will be what's called a seismos megas. Now, one thing about these, man is going to be powerless to stop it. It's going to be clear evidence God is acting here in this sequence, one after another after another, of these flashings, lightnings, and then the earthquake, that combination. And one of the things that convinces me as I look, this is a prophetic masterpiece, Look at the pattern of the three places where the lightning and the thunder and the earthquake are coupled.

It's always right at the last of each of the sets of seven. It's like clockwork. It's like a machine. At the last of each of the sets of seven is where you find, in this instance we're reading about now, the lightning and the thunder and the earthquake. We're going to read it about again here. at the very end of the seven trumpets, and we're going to read about one last time at the seven bowls. Those three places, these descriptions are given, and the last one is a great earthquake, a seismos megas. Every one of those places where it's described is at the end of each one of these series. This is an unmistakable pattern. It's also another reason to know that the angel didn't jump the gun. This is all in keeping with God's sequence here. Let's take a look at verses 6 and 7.

And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. The first sounded, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. We read here about the seven military angels preparing the seven trumpets.

They're about to sound off in sequence this setting off of these seven military attacks, if you will. A person gets the sense, as they read this, that these angels have a knowledge that something ominous is about to happen. Something globally impacting. Let's take a look at the consequences. We read of the first one sounding, here's hail and fire descend mixed with blood.

It says, these are thrown to the earth. The Greek word here is balo, it's where we get our word ball. And just like you see a pitcher throwing a ball, I think a lot of these days are going 90 miles an hour plus on the pro pitchers, it's that same sense of here's this thing being cast with force to the earth. This isn't just a casual tossing, this is being thrown with force into the earth. This judgment is hurled to the earth forcefully and deliberately. And it's global in scope.

And one of the things you probably already noticed that this matches up in character, but not in scope, was what plague was brought on Egypt in Exodus 9, 18-35. Remember there was a plague that came down and had fire and hail? Now here you see that. It's not just Egypt now, folks. This isn't just one little area. Now you've got something that's just scattering over a large part of the earth.

And as it hits, I think it's important for us to remember something. John talks about hail and fire mixed with blood, and I think we have to allow John the use of a metaphor here. It's possible, I think likely, he's not talking about human or animal blood with hemoglobin and red blood cells, but he's describing something that If you're just using a metaphor to describe it, you'd say, yeah, it looks like blood. It's reddish stuff.

Now, some folks have tried to say, well, this is some certain kind of pollution. It's just human pollution. That's what it means. Or somebody else has said, no, this is just a nuclear holocaust. You know what? That's not what it says. And I think we have to look at it and say, this is what it says. and be careful about making a connect with our current technology and things we're aware of. Because over the centuries, Christians have made the mistake of forcing an interpretation to connect up with what was existing at their time in the way of technology.

Just let it say what it says and figure that it will be quite apparent to those people that it's happening to. So we'll leave it at that. We won't go to some forced interpretation. Besides the direct fall of fire and hail and blood from the judgment, take a look at what happens. What are the consequences of this happening?

When John writes that one-third of the earth was burned up, one-third of the trees and all the green grass. The Greek word for one-third is triton. You might have heard triton. That is one-third. And you'll see this throughout these trumpet judgments popping up again. This one-third figure. Basically it's saying not half, but a good chunk. a significant chunk.

And how many of you have been through situations where you've been around big forest fires? You've been through those and seen some? Nancy and I, when we were living in Carson City, we're in a situation where the mountains right above Carson City caught on fire. And you look outside, you can hardly see across the street. There was ashes, even some of them still hot, falling onto the ground. The grass was kind of dry and it was almost a concern, especially on the roof. That was a real concern.

And that's the image you've got here. With this magnitude of fire, everything is hazy, smoky, people are having trouble breathing, you've got asthma or allergy problems, oh boy. You've got a situation here that's nasty. Not only that, you've lost a huge resource. You had this terrific mess and not only a third of the trees but all the grass gone. Now that is a major problem. That is huge. That's big.

Lots of natural damage, lots of loss of habitat. We spend all these millions of dollars trying to save this habitat and that millions of acres will be lost in this event. You can imagine the creeks and rivers choking with grey, grey ash. You go there to try to fish and all the fish are belly up, floating on this grey muck. Doesn't sound very good, does it? It's a mess, isn't it?

Now, as we look at this, we've just begun going into the tribulation period. And it's just important, again, as we talked about earlier, we're going to be looking for some time at this It's important for us to keep our perspective, isn't it? To keep seeing that, yes, this is a time that's going to take place, but one, believers of this, the church age, will be held from it, and two, Christ will come to the earth after it and restore things.

Furthermore, a great many, and I mean a great many, as a matter of fact, last week we read a great multitude, will, as a result of these awful things, come to the Lord. They will come to a saving knowledge of the Lord. This will not be fruitless disaster. It will be an expression of the Lord's wrath, but it will cause many to come to the conclusions, you know, I don't control life. And I guess I'd better take the provision for salvation that the one who does control life has provided. And many will come to that conclusion. And I think as we look at this, it's important for us to just kind of come to grips with this, because we're going to be looking at this for weeks.

Like I've mentioned before, it's real hard to make a gushy, warm, fuzzy sermon out of this stuff, okay? And yet, at the same time, this is written intended to bless. And it's a blessing because of all the provisions that God has made for us. And one more message is telling us This place we're living on right now with our bodies is not home. Not really. And that's good to count on, isn't it? Because we know where home is. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look to Your Word this morning, it very clearly tells us our home is with You. Even already in our eternal position, untouchable in the heavens, we have a place where we are seated with You. And we can count on that. We will forever be with you. And we look forward to that. And Lord, though many are looking at these passages mistakenly and becoming very fearful of what they read, Lord, we want to look at this and to take hope in the blessed hope of your appearing for us and taking us to be with you. We thank you for the light that we have in you. as we read these words of terrible death. We just give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.