Revelation and the Tabernacle

Twelve Studies on the Key to Understanding John's Visions

by David Gooding

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Myrtlefield House · Revelation and the Tabernacle

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1: Literary Structure

Let me say personally my own welcome and how grateful I am to you all for coming here, some of you from long distances and at considerable sacrifice, to join with us in the study of God’s holy word. I am particularly delighted in the book that we have chosen to study together on this occasion, because here in Revelation, perhaps supremely of all the books of holy Scripture, our Lord Jesus Christ speaks directly to us.

The nature and contents of the book

The revelation of Jesus Christ

The book opens, as you know, with a table of contents, a description of what the book is to be about, and in its very opening words it tells us that what we are about to hear is the revelation of Jesus Christ. That is, the Revelation of which he is the author. It will, of course, also prove to be true that this revelation given by the Lord Jesus is about himself. He is the most prominent figure in all that we are about to see and hear. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘the firstborn from the dead’, who speaks to us both as churches and as individuals. It is true, as he himself points out, that he sent and signified what he has to say through his servant John; and John in turn tells us that he bears ‘witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ’. So, what we are about to hear, says John (and he is reporting what he saw and heard), is the very word of God. So much so that if God opened heaven at this very moment and spoke to us, he would say exactly what he told John to write and what we have here in his holy word.

The testimony of Jesus Christ

Secondly, John says that what he saw and heard is the testimony of Jesus Christ. And here we begin one of the book’s major themes. This is Christ’s personal witness and testimony to us, his people. As he dictates a message to one of his churches (Laodicea) we shall hear him say, ‘I am the faithful and true witness’ (see 3:14). He is referring in particular to the time when he stood before Pontius Pilate, and at the cost of his own life he witnessed to the truth.

Said Pilate to him (if I may paraphrase it), ‘Young man, in spite of my many questions you have been silent, but you had better start talking soon. Don’t you know I have power to crucify you and power to release you?’ And in response to that effrontery, our Lord replied calmly, ‘You could have no power at all against me were it not given you from above. Now I tell you, Pilate, that I am a king. Granted, my kingdom is not of this world, for if it were my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to you or to the Jews. But I am a king, and I have come to bear witness to the truth.’ And Pilate, with his cynicism, said, ‘What is truth?’ (see John 18:33–19:11).

Pilate wasn’t only a soldier; he was a politician. And what do politicians care about truth, I wonder. Little man is obsessed with power, but to almighty God power is a very little thing. It’s his naturally, isn’t it? And we may thank God that, being the Almighty, he is not only concerned with power, he is concerned with truth. Having made his claim before Pontius Pilate to be the true and faithful witness who has come to bear witness to the truth (18:37), our Lord then proceeded to Calvary’s cross to witness to the truth.

If you would know the truth about this universe, the truth about the human race or the truth about yourself, it is that the whole universe, including you and me within it, is the creation of an omnipotent power. We are creatures of God. But the matter doesn’t end there. The truth about you and me is that we were made in the image of God; made to have dominion and one day to share God’s very throne. But, as the book of the Revelation will bear witness, the uncomfortable truth about us and all mankind is that, although being made in the image of God, we have fallen and that image has been disgraced within us.

But now hear that truth, which our Lord Jesus came to witness to in particular: ‘I am the truth,’ he said (John 14:6). As you see him spiked hand and foot by his creatures to a cross, the omnipotent dying for us, that is the truth about you. The God who made you is the God against whom we all have sinned, and the truth about him and the truth about you is that he loves you so much he would give his Son to die for you. And we do well to begin there with the record that the Gospels give us, so that we might be prepared to join with the choirs of the redeemed, saying, ‘To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood . . . to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen’ (Rev 1:5–6). How should we not, if he is the Almighty and would die for us?

And now he’s risen: tell it to the whole world—he is risen! He stands among his churches, saying, ‘I am the faithful and true witness’; and as we come to the end of the book, we shall hear him come out of the shadows and address us personally. You see, in the course of this book, we shall hear many people speaking. God the Father himself and several angels will address us or others. We shall hear the elders, all twenty-four together and sometimes individually. The living creatures, too, will have their word to say, and John will tell us this and tell us that. And when the whole vision is almost over and all other voices are silent, our blessed Lord Jesus will explain all that we have seen and heard. Do you know what it is? It is this: ‘I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches’ (22:16).

That is a remarkable statement. I don’t know that it occurs anywhere else in holy Scripture. There are many times in the Gospels, of course, when he prefaces his remarks by saying, ‘I say unto you’. But here, to that gracious personal address, he adds his personal name, I, Jesus, and every true believer bristles in their heart with wonder. However magnificent the angels are, however awe-inspiring the apostles may be—what a wonder it is when I, Jesus draws near and speaks.

We all remember, perhaps, the wonder of the time when we first heard his voice, and those many occasions during the following years when we’ve listened to him speaking. This week, as we wait together before God, I, Jesus will draw near and speak again.

A book of music and song

Another reason why I am delighted by the prospect of joining you in the study of Revelation is because, perhaps more than any other book in the whole of Scripture, it is full of music and song. I hope you have a good ear for music and are ready from time to time to listen to good choirs. You shall hear plenty in this book, if your ear is only imaginative enough to tune in. For a moment or two in these brief days together, we are going to leave this sorry old world outside and behind, with its din and hate-filled noises—and, if I may add, its curious modern music. We’re going to listen to the music of heaven.

In this book, a veil is drawn aside. Listen attentively, and you will hear the song of your brothers and sisters in the faith from different ages—from Moses and his people as they stood on the banks of the Red Sea, to those in a later day who will come victorious over the beast and stand by the glassy sea (Rev 15:2). You will hear the vast multitudes of heaven in their choirs, singing the great song of redemption; and since we are all redeemed on the same basic principle, we shall understand the meaning of their song. Oh, my brothers and sisters, if you listen carefully, really carefully, you could almost hear yourself singing, for shall you not be there? Listen to the choirs of heaven as they shall sing in the coming day when there will be no more sorrow, no tears, no blinding grief, torture and pain. All who are the Lord’s shall be among that throng, and this is how we will sing when this poor old world is no more and we are at home with the Lord.

Don’t say it is escapism, will you. Perhaps it is a little bit escapist, but then it’s good to escape sometimes, isn’t it? You see, if the Lord spares us, we shall have to go back into the world with all its raucous, ugly din. But for the moment we have come aside to let our spirits be attuned to the lovely music of heaven. Being refreshed ourselves in spirit, we shall listen to other groups of God’s people of the different ages singing their songs of triumph, and as we hear them sing their victory songs, we shall take courage to go back to our battlefields out in the world with a song of heaven’s victory in our hearts.

This book, I know, is not all singing. It is perhaps one of the most serious books in the whole of Scripture, for, as we know, its middle part is largely taken up with the solemn judgments of God that must fall on this evil world at the end of this age. Solemn things they are. But let us observe that the singing we shall hear is not the singing of irresponsible people who ignore the situation around them, and because of their easy circumstances imagine they’re half in heaven already, and with closed eyes and ecstatic spirits they forget the realities of life. These songs come from men and women who have suffered for God and for Christ. You will hear songs from the martyrs themselves. They were not men and women who ran away from life, nor were they people who ignored the sad realities of our world.

You say, ‘How can they sing? If they really look hard and long at this evil world with all its sorrow, drenched with blood and pain, how can they sing?’

The answer this book will give is that they sing because of the assured fact that someone has been found morally worthy to execute the judgments of God that are necessary to bring this world back to sanity, order and obedience to God its creator. The glorious, triumphant assurance of this book is that evil is not going to go on forever. Evil will be put down, and I tell you now, it’s going to be put down in this world. God is not going to wait, and then in the end burn this world up with an admission of defeat that it all went wrong, and the best he can do is to destroy it and start something else. No, no. God is going to have evil banished from this world, and before he brings it to an end he’s going to triumph.

When we hear that and believe it, we feel like shouting, ‘Hallelujah!’, don’t we? At least I hope you do! What person, being in their right mind, wouldn’t say, ‘Hallelujah!’ at the prospect that there’s going to be a judgment? You wouldn’t want evil to continue forever, would you? What sane person could? Some of the most glorious psalms of the Old Testament are those in which the writer is given the assurance by God that one day the Lord shall come to judge the earth: ‘He will judge the world in righteousness’ (Ps 96:13). And the New Testament adds, ‘he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed’ (Acts 17:31). And when the psalmist so writes in several psalms, then he calls upon everybody to clap their hands (Ps 47:1). ‘Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; . . . Let the rivers clap their hands’, says he. I’ve never heard a river do that, but they have my permission! ‘Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth’ (Ps 98:7–9). And if you want to clap I couldn’t forbid you, but do it inwardly. There’s going to be a day of judgment, so clap for all you’re worth!

‘Hallelujah!’, say the choirs of heaven when the judgment has been performed, for the earth has been rid of its evil (Rev 19:1–3). And what touches your heart as a believer surely is this—God is not only going to judge the atheists, his outright antagonistic opponents; he’s going to judge all the misrepresentations of himself and of his Son by perverse and unfaithful religion.

Our aim in studying Revelation

I am delighted at the prospect of reading again these words of the Lord Jesus with you. But, as we come now to some serious study and introduce ourselves to the book, let me first explain to you what it is that I shall be aiming to do. I shall not be attempting a complete, thoroughgoing verse-by-verse exposition. Of course not. That would demand far more time than we have, even were we to stay here for six months. I simply aim to make a small contribution to the study of this book.

It is a difficult book; let us not pretend otherwise. At least, God’s people have found it difficult all down the centuries. As you know, many different approaches have been made to studying it, and many different conclusions have been drawn. And, if you promise to tell nobody outside this room, alas I can confess to you that sometimes the study of the book of the Revelation has led to sorry divisions amongst God’s people. It is curious that it should have been so, but these are the facts. And believers have come, if not physically to blows, to disagreement and have denounced each other as though they were heretics for differing over matters of interpretation. That is surely a lamentable pity. Let us see to it this week, my brothers and sisters, that we don’t fall into that trap. I give forewarning now that some of you may find it difficult to put up with me and my interpretation; and the more so when you already have your own. Should I disagree with yours, please try to love me as much at the end of this week as you love me now!

A focus on literary structure

My contribution will be to examine the book as a book, and first of all its literary structure. There are other notable approaches, such as that taken by the systematic theologians. From their reading of holy Scripture in general and other prophetic books, the systematic theologians come at length to form their system of theology. When they put it in their books of systematic theology, it generally comes under the title of eschatology, or the study of the last things. Then they give in systematic form what they have gleaned from all over Scripture, put into as neat and logically coherent a system as they can, for which, of course, the rest of us are very, very grateful. Let me say at once how personally grateful I am to them, but you will soon find out that I am not a systematic theologian. I think you would need a great deal more brains than I have to be one. I own the importance of that discipline. I have my own system, and you will soon discover what it is. And I may say, I hope with humility, that I’m not ashamed of the system that I hold.

For the moment, I want to concentrate not on any particular system of theology. You see, the slight danger of systematic theology is that it starts too soon when it comes to the book of the Revelation. It comes with a system in mind, selecting this verse and that paragraph and the other chapter to fit into that system. What doesn’t particularly fit into it or seems irrelevant is then neglected. I suggest that before we start our systems seriously, we ought first to consider the book as it stands.

Anyone can see that Revelation is not a book of systematic theology—can’t they? My aim this week will be to study the book as it is. That will involve examining the sections or contributing parts to see what their themes are and how they hang together. I shall be asking what the meaning or general theme of each particular section is, and how it relates to the themes of other sections and to the book as a whole. You will discover that the notes I will be handing out are little more than a table of contents, but they have been so arranged to help us begin to see the interrelation of the parts to the whole book.¹

At this stage let me use an analogy. If I were called upon to describe the human hand to somebody who had never seen one before, I suppose I could describe it this way. It’s a bit of more or less square stuff of flesh and blood and bones and things, with four bits sticking out at the top and one piece sticking out at the side. That’s a table of contents of a hand, but it wouldn’t be a lot of use for I haven’t really described what a human hand is. To describe that, I must describe its function. And not only the function of the hand as a whole, but what the function of each part is and how the different parts all fit and function together. Why, for instance, does that bit stick out at the side and not at the top, and how does it relate to the other pieces that do stick out at the top? In other words, to describe the human hand, I must explain the different parts and their functional relationship.

It is the same with serious books of literature; and the book of Revelation is not only a serious piece of literature, it is an inspired piece of literature. What I want to do with you this week is the very basic or elementary thing, and then you can add the more advanced pieces. What I propose to do, then, is at the ground floor level: to examine how the parts relate, what their function and leading messages are. And then to show how the book is a coherent whole, so that if you left one bit out, you would be damaging the entire fabric.

You may have noticed from your timetable that I am leaving the question time for the end of the week. So, on Friday afternoon, God willing, we are to have a marathon question time. And not only for questions, but for your contributions and necessary corrections as well. I want to reserve those questions, and for the early part of the week get us all, whatever our views, to concentrate on the book itself rather than any particular system of interpretation.²

The structure and major themes of the book

Now I have to explain the other part of the title for these lectures, ‘The Revelation and the Tabernacle’. Perhaps you may care to look at the first sheet that you have been given, because we are to embark on a simple study of the structure of Revelation, and we shall notice that the tabernacle and its details are a very important key to understanding the message of the book itself.

Section One (1:1–3:22)

On the first sheet, I have listed in column one the contents of chapters 1 to 3, and I need to say very little about them now because they are an obvious coherent whole. They contain the vision of our Lord Jesus as the Son of Man amidst the seven golden lampstands (ch. 1). We are told that those lampstands represent the seven churches that he has selected in Asia Minor. Then chapters 2 and 3 relate the messages that he sent to each of those seven churches in turn, and thus to all the churches. When we come to the end of chapter 3 and begin chapter 4, the subject matter changes dramatically.

Section Two (4:1–7:17)

What I have called Section Two begins in chapter 4 with John saying, ‘After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven!’ (v. 1). The first thing to be noticed is that we begin this new section with something opened in heaven. That’s point number one: a door is open in heaven

When John is called up through that door into heaven, he tells us, ‘At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne’ (v. 2). That’s point number two: John sees a throne and it is occupied.

1. Something was opened in heaven; 2. John saw a piece of ‘heavenly furniture’. These two observations are going to prove important, because you will find that the subsequent four major sections of the book begin similarly. Three of them with something opened in heaven and an object made visible in God’s tabernacle; and the final section begins with heaven itself opened.

Pervading theme: the throne of God

But let’s follow column two, which is the description of Section Two of the book (4:1–7:17). The next thing we ought to notice is that when John is shown this piece of heavenly furniture, the throne of God, that throne forms the dominant pervading theme of the whole of the remainder of that particular section. It becomes therefore a key to the understanding of it. I would like you to look at it in the actual text, to see that I’m not making this up out of my own head. Let’s run quickly through these chapters.

Chapter 4

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 round the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Round the throne were twenty-four thrones [and they too were occupied]. (vv. 2–4)

Then the throne is further described:

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 round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. (vv. 5–6)

We’ve had descriptions of the throne and of the one who sat on it. Now we’re going to listen to the thanksgiving and praise of certain of his company (vv. 7–8). Look how they describe God:

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying . . . (vv. 9–11)

Isn’t this all very reasonable in a chapter that sets out to describe the throne of God? On another occasion we shall have to consider what the point is of that description; but let’s continue now to follow the theme through.

Chapter 5

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 strong 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.’ (vv. 1–5)

And John sees a Lamb:

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing . . . And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. (vv. 6–7)

When he does this, there is an outburst of praise (vv. 8–10).

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels . . . saying with a loud voice . . . 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 . . .’. (vv. 11–14)

It would have varied the theme a little bit, wouldn’t it, and made for variety, if instead of saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne’, they’d said, ‘To the Lord God Almighty’, or ‘To our blessed Saviour and Redeemer’, or something of the sort?

But, of course, we are observing the throne of God. We’ve had it described to us, and all the companies that are there in relation to it. And when they give their thanks, it is only natural that they should give thanks to him who sits on the throne. We remember that this section began with a door opened in heaven and a vision of this piece of furniture—the throne of God; and we are already beginning to observe that the throne is the pervasive theme throughout the section.

Chapter 6

Here we have the record of the Lamb opening the seals on the scroll that he has taken from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

‘Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say . . . (v. 1)

And who are they? We’ve just been told that these living creatures are those who are round about and in the midst of the throne (5:6 KJV). They uphold the very throne of God: they are the cherubim.

The seals are opened and on earth there is a series of judgments, until we come to the climax with the opening of the sixth seal (vv. 12–17).

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne . . .’. (vv. 15–16)

The language is exact, of course, but it is understandable. As the heaven is rolled away like a scroll it reveals the sight of the throne, and millions of men and women realize to their horror that what they have stoutly denied and tried not to believe is in fact true. There is a throne, and that throne is occupied. But they learn it too late, and they cry in vain, ‘hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne . . .’ (6:16).

Chapter 7

But now let me remind you that in many otherwise excellent commentaries—and they’re still excellent in spite of it—chapter 7 is very often said to be a parenthesis. It is the account of the sealing of one hundred and forty-four thousand people out of the tribes of Israel, so that they shall not be hurt by these judgments; and the record of a great multitude that nobody can count coming out of ‘the great tribulation’. Wonderful stories. The commentators scratch their heads and wonder why these two things are put in here. ‘What have they got to do with the matter at hand?’ is the question that very often arises, and many of them come to the conclusion that chapter 7 is a parenthesis.

Well, from some points of view, it may be. But not when it comes to our major theme, for look now at how this uncountable multitude that is seen coming out of the great tribulation is described:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne . . . (v. 9)

We may have wandered off in thought, but John is still observing the throne. He’s gone through the open door and he’s standing in heaven; he has seen the Lamb undoing the seals, and the terrible effect on those who saw the throne and prayed to be covered from it. Now his attention is drawn to this uncountable multitude standing before the throne. This is no parenthesis: the vision is proceeding and is, in fact, coming to its wonderful climax.

Does the great multitude cry out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who has redeemed us’?

No, they don’t! They cry,

‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God . . . (vv. 10–11)

At that point one of the elders nudged John, and said, ‘This great multitude, who are these, John, and where do they come from?’.

And John said, ‘I beg your pardon, sir, but I don’t know. You surely know, don’t you?’

So, does the elder reply, ‘These who are arrayed in white robes are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are going to heaven’?

No, no. That is perfectly true, but don’t you notice the phraseology?—‘Therefore they are before the throne of God’ (see vv. 13–15).

It’s coming to the very climax. We heard men and women cry out in their misery; unregenerate men and women, who denied the existence of the throne; and with the sky having vanished, the heaven is apart and they see it. In terror, they cry to the rocks to fall on them and cover them so they will be hidden from the face of the one who is seated on the throne (6:15–16). Now there’s this vast, uncountable throng, and wonder of wonders they’re standing before the throne! How dare they stand before that throne? What gospel message is this, that they can stand before the throne, secure, at peace and accepted? And of course, when we come to consider the significance of the place where they’re standing we shall see that it is full of the most profound theological truth.

But for now our task is to go on and notice the language. Does it say, ‘Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and the God who has mercy on them . . .’?

No, no. What it says is:

Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence [spread his tent over them]. (v. 15)

That’s a lovely alternative, isn’t it? The unregenerate crowd cries for the rocks to fall on them to try and protect them from the face of God; while the redeemed stand before God, and that same holy and almighty God takes the tent of his tabernacle and graciously pitches it over and around them, so that nothing may ever damage them. Oh, what wonderful words.

You see, creation has damaged a lot of us, hasn’t it? Think of the congenitally deformed; think of the earthquakes and the typhoons. Creation has hurt many people. There is coming a day for the redeemed when the one who sits on the Creator’s throne shall spread his tent, his covering tabernacle, over them. ‘They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat’ (7:16). Never again will the created universe hurt the redeemed.

And with that, we come to verse 17 and the final comfort: ‘For the Lamb who died on Mount Calvary . . .’? Well, he did die on Calvary. Of course he did, but that’s not what is referred to in the finale of this section.

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (v. 17)

Under the inspiration of God and in keeping with the central theme of this section, you see how persistent the writer is. He knows the likes of me; my mind wanders all over the place. I think I see what’s not there and what is there I don’t see, and I don’t listen half the time, and I paraphrase it in my own words, and I’m all inexact and therefore make it ten thousand times more difficult to follow the argument. And so God in his mercy keeps repeating the point, repeating the point, repeating the point; until I say, ‘God, change the tune, please, it’s getting a bit monotonous’. And he says, ‘I’m glad you’ve got it at last: that was the point I was making!’ Ah, well, thank God for the repetition then.

The great finale of this section is the Lamb in the midst of the throne. For it is no longer the throne merely of the Creator; it is the throne of the Redeemer. Oh, shout your hallelujah already, if you can! We shall consider it later in more detail, but the throne of the creator of the vast universe is also now sat upon by the redeemer of mankind. And just as creation has served the will of the Creator, so in the days to come it shall serve the will of the Redeemer.

Creation shall not mock us anymore. We have the sense to see what life could be if it was perfect, and if we were perfect. It tantalizes us sometimes, doesn’t it? In this disordered and fallen universe, at first in our youth creation seems to promise all sorts of satisfying water, but when we stoop to drink it sometimes fails to quench our thirst. And sometimes, as the Israelites found in the wilderness, the water turns bitter (Exod 15:23). But there’s coming a day when the Lamb who is in the midst of the Creator’s throne shall lead his redeemed people to springs of living water, and creation shall never tantalize them again. They shall drink to the full: it shall always be fresh and satisfying, and tears of disappointment and pain will be past forever.

Forgive me, I’m not supposed to be preaching at this stage but I get tempted by the wayside. I’m meant to be seriously and solemnly and soberly pointing out the structure of this book, and I will come back to that in a moment.

So far we’ve seen that the second section of the book is one coherent whole, with a pervasive dominant theme running through it that keeps all its parts on one central thread. It was set for us right from the very start, when John saw the door opened and he was summoned to enter heaven, where he saw the throne of God. And therefore the whole section has followed that pervasive theme. If later on we are to interpret these chapters right, we must see from the start that their prime purpose is to talk to us about the throne of God. It is the theme that controls all the parts.

Comment by one of the elders (7:13–17)

Having established the principle upon which this book is organized, we shall see how that principle works itself out in the succeeding sections. For that purpose, let us observe how Section Two finishes. One of the twenty-four elders asks John about the great multitude and then proceeds to explain who they are. It’s no surprise to find that three times over he refers to the central theme of the throne, and with this pertinent comment the second section ends.

Section Three (8:1–11:18)

Chapter 8

We turn the page now to chapter 8 to enquire how the third section of the book will begin. ‘When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour’ (8:1). So now we find that it too begins with something opened in heaven, the seventh seal.

Interestingly enough, in the series of judgments that comes under the seals, the climax is reached under seal six, not under seal seven. After seal six, there come those two stories in chapter seven of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and the great multitude. It’s not until you begin chapter 8, and with it the third section of the book, that we come back to the theme of the seals—‘When the Lamb opened the seventh seal . . .’ (v. 1). So, something is opened in heaven, and we are told what happens,

Then I [John] saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. (vv. 2–3)

Section Three is running true to pattern, isn’t it? It begins with something opened in heaven, and when that something is opened, John sees a piece of heavenly furniture. This time it is the golden incense altar. Maybe he also saw the big altar—the altar of burnt offering. Some commentators dispute that, but let’s turn at once to the help of our model here to see exactly what it was that John saw, and where the piece of furniture was placed in the heavenly tabernacle.³

The ark of the covenant

We’ll ask the demonstrator to take the coverings and the curtains off the tabernacle itself. There go the rams’ skins that were dyed red; here come the goats’ hair curtains that form the tent, all eleven of them now coming off; and underneath them, now also removed, are the ten beautiful curtains of the tabernacle that formed God’s dwelling place.

It leaves before us the framework of the building, which was in two parts. There was the first division, from the doorway up to the veil—the most famous of all the veils in the tabernacle or the temple. It divided the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place that lay behind the veil. In the Most Holy Place was the ark and the propitiatory [mercy seat]. The ark was formed of an oblong box made of wood and overlaid with gold. On top of it as a covering, there was a slab of pure gold, and on each end of that slab, a cherub. The cherubim were looking towards each other, with their two wings arched overhead. This covering is the place where propitiation was made, and it is therefore called in English, the propitiatory. In German it is called the gnadenstuhl, from which we English (having copied the German of Luther, I think it was) also refer to it as the mercy seat.

Let’s stay with that for just a moment. I didn’t say it before, but when we were looking at the throne of God, we were in fact looking at the equivalent of the ark. You see, in tabernacle terminology, the ark was the throne of God, or some of the rabbis said it was his footstool.⁴ For in Exodus 25, when God gave command for the making of this tabernacle, he gave Moses instructions for what the propitiatory, the mercy seat, was to be made of; its dimensions and where the two cherubim were to be placed. And he said, ‘I will meet with you from between the two cherubim’ (see vv. 17–22). That was where God came and stationed himself, and thus why it formed a symbolic throne of God. If you read the later historical books like First Chronicles 13 and the story of how David brought the ark of God up to Jerusalem, you’ll find the ark described as ‘the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord who sits enthroned above the cherubim’ (v. 6). It is where God ‘sits’, and the word implies he sits sedately—sits as a sovereign—on the cherubim. This was the symbolic throne of God. We shall see it again in the course of the book of Revelation, where it will be referred to no longer as the throne, but as ‘the ark of his covenant’ (11:19).

The golden altar

But now notice that in this third section, John sees another piece of furniture. As I say, it may be that he saw the equivalent of the big bronze altar, which was made of wood and covered with copper, at which all kinds of sacrifices were offered. The blood of animals was shed there for the forgiveness of sins. The altar that is going to concentrate our attention in this vision in chapter 8, however, is not particularly that altar but the little altar. Notice that it stands outside the veil in the Holy Place and directly opposite the throne in the holy of holies.⁵ The positioning of those two pieces was not accidental, because they were functionally related to each other.

Day by day, at the hour of prayer the priest would come into the Holy Place and offer incense before God on that little altar made of wood, overlaid with gold. All the people would be standing outside, some in the court, offering their prayers to God. Their priest and representative would be in the Holy Place praying on behalf of the nation and offering the incense along with their prayers. That is why the altar was placed where it was, because as he stood there offering the incense he was addressing himself to God, whom he believed sat, or presenced himself, upon that ark, which was the throne of God. They are therefore functionally related.

The prayers of the saints

Now John is careful to tell us what he saw:

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. (v. 3)

It’s telling you specifically what the function of the altar was—it is connected with the prayers of God’s people going up before the very throne of God. But here we have an exceedingly dramatic thing. John tells us in verse 1 that the seventh seal was opened, and then nothing happened. There was silence, absolute dead silence in heaven for about half an hour. So John just stood there. Everybody stood there. The elders sat on their thrones. Not a word. Silence.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a public ceremony when there’s been a two-minute silence, recalling the heroes of previous wars for instance, and the two minutes seem like an eternity. When you’re on holiday, two weeks go by in a flash. But get a few thousand people together when they’re absolutely silent, and two minutes will seem like an hour. You can just imagine half an hour of silence. If John had had a watch, no doubt he’d have been looking at it, thinking, ‘What’s going to happen now? I wonder who’ll speak first. What will break this silence? Come on, let’s get started!’ Silence.

And then at last there were indications that it was going to be broken. Here come seven angels with seven trumpets (8:2). ‘Oh, there’s going to be some sound now!’, says John to himself. ‘There’s going to be some blasts on the trumpets and that will break the silence. We’re waiting for the first one to begin.’ But that didn’t break the silence, did it? The silence of God was broken by the prayers of the saints.

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer [he had probably got the fire from the big altar], and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. (vv. 3–5)

It’s obvious that this is not simply a little literary allusion. We are here in the presence of a profoundly difficult problem—the problem of evil and unanswered prayer.

You say, ‘There’s a throne in heaven’.

But the unregenerate man says, ‘Well, if there’s a throne in heaven, why doesn’t God do something about the evil in our world?’.

Sometimes, even if they don’t say it with their lips, believers feel it in their hearts, ‘Doesn’t God know what I’m suffering at the hands of cruel and wicked and unjust men? I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed; why doesn’t God hear? Why doesn’t he answer? Why the terrible silence?’

That’s an age-long problem. You’ll read of it in many of the Psalms, as the various psalmists are driven to cry out of broken and bewildered hearts, ‘O Lord, God of vengeance, . . . how long shall the wicked exult?’ (see Ps 94:1–3). When would God avenge his people? This is a profound problem, and it is being introduced to us here in Revelation 8 in symbolic and picture language to help us to visualize it with our imaginations as well as grasp it with our intellect, so that our hearts might find satisfaction in the answer that God is about to give.

Pervading theme: timing

What we now have to notice is the phrase in chapter 8 verse 1: ‘When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour’, and we shall enquire later why it was for half an hour. That being so, we should take note of the reference to time at the beginning of this section, for we shall find that it is emphasized and repeated throughout from 8:1 to 11:18.

They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them . . . (9:5) They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. (9:10) So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year . . . (9:15)

Then, look at this tremendously important statement:

And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay. (10:5–6)

I do not know what Bible versions you have, or what your translation says at that point. Some have it that the angel said that there would be ‘time no longer’, as though eternity were now about to begin. That isn’t what the Greek means. What the angel is saying is that there’s not going to be any more delay; the end is coming soon. As he explains in verse 7, ‘in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled’; saying in a word, ‘Patience yet; it’s only going to be a little while, a very little while, and the great mystery—the good news that God has preached to the prophets—is going to be fulfilled’.

But even though it would be little, there was to be an interval. Look at chapter 11. Here John is given a vision of the temple and is told to

Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. (11:1–2)

Notice the reference to time. Then we read:

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. (v. 3)

See the time element again. Eventually the beast that comes up from the pit is able to destroy them, and we read:

For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies . . . (v. 9) But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet . . . (v. 11)

The idea of time, which was introduced in chapter 8, with the silence for half an hour and its significance in relation to the prayers of the saints, is emphasized again and again and again in these chapters until it reaches the great climax:

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.’ (v. 15)

The comment by the twenty-four elders

The great climax and the comment fit into the dominant theme of timing. So, how will this third section end? Like the second one did: with a comment, of course.

And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.’ (11:16–18)

This has been a literary study, and although we’ve only got halfway through the book we must continue with it a little bit more tomorrow, God willing. As I said earlier, I’m not supposed to be preaching; I’m supposed to be soberly expounding the structure of the book. But who can resist a few comments now and again! It is more than commenting though, isn’t it? It goes to the deep, deep wounds that lie in many a heart: ‘If there’s a God, why does he allow evil to prosper for so long? Doesn’t he hear the cries of his people? Is there a throne in heaven? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Is he not concerned with justice?’

What unanswered prayers there are, and some of them are so personal that we wouldn’t tell another person. We sit here tonight under God’s word, and some of us are saying, ‘Why hasn’t God answered my prayer?’ May he explain it to us as much as he can in this life. He knows the problems and he has some answers to give, so be encouraged my brother and my sister.

‘It’s only a little while,’ says the strong angel, ‘and presently the great secret purposes of God shall be finished. The time will come for evil men to be judged, and the saints and the prophets will be given their reward.’ That’s how the third section ends. Would you have a suspicion as to how the fourth section might begin? Well, I’m not telling you now, for there’s no time!

Shall we just rise and pray.

Our Father, together we thank thee for thy holy word, which is the blessed testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we read it, we listen again to the words of this book coming to our hearts, ‘These are the true sayings of God’. Even tonight, Lord, as we begin our study at this humble level it is impossible for our hearts not to echo the things that have been raised. Thou knowest our hearts; thou knowest our unanswered prayers; thou knowest our problems. Oh God, we praise thee for the assurance from this part of thy word, that thou hast heard our prayers and one day they shall be answered, not only for us but for all thy people down the ages. We thank thee for the assurance that ‘yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and he will not tarry’. Thy purpose shall be fulfilled and the reward shall be given. Bless now thy word to each one of us, we beseech thee, and grant us thy protecting care this night, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¹ See Appendix.

² Unfortunately, we do not have a recording of the question time.

³ A model of the Old Testament tabernacle was present at this series of talks. See Appendix? Photographs of it feature in the book, Drawing Near to God.

⁴ Elsewhere they taught that the footstool of an oriental throne was part of the throne, so it comes to the same thing.

⁵ The terms ‘holy of holies’, ‘holiest of all’ and ‘Most Holy Place’ are used interchangeably in these talks.

2: Strategic Themes

A very good evening to you all. It’s good to see you again, looking so fresh after a marathon day. Last night, when we began our study of the book of the Revelation, I indicated what my main aim or object is in a brief series of studies of this important book. I am not proposing nor shall I attempt to use the book of Revelation as a source from which we can select material to build a systematic theology of the events at the end of the age. That is an exceedingly important thing to do; I am not questioning either the value or the necessity of it. But in the limited time that we have at our disposal, I wish to do something far more simple, basic and elementary; and that is to understand the book of Revelation as it stands in itself. To think together about how it is put together—what its constituent parts are, and how each part contributes to the message of the book as a whole. As I say, this is basic and elementary; but it is necessary to understand the book in its own terms first, before we select material from one part and another with which to build our systems of theology.

Our studies so far

Some of you were not here last evening. We welcome you very warmly now that you’ve come, and admire your perseverance on your long journeys in spite of all the difficulties of getting here. So let me just very briefly indicate what we have done so far. The first sheet that you have before you provides an outline of the six major sections of the book, and we began our study by looking briefly at the first three.

Section One (1:1–3:22)

We found that Section One, comprising chapters 1 through 3, stands by itself as a complete and self-contained section. It is the vision of our risen Lord Jesus in all his glory surrounded by the seven golden lampstands, which represent seven churches in Asia Minor.

Section Two (4:1–7:17)

When chapter 3 comes to its end and chapter 4 begins, the difference in subject matter is immediately obvious. We noticed that Section Two begins with a door opened in heaven. And then, as John is caught up and enters that door he sees a piece of heavenly furniture. It is the throne of God, surrounded by twenty-four other thrones (4:1–4). Next, with John having seen that throne, we found that the throne forms the pervading theme that runs through the rest of the section. In chapters 4 and 5 we see descriptions of the throne, and of the Lamb who takes the scroll from the hand of him who sits on the throne. Likewise, in chapter 6, notably at the climax, our attention is riveted once more on the throne. And in chapter 7, again particularly at the end of it, great emphasis is once more laid on this pervading theme of the throne of God.

We also noticed that this second section ends with what you might call an official comment. It is delivered by one of the twenty-four elders and sums up very appropriately and accurately what has been the theme of the book so far (vv. 13–17).

Section Three (8:1–11:18)

Last night we moved on to Section Three. We noticed a pattern beginning to develop, for Section Three likewise begins with something opened in heaven, namely the seventh seal (8:1). John records that when it was opened, there was a silence in heaven for about half an hour. We noticed that the element of timing, which is introduced early in this section, likewise becomes the pervading theme of Section Three—as the throne was in Section Two. And on your sheet, I have listed for you the references to time and timing that are to be found in Section Three.

We noticed that it ends likewise with what you might call an ‘official comment’ (11:16–18). This time not by one of the elders only, but by all twenty-four elders. Getting off their thrones, they fall down and worship him who sits on the central throne. And as you might expect from these intelligent elders, their comment is once more part of the pervading theme that has gone all the way through this section.

Then we noticed that the major question here is the silence of God, which is a profoundly difficult issue—the problem of evil and unanswered prayer. Why does God seem not to answer the prayers of his people? How long will it be until he rises to put down all evil; in particular, the persecution of his people; and avenges his elect, judges the wicked and gives reward to his servants, the prophets? The elders now celebrate their joy at the wisdom and grace of him who sits upon the throne, as they declare with admiration, ‘The time has come at last [Oh, how long the interval has been]—for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints . . . and for destroying those who destroy the earth’ (see 11:16–18).

That’s how far we got to last evening. Now we must attend to unfinished business and consider briefly the other three sections of this book.

Section Four (11:19–15:4)

We noticed that Section Three comes to its end in verse 18 with a comment by the twenty-four elders. This is one of those places in the Bible where the chapter division introduced by later scholars is not particularly helpful, for the fourth major topic of the book begins in verse 19, the last verse of chapter 11, and you can see how very clearly the pattern is developing.

Just as Section Two began with a door opened in heaven, and Section Three with something else opened in heaven, namely the seventh seal, Section Four proceeds according to the same pattern:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (11:19)

So Section Four begins with the temple of God being opened in heaven. And at this stage, by the term ‘temple’, John would seem to mean the inner temple—the sanctuary, the holiest of all—because he tells us that when it was opened, the ark of the covenant was seen there.

The ark of God’s covenant

As we were reminded in the talks that Dr Lennox gave this morning and this afternoon, the ark of the covenant stood at the back of the innermost part of the tabernacle. That is, in the holiest of all, behind the veil.

Let’s just have a look at it again in the model of the tabernacle. We gave evidence last evening that in chapter 4, when we were looking at the throne of God in Section Two, we were in fact looking at the equivalent of the ark, because in tabernacle terminology the ark was the throne of God. But notice now in chapter 11 that the ark is not called the throne; it is called the ark of the covenant, and that is because it was a box, and inside, among other things, were the two tablets of the law (Exod 25:16). That law was the basis of the covenant that God had made with Israel, which you will read of in Exodus 19 to 24. When Moses was summoned to come up the mountain to meet God, he was given the tablets of the covenant, written with the finger of God (24:12; 31:18). One of the major purposes for the tabernacle being built was that it might house the ark of God where the covenant documents could be preserved.

Ancient Middle Eastern Covenants

When we remember that the ark of the covenant was the throne of God, our minds are directed particularly to the terms under which God proposed to govern Israel. Just let me talk to you for a moment therefore about covenants in the ancient Middle East.

One of the very interesting things to be discovered in the last fifty years⁶ has been the covenant documents of some of the Canaanite emperors. They come from different periods of history, and many of them antedate Israel. The covenants are not all the same, and you can tell the different epochs from which they come by observing their terms. They are not strictly parallel to the covenant that God made with Israel, but they bear certain formal resemblances that make them very interesting and instructive.

These covenant documents issued by the Canaanite emperors were the instruments by which they governed their vassal kings, the republics and other countries that were subject to them. The great emperor would make a covenant with a particular subject nation, and that covenant would be inscribed on clay tablets and read something like this.

For instance, if the emperor in question was Suppiluliuma⁷, it would begin by telling everybody who he was: ‘I am Suppiluliuma: let the world know it’. And secondly, it would record what he had done for this subjected nation—he’d generally beaten them up and conquered them and put them in their place. And then thirdly, there was the demand that they have no other emperor but Suppiluliuma, and not make a covenant with any other body, king, emperor or prince.

With those basic facts established it would proceed to a list of dos: You shall do this; and to a list of don’ts: You shan’t do the other. And, because these Canaanite emperors were old Pagans, it would call on gods galore to witness that this covenant had been made, and warn the subject republic that if it didn’t obey the laws the gods would punish them. Then it would stipulate that the covenant documents should be safely housed somewhere, and that from time to time the vassal king would assemble his people, get out the documents, and read them once again to the people so that they might constantly be reminded of their duty of obedience to the great emperor.

We only have to recite the contents of such an ancient covenant document to see how closely they resemble in outward form the terms of the covenant that God made with Israel (see Exod 20:1–17).

God’s covenant with Israel

In remembering that the ark of the covenant was the throne of God, our minds are then directed particularly to those terms. The Ten Commandments begin with an assertion of the wonder and greatness of the person of God: ‘I am the Lord your God’. Then there follows a description of what he had done for his people Israel: ‘who brought you . . . out of the house of slavery’—referring to his deliverance of them from the land of Egypt and the oppression of Pharaoh. Then comes the straight prohibition: ‘You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them’.

These are the very basic terms of the covenant on which God called for the obedience, loyalty and allegiance of his people, Israel. Then, as we know, there followed an array of dos: You shall do this; and an array of don’ts: You shall not do the other.

When we come to Exodus 24, we find Moses doing what the vassal kings had to do. He takes the Book of the Covenant containing all the words of the Lord that he had written down and reads it in the hearing of the people (vv. 4, 7).

When we come to the book of Deuteronomy as the people stand on the verge of entering Canaan, Moses explains the significance of these terms in detail. In chapter 31 he commands the priests and elders to gather the people together every seven years and read the law to them; he also warns them of what the Lord said he would do if the people were to break his covenant (31:9–13; 16–18). And finally, he calls upon heaven and earth (not upon the gods, of course, for Moses was a monotheist) to witness that God had made this covenant with his people (32:1). The tablets of stone—the Ten Commandments that held the basic terms of God’s government of his people—were kept in the most holy place inside the ark covered by the propitiatory that formed the throne of God, and the Book of the Covenant was put by the side of the ark (31:24–26).

Pervading theme: power and authority

The beast’s demand for worship

If we are right in our diagnosis of the pattern in the book of the Revelation, when the temple of God was opened in heaven, our observation that John saw some object of heavenly furniture, namely the ark of the covenant (11:19), should help us to identify the main theme of the section that follows and its relevance. We can see at once that this reference to the ark of the covenant is not some useless bit of decoration added to make Scripture look nice or something, or to satisfy the antiquarian interests of people who like to do curious research—it is there because it lies at the very heart of what is now to be said.

As we have just seen in God’s covenant with Israel, which was stored in the ark, God proclaims his identity and what he has done for Israel in bringing them out of Egypt. He stipulates that they are to have no other gods, and they must never make images to bow down to and worship. But Section Four prophesies that one day there shall arise on earth the most impious of all dictators who have ever been. Inspired by Satan, he shall not only acquire vast dominion over the nations of the world, but shall also claim divine honours for himself from a willing populace.

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ (13:1–4)

That is ominous indeed, for in the Old Testament that question is used of God himself— ‘O God, who is like you?’ (Ps 71:19). As Moses and the Israelites stood at the far bank of the Red Sea, they looked back and saw that the Egyptians had drowned, and celebrated God’s victory over Pharaoh, that impious tyrant of a bygone age who defied the living God. They sang their song of triumph, ‘Who is like you, O Lord, . . . majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?’ (Exod 15:11). The question is rhetorical, of course, for there is none like Jehovah: ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other’ (Isa 45:5–6). It is a statement, then, of the uniqueness of the transcendent Lord God.

There will come a time on earth when a mere man, goaded and strengthened, if not possessed by Satan himself, will rise up ‘out of the sea’ to domineer the nations. Drunk with power, he will allow the nations to deify him (Rev 13:1–10). Worse will follow, for we then read of a second beast ‘rising out of the earth’. With his ‘great signs’ he deceives the nations into making an image of the first beast so that men and women are induced to bow down and worship it (vv. 11–15).

Who could miss the connection of thought that runs between the opening of John’s vision and these things that are now being related to us? The ark of the covenant, standing in heaven with its initial terms: ‘You shall have no other gods besides me; you shall not make a carved image to bow down to’; and then the second beast, who will induce uncountable multitudes to make an image to the head of the state. In his totalitarian and mad ambition, he will demand ultimate divine honours from his subjects. There shall be hideous days on earth, when a ghastly parody of the Holy Trinity shall come into existence.

We understand that within the Holy Trinity there is the Father, who delights in giving all power and authority to the Son; and it is the delight of the Holy Spirit to glorify the Son of God. But in these last days, a godless world will taste of the harvest it has sown for itself with its atheism. A hideous parody of the Trinity shall arise: Satan, aping God the Father; the first beast, the antichrist, taking the place of our beloved Lord; and the second beast, the false prophet, trying to take the place of the Holy Spirit by using his seemingly miraculous powers to glorify ‘the beast’, the antichrist, and to get all people to worship him.

Comment: The song of the victors over the beast

We don’t have time now, nor do I have the intention to study all the details of this tremendous fourth section of the book—more of that another day. Shall we notice, however, that Section Four comes to an end with a comment, like Sections Two and Three did. But it is neither a comment by one of the elders nor yet by all twenty-four elders.

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.’ (15:2–4)

Once more, you will see how pertinent this comment is to the subject matter of Section Four: ‘those who had conquered the beast . . . sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb’ (vv. 2–3).

Moses had taught Israel two songs. As we have already described, the first was the one they sang when they stood on the far bank of the Red Sea and saw their erstwhile enemy overthrown. Pharaoh had defied God Almighty himself: he had held the people in cruel bondage and ground them down with hard labour and slavery. So they sang, ‘Who is like Jehovah?’ and recounted with great enthusiasm the Lord’s deliverance, so that all the nations around would hear what God had done to Pharaoh and eventually come and bow down to God (see Exod 15:1–18 and Deut 31:30–32:43).

The sea of glass/the laver

Moses and the Israelites sang that song on the banks of the sea—the Red Sea. Those who come victorious from the beast will sing their song on another and a greater sea (Rev 15:1–2). When we come to examine this section in detail, we shall have reason to think that the sea named ‘a sea of glass mingled with fire’ not only reminds us of the great episode that Israel witnessed at the Red Sea, but also as a counterpart to the second vessel in the tabernacle and the temple of God, the laver.

It was a vessel filled with water, but when Moses’ tabernacle was long since finished and God allowed Solomon to build a permanent temple, the corresponding vessel in Solomon’s temple was so large that they called it the sea. And in the vision of the throne of God given in Revelation 4, it is said, ‘and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass’ (v. 6)—just like there was in Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs 7:23ff).

But that’s enough for the moment. I have done enough, if I have shown once more that the book of Revelation is very carefully written. So far the sections have all begun with John seeing something opened in heaven, and then some piece of tabernacle furniture that has proved to be the clue to at least one of the pervading themes in each section.

Section Five (15:5–19:10)

As we now look at Section Five, we cannot be surprised by how it begins: ‘After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened’ (Rev 15:5). Again something is opened in heaven and the whole thing is running true to pattern, is it not?

You say, ‘But the pattern has gone awry now, because this time no piece of tabernacle furniture is named—no ark, no altar, no golden altar’.

That is perfectly true, but then consider what is named:

and the sanctuary was filled smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. (v. 8)

No piece of furniture is seen, but something infinitely more important. The Shekinah glory—the very glory of God himself, the glory of his personal presence is in that most holy place. As the innermost shrine is opened in the heavenly tabernacle, there is not only furniture, there is a being—the all-glorious God. The sanctuary is filled with smoke and no one is able to enter.

Your mind will go back to the inauguration, first of the tabernacle, and then of the temple of Solomon:

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it . . . the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night. (Exod 40:34–35; 38) . . . the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. (2 Chron 5:13–14)

My brothers and sisters, how awesome this book of Revelation is! God condescends to use symbols and figures that are easy for our imaginations to grasp; but may he help us to see that they are not fairy tales, they are symbols of the great reality that lies behind the universe, and God is making himself known.

Comparing the sections

Let’s just notice an interesting thing in the first sheet that I gave you.

If you compare Section Two with Section Four, you will find that Section Two is a description of the throne of God (Rev 4), while Section Four contains a description of the throne of the beast (Rev 13). The dragon, Satan, gives the beast his throne and his great authority (13:2). In our studies, we shall have to consider why there is this parallelism between these two sections.

And if you compare Section Three with Section Five, you will find that in Section Three John saw the golden altar of incense, ‘and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God’ (Rev 8:4). This altar stood outside the veil, and there the priest presented the prayers of his nation before God. The smoke would fill the Holy Place and penetrate behind the veil into the presence of God. In Section Five, ‘the sanctuary is filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power’ (Rev 15:8). There is more smoke, but now it’s not the smoke of the prayers of the saints going up before God; it is God’s personal reaction and response both to the prayers of his people and to the perversions of earth.

Pervading theme: beauty and clothing

The seven angels that execute God’s wrath

On this occasion the angels that come to execute the wrath of God are described in verse 6 of chapter 15. There are seven of them, and they come out of the sanctuary with the seven plagues. As they are going to pour out the seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, how would you suppose they are dressed?

You say, ‘Well, if it’s the wrath of God, surely they’ll be dressed in dark black robes like a lot of old hobgoblins and demons, dripping with blood and oozing, like witches dancing around a cauldron’.

Well, you’ve got a funny idea of God if you think that’s what he’s like. Let Scripture point out to you that when the angels come out with the bowls of God’s wrath, their clothing is indescribably beautiful. They are ‘clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes round their chests’. Solemn as the wrath of God is, there is a beauty in it.

We need to be reminded of that, don’t we? In some churches nowadays, there will be a notice on the pulpit: ‘Please make no mention of the wrath of God; we want the congregation to come back again’. It is true that we may keep it hidden from the public in general, lest it puts them off. And sometimes, when talking about God with our unconverted friends, we’re tempted to apologize for God’s wrath. We admit that now and again God gets angry, and we talk of him like we talk of our next-door neighbour. ‘You know Tom; he’s a good fellow, really. He loses his temper, blows his top and gets angry, but it soon passes over and then everything is nice again.’

Don’t ever let us fall into the trap of talking that way about the wrath of almighty God. His love is not to be ashamed of, and neither is his wrath. His wrath is the expression of his most holy and beautiful character.

The false beauty of Babylon

Beginning with these angels that come out of the sanctuary in their exquisite clothing to execute God’s wrath, this section concentrates on the matter of beauty and clothing. To take just a prominent example of it: in chapter 17 John is called by the angel to come and see ‘the judgement of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters’ (v. 1). He sees this woman riding the imperial monster. She’s very impressive, particularly if you don’t look too closely. Her clothing is gorgeous—purple and scarlet, if you please. She didn’t buy that at any supermarket. Kings and merchants have everything they want, including their palaces and country houses, but even they are open-mouthed at the gorgeous clothing of this woman called Babylon (vv. 2, 5). And in her hand is a golden cup. She’s not from the back streets of some big city; she is the paramour of kings. But her beauty is false; it is a perversion of beauty. Just as the beast (he being a male) is a perversion of power, so this Babylon is a perversion of beauty. More of that on another occasion. The description of Babylon in chapter 18 likewise concentrates on the beauty of that city and the beauty of the queen who sits there.

The true beauty of the bride of the Lamb

But now come to something far more pleasant. Against the false beauty and the clothing of the harlot Babylon, listen to what chapter 19 says about the bride of the Lamb.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (vv. 7–8)

Comment: The response by the great multitude

Section Five concludes, like all other sections do, with a comment. It is a long comment; and for the most part it is musical (19:1–10). Amidst the hallelujahs and praises that have arisen because God has judged the great harlot, finally praise is given for the Bride of the Lamb.

Again the comment proves to be apposite, does it not? It hasn’t wandered off the theme like sermons do sometimes, particularly the ones that I preach. They begin with good intentions on one theme and wander off to another. No, the topic is clothing and feminine beauty, and this comment hits the nail on the head. Unlike Babylon, that old harlot and her dress, the Lamb’s wife has clothed herself in fine linen, bright and pure (19:8).

Brothers and sisters, the wrath of God is not only an expression of his beauty; it is one of those basic powers that will maintain the bright glories of the eternal city that is the Bride, the wife of the Lamb (21:9–10). The wrath of God will guarantee that the bride’s garments will never again be sullied, dirtied or defiled (vv. 7–8).

Section Six (19:11–22:21)

That leaves one more section in the book of Revelation, which begins, at least, true to the pattern. Says John, ‘Then I saw heaven opened’ (19:11). So all the sections, from two to the end, begin with something opened in heaven.

But perhaps again you’re tempted to say, ‘It’s run off course at last. There’s nothing about tabernacle furniture here and nothing about the Shekinah glory of God either; there’s nothing except the rider on a white horse.’

The new Jerusalem

But don’t say it too soon, will you? Look at what the second half of the section is all about. Says John, ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth’. It is that glorious vision of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to function as a dwelling place, a tabernacle for God; and as the Bride, the wife of the Lamb (21:1–3, 9–10). The tabernacle of God forms that great goal to which not only the book of Revelation proceeds but to which the whole universe proceeds.

My brothers and sisters, if it has pleased God to talk to us about eternity in terms of the tabernacle, then we ought to know every little centimetre about the prototype tabernacles that God has built in the course of history. When all dictators are finally put down and Satan himself is cast into the lake of fire; when heaven and earth have fled away and there’s no place found for them and evil is consigned to where evil belongs; and when God reveals what he has been at all down the centuries of the history of this planet, it shall turn out to be the tabernacle of God.

When Israel were in Egypt, they had to be delivered from the tyrant, Pharaoh, and God sent Moses to say to him, ‘Let my people go that they may worship me and serve me’ (Exod 5:1; 7:16). And when they were delivered and free at last, God asked them to build a sanctuary for him where he might dwell among them, and they would be able to serve and worship him (25:8–9). So, as I say, when the last enemy is destroyed and the redeemed are home in glory, the whole point and purpose of it may be summed up in this:

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. (21:3 KJV) . . . and his servants shall serve him. (22:3 KJV)

That’s why we have chosen in these days to talk not only about the book of Revelation but also about the tabernacle. It is one of the key theological concepts both in the Old Testament and in the New. It is a marvellous thing, isn’t it?

I wish I were philosopher enough (but then I’m not), and theologian enough (but I despair of being that until I get home to heaven), to ask myself some profound questions about God. I do understand that he made the universe. There was a time when the universe itself didn’t exist and there was only God. Tell me, you who are philosophers: in that remote eternity before the universe existed, whereas there was no matter, were there two eternal things—God being one of them, and then some kind of a place for God to be? I dare not answer in public, lest the philosophers and theologians want to get at me; but I don’t think the theologians would want to say that there were two eternal things. I think they would want to insist that there was only one, namely God.

God didn’t need us, my brothers and sisters. God is a trinity and there was enough in the holy Trinity to keep the heart of Father, Son and Holy Spirit satisfied. He didn’t need us in order somehow to fulfil himself. But in his mercy and his wonder, self-sufficient God though he is, the amazing and almost incredible story is that the almighty transcendent Lord chose to need us. He felt his eternity would not be what he wanted it to be unless we were there to enjoy, love and serve him forever.

And so God made a universe and a little planet inside it. The Bible talks of the heavens to which God condescends to hold court amongst the angelic beings (see Job 1:6; Zech 3:1; Eph 6:12). But to meet his human creatures, he has to have some kind of dwelling place on our planet where they can come. In the mysteries of his grace, somewhere about the second millennium BC, faithful to his promise to Abraham, he delivered a race of hard-working slaves from the labour camps of Egypt and from the tyrant Pharaoh. Not only did he promise them a land flowing with milk and honey, but he condescended to come down to this very planet. As he stood on Mount Sinai, it shook under the weight of the glory of the presence of almighty God. To these ex-slaves, he proposed his astounding offer. If they had a mind to it and built him a tabernacle, he would come and dwell among them.

As God spoke to Moses, and Moses to Aaron, and Aaron to the people, the instructions emphasized time and time again, ‘If any of you are of a willing heart . . .’ (see e.g. Exod 35:5 KJV). I mean, you don’t get an invitation from God Almighty every day of the week to make a dwelling place for him, do you? But then you’ll observe that he’s not a tyrant like Pharaoh, saying, ‘You’ll make me bricks; and you’ll make them without straw, until your backs are broken and your fingers are worked to the bone’. He’s not like that.

The God of redemption came to his ancient people and he said to Moses, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that if they should find a willingness in their hearts to bring me an offering, then take the offering, and let them make me a tabernacle, that I may dwell among them’ (see Exod 25:1–8). Their gifts contributed to the building and furnishing of the tabernacle.

I can’t really explain to you why almighty God was coming down to live in the slum of this planet among a race of ex-slaves, but that was the divine mercy. And take the hint from this simple early prototype in holy Scripture: forever and forever that will be the divine intention.

The new heaven and the new earth

When John saw a vision of the eternal state, he said, ‘I saw a new heaven’. Ah, but not just that: ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth’.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place [tabernacle] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God’. (Rev 21:1–3)

And we may feel disposed to add, ‘Thank God, it is over forever. Bye-bye, earth; we’ve had enough of you and we’re going home to heaven!’ But that’s not exactly how John saw it: ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the holy city coming down out of heaven, and now the tabernacle of God is with man, so that his people might dwell with him and he among them’.

In one sense, that great heavenly tabernacle is God’s own building. But, just as the ancient Israelites were allowed to build the tabernacle and David prepared the materials for the temple that his son Solomon built, the New Testament says that every redeemed man and woman is offered the opportunity to build on ‘the foundation that is laid, which is Jesus Christ’, and to build the eternal tabernacle of God (1 Cor 3:10–16).

How is your heart? If God came to us tonight, and said, ‘If I proposed that you might make me a tabernacle, would your heart be willing?’ There would arise a mighty chorus from even this small congregation, wouldn’t there? We’d stumble over each other and say to the Lord, ‘Yes, please! What can I do? What can I bring? I, too, have been redeemed from a tyrant worse than Pharaoh, and from a bondage worse than brickmaking in the kilns of Egypt. Without the grace of this unique God and the blood of his Son, I should have perished forever. Please allow me to build and contribute to that eternal tabernacle. By your grace, show me what I can do. I’d work my fingers to the bone until life is done to contribute to that eternal city.’

‘All right,’ says God, ‘you will. But you won’t work your fingers to the bone, because I won’t have that kind of thing. You shall keep my Sabbaths, for my work is perfect rest and freedom.’

Perhaps we haven’t got as far as we should in our study, but that doesn’t particularly matter if the Lord has spoken to us. We’ve already had four or five meetings today, so I’m sure it won’t be any sin if we stop a little short of our time this evening, sing a hymn and then be gone.

May God bless his word to us all.

⁶ That is, since the late 1940s.

⁷ Ancient Hittite king c. 1350–1322 BC.

3: Section One

Part 1: John’s Vision of the Son of Man (1:1–20)

Now, if we’re all ready, we shall begin our morning study. In our last two sessions we have spent the time surveying the structure of the book of Revelation, and now we must turn to studying the first section in more detail. John is relating the tremendous vision that he was given on the Isle of Patmos one Sunday morning, as the Son of Man appeared to him in all his glory, surrounded by seven golden lampstands. John is asked to write what he sees in a book and send it to the seven churches.

The literary form of Section One

It will be useful, therefore, if you have the first three sheets of the notes. On the third sheet I have listed for you what appear to me to be the four major elements in Section One:

A. The Nature and Contents of the Book — 1:1–3

B. Greetings, and Grace from the Holy Trinity — 1:4–8

C. The Son of Man Amidst the Golden Lampstands — 1:9–20

D. Christ’s Appraisal of His Churches — 2:1–3:22

A. The nature and contents of the book—1:1–3

Interpreting the language of the book

We have already considered some of the details of the first three verses of chapter 1, and we need not repeat them here this morning. But let us just notice what it says in verse 1. When our Lord came to make known his revelation, ‘which God gave him to show to his servants—things which must shortly take place, he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant, John’ (KJV). The Greek word sēmainō, translated here as ‘signified’, is held to be very significant by many students of the Revelation. They have argued that the word means ‘to express in metaphorical and spiritual language’, and therefore virtually little or nothing that is to follow in the book of Revelation can safely be understood literally; rather, it is all couched in metaphorical, symbolic and spiritual language.

Now that observation may not impinge directly and immediately on our interpretation of what follows, but it will eventually become an important matter of interpretation. It might repay us therefore to spend a little time at the beginning of our study examining how exactly the word ‘signified’ is used elsewhere in the New Testament.

Shall we turn to the Gospel of John—which I believe was written by the same author as Revelation. In chapter 12 he uses this word ‘signify’ (sēmainō). Our Lord is speaking to the crowd in Jerusalem, and he says as follows:

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. (vv. 31–33 KJV)

First, we have our Lord’s statement: ‘I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself’. Then we have an explanation from John that, by couching his remark in this particular language, he was ‘signifying’ something. This is our word, sēmainō. He was signifying by what death he would die. And so we take the verb that he used on that occasion, ‘lifted up’, and we enquire, what does John mean when he says that by using the term ‘lifted up’ our Lord was signifying his death?

Are we to understand that John is saying he didn’t really mean that when the Lord Jesus died he was literally and physically lifted up; but rather that he was lifted up in some metaphorical and spiritual sense? Well, of course the answer is very obvious at the first level, is it not? When our Lord spoke of his coming death and said that he would be ‘lifted up’, by using that verb he was signifying that he would be literally and physically lifted up upon a cross. He was signifying his crucifixion.

Therefore, we see at once that if the verb ‘to signify’ is used in Revelation, it does not necessarily mean that the language used is merely to be understood metaphorically, spiritually and symbolically. It could mean that the thing being signified is to be understood literally and physically. And of course, we must judge which is which on each occasion.

But let’s stay a moment with this statement in the Gospel of John chapter 12, when our Lord said, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’ (v. 32). And now you perceive that he was signifying not only that he would be literally and physically raised up upon a cross, but that his being raised up upon a cross would mean his being lifted up in another sense, namely spiritually, and proclaimed before the whole world. In other words, he would be lifted up in the eyes of all nations, so that all may see. And in seeing him lifted up upon a cross publicly, it advertised before the whole universe that men and women would be drawn to him and to what he had thereby accomplished.

So, while on this occasion the verb ‘to signify’ is to be understood literally and physically in the first place, the literal and physical meaning does not exhaust the total meaning of the phrase. It is not a question of either literal or symbolic interpretation; it is a question of both. We shall need to remember that too, as we come to interpret the language of this very interesting, imaginative and vivid book.

Symbolic expressions, figures and pictures

Since we have begun to talk about these things, let us pause a moment or two longer to consider the medium that has been used by our Lord Jesus in communicating these things to us in the book of Revelation. For most of us, of course, that is our difficulty, and perhaps sometimes we get a little bit impatient with the Lord—but we don’t confess it. We only wish that he had used much more straightforward speech, and then we wouldn’t need a whole lot of preachers to come and tell us what it means, we could know it for ourselves. Wouldn’t that have been far easier? Yes, it would indeed—and far more poverty-stricken as well.

How then are we to understand all these marvellous pictures and the symbolic language? Some people have felt that they are a kind of code that transmits a message in secret signs. If you know the meaning of the code, then you can decode it and come at the actual message. And I suppose that there is some code in the book; at least there is one notable place where people generally agree that a code is being used. That place is chapter 13, where John, appealing to the wise to understand, says, ‘This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666’ (v. 18). Almost all of the commentators unite in suggesting that this number 666 is a kind of code.

To understand it, first of all you should reflect that in both Hebrew and Greek, the letters of the alphabet were also used for numerals. If you get a numeral like 666 (take it as individual sixes, or take it as six hundred and sixty-six) and you substitute the appropriate Hebrew or Greek letters, you will come up with a name, so the numbers are being used as a code to convey this secret name. Many of the commentators suggest that the reason why a code is used here is because, according to their deciphering of the code, it was the name of the Roman emperor, and it wouldn’t have been safe to publish a book in which he was named and his miserable end foretold.

The Romans were very wary of prophecy-mongering. Although they didn’t believe in prophecy and thought it was a lot of nonsense, if a prophet arose in any part of their empire and his preaching indicated that the Roman empire as a whole or some individual emperor was soon to meet an end, they would be concerned that the general public might believe it, be given a motive for putting it into action, and the Roman empire might, in fact, pass away. So they would get their spies to watch all the hare-brained Hebrew prophets in contemporary Judea to see what they had to say.

And incidentally, perhaps that is why in more recent decades certain totalitarian powers have been so afraid of the preaching of the second coming of Christ, because it seemed to them to herald the beginning of the end of their domination. But that isn’t a code; that is plain talk, is it not?

So, as I say, it may be that there are some places where the Revelation is to be treated as a code; but even then it is not always easy to decipher it. Read the commentaries at this juncture, and whilst they are convinced that ‘666’ is a code you will see that they’re not all exactly sure how to interpret it. Should the numerals refer to Hebrew letters, or should they refer to Greek letters? And alas, whichever you choose, you can make the same numbers and the same letters refer to different names.

I’ll leave it there because I myself shall not be attempting to interpret many details of the Revelation as though they were code. Nonetheless, it is important for us to see that many of its symbolic expressions, figures and pictures were never meant to be treated as code, though sometimes we are inclined to do it.

Let’s take a simple example from chapter 5, where John hears the proclamation and the challenge, ‘Who is worthy to come and take the scroll from the hand of him that sits upon the throne and to break the seals, unroll the scroll, and set into action the judgments that it requires?’. At first, no one was found willing or able to open the scroll, nor worthy either. And John wept much. But presently the angel said to him, ‘Weep not, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the scroll and break its seals’ (see vv. 1–5).

How are we to take the expression, ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah’?

You say, ‘Is this some kind of code?’

Well, watch what happens if you treat it as a code.

You say to yourself, ‘Here we go again, another kind of picture language. Why can’t we have it in plain, straightforward speech? Who is this Lion of Judah?’

So perhaps the angel tells you, ‘This is the Lord Jesus’.

And you say, ‘Well, why didn’t you say that in the first place, and then we should have understood? Why tell us it’s the Lion of Judah? Why can’t you speak plain, straightforward Russian, Hebrew, Greek, English, Polish or what have you? But now that we know that the Lion of Judah is the Lord Jesus, let’s scrap the code, get rid of the reference to the Lion, and put it simply, “the Lord Jesus has prevailed to open the scroll”.’

Ah, but let’s read on in chapter 5. John said, ‘I turned to see this Lion but instead of seeing a Lion, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes’ (see v. 6). Now we’ve got something else. Who is this Lamb, then? It’s rather an extraordinary Lamb, having seven horns and seven eyes, and so you ask the angel, ‘What does the code mean? Who is this Lamb?’

‘Well, it’s the Lord Jesus.’

‘Dear me,’ you say, ‘why didn’t you tell us straight out that it was the Lord Jesus, then we shouldn’t have had any trouble understanding it? How confusing to use a code that one minute says a Lion and then another minute it says a Lamb. How would anybody make sense of it? At any rate, now we know that it’s the Lord Jesus who has prevailed to open the scroll and to break the seals, and we are told that twice!’

But you laugh because it was never meant to be treated like that; it was not a code. Of course, you knew it was the Lord Jesus even before you began to read the book, didn’t you? Any Christian who gets hold of this book would know that there is only one in heaven or on earth or under the earth who is worthy to open the scroll, and that person is the Lord Jesus.

But now comes a question: what is the Lord Jesus like? How do you visualize him? Now behold the wisdom of God in our Lord’s own self-description. What is he like? Well, for the moment, picture a lion. Not a tame, mangy old lion in some zoo in Europe, but a magnificent male lion in the forest, and hear him roar until all the other animals are quiet and bow down. That’s your Saviour—that is the blessed Lord Jesus. Oh, let our minds be helped by this kind of language to grasp with our imagination what we know with our intellect.

Sometimes we use the name ‘Jesus’ and we are far from conceptualizing the wonderful person whose name we use. Do you know who that all-glorious and powerful person is, and where he relied for his power to subdue mankind and draw them to him? ‘When I turned to see the Lion,’ says John, ‘I saw a Lamb as though it had been slain’ (see 5:6). But it was a Lamb with seven horns. Not a ram with just two, curling at the sides of its ears, but with seven horns and seven eyes. A curious mixture that does not exist in the natural world, but a figure necessary to convey the secret of our Lord’s power over his subjects.

And you know what it means, don’t you? How has he subdued your heart, my brother, my sister? Was it that he roared at you until, almost out of your wits, you cowered down to submit to him?

‘No, no!’ you say. ‘The Lion of the tribe of Judah though he is, that’s not how he subdued me. He subdued me by being the Lamb who was slain for me: ‘When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was wounded and slain for my transgressions, although guileless and without deceit himself’ (see 1 Pet 2:23, Acts 8:32, Isa 53:5, 9).

By being lifted up as the sacrificial Lamb of God, he has drawn you to himself, and you have found this divine paradox: the weakness of the crucified Christ at Calvary has proved to be the very ‘power of God for salvation to everyone who believes; for the weakness of God is stronger than men’ (see Rom 1:16, 1 Cor 1:25). He is the Lion, born to be King; he is the Lamb, whose very weakness is the source of his power.

So perhaps that is how we should use much of the symbolic language of this book. We don’t start with the symbol and simply go to some unknown reality as though it were a code. We come the other way and start with the reality; so that what we know of the blessed Lord and other people, things and institutions should now be made vivid to our grasp by the use of this symbolic language.

Concretized metaphors

While we’re thinking about the matter of language, perhaps we ought to notice one other kind of thing that happens. I apologize now in advance that I must use some jargon to explain it. In the book of Revelation, there is what you might call ‘concretized metaphor’. That is a difficult idea, isn’t it? When we say we’re using metaphor, we use a phrase not in its literal sense, but we take a metaphor from the literal world and apply it at another level. But sometimes to gain effect, writers will take a metaphor and put it back into the literal world. Nowadays the people who often do that are cartoonists in newspapers. Don’t jump to the conclusion that I’m saying the book of Revelation is like a newspaper! But cartoonists do take a metaphor and then draw a picture describing that metaphor in literal terms. For instance, the cartoonist wants to say that the prime minister of the country has shut the mouths of his cabinet by bribery. I don’t know what country that would happen in, of course; it’s just a made-up illustration. So the cartoonist draws a picture with all the cabinet ministers sitting in their seats in Parliament, and strapped right across their mouths are banknotes. You can see in the picture that they can’t open their mouths to say anything because they’ve got money stuck across their mouths. So what is the cartoonist saying?

‘Well,’ you say, ‘he doesn’t mean it literally. If you went into Parliament, you wouldn’t see them there with bank notes stuck across their mouths. Of course you wouldn’t!’

Oh, he means it metaphorically. Now I’ve got the idea. So the bank notes aren’t real in this case, and the mouths aren’t real either—none of it is real. And when the picture shows politicians, it doesn’t mean real politicians; it means symbolic politicians.

‘No, no, no,’ you say, ‘you haven’t understood how cartoons work. The politicians are real enough, even to the seats they sit on in Parliament; and they’ve got real mouths that should be open and speaking. The only thing that isn’t to be taken literally is the banknotes across their mouths. The banknotes are real, but they’re actually in their pockets and in their bank balances. This is a picturesque way of saying that the prime minister has shut their mouths by bribery. And what the cartoonist has done to get this striking effect is to take a metaphor, “he has sealed their mouths”, and put it in the picture as though it were a literal thing: mouths sealed with literal bank notes.’

There is a famous passage in the book of Revelation that describes the thousand-year reign of Christ. It begins by saying, ‘Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand a great chain, and he got hold of the devil and chained him up in the abyss, and sealed it over him. And then Christ reigns for one thousand years’ (see 20:1–4). Now, however we view that passage, we must be careful what use we make of the imagery. Some have said that the chain can’t be a literal chain, so it’s no good asking what the chain is made of. Well, ‘not a literal chain that we know of in our world’ would be the better way of putting it. I couldn’t begin to describe for you what chains God uses in the spiritual realm: ‘God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgement’ (2 Pet 2:4, see also Jude v. 6). They are, however, a great reality. But in Revelation, if the picture of a chain such as we know it is not to be taken literally, couldn’t it be quite a false argument to say that none of the rest of that passage is to be taken literally? The whole thing could be in the nature of a very exalted and God-inspired cartoon.

But enough of all that. I have wandered a bit from our task, which is to interpret the first major section. But perhaps these observations may be a contribution to the interpretation of a book that is so filled with a variety of similes and metaphors of all kinds, as well as symbols, and make us aware that the symbols and metaphorical language are not given to becloud things and make it difficult for us to understand; they are meant to enrich our apprehension and encourage us to use our sanctified imagination, so that we may feel with our hearts the things that we learn with our heads.

A prophecy to be kept by obedient living

Now we come back to where we started, The Nature and Contents of the Book. Shall we notice the third element: ‘To reap its blessing the prophecy must not only be read and heard, but kept’.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (1:3)

From this we must notice the very practical point: the prophecy has to be kept. It is not just an interesting exercise in trying to lay out some timetable for the future that we can enjoy as a theological game and then forget as we go about our practical living. The book of Revelation is intensely practical. Just like all the other words of the Lord Jesus, these prophecies are to be kept in our hearts and memories. We are constantly to think of them and keep them by obediently living in the light of them.

For instance, when presently we shall hear the command given to the people of God, ‘Come out of Babylon, my people’ (see 18:4), it is a command to be obeyed, for it comes from the living Lord himself. We are to ‘keep these things, for the time is at hand’ (see 1:3). And here we may usefully remind ourselves that while the bulk of the book of Revelation refers to the future, it was the standpoint of the church from the very beginning, given by the risen Lord, that his coming was at hand. Says John in his epistle, ‘Children, it is the last hour’ (1 John 2:18). The church in all its generations has been called to live as though it stood on the threshold of the coming of the Lord Jesus. And I needn’t point out the urgency that it gives to our study of his word, to our understanding of it and to our obeying it. The Lord is at hand—‘Surely I am coming soon,’ is his last voice to us in this prophecy (22:20). And we show our readiness for his coming by the way we read it and, by his grace, keep it in our hearts and determine to obey its implications.

B. Greetings (from John), and grace from the Holy Trinity—1:4–8

Greetings from the Apostle John

It was, of course, a formal part of letter writing in the ancient world that the author would announce his name at the beginning. In many societies at present, when we write letters, we put our name at the end. Nevertheless, we generally begin with some honorific term for the person that we are writing to: ‘Dear sir’ or ‘Sehr geehrte Frau’ or something. And then we sign ourselves, ‘Yours faithfully’, ‘Yours sincerely’, ‘Yours very truly’ or something. Whether it is, in fact, always the truth is a question that could be debated. Some of the biggest lies that ever walked the earth have been concluded by the phrases, Yours sincerely and Yours truly, but these are the formalities of letter writing. And so, when John was commissioned to write this work to the churches, he now begins by stating his name: ‘John to the seven churches that are in Asia’ (1:4).

Grace and peace from the Holy Trinity

As you see, the greeting is followed by the grace.

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 his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. (1:4–5)

The grace certainly was not a formality. John’s greeting to the church was not a formality either; it was sincerely meant. ‘Grace and peace to you,’ he says, ‘from the whole of the blessed Trinity.’ Grace and peace are not just formal words in the New Testament; they are the expression of the very heart of the gospel, for in God’s revelation and in his word he communicates his grace towards us in all the varied wealth of its different senses. Basic to the very gospel he proclaims is this glorious fact of the divine grace:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8–9)

Even this morning the grace from the blessed Trinity conveyed by the Lord Jesus comes to us. Says John elsewhere, ‘And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace’ (John 1:16). It is good that we listen to the greeting from the holy Trinity as we read this book. It is meant to minister the grace of God to our hearts: indeed, the saving grace of God to our hearts. It is not just an intellectual exercise to be enjoyed by theologians of that particular bent, but meaning very little. It conveys grace—saving grace.

Now sometimes we have a very curious attitude toward holy Scripture. All believers would go to the stake if need be to testify to their belief that the Bible is the word of God; but somehow we don’t always get around to reading all of it, do we? As a preacher, I often hear the advice of elders in a church—over my shoulder, so to speak, real or imaginary—‘Now do be practical’. And I know what they mean. It is possible to expound Scripture in a very unpractical way, isn’t it? But that’s not the fault of Scripture; that’s the fault of the expositor. Scripture is everywhere exceedingly practical. There is not a comma in the whole of Scripture that isn’t aimed at our salvation. We need God’s word in the ongoing process of being saved, and this book of Revelation is no exception to the rule; it conveys to us the saving grace of God.

With his grace comes peace. Not just the superficial peace of prosperity and good health, but a profound peace—‘peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom 5:1). We do well to listen to these words of grace that come to us from the holy Trinity. We are about to listen to some tremendous outpourings of God’s wrath, and were we not already founded and established in his grace; if we didn’t really enjoy peace with God in the depths of our hearts; then a serious study of the judgments in this book would surely unsettle us and fill us with foreboding and fear. In his great mercy, therefore, before the subject matter of the book begins, God, who is its author, assures us of his grace in salvation and the consequent peace that we may enjoy with him.

‘Grace and peace’, then. But notice now that, unlike many of the epistles, it doesn’t proceed with ‘Grace and peace from God the Father’—though, of course, he is referred to here. Grace and peace come to us from the Trinity, but look how they are described. First of all, he whom we call the Father: ‘Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come’. Similarly, the Holy Spirit is not here referred to simply as the Holy Spirit, but as ‘the seven spirits who are before his throne’; and the Lord Jesus is described by the words, ‘faithful witness, firstborn of the dead and ruler of kings on earth’. So it is telling us that if we would enjoy the grace of God and his peace in all its fullness, then we must learn to grow up in our knowledge of the persons of the Trinity.

The Father

When we are at the beginning of our spiritual pilgrimage, isn’t it lovely to come and learn of God as our Father? Redeemed by the Lord Jesus, we have felt the Father’s arms of welcome around us, and, like a little infant in its father’s arms, we lift up our hearts and our faces to God our Father. Though we know very little of him and his ways, we breathe that holy word, ‘Abba’—Father, Dad (Rom 8:15). God the Almighty is my Father. Marvellous! And all the children in God’s family, even the little children, know instinctively by the Spirit of God dwelling in them that God has become their Father. But while we shall never forget it—and in one sense, we never get beyond it—we have to grow up and learn that the members of the Trinity are bigger than we might have imagined when we first came to know them.

We learn from this passage that our Father is to be understood as him who is and who was and who is to come: he is in the eternal present.

Him who is

The message that he gave to Moses at the burning bush when he was sending him to deliver Israel from bondage to Pharaoh was, ‘I am who I am: Go tell my people, “I am has sent me to you”’ (see Exod 3:14). He is the great eternal God. As our Lord Jesus pointed out to the Sadducees, all live to him, for he is in the eternal present: ‘He is not the God of the dead, but of the living’ (Matt 22:32). If you went to God at this moment and said, ‘God, did you know Abraham?’, you would be gently corrected. ‘What do you mean, did I know Abraham? I know him now. There he is. Look!’ All live to God in his great unchanging eternity of being.

So this morning, my brother and sister, ‘Grace to you, from him who is’. We are tiny little creatures of time, but if you have come to know God through Jesus Christ, you know him who is; and the relationship he has formed with you is eternal. ‘This is eternal life: to know the only true God’ (see John 17:3).

Him who was

And he was—always was. Go back in time past as far as your mind will allow you; it is still true that God always was.

Him who is to come

And he is to come. Of course, that does imply that he will always exist; he’s never going to retire or give up or decease. But it means more than that, does it not? The Greek verb ‘to be’ (in the future) could have been used: ‘he is about to be’ or ‘he will continue being’. However, he prefers to use the verb ‘to come’: he is the coming one. What a lovely set of ideas it raises in our minds. Listen to the Psalmist as he surveys the troubles of this evil world; he calls on us to rejoice, for the Lord comes (see Ps 96:11–13).

You cannot read the great procession and cavalcade of Old Testament revelation without perceiving that all down the ages, God was ever the God who was going to come. He always had something new to bring out, something new to get started. If you thought that he had exhausted his capabilities by planting a garden in Eden, then you were mistaken, weren’t you? For when he got Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness of Sinai, you might have asked yourself, ‘What could God do in a wilderness like this?’ Well, he built a tabernacle, of course, and brought the great realities of the eternal heavenly world into time, and turned the very wilderness into his dwelling place. God is not hard up for ideas!

Then he, the God who was to come, had another idea, if I may put it that way. It wasn’t the physical, literal tabernacle made of wood and silver and such where he came to be among his people, but rather ‘the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us’ (John 1:14). Oh, think of the fertility of God's imagination, ideas and purposes. He was always to come, and he’s still to come. What magnificent plans and counsels God has, and he tells us about some of them in this book of Revelation.

The Holy Spirit

And then grace and peace are said to come from the seven spirits who are before the throne. We’re used to thinking of the Holy Spirit as the counsellor who has been sent, the comforter and the advocate within us to lead and guide us individually and corporately in the churches. And that is perfectly true and marvellous and wonderful. But he’s bigger than that. He can be described as ‘the seven spirits who are before the throne of God’.

Another passage describes him as ‘sent out into all the world’ (John 16:7–11). And when the earth was without form and void, it was he who hovered over the face of the deep and brought into existence the world that God had planned and now commanded to be created (Gen 1:2). The Holy Spirit has since been abroad in the earth; Zechariah knew of that and talked of it in his prophecies (6:5). He is ‘the seven spirits before God’s throne, sent out into all the earth’. And we know him now as having come on the day of Pentecost in a special sense that he never had before, to abide and dwell with God’s people and to lead them home to glory.

He concerns himself not merely with the church; he works in the world. He is the great executor of the will of God. You see, things do not happen automatically. If I can take our own Christian experience as an illustration, you may say that, on the one side, God has elected us, he has called us, he has justified us, and, says Scripture, he has glorified us (Rom 8:30).

You say, ‘That’s the purpose of God, and God has decided it. And because he’s decided it, it will happen.’

Well, thank God, it will. But it doesn’t happen mechanically, does it? As that very same passage indicates, those purposes of God take place because the Holy Spirit, who is residing in the hearts of his people, makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; and by putting out his divine energies he effects in our lives the fulfilment of the promises and purposes of God (Rom 8:26–30). And so the Holy Spirit will do for all God’s great purposes in the world.

Jesus Christ

Then notice how the Lord Jesus is described:

And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. (1:5)

Our Lord is described first of all as the faithful witness. He is that still, of course, but as we found the other evening when we read of our Lord Jesus as being the faithful witness, it will remind us especially of him, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession (1 Tim 6:13). He now calls upon us his people likewise, to witness faithfully as he witnessed. It cost him his life; it could cost us ours. He is the faithful witness.

He’s risen now and is here described as the firstborn of the dead. Colossians comments that he is the firstborn from the dead that in all things he might be first—first in creation and in the church (1:18). ‘Grace to you from him, the firstborn of the dead.’ It will strengthen the sense of God’s grace in our hearts if we can maintain that concept. Being the firstborn of the dead, our Lord Jesus is the head and Lord of the church. And when we gather in church, we come not simply to meet one another or to hear gifted preachers; we come to meet the Lord and head of the church and to submit ourselves to him.

And then he has a future role. He is the ruler of kings on earth. And that applies predominantly to his coming reign. In the interpretation of this book we shall see that it is very important to distinguish between the general kingdom of God—his reign that has gone on all down the centuries—and the messianic reign of Christ. God has never abdicated: he exercised dominion amongst the nations by raising up a Nebuchadnezzar if he pleased, and then put him down if he pleased so that Nebuchadnezzar might learn that the Most High God rules in the nations of men (Dan 4:32). We must distinguish between that and the messianic reign of our Lord Jesus, as Daniel did. It would be a confusion of thought, surely, to suppose that our Lord is reigning now in the messianic sense. That reign is to come, and we await his coming when we shall reign with him. As he himself indicated in his parable, just like the nobleman who went into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return, he has gone away (Luke 19:11–27). One day he shall come again, and then he shall sit on the throne of his glory and all the nations shall be gathered before him.

Ascription of glory and dominion to Christ

Having addressed who Jesus Christ is in his person, the passage now speaks of what he has done.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will [mourn] on account of him. Even so. Amen. (1:5–7)

He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. That is the negative side of it: he freed us from the chains of our sin and our guilt. Now positively, he has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. And the thought of it leads John to an outburst of praise: ‘to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.’ As his people we yield that dominion and glory to him now, don’t we?

But that’s not the end of the matter: to fulfil the messianic programme, John adds verse 7, or rather, the holy Trinity does: ‘Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will [mourn] on account of him. Even so. Amen.’

‘Grace to you’: not only in your relationship to God the Father and to the Holy Spirit, but to the Lord Jesus who loved you and died for you at Calvary, who even now has made you a kingdom of priests, and presently is coming again. Oh, how our hearts excitedly look forward to his coming!

Declaration by the Lord God

And with that, the blessed Trinity, in the person of the Father, intervenes to talk to us directly.

‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’ (1:8)

Alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, tell us that God has the first word and God will have the last. That’s lovely in and of itself, isn’t it? It was his word that brought the universe into being. There’s been a babel of voices since then—proud men announcing their schemes and intentions—but God is going to have the last word, as he had the first.

There’s more to it than that. He’s the first and the last letter, and all the letters in between. It’s by knowing this language that you can read. If you don’t know the alphabet you can’t read, can you? Would you like to make sense of history? Is there any meaning to it? Is history going anywhere, or is it just a noise of endless monkeys and fools signifying nothing in particular? Well, if you’re going to make sense of history, you’ll have to learn this alphabet of all alphabets. It starts with God, Alpha; and it goes through all the letters until it comes to Omega. Anybody who can’t read this language is ignorant of the things that matter most.

Christ not only is the Word—the one who is and was and is to come—but notice that it is not only words: he has almighty power and for him to speak is to act, and to act is to speak. There is one translation of a verse in the Epistle to the Ephesians that says that God is going to ‘sum up all things in Christ’ (1:10 ASV). The verb can mean a number of different things; I like the translation that says he’s going to sum-up like an orator in the ancient world would sum up his speech.

The ancient Greeks, not to mention the Romans, loved oratory. They didn’t have television then, mercifully, and they worked out all their theories of how you should present a good speech. You had an introduction, which had to have this and this and this element; then you had the main sections, generally one, two and three like all good preachers do (and I don’t); and then there was a conclusion because, by the time the speaker had got to his last paragraph, you’d forgotten what he said at the beginning. Isn’t that true of any sermon? So any orator worth his salt, when he got to the last paragraph, would go over the whole business again: start at the beginning and show how it all fits together. That was the summing up and I love the idea that, when history is done, God shall sum up what he has been saying all the way through. I’d like to know, wouldn’t you?

In my childish kind of mind, sometimes I think of the day of creation. In my imagination I see God making the world and I say, ‘That’s interesting’. And when he makes the beasts and the giraffes, I say, ‘Lord, what are you doing? What do you mean by creating giraffes?’ (Did anybody ever see the point of giraffes?) And then here come these humans, and I say, ‘Lord, what were you saying—what did you mean by creating humans? I mean, my brother over there is a good chap, but whatever did you mean by creating him? What were you saying? And all down the ages of history, what were you saying with the nations?’

Thank God for him who is the Word of God, who spoke God’s message and conveyed his meaning impeccably. But you know, the trouble with a lot of the alphabets and parts of God’s speech is that the ‘letters’ were independent beings. It would be difficult to write a book if the letters could get up and run off and say, ‘I don’t want to be spelt in this way and stand in that connection in this particular word. I have my own ideas of what I mean.’ And I can tell you that God has had great difficulty with some of us characters!

Part 2: The Seven Churches (2:1–3:22) ⁸

The seven churches (2:1–3:22)

This morning we considered the preface to the book of Revelation. First, its nature and contents (1:1–3); and then the greeting given by John and the grace pronounced upon us by the Holy Trinity themselves (1:4–8). Now we must come to the major vision that fills the greater part of the first section of the book. It is the vision given to John of the Son of Man in his resurrection glory, surrounded by the seven golden lampstands symbolic of seven of his churches.

C. The Son of Man in the midst of the golden lampstands (1:9–20)

Why the vision occurs at this point in the book

I suppose the first question that will come to our minds is, what has this vision of the Lord among these seven churches got to do with the rest of the book, which at first sight seems to be so very different in its subject matter, as it is concerned with a great series of judgments that will fall upon this world at the end of the age? Why preface it all with this particular vision?

The entire book is for the benefit of the churches

The first answer that we could give to such a question is a straightforward and simple one. The whole of the book of Revelation was written and directed to these seven churches. It is not merely that John was asked to write down certain messages to them, which the Lord dictated to him. Everything that the Lord Jesus gave him throughout the whole of this book, John was to write in a scroll and send it to them, and when we come to the end of the book, he makes sure that we have understood that point: ‘I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches’ (22:16). The whole of the book was written for the churches themselves and for their edification, including those long and terrible descriptions of the judgments that must come, as well as our Lord’s personal messages to his individual churches.

It may be that sometimes we are drawn particularly to the seven letters to the churches because we recognize our own situations in them and feel that the Lord is speaking to us, and the whole subject matter is very practical. We might be inclined to dismiss or neglect the rest of the book because it seems to be way beyond our experience and to have little practical relevance. We must resist that, because the Lord Jesus emphasizes that it was he who decided the book’s contents and he knows what is best for us, what spiritual diet is for our good, and he told John to write the whole of this book ‘for the churches’.

Both contemporary and future things are addressed

The second answer that we could give as to why this vision stands at the beginning of the book would also be a fairly simple one. In that description of the contents we are told that the book of Revelation is explicitly concerned with the things that John will see: ‘those that are and those that are to take place after this’ (1:19).

There are roughly two divisions, then. In our Lord’s description of the churches, he told John of the things that are—that is, as they were then. All seven churches were contemporary with the apostle himself, so they could rightly come under the title, ‘the things that are’. After that there are many things, the majority of which can be summed up in the second part of our Lord’s description, the things that are to take place after this—and it is logical that the things that were contemporary with John should be dealt with first, and the things that still lay in the future should be put second.

Judgment begins with the house of God

Of course, when we have given those two straightforward and simple answers to our question of why this vision stands here, there is a deeper and perhaps more important answer to be given. As I’ve said, the rest of the book is largely taken up with a long, serious and solemn series of judgments that fall upon this world as the Lamb opens the seals of a scroll. When he opens the seventh seal, seven angels blow their seven trumpets (Rev 8–9); and then, after seven other angels pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God upon this apostate and wicked world, a great voice comes from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ (Rev 16:17).

But if we are going to consider the judgments of God, then we could well remember a general principle of his judgment, which is enunciated by Peter in his first Epistle:

For it is time for judgement to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Pet 4:17)

Here, then, is a declared principle of God’s judgment, as stated in the Old Testament and repeated here in the New Testament: judgment begins with the household of God. And if, from Revelation 4 onwards, we have a description of God’s judgment poured out upon the wicked world, then by God’s own deliberate principle we begin with a description of the living Lord and his judgment of his churches.

Symmetry, symbolism and structure

Notice with me now how that point is made by the symmetry of the symbolism, and by the very structure of the book. On sheet one of the notes, we return to the fact that the book is composed of six sections. In the first of those sections, there is this glorious vision of the Son of Man standing among the seven lampstands that represent his seven churches. In Section Six, there is another vision of this self-same person as he comes out of the opened heaven, riding a white horse, to execute the judgments of God on this evil world. I’ve listed one of the details of the description that is given of him: ‘From his mouth comes a sharp [two-edged] sword with which to strike down the nations’ (19:15). We are left in no doubt as to the function of the sword—its very nature warns us how it will be employed. But when now the figure comes out on a white horse with a steel sword proceeding vigorously from his mouth, we are told that he will smite the nations with it and thus execute the judgments of God on this evil world.

Now look back to the description of him in Section One as he stands among the seven golden lampstands and addresses his churches: ‘In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword’ (1:16). And if in chapter 19 the sword indicates the judgment of the coming Lord, in chapter 1 it does the same. It reminds us of what holy Scripture says elsewhere. Talking to believers in the epistle written to the Hebrews, the writer says, ‘the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword’. No one is hidden from his sight; all must give account to him (see 4:12–13).

The nature of Christ’s judgment of the church

Perhaps we ought to pause for a moment and consider the nature of Christ’s judgment of the church.

The sparing of God’s people from the final judgment

Evangelicals in general have emphasized, and rightly so, the great assurance given to us by our Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John,

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. (5:24)

They have rightly emphasized that verse, because it is true; and because it is a statement from the one who will be the judge on the final day. ‘The Father judges no one,’ he explains, ‘but has given all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father . . . who sent him’ (John 5:22–23). It is the judge who stands before us with this tremendous and comforting word: ‘Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement . . .’.

Other Scriptures confirm that assurance. For instance, in Hebrews 10 the Holy Spirit himself bears witness to this very thing. In the course of explaining that the sacrifice of Christ never needs to be repeated or supplemented by any other sacrifice, he gives us the reason. He points to the terms of the new covenant that Christ has inaugurated, in which God says, ‘their sins and iniquities will I remember no more’ (v. 17 KJV). When God has so solemnly promised and guaranteed that he will not remember your sins and iniquities anymore, and when such forgiveness is given to you by God and guaranteed by the blood-sealed new covenant that Christ himself has inaugurated, you don’t need to offer any other sacrifice for sin. ‘Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin’ (v. 18).

These are magnificent statements to comfort and buttress our hearts; first of the blessed Lord Jesus and then of the Holy Spirit. And Paul likewise: ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 8:1).

At this stage, we need to make sure that we have understood what God means when he promises not to remember our sins and iniquities anymore. Some people have gained the impression that God will somehow forget that we have been sinners; and we shall also likewise forget. But that is not what the verb means, is it? The choirs of heaven shall sing eternally, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain’ (Rev 5:12), and we shall not find ourselves asking one another, ‘Why was the Lamb slain? I seem to have forgotten.’ As God the Father looks upon the wounds of his glorified Son, he shall never have to say, ‘I can’t think now why my Son bears those wounds’.

For all eternity neither God nor we will forget that we have been sinners. It shall not detract from the joys of heaven; it shall add to their depth and the wonder of them. No cheap heaven this: no imitations adorn the walls of that heavenly city, but costly jewels crystallized in the very fires of Calvary. We shall sing even then, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain . . . and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation’ (see 5:9, 12 KJV).

God’s present judgment of his people

When we who have trusted Christ have remembered those Scriptures which tell us that we shall not come into judgment, we must also bear in mind other Scriptures which tell us quite plainly that God does judge his people. For instance, Peter says,

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Pet 1:17–19)

Here Peter asserts the solemn fact that the Father is exceedingly critical of the way we spend ‘the time of our sojourning’ (KJV). Then he says,

He [the Lamb] was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. (v. 20)

You might ask, ‘Why wasn’t he revealed forthwith at the foundation of the world, or immediately Adam sinned? Why was he made manifest in the last times?’

The answer Peter gives to that question is that it was for you—God has been waiting a long time for you. And what is more, says Peter, he has paid for your redemption with the blood of his Son (see v. 19). How precious was that blood; and how futile and empty your former way of life was. So be careful now how you spend your life, when the cost of redeeming you has been so great. God will not look lightly upon men and women who take redeemed lives and squander their hours, minutes, days and years on empty living.

Other passages of Scripture likewise make it clear that Christ the Lord judges his people. In the letter to Laodicea, Christ reminds them, ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent’ (Rev 3:19).

The new covenant

Above all others in the New Testament, there is one passage particularly which discusses at some length Christ’s present judgment upon his people. It is in 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul is referring to behaviour at the Lord’s Supper, reminding us that when we take the cup of wine, it is the new covenant in Christ’s blood (v. 25). Therefore, it is exceedingly significant. When we meet together and remember the Lord Jesus in the way he appointed for us, and he himself hands us the cup, saying, ‘This is the new covenant in my blood’—whatever else we do and say, surely we should remember what the terms of that covenant are.

The same covenant that promises ‘your sins and iniquities I will remember no more’, says first, ‘I will put my laws on your heart, and write them on your mind’ [so that you shall do them] (see Heb 10:16–17). And when we come on that glad but solemn occasion and take the cup of the Lord, are we not saying, ‘Lord, I stand by this covenant; please continue to put your laws on my heart’? Therefore, in view of what the purpose of that cup is, if I am serious in attending the Lord’s Supper I shall see to it that I come prepared to discern the Lord’s body. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:28, we are to examine ourselves, judge ourselves, and where we have sinned, confess it and seek the Lord’s pardon. He says that if we were to judge ourselves like that, ‘we would not be judged’ (v. 31).

Even as I stand here before you, I must surely have the sense to know that all is not well with me. There’s many a twist, many a falsehood and many an unclean thing lurking within me. I know it, and those who know me best know it even more. I’m not yet where Christ would have me, and I’m called upon to discern myself in line with what the Lord covenants to do in his new covenant. I am to take his word and ask him to search my heart and see if there be any wicked way in me, so that I might confess it and repent of it, and by his grace learn to overcome it (see Ps 139:23–24).

But what happens if I come carelessly and frivolously; perhaps failing to remember the purpose of that sacred occasion? The Holy Spirit says through Paul, ‘Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord’ (1 Cor 11:27). If we live without repentance in a way that continues to do the very things that cost Christ his blood, then we shall be judged and chastened by the Lord. And even there the holy apostle reminds us of the purpose of that judgment: Whilst the world goes on to face the final judgment, his people are disciplined now, ‘so that we may not be condemned along with the world’ (v. 32).

And what happens if I just don’t come at all to the Lord’s Supper? I was in a church a long, long way from here; you won’t know it, so I may speak. I was invited to go along and preach on a Sunday morning. They explained that they have two services, and I discovered that the first one was the Lord’s Supper. The second one was what I thought to be a general preaching meeting, so I wasn’t surprised to see a much bigger attendance. At the end of the day, two of the elders in charge of that church asked me bluntly, ‘What did you think of our church today?’.

Being polite, and I suppose as an Englishman I hummed and hawed and said all the good things I could think of.

‘Ah, but,’ they said, ‘what did you really think of it?’

I said, ‘There was one thing that puzzled me. Did I hear you saying that the majority of the people at the second meeting were members of your church? I think I must have misunderstood you; I thought they must have been largely unconverted people who weren’t members.’

‘No, no,’ one of them said, ‘you’ve got it right. Most of them were members of the church.’

I said, ‘But they weren’t at the Lord’s Supper; they weren’t at the breaking of bread’.

‘Oh, I know’, they said. ‘That’s a problem we have with our people; they don’t come and there’s nothing we can do to make them come. They don’t seem to care for the Lord’s Supper.’

‘And they’re believers?’, I said.

‘Oh, yes,’ they said, ‘they’re believers.’

‘That’s very odd,’ I said, and fell to preaching him a little sermonette (that’s a fault I have from time to time with my friends!) based on Acts 2, where the great crowd thronged around Peter. They had just been made aware by the Holy Spirit that the Jesus whom they’d recently crucified was indeed the Christ of God, the Son of God himself. In awe and consternation, they came to Peter, saying, ‘What shall we do, Peter? We now see that the Jesus we crucified is the very Messiah of God. What shall we do?’ And Peter said, ‘You’ll repent, and then be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ’ (see vv. 36–38).

You say, ‘Why did Peter demand that they should be baptized?’.

Well, because of the situation. As you see, they already believed that Jesus was the Messiah, hence their consternation that they had crucified him. Now God is calling upon them to repent, and he is not prepared just to take their say-so that they have repented. ‘You’ll show by your works that you have repented’, said Peter. ‘Didn’t you crucify Jesus Christ publicly, and now you say you repent of it? Now you will show your repentance by publicly being baptized in his name.’

I can imagine a young Jewish gentleman coming to Peter and saying, ‘I’ve been deeply impressed by what you said this morning, sir, and in my heart I do believe that we, the Jews, have made a tragic mistake. In my heart I’m a Christian, but I have a problem. I couldn’t be baptized—not publicly. My father is in the Sanhedrin, and it would let down the family’s reputation in society if I got baptized. I can’t do it, but I can be a Christian, can’t I?’

What do you suppose Peter would have said? ‘Young man, you can’t continue to stand with the murderers of Christ and say you have repented of his murder. Save yourself from this perverse generation—get clear of the murderers and stand with Christ and his people (see v. 40). You crucified him publicly, didn’t you? If your repentance is genuine, you will just as publicly be baptized in his name. And if you’re not prepared to do it, God is not prepared to take your say-so that you have repented.’

That’s stern, isn’t it? It’s the kind of stuff that John the Baptist preached. ‘When he saw the Pharisees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”’ (Matt 3:7). You see, ladies and gentlemen, if you should light a bonfire in your garden and you see a whole lot of vipers scurrying away from the flames as hard as they can go, you shouldn’t conclude that they have repented of being vipers. They intend to go on being vipers—all they’re doing is escaping the flame. We must be careful of urging people to flee from the wrath to come and leaving it there, mustn’t we? They do need to flee, but they also need to repent of being sinners.

Proof of their repentance

And, you know, those people on the day of Pentecost did some other things as well, and they didn’t do them merely after they had repented—they did them because they had repented.

So what did they do? They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42). Well, of course they did. You cannot accept Jesus as Lord and Messiah, and then reject his official apostles, can you? That doesn’t make sense. And of course they continued in the fellowship. When you realize that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, and God is offering you fellowship with the Father and with his Son, and with all the people of God—if you believe that, you turn up, don’t you? And they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

They did it because they had repented. When the blessed Lord himself says, ‘Come, I have business to do with you; I am proposing to put my laws ever more deeply on your heart’, you don’t say, ‘No, I don’t find it pleasant or agreeable. I don’t find it entertaining, I find it rather gloomy, so I stay away.’

What! And you have repented? You have accepted the King? If we come to the Lord’s Supper without judging ourselves, we shall be judged and chastened of the Lord, and it’s no escape not to turn up.

The purpose of Christ’s judgment of the church

Christ, then, is our judge. What is the point and purpose of his judgment? Let’s look back to sheet two of the notes, where I have laid out what I have called Strategic Themes in Revelation. Let’s observe once more that there are six main sections in the book; so, judged as a literary whole, when we come to Section Four (11:19–15:4), we are beginning the second half.

Chapter 12 opens with a tremendous vision of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. When you have seen that, you will then notice that women dominate the second half of the book. For in Section V (15:5–19:10), there is the false woman, Babylon, and she is destroyed by the scarlet beast and the ten kings. Then, of course, in Section VI (19:11–22:21), you have the warrior king coming out to put down his enemies and then to take and enjoy his bride. That part of the final section of the book is given over to a description of the bride, the Lamb’s wife, how she has made herself ready, and there she is in all her glory.⁹

That being so, we remember that the church is going to be part of that bride. And so, as we come to these letters dictated by the risen Lord to the seven churches, we shall find him appraising his churches. Praising what he can praise, criticizing what he has to criticize, calling his people to repentance, saying, ‘Now, my dear ones: this is good, this is lovely, that pleases me; but this is poor, this is shoddy, this is bad. You’ll have to repent of that; you’ll have to overcome it.’ What’s he doing? He is preparing his bride for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Let me try to demonstrate that to you by referring to sheet three of the notes, where I have tried to set out the four major parts of Section I. In the fourth paragraph, therefore, I have listed the pattern of our Lord’s remarks to the churches. In each one of them he calls upon his people to overcome, and holds out bright rewards for doing so. You can see that most of these rewards refer to things that we shall notice later in the final description of the bride of the Lamb.

D. Christ’s Appraisal of his churches (Rev 2:1–3:22)

1.	Ephesus	I know your works	but	overcome	Tree of life	cf. Rev 22:2
2.	Smyrna	I know your tribulation	Fear not	overcome	Crown of life; not hurt by the second death	cf. Rev 20:14
3.	Pergamum	I know your dwelling-place	but	overcome	Hidden manna; white stone; secret name
4.	Thyatira	I know your works	but	overcome	Authority over nations; rule with rod of iron	cf. Rev 12:5; 19:15; 20:6
5.	Sardis	I know your works	and	overcome	Will not blot name out of book of life	cf. Rev 20:15; 21:27
6.	Philadelphia	I know your works	behold	overcome	Will write on him name of God, name of city, new Jerusalem	cf. Rev 22:4
7.	Laodicea	I know your works	because	overcome	Sit down with me on my throne; my Father's throne	cf. Rev 22:1, 3

Here is our blessed Lord Jesus tending his churches—refining them, purifying them, beautifying them and preparing them for the day of his glory. No one loves the church as he loves it. No one, therefore, criticizes the churches so acutely and pressingly as he criticizes them. Not out of hostility but because he loves them, and he looks to the day when he will ‘present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish’ (Eph 5:27).

The public glory of the judge himself

Let us now for the moment sit back and survey the Lord Jesus, who stands among us even as we sit here; loving us but judging us, a sharp sword coming from his mouth. What is he like? If we were able to see him now, as John was permitted to see him, what would we see? As we take these words from the page, may God’s Holy Spirit fill them as only he can, so that our dull minds and dull imaginations may catch at least a glimpse of the wonder and the glory of the one who will judge us.

What John saw in that split second laid him prostrate on the ground. The brightness of our Lord’s face, like the sun shining in full strength, was so magnificent that when John grasps four similes that he can use to convey the wonder of what he saw, he has to search earth, sea, sky and heaven to find enough to give us even a faint idea of what the blessed risen Lord is like. Soft wool, gentle to the touch, and the hard steel of a sword must combine to give us a balanced view of our glorious Lord. The great waters of the ocean, with their booming voice, must be called into service to give us some idea. In him the wetness of water joins the irrepressible flame of fire. The sun and the stars in outer space must be coerced to come and help us to understand the wonder of the Lord.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.’ (Rev 1:12–18 NKJV)

His purity and his power

As we listen to John’s description, we might at first be wondering why it is in such a peculiar order. It starts with a long robe, down to his feet; it proceeds to a golden sash round his chest; then upwards to the hairs of his head, which were white like wool, as white as snow; then downwards to his eyes, and John tells us that they were like a flame of fire. And with that, the description drops to his feet, which we’re told were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. But from his feet, it ascends to his mouth once more and to his voice, which was like the sound of many waters; and from his voice, it proceeds out to his right hand in which he held seven stars; and then back to his mouth, from which came a sharp two-edged sword. And then finally to his face, like the sun shining in its strength.

What are we to make of the description? Is it perhaps simply an impressionistic view, calculated to have an effect upon us like music has? We can’t quite describe how, but it does have that effect and can’t be analysed too far intellectually. Is it like that, or is there some order and logic in the description? I submit to you that perhaps one way of looking at it would be to observe that the first things deal with our Lord’s purity, and the later things deal with his power.

His purity

He has a robe, and the Greek emphasizes its length. It is long: down to the very feet and not a centimetre short. It is an official garment, of course: the garment of the judge. Now look at his affections—there is a golden sash girded round his chest. The Greek here is a word that would more frequently be used of a woman’s breast, for his affections are infinitely tender. But they’re not profligate; they’re girded. He has love, but not indiscriminate love like that of the evil woman, Babylon, who compromised her loyalty in the name of love and became a harlot. His tender affections are pure, uncompromised and girded.

Then, his head and his hair—watch the purity of them. They are like white wool, like driven snow. These are symbols that were once used by Daniel to describe God himself—the almighty God who sat upon the throne (Dan 7:9). And now John sees our blessed Lord with hair as white as wool, like the ‘Ancient of Days’ himself, for in truth Jesus Christ is God incarnate. But the whiteness of his hair betokens not merely that he is the everlasting God; it betokens the purity of his wisdom. James says that there are two kinds of wisdom. There is the wisdom from above that is ‘first pure and then peaceable’; there is a wisdom from below that is ‘earthly, unspiritual, demonic’; it is clever, but devilish (see Jas 3:13–18). See, then, the purity of his wisdom.

Look now into his eyes; they are ablaze with fire. Oh, what a wonder! John had once seen the tears streaming from those eyes as our blessed Lord Jesus looked over Jerusalem and wept about the judgments that must come upon his mother city, and said, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!’ (see Matt 23:37). But here his eyes are not wet with tears; he comes as judge and his eyes are like a flame of fire. They see through us; nothing is hidden from their searching penetration, and where they see evil they leap to destroy it.

Not only are his eyes ablaze with fire, but his feet are like copper as if they still glowed in the furnace. And truth to tell, those holy feet had recently been in a furnace, hadn’t they? Oh, what a furnace they had trodden at Calvary when he walked into the furnace of God’s wrath on account of our sin. His feet glow still, and wherever those holy feet come, evil must be trampled down underneath them.

His power

From his purity, the vision turns to his power. Says John, ‘His voice was like the roar of many waters’ (Rev 1:15). And here we think of the volume, the irresistibility of the sound of the booming of great waters. Just imagine standing there and hearing the voice as of many waters, booming, ‘You have things in your church that I hate’. His voice is like the sound of many waters.

In his right hand he didn’t hold a sceptre as the monarchs of this world do, but seven stars, if you please. John didn’t know what they were, which was perhaps just as well, for if he had known that they represented the elders of any of the churches he knew, he might not have been quite so impressed. But for the moment they were stars, and in his right hand he controlled the very stars of heaven (v. 16).

And proceeding out of his mouth—for his mouth was open—was a sharp two-edged sword. John had been present in the high priest’s court, and had watched as the high priest put questions to the Lord Jesus. ‘What about you and your teaching, and who are your disciples?’ The Lord had kept his mouth shut and didn’t say a word about his disciples. He wouldn’t involve them against their will in the death he must die (John 18:19–21).

Oh, how they must have wondered when they saw him, ‘like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth’ (Isa 53:7). When he was nailed to a tree, those who passed by said, ‘That proves it, doesn’t it? He has nothing to say for himself. The man is a ghastly sinner, and even God has abandoned him’ (see Matt 27:39–44; Mark 15:29–32). With a word or two, he could have told them the truth, couldn’t he? He could have said, ‘I’ll have you know, it’s not my sin that I die for. It’s not for my sin that God abandons me; it’s for that wretch, Gooding, that I suffer, and for that coward, Peter.’ But his mouth was shut. He bore our sins in his body on the tree (1 Pet 2:24) and died for us wretched sinners by keeping his mouth shut and taking our place.

But now, as he surveys us, his mouth is shut no longer. The mouth is open, and from it comes a sharp two-edged sword. But he has a right to use it, and from him there is no hiding.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Heb 4:12–13)

And not only so, but in the brief moment that John caught sight of his face, the man who had leaned on his bosom in the Upper Room now fell at the Lord’s feet as though dead. I don’t know about you, my brothers and sisters, but it seems to me that in this modern, cheap world we have lost a little of the sense of the wonder and holiness of the risen Lord. We talk of him as though he were merely our next-door neighbour or something. While we mustn’t despise his tender shepherdhood, nor cease to remember that ‘the Lord is my shepherd’ (Ps 23:1), we also need to remember that he has a public office. He is the Lord, the head of the church and the judge of his people. Our churches will never be as healthy as they should be until they recapture the vision of the public glory, the purity and the power of the risen Lord who stands among the lampstands.

Standing in his presence

But it won’t do, will it, for John to remain on the floor, overwhelmed by the holiness and power of the risen Lord? What use would that be? The man has got to stand up, hear what the Lord has to say and face his criticisms, both of himself and the churches in which he ministered during the long years of his life. And the Christians to whom he writes—they too must learn how to face the Lord and his criticism. You see, unless we stand up and face them, how shall we learn what they are? And if we don’t learn what they are, we shall not repent of them, and then we can’t be delivered from them.

What is the secret of learning to stand before the risen Lord? How shall we find the courage to face his criticism? John now tells us how he personally found the courage and the strength to get up and stand before him. He said, ‘The same one whose right hand held the stars came and laid his right hand on me, and said those lovely words, “Fear not, John”’ (see 1:17). How could anyone stand in the blaze of his glory and the wonder of his holiness and not be afraid? That’s the wonder of our Lord’s criticism. Sometimes, when your brothers and sisters criticize you they make you feel so small; you feel so threatened that you want to run away, don’t you? They make you feel afraid, but the Lord wants to come and free us from fear so that we dare to stand.

Said John, ‘He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades—can you hear them jangling at my girdle?”’ (see vv. 17–18). Fancy saying in the ears of a man who’s lying on the ground, almost dead, ‘I’ve got the keys of Death and Hades, John’!

Ah, you see, they are not the keys to open the door and let people in, but the keys to open the door and let people out. That’s a glorious thing, isn’t it? ‘I am the resurrection and the life,’ he says (John 11:25). ‘Yes, John, by your just desserts, you ought to be in the grave itself, but for your sake I died and I have conquered death, so you may rise now in the power of your resurrection life and stand before me without fear.’

Now we can begin to see how the two things combine. You see, if we hadn’t the absolute certainty of salvation and acceptance with Christ, then we would fear his criticism, wouldn’t we? It is because we have a standing before him by his grace that we find the courage to open our hearts without fear, and indeed to invite his criticism and thus to be released from our faults and failings. ‘Because you have found the secret of standing in my presence,’ says the risen Christ to John, ‘write therefore my message to the churches’ (see 1:18–19).

The letters to the seven churches

Chapters two and three are perhaps the best-known chapters in the book. Their meaning is comparatively straightforward compared with many other chapters, as they are of obvious and immediate practical application and have been preached on by many preachers. I do not propose to expound each one of them in the course of these lectures. To expound them properly would have demanded a large part of the week being devoted to them and them only. Therefore, since it is impossible to cover them in detail and the rest of the book at least in outline, because it is a well-known passage I have chosen simply to comment on certain basic principles exhibited in these letters, which may help to guide us in the following days.

Symbols used to represent the churches

The lampstands

First of all, let us notice the lampstands (1:12–13, 20), which, as defined here, convey their obvious message that the function of the churches is that they should bear testimony and be light. Since they are arranged around the Lord Jesus himself, it reminds us of our prime duty as witnesses to him. Our Lord said that when the Holy Spirit came, he would witness to the world, vindicate the Lord himself and glorify the Saviour in the eyes of his people (John 15:26; 16:8–15). And not only should the Holy Spirit perform this witness, but ‘you also will bear witness’, said the Lord Jesus (John 15:27). So here we see the function of the churches as witnesses to the Lord Jesus.

The stars

The stars are interpreted as the angels of the seven churches (1:20). Perhaps the majority view is that those angels represent the leadership of the churches. The fact that there was one star per church does not of itself imply that there was just one man in each church who was supreme over all the others, for each lampstand was a collective, wasn’t it? The one lampstand represented the whole body of the believers, and at that time in history the one star would more likely represent each body of elders. If so, the figure of a star is exceedingly illuminating.

According to Genesis 1, stars were given for guidance. The people in the ancient world used them far more than we do. Nowadays we have calendars and weather forecasts, but then they had to know the stars to identify the seasons and see when it was right to plough and sow. And when they attempted to cross the sea in their boats they used the stars as their guide. Because they didn’t stay in the same place all the time, the stars were able to function for signs and for seasons. The people very soon realized that the stars were progressing over the sky; so they charted their risings and settings and knew which constellations appeared in winter and which appeared in spring. There was a continuity in their constant movement, for out in space nothing is ever still.

What a delightful figure of speech—if that’s what it is—to indicate the elders of a church. They are those to whom all others must look for guidance, and the secret of their guidance is that they’re on the move. Not erratically, like wandering stars, they are fixed stars, as the ancients called them, but moving. Wandering stars is the image used of heretics and false teachers in the church: they may publicly blaze a meteoric trail, but their end is eternal darkness (Jude v. 13).

Paul saw the importance of that. In down-to-earth daily language, he advised Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. ‘Arduous and difficult as these may be’, said Paul, ‘immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress’ (see 1 Tim 4:13–15). Yes, that is a good motive, and if the elders are going to guide them, the church needs to see and hear that their elders are still moving and making progress.

My brother, if you are an elder, might I address you? At the Lord’s Supper, as you get up to worship the Lord, you’re not just using the same old phrases that you’ve said since you were a boy of fourteen, are you? Rather, can the church see that your appreciation of God has grown? As you discover new riches in his word they can feel your excitement and see your maturing character and progressive holiness. In other words, you’re on the move and they get that sense of drive and purpose from you, and they follow. Stars that stand still could become fallen stars, couldn’t they?

Different virtues, circumstances and faults

And then the churches themselves—what a lovely bunch they were! They’re all different. Their virtues are different. Ephesus is praised for its hate, if you please; Thyatira for its love. Each church had its own peculiar virtues, except for some who seem to have very few virtues at all. Their circumstances were also different. Smyrna is told that they’re going to be shut up in prison, and the clanging door closed behind them; Philadelphia is told that the Lord is going to set before them an open door. The circumstances of the churches were different, as we also find in life and history. Some parts of the church of God are under persecution and literal imprisonment, whilst others enjoy spectacular open opportunities. Their faults were different too, and I thank the Lord for that. We’d be a boring lot if our faults were all the same! The Lord had to find fault with Ephesus because it had let go of its love, and with Thyatira because it didn’t hate.

Whatever the needs of the churches, we notice how the Lord proposes to deal with them. He presents himself and draws on all those glorious details of his own character that John had seen in the vision. At the beginning of each letter, he points out this or that facet in his character that is calculated to be the very thing that a particular church needs.

It is the Lord that we need, my brothers and sisters. Let’s have all our organization and everything else; but when we need it, the thing that will maintain and correct us is the living Lord himself. Happy is a church that is not only formed of people who have had experience of the Lord individually, but as a church they have an ongoing experience of him.

A question of extremes

People have argued about the order in which these churches are named, and all sorts of explanations have been given. One scholar thought that the churches are named in the order in which the postman would have delivered the letters, starting at Ephesus, going north, then east, coming around in a rough circle and ending up where he’d started. Indeed, if you chart the names and the geographical positions of the churches on a map, you will find they do follow such a circle. They weren’t the only churches in Asia Minor: perhaps these were the central churches with many ‘daughter’ churches around them. For all I know, a postman could have started at Ephesus, as it was the most important city (or thought it was), and gone around in a circle. That would be a sensible thing to do, wouldn’t it? Come around full circle in the end, delivering the letters to the prominent churches and let them be postmen for the other churches in their area.

Features of the seven churches

But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? I ask you to look just briefly at sheet five, where I have listed features of the seven churches, and you will find an interesting thing.

1.	Ephesus	Commended for their hate: blamed for letting go (aphekes) of their first love.
2.	Smyrna	‘Them that say they are Jews and they are not but are a synagogue of Satan . . . behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison . . .’
3.	Pergamum	‘You hold fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas . . . who was killed among you . . .’
4.	Thyatira	Commended for their love: blamed for letting (apheis) ‘the woman Jezebel teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication’.
5.	Sardis	‘You have a name that you live, and you are dead’.
6.	Philadelphia	‘I have set before you a door opened, which none can shut . . . Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and they are not . . . to come and fall before your feet . . .’
7.	Laodicea	Blamed for being neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. ‘As many as I love I reprove and chasten’.

Ephesus is commended for their hate but blamed for letting go of their first love. Now come to the middle church, which is Thyatira. They are commended for their love but blamed for allowing the woman Jezebel to teach and to seduce Christ’s servants to practise sexual immorality. From this, we learn an interesting and practical point: many of our troubles are caused by an imbalance of stressing one thing and neglecting its opposite.

Ephesus: The problem of hating without loving

So it was with Ephesus. They hated, but, alas, they didn’t love. Please notice that it wasn’t that their hate was wrong. ‘You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate’ (2:6). Their hate was a reflection of the hate of the Lord Jesus, who hated these evil doctrines. They are to be commended for it, but they had so concentrated on their hate that they had let go of their love.

We can find excuse for them, can’t we? This is the church that Paul addressed, maybe for the last time, as he called for the elders to come down and meet him in Miletus (see Acts 20:17–37). There he delivered to them the solemn charge: ‘Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood’ (v. 28). ‘For I’m telling you now,’ he says, ‘that after I’m gone, fierce wolves will come in from the outside, and destroy the flock if you let them. And from your own selves, men will arise teaching perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them’ (see vv. 29–30).

These are two grievous dangers to any church. There’s attack from the outside, when men come in—‘wolves’, maybe in sheep’s clothing—bringing destructive heresies that will destroy the church. And there’s danger from the inside, when men rise up who may purport to teach Scripture but their aim is to draw away disciples after themselves and start cliques and divisions in the church over doctrines that are not necessarily fundamental doctrines at all. It’s not truth they’re concerned with, but their own egoism and leadership and power.

Nobody could have listened to that impassioned plea from the Apostle Paul without going home determined that it was not going to happen in this church at Ephesus, and they went to their job willingly, rooting out any evil teachers. They could scent them out a mile away. ‘You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false . . . you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate’ (Rev 2:2, 6). Well done! One hundred per cent marks on that side of the ledger. It was a healthy hate; but in the process they had, the Greek word is, ‘let go’ of the love they had at first. They didn’t do it deliberately, but they had let go of their first love.

My brother, my sister, what is your first love? What was the love that you felt for the Lord, and why did you feel it when you first came to love him?

You say, ‘I loved him because he loved me’.

Oh, I see, he loved you. And he loved you because you were so sparklingly fresh and holy and glorious and without fault, and all your doctrines were absolutely correct?

‘No, no,’ you say. ‘That’s the glory of his love: he loved me while I was yet a sinner—ungodly, weak and defiled. He loved me then, and that is a love I shall never get over. My heart overflows with love for God, who was prepared for Christ’s sake to accept me as I was.’

Oh, the wonder of that love that first filled your heart. Sometimes, when we have to be so concerned with heresy hunting in the church, trying evil men and dealing with sin, it could happen that we become imbalanced and hard and censorious and critical, with little of the compassion of Christ left for those who wander and are out of the way. If that should ever happen to us, our orthodoxy won’t save us, will it? For to be all hate and to bury love is a travesty and perversion of the gospel. It so misrepresents the character of Christ that ‘if you don’t repent of that,’ says Christ, ‘you can no longer be a true testimony to me and I’ll come and remove your lampstand’ (see 2:5).

Thyatira: The problem of loving without hating

If Ephesus was at one extreme, Thyatira, the middle church, was at the other. Thyatira is the only church in the whole lot that is commended for their love (2:19). Be careful what you say about Thyatira. From some points of view, they were lurid in their sins and unfaithfulness, but they did have love—warm-hearted love. You would have been made welcome in the church at Thyatira and nobody would have asked many questions. They had a heart for everybody—what loving people they were down at Thyatira. I’m sure you would have found the atmosphere a bit warmer there than at Ephesus. And our Lord notices it and commends them for their love—Ephesus could have done with a lot more of it.

But it wasn’t enough. In their anxiety and determination to be oh so loving, they’d gone to the other extreme and had let ‘that woman’ have completely free reign in the church—‘that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practise sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols’ (2:20).

Businessmen in those ancient cities would have to belong to a guild in order to carry on their trade. For instance, if they were silversmiths they belonged to a guild of silversmiths. From time to time there would be guild dinners, and if you wanted to prosper in business you’d better go along, because you needed to be known amongst that circle. When you got there, there’d be a banquet; but the food would first be offered to the patron deity of the guild. Could you eat it without compromising your allegiance to the Lord?

And there would be women aplenty, but they wouldn’t be the businessmen’s wives; they would be women brought in for the occasion. Should you go? Jezebel, whoever she was, said it was okay to go. There have been Jezebels in the church since then, haven’t there? Jezebel is notorious in the Old Testament; she was King Ahab’s wife (1 Kgs 16:30–31). Being Assyrian herself, she brought the worship of Baal into Israel.

Over many years, in the West at least, professing Christian churches have sometimes been filled and certainly infiltrated by men who belong to secret business societies. Behind their closed doors, they worship the old pagan gods of the ancient world that Jezebel worshipped and the Egyptians worshipped, and they join it all with the name of Jesus Christ into one unholy mixture. Bishops in the church belong to it, and ordinary private individuals belong to it, and it is neither love nor divine charity to permit it.

‘But I have this against you,’ says Christ, ‘whereas you ought to have hated everything that compromises allegiance to me, you have permitted this kind of thing to go on in the church’ (see 2:20).

It’s imbalance again, isn’t it? Ephesus was all hate and no love, and Thyatira was all love and not enough hate.

Laodicea: The problem of being nothing much of anything

And what shall we say of the last church, Laodicea? It was neither one extreme nor the other, but right bang in the middle—neither hot nor cold.

You say, ‘That’s good!’.

No, it isn’t! That is desperately bad. For if in all other things you must be balanced, there is one area where you must be absolutely extreme, and that is in zeal. ‘Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth’ (3:16). Alas for the person professing to be a Christian who says, ‘Well, I can’t claim to be madly in love with the Lord. I’m an ordinary Christian, I don’t get too excited about the Bible or prayer meetings and things. But I’m not against the Lord.’ They’re not against the Lord, but wouldn’t say they’re madly keen.

What about a young gentleman who is about to get married, and someone asks him, ‘What do you really think of this girl you’re proposing to marry?’, and he says, ‘Well, you know, it’s not right to get carried off one’s feet about things. I’m not against the girl, but on the other hand, I’m not madly keen either.’

The question answers itself. When it’s our relationship with the Lord who says, ‘You shall love me with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, with no reserve’ (see Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27); to be in the middle and not extreme is perhaps the biggest insult that you could offer to divine love.

The symmetry of the other churches

The other churches in the series stand one opposite the other, and the very symmetry of the arrangement preaches a message. In Smyrna there’s a door that’s shut; in Philadelphia a door that’s open. In Pergamum they were prepared to lose their physical lives for Christ and die; and in Sardis they had the reputation of being spiritually alive, but were in fact spiritually dead.

Old Testament allusions in the seven churches

Finally, I want to call your attention to a feature of these churches that I have listed for you at the top of sheet four of your notes. It is a fact, of course, that the book of Revelation is full of allusions to the Old Testament. But when we come to these letters to the seven churches and examine their prominent allusions to the Old Testament, we shall find that they follow in the order of the Old Testament itself, from the garden of Eden to the exile of Israel to Babylon.

Old Testament Allusions

1.	Ephesus	Ephesus ‘I will remove your lampstand out of its place . . . To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God’ (cf. Gen 3).
2.	Smyrna	‘Fear not what you are about to suffer. Behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you shall have affliction ten days’ (cf. the prophecy of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt: ‘Your seed will be strangers in a country not their own and be enslaved; and they shall afflict them four hundred years’ (Gen 15:13)).
3.	Pergamum	‘You have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel’ (cf. Num 22–24).
4.	Thyatira	‘You allow that woman Jezebel, who says that she is a prophetess, and teaches and seduces my servants’ (cf. 1 Kgs 16:29–31; 2 Kgs 9).
5.	Sardis	‘I will not blot his name out of the book of life. cf. and the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam’ (II) (2 Kgs 14:27).
6.	Philadelphia	‘He who has the key of David, who opens and none shall shut, and shuts and none shall open cf. a prophecy originally spoken of Eliakim, royal steward in the reign of Hezekiah’ (Isa 22:22).
7.	Laodicea	‘I will spew you out of my mouth cf. the prophecy of the exile. . . lest the land spew you out also . . . as it spewed out the nation that was before you’ (Lev 18:28).

In Ephesus, the warning is given: ‘I will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. But to him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God’ (see 2:5, 7 NKJV). All you need to know to describe this allusion is the fact that in the Greek translation of the Old Testament¹⁰, ‘the garden of Eden’ in Genesis is translated by the word paradise. There was the tree of life, and there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam and Eve got fascinated by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they fell and were removed from the garden—that is, paradise—and were no longer able to eat of the tree of life (Gen 3).

The church at Ephesus had become so fascinated with discerning between good and evil that they were now liable to have their lampstand removed. ‘Remember from where you have fallen and repent’, said the Lord. ‘And if you overcome, I will give you to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ It’s an allusion, then, backwards to the garden of Eden and onwards to the eternal paradise.

Smyrna is warned that they are going to be imprisoned and have tribulation for ten days (Rev 2:10). From Genesis chapters 1–3, you pass over many centuries until you come to chapter 15, where God is making a prediction to Abraham of what will happen to his descendants. ‘[They] will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years . . . and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions’ (15:13–14). So, when they entered the affliction they knew that the time had been fixed by God, and it would last no longer than he allowed. This church in Smyrna is told similarly: they are to be afflicted, but the time is limited.

Pergamum and its allusion takes us to the book of Numbers, to the time when Israel were in the desert. It refers to Balak and Balaam, who cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel (Num 22–24; cf. Rev 2:14).

In Thyatira, we have moved on to the period of the kings, to Jezebel the wife of Ahab (1 Kgs 16:29–32; 2 Kgs 9; cf. Rev 2:20–23).

In Sardis, we have moved still further, and the allusion picks up what God said about Israel in the time of Jeroboam II. The promise, ‘I will never blot his name out of the book of life’, spoken to the church at Sardis (3:5), recalls what happened in his day: ‘The Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash’ (2 Kgs 14:27).

In Philadelphia, we’ve moved on further still in history, to the time when Hezekiah was on the throne and the great Assyrians were at the gates of Jerusalem. Hezekiah stood for God, and for a while the steward, Eliakim, was given these marvellous promises and duties in the house of David (Isa 22:22; cf. Rev 3:12).

The final message is to Laodicea: if they do not repent, the risen Lord will spew them out of his mouth (3:16). The words recall the warnings that God gave to Israel as they entered the land of Canaan. ‘Don’t you do after the manner of the Canaanites, for because of their perversions, their blood shedding and their immortalities, the very land spews them out.’ Said God to his people Israel, ‘If you go and commit the same things, the land will spew you out as well’ (see Lev 18:28). But they went and behaved like the Canaanites and brought upon themselves the exile to Babylon, and the very land of Canaan spewed Israel out.

What shall we make of it? I make one thing out of it. As I read those warnings of ancient history, I seem to hear the Apostle Paul in Romans 11 talking to us Gentile Christians. He says, ‘You know, you should not be arrogant towards them, for Israel was once the great olive tree that carried testimony for God in the world. But they slithered and slipped into unbelief and God broke off those natural branches so that you Gentiles might be grafted in. Since those days it has been the Gentiles, mainly Christian churches, who have carried witness for God in the world. Don’t you become proud, but fear’, says Paul. ‘It was because of their unbelief that Israel didn’t remain in the olive tree, and if you, as churches, lapse into unbelief, you too shall be broken off, and God will graft the natural branches back into their own olive tree again’ (see Rom 11:11–24).

This age is peculiar in all the centuries that have gone by. Mediaeval Christendom was full of idolatries and abominable immoralities, but they still professed to believe holy Scripture. They still professed to believe in the deity of Christ and the virgin birth and the resurrection and the second coming. But we have lived to see Christendom riddled from end to end with downright unbelief. At many of the theological colleges, or over national television, theologians are to be heard denying the inspiration of holy Scripture, denying the pre-existence of Jesus, denying the virgin birth, denying his resurrection, denying his second coming. ‘So do not become proud, but fear,’ says the risen Lord to Christendom through his apostle Paul, ‘for if God did not spare the natural branches [because of their unbelief], neither will he spare you.’ The risen Lord will spew an apostate Christendom out of his mouth.

It has been a long and heavy study, hasn’t it? And you prove your humanity by being tired and very hard put to sit patiently upon these seats any longer. Forgive me, but I trust that here and there I have been able to put some things into the pool of your thinking that may enrich your studies of this part of God’s word a little bit in days to come.

Shall we pray.

Lord, by this long and arduous study, thou hast shown us again glimpses of thy glory. The fact that we have caught sight of them once more, Lord, let it remain with us that in the days to come it might lead us to open the window more widely and seek out a quiet place to gaze upon thee, our risen and holy Lord and judge. We have read thy criticisms of ancient churches that were our brothers and sisters, whom one day we shall meet in glory. It does not induce in us any feeling of superiority, for if thou should speak to us and write thine account of us upon the page of history, how we must hide our faces in shame. And yet, Lord, we ask thy grace that we may profit from hearing these criticisms of others, take them to our own hearts, and by thy grace determine to avoid, or, if need be, overcome these faults, so that we may see thee with joy and not be ashamed before thee at thy coming. For thy name’s sake. Amen.

⁸ This is Recording No. 4.

⁹ It concludes with the Threefold testifying of Jesus and The grace (22:16–21), but unfortunately there is no recording.

¹⁰ The Septuagint.

4: Section Two

Part 1: The Throne of God in Heaven (4:1–11)

The literary form of Section Two

Tonight we come to study the second major section of the book of Revelation. And because of the time we spent on our surveys at the beginning of our studies, we have no need to remind ourselves this evening that this section of the book is a vision of the throne of God. At least that is how it begins. Sheet six gives a brief analysis and layout of the material and you will see there are four major parts to it, just as there were four major parts to the first section.

Description of the throne (Rev 4:1–11)

1.	Its occupant.
2.	The rainbow round the throne: and round the throne twenty-four thrones: also occupied.
3.	Out of the throne lightnings, voices, thunders.
4.	Seven burning torches before the throne: and before the throne a sea of glass.
5.	In the midst and round the throne four living creatures.
6.	The grounds of God’s worthiness to be worshipped: he is the Creator: his creatorial purpose.

The worthiness of the Lamb to execute judgment (Rev 5:1–14)

1.	The LION has overcome: by being The SLAIN LAMB with seven horns and seven eyes.
2.	The new song: the prayers of the saints offered by the elders: the Lamb is worthy because: a. He has purchased men for God with his blood; b. He has made them a kingdom and priests to God; c. They shall reign over the earth.
3.	The angels’ worship.
4.	The whole universe’s acknowledgement of the Lamb’s worthiness.

The opening of the seals (Rev 6:1–17)

1.	White horse: conquest.
2.	Red horse: war.
3.	Black horse: famine.
4.	Pale horse: Death and Hades.
5.	Martyred souls must wait to be avenged.
6.	Climax: the great day of wrath.
7.	The half hour of silence (Rev 8:1).

Two groups saved (Rev 7:1–17)

1.	One hundred and forty four thousand out of the tribes of Israel: sealed, so as to suffer no hurt.
2.	An uncountable multitude: they come out of the great tribulation.
3.	The grounds of their salvation: they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.
4.	Their blessings and consolations.

1. Chapter 4 is a description of the throne of God.

2. Chapter 5 addresses the worthiness of the Lamb to execute the judgments of God upon earth.

3. Chapter 6, the Lamb takes the scroll and opens its seals and judgments are let loose upon the earth. They come to their climax for the moment at the opening of the sixth seal—the opening of the seventh seal does not follow immediately.

4. Instead, there comes chapter 7, which presents us with two groups of saved people, and two aspects of salvation that are particularly geared to what has been the topic of the judgments.

The first group of people is the one hundred and forty-four thousand out of the twelve tribes of Israel, and they are sealed with a mark so that none of the judgments that hurt other people shall hurt them. They are God’s protected property and thus guaranteed immunity from the judgments. The second group is an uncountable multitude. They are coming out of the great tribulation, and they cry ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne’ (Rev 7:10). So alongside the one hundred and forty-four thousand who were sealed, we now have to put the uncountable number who are saved.

These are two examples of salvation in the context of these particular judgments of God. And we shall find similarly elsewhere, because the God of the Bible, the God of judgment, is a most magnificent God. Judgment, as he explains in the Old Testament, is his strange work (Isa 28:21 KJV). He does it because his character is such that he must do it; and he could not refrain from judgment sometimes without denying his character, and he cannot deny himself. Scarcely will he allow himself to speak of the judgments that must necessarily come, but with divine impatience he hastens to describe the great multitude that he will save in spite of his judgment. For this is the God who sent his Son into the world, ‘not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved’ (see John 3:17).

Because we are not occupying ourselves in these studies with a systematic construct of eschatology, at this stage of our work we shall not trouble much to define who these separate companies are. That is a task for the systematic theologian, and, in spite of working you hard all this week, when I’ve finished I’ll only have laid the beginnings of a foundation for the study of this book. It will be for the learned systematic theologians to build on top; to knock away what foundation has been mislaid, of course; to put in a better foundation and then construct the edifice upon it.

But we are at the elementary stage. Our task now is to account for the fact that this second section of the book of Revelation has these four major parts, and of course in some parts it resembles Section One.

If you care to look back at sheet three, you will notice that the first section is also composed of four major parts, and in Section One there is a series of seven, namely, the messages to the seven churches. It is in some sense a series of judgments; a topic that we dwelt on at great length this afternoon. This is Christ coming to his seven churches and appraising or judging them.

Section Two also has a series of seven, and it too is a series of judgments. You will notice in the four parts that it falls in a different position to the series of judgments in Section One, which comes at the end, in position four. In Section Two, the series of seven judgments comes in position three. That is a formal observation. You may forget it for the moment, but it will serve you as something of use in our further studies. All six sections of the book of Revelation have a major series of seven things, and in the end it will be an interesting and instructive study to notice this formal pattern of their layout. We shall find that some of the sections follow the same pattern as Section Two, while others do not; and that will lead us to enquire about the significance of the formal arrangement of the material.

A symbol of God’s government

But tonight we can forget those things and concentrate on part one of Section Two, in which John hears a voice behind him, sees a door open in heaven, and he is taken up within that door and given to see the throne of God. Chapter 4, then, is given over to a description of the throne of God, and our task is to try, with God’s help, to understand what that description is telling us.

What is the significance of the fact that, before he lets loose these judgments, God bids us view his throne? I should have thought there was an easy answer to that question. The judgments that are about to fall are solemn and serious, almost beyond description. They are recorded as the seals are opened, the trumpets are blown, and as the vials of God’s wrath are poured out upon the earth. We shall find that as the vials which complete the wrath of God are eventually poured out, men and women of flesh and blood like ourselves gnaw their tongues for pain and blaspheme God who sits on the throne and has the power to do such things to frail mortals.

We would be hard hearted men and women, if we didn’t at least begin to understand why they blaspheme God. How many people have said to themselves, ‘I can’t believe there’s a God in heaven and I can’t believe that old Bible; I don’t think a God of love would ever punish anybody’?

Before those judgments are even described, God brings us by proxy through John into his very throne room, and says, ‘Let me show you the throne from which these judgments will come’.

What kind of throne is it? Surely we perceive at once that the description given here is not so that we should get out our slide rules and inch tapes and measure some physical object of heavenly furniture? The throne of God that is described here is quite plainly a symbol of his government. What kind of government is it, and what kind of God will eventually send such judgments upon men and women?

The throne is occupied

First of all, the throne is described as having an occupant. ‘At once I was in the Spirit,’ says John, ‘and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne’ (4:2). The throne is occupied; despite all appearances to the contrary it has never been unoccupied and it is occupied still.

‘And he who sat [upon the throne] had the appearance of jasper and carnelian’ (4:3). God is now described in all his glory. And just as those precious stones refract the light and show their charming colours, we are now to see the marvellously beautiful colours of the character of him who sits upon the throne.

What are we to make of the description? We must now ask the same question of this vision as we asked of the vision of the Son of Man in Section One. Is it perhaps that here the one who sits on throne of God is described in deliberately mystical language, which is meant to evoke feelings of awe and mysticism and wonder? Is he described deliberately in terms that go beyond our comprehension, so that, being unable to make any rational sense of them, we say, ‘That’s what the vision was meant to do—it takes us beyond our puny understanding to observe the fact that there is a God who is beyond us, whose ways are past finding out’, and then to say, ‘Be still, my soul: whether you understand it or not, bow to the almighty power of God’?

Pattern in the description of the throne

Would we be on the wrong track if we were to try to analyse the description that is given here? We might be, mightn’t we? But isn’t that a tempting thing to do, because as we read the description we can observe a very clear pattern emerging? The throne is described in terms of geometry in its relation to certain other things in the heavenly presence, and if we now read together the geometrical description of these relationships, we shall see that a simple but significant pattern develops.

and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. (4:3–4 KJV)

In the ordering of those phrases you will notice the emergence of a pattern. There’s the rainbow round about the throne (v. 3), and then round about the throne, other thrones (v. 4). The very order is a chiasm, as the literary experts like to call it. First the rainbow and the preposition round about; and then the preposition ‘round about’ is repeated, followed by the twenty-four thrones (which are also occupied).

Then in verse 5, there is a different preposition: ‘And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices’, and that stands by itself and is not repeated.

After that, there comes another pair:

. . . and there were seven lamps of fire [torches] burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal . . . (4:5–6 KJV)

You notice the same pattern. It’s another chiasm: seven burning torches before the throne, and before the throne a sea of glass, the second pair matching the first pair in the very ordering of the words.

And then comes the next observation:

. . . and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four [living creatures] full of eyes before and behind. (4:6 KJV)

The preposition used here seems to be a double one: ‘in the midst and round about the throne’. We are probably to envisage the throne that John saw as being mounted on the backs of these living creatures. You will remember that in Solomon’s temple, Solomon was instructed to build a great laver in the court—a huge bowl of water—that was mounted on the backs of oxen. They had their hind quarters inwards underneath the laver, towards the centre, so they were in the midst, and their heads poked out round the edge. They were in the midst, and they were round about the laver (1 Kgs 7:23–26). It probably makes the best sense to understand this double preposition here in that manner also. The throne of God is seen upheld and resting on the backs of these four living creatures, whose heads are visible, facing out from the centre around the sides of the throne. This would accord with the vision of the throne that was given to Ezekiel and recorded in the first chapter of his prophecy, where again the living creatures—the cherubim under their other name—supported the throne of God as they do here in John’s vision, where we notice that this fourth element of the description now stands by itself.

The pattern is simple but repeated: two things, and then one single thing; another two things, and then one single observation. The fact that there is a pattern; and the fact that there are other things here besides the throne of God; does it not tempt us to think that there must be some significance that would be open to our attempts at logical understanding?

The first pair: Two circles around the throne

The first thing we are to notice is the rainbow round about the throne. That could mean that if this throne was in heaven, the Greek preposition ‘round about’ would indicate that the rainbow went right round it, fully encircling the throne (though it need not do so, if the throne was envisaged as standing flat on a piece of ground or something). So there was the rainbow round about the throne, and presumably that rainbow did what all rainbows do: it stood in the vertical plane around the throne.

And then, round about the throne, there were twenty-four thrones with elders sitting on them, and it is most reasonable to assume that those thrones were not in the vertical position but in the horizontal. And if that is so, we have the throne of God surrounded vertically by the rainbow and surrounded horizontally by the twenty-four thrones, thus setting up two planes, two circles, that in this sense put a limit to the throne of God, in that everything that proceeds out of that throne must pass through those two planes.

The rainbow

Almighty power deliberately limiting itself

You will excuse me if I use the term ‘limit’, for some people would think it hovers on the blasphemous. ‘Surely,’ they say, ‘the throne of the almighty God is not limited by anything; he does what he likes.’ Well, he does; but what he likes limits him. Because the first thing we see is the rainbow around the throne. And we have only to remember the first occasion when mention is made of the rainbow and what its function was, to see a delightful thing about the throne of almighty God. For the rainbow was given as God’s covenant to mankind and to Noah when he came out of the ark, having been through all that harrowing experience of being held up on the waters as the fountains of the deep were broken up and the deluge of the waters from above the firmament were let loose on the earth. After that judgment and the destruction of the earth, which was then under the judgment of God, and after Noah had come out of the ark, then God made his covenant with Noah: ‘I have put my bow in the cloud. When you see it, it shall be a reminder to you that I will never again destroy the earth with water’ (see Gen 9:8–17).

God does what he likes; of course he does. But what he likes has limited him. The rainbow tells us this at least: God has put this limit to his judgment, that he will never again destroy the earth with water. In the general sense that God meant it, his promise to Noah— that seedtime and harvest should not fail—has been preserved to this present time. As we shall eventually see, this is the creator’s throne, and we think of the mercies of the creator that the earth has remained stable in spite of the mounting wickedness of mankind. I know if you refine your instruments of measurement, you’ll see that the earth wobbles a bit now and again as it goes on its circle around the sun (dear old earth!); but on the whole it remains stable and there’s been summer and there’s been harvest, and human life is still possible. So then, being almighty, the occupant of the throne has limited his judgment.

You say, ‘That’s a minor comfort to us, if you’re now going to tell us that one day God will deluge the world with other kinds of judgment, and in the end destroy it by fire. What comfort is it to us that he’s not going to destroy it by water anymore?’

But I have a good excuse then for telling you something else. Oh, the magnificence of him who sits upon this throne, for there is another more profound and most marvellous sense in which he has limited his just judgment. One day he shall occupy this throne as the final judge and execute judgment on all mankind in God’s name, and men and women will ‘call to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’ (see Rev 6:12–17). But listen again to the words of God’s holy Son when he was here on earth:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17)

Here is almighty power deliberately limiting itself. And, my brothers and sisters, you know the cost of the limitation. It was not that God compromised his justice, but his love found a way to give us his forgiveness and assure us that we will never come into judgment. His incarnate son bore the judgment for us that God himself and his righteousness imposed. Oh, what a God he is! And when the judgments eventually come, who shall find fault with God that they suffer them, when they might have been sheltered by the atoning blood of Christ?

The twenty-four elders on thrones

God’s delegation of power

But there was not only the rainbow round about the throne in the vertical plane. In the horizontal plane round about the throne, there were thrones—twenty-four of them in fact (Rev 4:4). And they too were occupied, if you please. Can you believe it? Must we not go and ask John to revise his vision a little?

‘John, you can’t have got that bit right. Weren’t you setting out to describe the throne of almighty God? By definition, isn’t his throne solitary—it stands alone? What do you mean that round about the throne of the Almighty there were other thrones? And, if there were, what on earth (or in heaven!) were they there for? Were they real thrones? And you say that these people sitting on them have got crowns on their heads. How could that mean anything? Surely the central throne has the say—the first say, the last say and all says in between. Whoever they are, could they do anything worth doing?’

What shall we make of it? When you first see it, this is an astounding thing, isn’t it? It tells us volumes about the nature of God’s government. Though he has every right to sit upon a solitary throne without another throne in sight, he shares his government with others.

‘Now, Mr Preacher,’ you say, ‘we’ve been waiting for this moment, for we have a question for you. Who are the elders? We’ve been told who they are, but what do you say?’

I’m not falling into that trap, so I’m not going to tell you. I don’t answer the difficult questions, only the simple ones! If the Holy Spirit had been pleased to put a label on them and tell me who they were, I would have told you. He has not, so you are entitled to your informed guess and I to mine.

But what we are told is something that we should take notice of. We are not told who they are; we’re told what they are. Sometimes we have a little perversity in the study of Scripture, don’t we? We’re not content with what we are told, we want to know what we’re not told. And when we investigate what we’re not told, we fail to notice what we are told! These twenty-four thrones are occupied by elders, so the very term itself suggests that they are creatures. God is never referred to as an elder, is he? You don’t compare his age with other people’s, for his age knows no comparison. He is the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:9): he’s not just a little bit older than some people. Logic tells us that the term ‘elders’ must point to the fact that they are twenty-four creatures. If it is a fact, it is almost incredible that the Almighty who sits on his central throne has designed that he should share government with his creatures.

Someone might say, ‘I thought God Almighty was an omnipotent tyrant who does whatever he likes’.

Well, he does! But what he likes is to share his government with his creatures. It’s already apparent that he’s no dictator, isn’t it? That’s generally true to life, anyway—sometimes a little frighteningly so. For instance, you who are parents, God doesn’t come down from his throne in heaven and bring your children up for you, does he? He puts the responsibility of educating, governing and controlling those children on your shoulders. Surely that is a massive responsibility, because to them, in their early days at least, you stand as though you are God. Your judgment is the final court of appeal; you have the ultimate power. Oh, happy are you, and happy are they if your government truly reflects the heart of God the creator, who sits upon his throne. What a responsibility! The New Testament epistles are sober witness to the fact that in the heavenly places, in higher ranks than we can possibly understand, God has delegated the government of the universe to what he calls ‘all principality, and power, and might, and dominion’ (Eph 1:21 KJV). All the names that are used to describe these elevated creatures indicate that they were created for the purpose of governing the universe along with God.

You know, if you’d believe it I could tell you more. There’s a very strong rumour going around that one of these days, you may well find yourself sitting on a throne beside Christ, the Son of God himself. According to the gospel, not only has God promised that we miserable sinners who have repented and trusted his Son shall not come into judgment, but in his immeasurable magnificence and generosity God has said, ‘if we suffer [with his Son], we shall also reign with him’ (2 Tim 2:12 KJV). ‘To him who overcomes,’ says the Lord, ‘I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne’ (Rev 3:21 NKJV). The thing gets more incredible as you go along, doesn’t it? Can it be true? We are but tiny little creatures, and God designed that, even when we fell, there would be a way of forgiveness and of escaping judgment. And then, if you please, we would be elevated to share the government of the universe with Christ.

If that is true, I’ve got some questions to ask about the twenty-four elders on these thrones.

You say, ‘Yes, perhaps at last you’ll tell us who they are.’

No, no, I’m not going to tell you who they are, but I want you to know something about them. They are pictured as having white garments, a symbol of personal, perfect righteousness: their government is going to be just. And they’ve got golden crowns on their heads: their government is of the highest quality (Rev 4:4). I can’t really take it in. Do you think they’re real, or is this just propaganda and show? When he comes to show himself to the world, and he says, ‘I don’t come to decisions by myself, you know, I have these twenty-four elders here’; in reality, does he make the decisions and they have no choice? Are they a bunch of yes-men, who can’t do anything other than say yes, whether they think it’s right or wrong? But they can’t be yes-men, can they? That would be a slander on the very character of God. I should hesitate to say it in the presence of the systematic theologians of some schools, but God made us with free will, with the ability to say yes or to say no to God himself. When he puts his redeemed upon their thrones with his Son, he won’t secure their compliance by removing their free will, will he? Here is the glory of it: the judgments that come out of that central throne will not only be limited by the rainbow of God’s mercy; they will be limited by the fact that they must pass through and obtain the free consent of those who surround his throne. I’m coming perilously near now to telling you who they are, but I won’t.

You say, ‘Will humans have a say—a real say—in the government of God?’

Yes, of course we will, because the principle has been established. Our blessed Lord Jesus said, ‘The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son’ (John 5:22). And why is that?

You say, ‘Because he is the Son of God’.

No, no. It’s because he is the Son of Man (v. 27). The judgment will be ‘by peer’, as we say in English (one who is of equal standing with another). Mankind will be judged by a man and redeemed fellow men. Let me be careful what I say about the church in Corinth, I’ve got to meet them in glory. But they were a funny crowd, weren’t they? To correct some of their excesses, Paul writes:

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? . . . Do you not know that we are to judge angels? (1 Cor 6:1–3)

Can you read it, my brothers, my sisters, and not be moved to the depths of your very being? If this is true, it reveals a God who is fantastic in his generosity and wonder. He’s no tyrant!

Moreover, when John saw this throne, it was no longer silent. The question of why the throne has been and will yet be silent in the face of evil, is one of the great problems in holy Scripture. But now John is pointing to a time when the throne is no longer silent: ‘From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder’ (4:5). Appropriate enough for the throne of a creator who’s now beginning to make an impression on the world that there is a throne, and it was about to act.

The second pair: The torches and the sea of glass

But before it acts, here comes another pair. It says, ‘Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne . . . Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal’ (4:5–6 NKJV). These things are not said to be around the throne. A different preposition is used to indicate their local relationship to the throne; and then, of course, to go beyond that to the moral and spiritual relationship.

The seven blazing torches

The power of light

First, there were seven lamps—not in the sense of oil lamps, but in the sense of torches. When the ancients went out at night, they got a long piece of wood, wrapped some rag around it, dipped it in oil, lit it and it blazed a way through the darkness of the night. It would need to be kept burning, so they also took a jar of oil with them to replenish their torches. There were seven torches of fire burning ‘before the throne’, and ‘before the throne’ was a sea of glass. We can understand it physically, but what is the significance at the deeper level of the preposition ‘before’? What were they there before the throne to do? What did they signify: what did they mean?

We could take a helpful example from Solomon’s throne. Like many other potentates in the Middle East, he had a throne built when he came to power. If you were some king, queen or other dignitary from Sheba or elsewhere, when you came to visit you weren’t introduced into his bathroom. You were told to wait until his majesty climbed up the steps and sat down on his gorgeous throne, and then you were allowed to come near. And as you came before Solomon’s throne, there were stone images of lions—not the pussycat lions you see outside some Chinese buildings; these were images of lions with their jaws open, ready to devour you (1 Kgs 10:18–20). Why do you suppose Solomon had lions before his throne, even if they were imitations? Well, of course, they would put everybody who came near the throne in the right frame of mind. Some of the ancient kings, like Darius for instance, not only had imitation lions before their thrones, they kept a den of living lions; so you’d better take notice of the stone lions because if you displeased his majesty, you might be thrown to the real ones as their breakfast (Dan 6:16, 24). Lions before the throne were an exhibition, a reminder, of the power of the throne.

Here is almighty God, and he has a throne that John can see in his vision. What has he got standing before it that would surely impress people with his power?

You say, ‘Well, a dozen lions perhaps’.

Can we think of anything more ferocious?

‘A few African buffalos, a tiger or two, or an amalgam of all the beasts just to impress you with his power’, you say.

No, he hasn’t got that.

‘What has he got, then?’ you ask.

Well—torches.

You say, ‘I don’t think much of that. That isn’t a very impressive throne to come to. I mean, you’ll see torches any time you go out at night in the city of Jerusalem. How many did you say? Seven torches? Well, that’s not much, is it? Where’s the power in that, if it’s meant to be a symbol of power?’

Well, of course, they were blazing. The effect was to create a tremendous pool of light as you came near the throne. They were designed to dispel the darkness, for I want to tell you that there is a ‘power of darkness’, but this throne is not that. This is the throne of the power of light. We must take the power of darkness seriously, must we not? We were once in its grip, and how devilish that power is. Our Lord used the expression when the party came to arrest him in the garden, and the devilish cunning of the whole business showed the fearful and sinister power of darkness. It wasn’t merely that Judas, being an apostle, had deserted the Lord and was now betraying him to his enemies. The Jewish authorities, knowing well that Jesus was not a political activist, came under cover of darkness with a band of soldiers to make out that they caught him in some nefarious political activity. Their intent was to portray him as a political subversive whom they caught in the act, arrest him for it, haul him before Pilate, accuse him of being against the government and have him sentenced to death. In fact, that’s what they tried to do. ‘I was daily with you in the temple,’ said Christ, ‘why didn’t you arrest me then?’ Well, they dared not do it in daylight because the crowds hung upon his teaching, so they did it under the cover of darkness.

And there was worse. When the arresting party came, one of Christ’s own disciples, beloved of the Lord, who loved his master more than any, thought he was doing the Lord a service. Contrary to our Lord’s command, he took out his sword to use it to fight the arresting party and to prevent the Lord’s arrest. He nearly played into the very hands of Satan, for to have started a battle was what Satan would have wanted (Luke 22:49–51). They would have made the case that Jesus Christ was a mere politician like the rest of them, a guerrilla warfare leader. They had caught him at it, and when the authorities came to arrest him, he tried to resist by using violence. What a misrepresentation of God and God’s throne that would have been, wouldn’t it? Our Lord summed up the whole situation. He said, ‘But this is your hour, and the power of darkness’ (Luke 22:53).

As you look back, it almost makes you tremble to think of it, doesn’t it? Once you were under that power of darkness, my brother; once you were deceived by it, my sister. Thank God, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Col. 1:13): in Peter’s terminology, ‘into his marvellous light’ (1 Pet 2:9). God doesn’t get power over his creatures by keeping them in the dark.

He doesn’t do it with science, does he? Some people have thought that science is something we shouldn’t be engaged in—that we shouldn’t go probing around in nature. And why shouldn’t you? You can put the atom in your cyclotron, push it about, hit it hard and split it up and whatever else you do to it; or you can examine a molecule under your microscope. But however deeply you look into such things, you won’t come across a big notice that says, ‘Don’t go any further. Trespassers will be prosecuted.’ God wants you to know; he’s not afraid you’ll discover anything untoward. God has no skeletons in his cupboard, you know; he rules by truth and light.

Just imagine the fearful state of affairs that ruled in many countries in the Middle Ages, when there were those who, in the very name of God, took the Bible away from the people. They retained their strength by keeping people in the dark. They said that it wasn’t safe to read the Bible, and they mustn’t read it. That’s not God, is it? He rules by the power of light—‘his marvellous light’. And the best light of all is God himself, for ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all’ (1 John 1:5). The reason why men blaspheme him and don’t trust him is that they have fallen victim to the satanic lie; they are in darkness and don’t see God as he really is.

The sea of glass

The power of nature

There were not only seven lamps before the throne, but ‘before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal’ (4:6). So pure and transparent it was, with no waves upon its surface, for it was calm, like glass. What was it, and what was it there for?

Some people have said that this sea before the throne of God is an emblematic expression reminding people of the seas of this planet of ours and their endless churning that God alone is able to calm. ‘The wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked”’ (Isa 57:20–21). On the other hand, it is said of God, ‘You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them’ (Ps 89:9). Thus, the view held by some is that this sea before the throne of God is an emblem to remind us that God is in control of all the powers of nature. If that is what it means, it is lovely.

It reminds me of that occasion when a little boat pulled out onto the sea of Galilee, and in it were twelve disciples and one tired Saviour. When a storm arose and threatened to sink the boat to the bottom, the disciples came in alarm, and they said, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ But he arose and said, ‘Peace! Be still!’, and the wind dropped, and the waves subsided (Mark 4:35–39). That story is not there to guarantee that no Christian’s boat will ever go to the bottom. It is not there to tell us that no aeroplane in which a missionary flies to his field will ever crash. I’m afraid some will, and some boats will sink. Some Christians will be killed by lightning and storms and volcanoes. The story is there to tell us that there is one who is in control of nature. If the boat had sunk that night on the sea of Galilee, it wouldn’t have been because the Lord was asleep and didn’t know about it. What nature does, she does in the end by his permission: he controls the physical powers.

But there’s more to it than controlling physical powers, isn’t there? For, as we have seen now many times, in the tabernacle of old and then in the temple, in the court there stood a laver. In Solomon’s temple, it stood on the backs of oxen and was so huge that they called it the sea. As we know, that was not merely an emblem to tell us that God the creator controls the seas and the forces of nature. It was to remind us of another and a greater force. For if it takes divine power to control the storms of the sea, what do you think it takes to control the unruly, rebellious nature of mankind gone astray? Do you believe God can do it? It is but a small thing for the Almighty to control the sea; it has no will of its own. But I can tell you this: there’s no hope of a paradise for you and me or anybody else unless God has a power that can control the rebel and bring peace and purity. There is such a power. The seven lamps are emblematic of the seven spirits of God (4:5); emblematic of him who was hovering over the darkness of the deep in the days before creation (Gen 1:2). It is the blessed Holy Spirit who performs the work of regeneration and purifies filthy sinners like us, and he will do so until no stain remains and God can see his own face mirrored in the purity of our hearts.

The four living creatures

They share the life of their creator

And then finally, there were four living creatures (Rev 4:6). They were in the midst and round about the throne, supporting it, like the cherubim seen by Ezekiel in his vision of the throne of God (Ezek 1). Where you read descriptions of the throne of God in Scripture, you will sometimes find the living creatures called by their other name, cherubim. Cherubim are living creatures, and living creatures are cherubim: one and the same.

You say, ‘Tell me who they are.’

Why will you persist in asking questions like that? How can I tell you who they are? I can tell you what they are.

‘Well,’ you say, ‘what are they?’

They’re living creatures!

You say, ‘That’s not telling us much’.

It’s telling you an enormous lot. They’re living; they’re alive. Just contemplate them for a moment. One was like an ox, one was like a lion, another was like an eagle, and one had the face of a man—all those different forms of life. Life, life, life! Everywhere you looked, there was life—and not one monotonous kind either.

You know, I’ve sometimes wished I was a lion with that feeling of strength and majesty, and with a beautiful mane around my head instead of a weakling like I am with a few thin hairs. A real lion! Oh, it would be nice. But apparently, in that sense you can’t be a man and a lion as well. I’ve not often wanted to be an ox, except when the burdens of life have grown great and I feel I’m pulling a bigger load than I ought to be, and then I wish I had the strength of an ox. I’ve got a bit more intelligence than an ox, but I admire his endurance and strength. Regardless of what the psychologists say, and they say some funny things about people who have dreams like this, but sometimes I wish I could fly like an eagle. Would you like to glide? Not to be held up in traffic jams, but to despise the lot of them and take to the hills and glide majestically on the wind. Oh, I’d love to be an eagle, and here I am, just a pedestrian human.

Oh, what a God of life God is! It staggers the imagination—from ants to antelopes, from monkeys to angels, from butterflies to crocodiles—his throne is teeming with life.

You say, ‘But it’s going to issue judgments’.

I know it is. Do you know why the judgments will come? It’s because life itself, the sheer maintenance of life in the universe, will eventually demand that all perverse things that defile, cripple and destroy life shall be done away with. ‘[God] will destroy those who destroy the earth’ (see 11:18). God is for life.

You say, ‘What are the living creatures doing underneath his throne?’

Well, I mustn’t be dogmatic, and nothing that I’ve said tonight should be taken in the realm of dogmatism. This is imagery, isn’t it? But how do you suppose God governs? Contemplate the matter. When God wants a tree to bear apples, he doesn’t send a note down from the heavenly civil service that says, ‘Apple tree: by central command, you will grow some apples this year’. No, of course not. He gets trees to grow apples by giving them apple life. And when it comes to the higher level, God has issued his laws and rules and regulations—his holy law given from Mount Sinai. In the end, good and holy as it was, that ancient covenant proved inadequate, and another had to take its place. Paul describes it like this: ‘For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh’ (Rom 8:2–3). The way God proposes to govern his people is not ultimately by a series of rules and regulations (though we need their external guidance); it is by writing his laws on our hearts, giving us the very life, and therefore the very nature of God (Heb 8:10).

Yes, the symbols mean something, my brothers and sisters, and if they mean anything near what we have thought they meant this evening, it is understandable that, before the judgments of God emanate from that throne and come upon this world, God should be keen to show what the true facts are about the nature of his throne; the kind of government it is and the kind of God he is. There’s no hiding the fact that he is the creator, and the four living creatures give thanks to him who lives for ever and ever (v. 9). It’s understandable that they do so, is it not? They are alive—vibrant with life. Knowing that they get it from him who sits on the throne, they worship him, who is the fount and source of all life and of their life in particular.

Thus we find the reason for our existence and the meaningfulness of life. As the philosophers say, we are contingent creatures. We didn’t invent ourselves; our life is derived from him who lives for ever and ever. The satisfaction in living is to know that we come from him and that we were made for him. When the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him, they cast their crowns before the throne, and this is what they say:

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. (4:11)

If there is no Creator-God, then, in spite of all its wonder, life is ultimately meaningless, and all will be found to be vanity (see Eccl 1:2). However remote in the future it is, the physicists and cosmologists tell us that one day the earth and the universe will crumble to nothing and be no more. Being derived creatures (with derived life), the meaning of life depends on us learning to fulfil the purpose for which we were designed.

And what purpose is that? Look again at Revelation 4:11. If you have enjoyed life, on what possible grounds would you reject the very reason that God says you should serve him? We were made to do his will. The trouble is not that we get up in the morning with plans to murder our mothers-in-law before breakfast, or engage in other outrageous crimes. There are worse things than that. Being made by God to do his will, for the most part we have very politely gone each one to our own way (Isa 53:6). Hence the chaos of our world.

Let it be advertised again: God isn’t going to wait forever and put up with the chaos caused by human self-will, rebellion and perversity. God has big plans on hand for the redevelopment of the universe, such that one day it shall serve his pleasure in everything it does. I wonder why he has not already started the plan; but that would first demand the demolition of much that there is now, before he could begin to create again.

Who shall be found worthy, and who shall be able to conduct the demolition? The answer will be given in our studies tomorrow.

Shall we pray.

Oh God, we feel like little children playing on a nursery floor with things that are wonderful but go beyond our understanding. Once more, we bless thee for the assurance of thy word that these are the true sayings of God. We who have known the bitterness of our waywardness of heart and the folly of our rebellion and the sorrow it brings, we bless thee that, though now we see through a mirror darkly and not yet face to face, what we see before thy throne by thy grace lifts our hearts in adoration and praise and wonder. We praise thee for thy throne, for thy power, for thy love and for thy redeeming grace. And we thank thee for thy tremendous generosity, for we believe, even if we cannot understand it, that thou hast guaranteed that one day we shall share the throne of thy Son with him. So we thank thee for this day. Engrave upon our hearts the impressions thou hast made by thy Spirit, we do beseech thee, that in the days to come we may remember them and go about our created tasks with the glory of praise in our hearts, with thanksgiving and gratitude to thee and to thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we offer thee our evening worship. Amen.

Part 2: The Scroll and the Lamb (5:1–7:17)

We come now in our studies of the book of Revelation to chapter 5, which is the second portion of Section Two of the book. It is a chapter that is exceedingly famous and much loved amongst the people of God, for therein is celebrated the triumph of the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

Understandably, therefore, this is a portion of Scripture that is frequently read when believers gather to worship the Lord and to celebrate the great victory of his cross. It is a passage that appeals to the hearts of believers in this particular way too, that it celebrates the time when all the redeemed people of God shall be gathered before God on his throne and the Lamb shall be praised as the one who has redeemed us ‘from every tribe and language and people and nation’ (5:9), overcoming all national barriers, though preserving what is lovely and good in all national traits and characteristics. Ending all the animosities that have separated different nations, tribes, languages and ethnic groups, he shall bring them all to sing harmoniously to the praise of God.

It goes without saying that anybody who could take the diverse characteristics of the nations of the earth—characteristics that have long been a cause of much strife and still vex our world with cruel warfare—redeem them and blend them into one harmonious living choir of praise, would, by any measure, be a genius. The world waits for him, and one day it shall hear the blessed proclamation:

The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered [or ‘overcome’], so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals (5:5).

While this chapter is often used in worship by the church, perhaps it is not always realized, as it should be, what exactly it tells us he is worthy to do. The worthiness that is proclaimed is the worthiness of the Lamb to ‘take the scroll and to open its seals’ (v. 9), and we shall perceive from chapter 6 that the opening of these seals involves the unleashing of the judgments of God upon an evil world. That is a contemplation calculated to stop the heart, so I repeat: what the Lord Jesus is found worthy to do is to open the seals that will unleash the judgments of God.

The worthiness of God as creator

We must ponder long and hard as we think about his worthiness to do that. Therefore, let me remind you of the context of chapter 5, which focuses on the worthiness of the Lamb. It follows on the pronouncements of chapter 4, of course, where we are told that:

. . . day and night they [the living creatures that support the throne of God] never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’ (vv. 8–11)

Ponder the words of the twenty-four elders: ‘Worthy are you,’ they say, ‘to receive glory and honour and power’. They are, of course, addressing almighty God, who, in one sense, already has the power. Who can dispute him? Already, he has glory and honour. And here we think of the context of his great creation gone astray—a creation of intelligent beings who do not yield the power to their almighty Creator and are far from giving him the honour and glory that is his due. One day the voice of the elders and of the living creatures shall prevail, and God shall rise up to take from this world what it has so long refused him.

Last night we considered at length the nature of the throne of God; that is to say, the nature of his government. What kind of throne is it that would proceed to deluge the world with judgments that make mortal men gnaw their tongues for pain? Contrary to popular opinion and ideas, we saw that this throne is not the throne of any tyrant; rather, it is the throne of a creator who desires to share the government of the world with his creatures. Yes, it’s a creator who does what he likes; but he likes to limit his judgment and has shown his heart by giving his Son to die and bear the sins of his rebellious creatures.

But that said, the claims of God to receive the power, the honour and the glory are beyond contradiction, are they not? Notice they are founded on his creatorial rights. He has a right to rule the universe; he has a right that the universe should serve his purpose and his pleasure, for the simple, basic reason that there wouldn’t have been a universe if he hadn’t created it.

Mankind was created to do God’s will

This universe is not a mindless assemblage of blind forces, and there are modern humanists in the West as well as the East who need to be reminded of this. What a denial of intelligence, that human beings, with the highest form of rationality we know of on this planet, have used it to deny its very basis; and in their attempt to escape the creator and his claims upon them they have invented the notion that our high rationality comes from the blind forces of nature. They say that these forces—energy, the weak atomic force, the strong atomic force, electromagnetism, gravity and antigravity, if there be such stuff—have made us without purpose, not knowing that they made us, poor things. And one day, just as they made us, unknowingly and without purpose, they will destroy us—our rationality, intellect, emotions, aesthetic sense and all that makes us the wonderful creatures that we are. The modern humanist theory, which claims that it is campaigning in the interests of mankind, informs us that these blind forces of the universe will one day destroy the universe and humanity with it. And the final irony will be that they won’t even know they’ve done it. As you see, it is a theory that says human rationality is futile, life has no ultimate meaning, and it will end in dust and ashes.

Why do people adopt such an absurd and anti-rational theory? It is, of course, because deep down in the creature’s heart there has been sown this desire to rebel against the notion that there is a creator. Instinct tells us that if there is, as his creatures we owe him our allegiance. But if there is a creator who made us, the only rational way to live is to fulfil the original purpose he had in mind. As the twenty-four elders cast their crowns before the throne, they say, ‘You created all things, and by your will they existed and were created’ (see 4:10–11).

I remember once a particular acquaintance and I fell to talking about spiritual things. I mentioned the word ‘sin’, and he objected. He thought sin was a silly concept; he didn’t care about sin. So I said, ‘My good young friend, do you think you would be capable of making a motorcar?’ Yes, given the tools, he thought he could.

I said, ‘If you made a motorcar, and when you sat behind the driving wheel five times out of ten it went where you wanted it to go, but five times out of ten it took no notice of your intentions and went where it wanted to go itself, what would you do with it?’

He said, ‘I’d scrap the thing.’

‘Oh,’ I said, ‘that’s interesting. But suppose this motorcar that you had made went where you wanted it to go nine times out of ten, and only once when you sat behind the steering wheel it took no notice of you and went where it wanted to go itself.’

He said, ‘I’d still scrap it. If I made a motorcar, it would have to go one hundred per cent where I wanted it to go.’

I said, ‘You’d better look out that the Almighty doesn’t scrap you. For he made us to do his will, and if men and women persist in going their own way, there will be nothing else for it; God will have to put them on the scrap heap of eternity.’

The worthiness of the Lamb as redeemer

The judgments of God must come, and now the appalling question is raised: ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ (Rev. 5:2). The opening of the seals would deluge the world with judgment and remove the ungodly and make way for God’s redevelopment of the universe. Note that the question is not simply who is able? I nearly said, ‘any fool’ could press the button and start a successive chain of atomic reactions that would blast our planet out of recognition. It’s not a question merely of who is able to do it, but who is worthy to do it.

If God asked you to rise up and execute his judgments on the world, how could you do it? We are sinners. Who is worthy to do it? And when the challenge went out and John heard it, he tells us that no man in heaven or earth was found able to open the scroll or to look into it, let alone break its seals (v. 3). Written in this scroll were the purposes of God and the judgments that must follow the breaking of his will. How could you face even to look at it, and bear to read its contents? John wept loudly, he says (5:4). Manly man though he was, he doesn’t mind us knowing. He wept when he heard that there was no one worthy to take the scroll, open the seals and face its contents. Wouldn’t any intelligent human being weep, for if no one is found worthy to open this scroll, break its seals and set loose the judgments, then the vast tangle of human iniquity must proceed forever.

As late as the end of the 19th century, men were imagining that the world’s problems would be solved by the progress of science. It was an era of tremendous optimism. The dawning of this 20th century raised the hope that world peace would be brought about through the United Nations, but those brave hopes have been blasted. Millions of people in Europe have been and still are being massacred; let alone in the killing fields of Cambodia and the other troubles that fill the world. And it’s not only political troubles that are our difficulty; it is also economic problems, is it not? We’ve reached the absurdities of the West with their butter mountains and wine lakes. Not to mention the food that can’t be given away, because to do so would upset the economic balance and plunge everything into chaos, even as millions starve to death in other countries. More and more, the world resembles ancient Egypt as described in the book of Genesis. When God first planted a garden and put man in it, the economics were fairly simple, but by the time you get to the end of Genesis things are different. By then you have a vast empire called Egypt, with all the little satellite countries around dependent upon her. And when there came a famine, Egypt would have perished economically along with those nations, had it not been for the God-given Joseph from Israel who solved that problem.

The world looks not only for a political solver of difficulties, but somebody who can grasp the economic problems of a developed world and solve them to the benefit of mankind and to the glory of God. But that is not so easy, is it? Karl Marx was so sure that the solution was to get rid of God that he and his followers were prepared to massacre millions. And we have been left to ponder the tragedy of those vast millions who were massacred for an economic theory that has now been proved nonsense. You’d weep, wouldn’t you? You’d weep for the mothers and the children, for the men and the women. Oh, have a heart for humanity; know your own heart that contributes to the problem with its selfishness and its going astray from God. Is there no solution? Shall none be found? Must it go on forever?

John wept when no one was found able or worthy to take the scroll. Then one of the elders came and said, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered [overcome], so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals’ (5:5). Having turned to look, John says, ‘I saw a Lamb . . .’ (see 5:6).

This morning, my brothers and sisters, first of all we celebrate the triumph of the Lion. Note the verb, please, in what the Lion has done: he has conquered, prevailed, he has overcome. And there we meet again that word that is so basic to the thought-flow of the book of Revelation, the word ‘overcome’. The Lion has overcome, and we celebrate his victory this morning.

Then we are to celebrate the wonder of the Lamb. It doesn’t say here that the Lamb has overcome; it says, ‘I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain’. In normal parlance, those two things are the opposite, aren’t they? If you overcome, you survive; if you are slain, you don’t overcome, you appear to be defeated. But we celebrate the overcoming by the Lion and the slaying of the Lamb. These two glorious things are the key to God bringing back his universe to serve his will.

The Lion of Judah has overcome

What does it mean that the Lion has overcome? First, consider the title, Lion of the tribe of Judah. The figure of speech is a very natural one and particularly frequent in Hebrew and other writings, where a lion is used as the figure of a king. The title, ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah’, takes our minds back to Genesis 49, where Jacob on his deathbed foresaw the fact that amongst his sons, ‘Judah was a lion’s whelp, and the sceptre would not depart from Judah until Shiloh would come’ (see vv. 9–10 KJV). And ever since then, Israel and the world have unknowingly been looking for the coming of the Lion.

The world has known some lions, hasn’t it? Some of them have looked glorious. There was the old lion that Daniel saw in his vision (Dan. 7:4). He was a funny-looking lion. He had wings on his back like an eagle, but eventually he was humanized somewhat when his wings were clipped and he stood up on his hind legs like a man, and a man’s heart was given to him (KJV). Amongst the nations from time to time, some of the ‘lions’ of this world have been tamed a bit. They’ve descended to being presidents instead of monarchs and have become more humanitarian in how they treat their subjects.

In the days of the New Testament there were some pretty ferocious lions stalking the earth. ‘God in his mercy delivered me from the mouth of the lion’, said Paul (see 2 Tim 4:17). He was talking about Nero Caesar, who was a pretty insane lion.

Israel herself knew lions, and Ezekiel rehearses the fact that Jerusalem had produced some (Ezek. 19:1–9). There was a lioness (Jerusalem) and she brought up a young lion, one of the kings of Judah (Jehoahaz), and he went out on the mountains, and he roared. At first, the nations were afraid of him, but in the end they put their hooks in him and brought him down to Egypt. So she got another of her cubs (either Jehoiachin or Zedekiah) and brought him up to be a great hunting lion, and again the nations were afraid of his roar, but they spread their nets and trapped him in their pit and took him into captivity in Babylon (see 2 Kgs 23:31–34; 24:8–25:7; 2 Chr 36).

He has overcome the prince of this world

It is said of this Lion of the tribe of Judah that he has overcome. What has he overcome? What is this battle that he has won so that now he is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals (Rev 5:5)? Do you suppose it means that there were lots of candidates lining up to take the scroll out of the hand of him who was seated on the throne, and they all got fighting among themselves as to who should be the chief lion? The Lion of Judah had the strongest bite, so he bit them and clawed them and beat them, and thus he has triumphed and come out as the number one president of the whole world—is that what is meant by him being the lion that has overcome? Not as far as I can see from the reading of this book. There was a mighty great pause when the challenge went out, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll?’, and there were no other candidates in sight (v. 4). If it doesn’t mean that he has overcome other candidates, in what sense has he overcome? Perhaps we’d better consult him.

Almost his last words to his disciples before he left the Upper Room were, ‘In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). Standing on the streets of Jerusalem a few days earlier, he had spoken similarly: ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself . . . for the [prince] of this world is coming. He has no claim on me’ (John 12:32; 14:30). He has overcome the great and false prince of this world.

The fall of mankind

You know, as beautiful as God’s creation has always been, the world in some sense is a dangerous place. I wonder if you’ve found it so. And perhaps it’s not the ugly things that are the most dangerous—who would want to keep a tame crocodile! It’s the beautiful things of this world that have proved to be the most dangerous. According to the book of Genesis, God made a lovely world; and in that newly formed world he planted a garden (which shows, incidentally, that the rest of the world wasn’t a garden). God put Adam and Eve, the first humans, into that garden and commissioned them to subdue the earth and make something of it. What a lovely task that was. Fancy being there before anybody messed it up, and you’ve got the rights to develop the whole earth.

Oh, I can sense an itch in the feet of the businessmen. What would they have made of it if they’d had a chance? Says the historian, ‘A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and it divided and became four rivers. One in particular flowed around the land of Havilah, where there is gold’ (see Gen 2:10–11). If Adam had been a businessman, he wouldn’t have stayed long in the garden with daffodils and things, when he could have gone down that river to develop the gold and the silver and the copper and make something glorious of this world. ‘That’s right,’ said God, ‘this is what you could do with earth if you had a mind to. See what I have done: look at this garden, isn’t it superb? Now, Adam, get on with it. You’re made in my image to be my viceroy, to develop the world and make something of it.’

Marvellous, isn’t it? Oh, I wish I had three or four lives. I’ve been a classicist in my life, but I’d like another one as a physicist, and perhaps another as a chemist, to learn about this fascinating universe. Even the tiniest atom has got enough secrets in it to occupy you for a whole lifetime and more. What a marvellous place it could be, if only men and women had sense. For instance, what fun it would be if we knocked our heads together in a peaceable fashion and tamed the Sahara and made the earth blossom as a rose; instead of fighting each other and spending a great part of our gross national product on producing armaments to kill people.

Satan’s temptation and deception

Why can’t we do it? Ah, hear the story of it all (Gen 3:1–6). Into that lovely garden one bright morning, came his satanic majesty. Using the form and voice of a serpent, he accosted Eve. He said, ‘My dear, I’m rather sorry for you; I hear you mustn’t eat of any tree in this garden.’

‘You’ve got it wrong,’ she said, ‘we are allowed to eat of all the trees in the garden except one.’

‘Yes,’ said Satan with his sarcasm, ‘that’s typically God, you know. He loves tantalizing people. He makes a beautiful tree with lovely fruit on it, puts it right in front of your eyes and near your mouth, and just as you’re going to get it, he says, “No, you can’t have that.” That’s what God is like. Go on, eat it, woman!’

‘No, no,’ said Eve. ‘We mustn’t eat it, for God has said, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”.’

‘Nonsense, woman,’ said the serpent, ‘that’s old-fashioned stuff. Of course you won’t die.’

So she looked at the tree and saw that the fruit was good to eat—that’s physical satisfaction; it was delightful to look at—that’s aesthetic satisfaction; and desirable to make you wise—that’s intellectual satisfaction. Isn’t that the sum total of life, and as long as you have that you don’t need anything else? As for the word of God, that’s for Sunday school children.

Said the serpent, ‘You don’t need to listen to God. You will not surely die, and when you eat the fruit of this tree you’ll have life itself, independent of God.’

Spinning his lie, that we can enjoy life to the full by taking its beautiful things independently of God, Satan deceived our first parents into this utterly false attitude towards the creation around us. But ever since, the ground has brought forth its thorns and thistles, and making it a successful thing has been frustrated with pain and anguish and hard labour.

I needn’t remind you that we have put our finger here on what is still one of the basic needs of the world. You see, Satan didn’t use ugly things to draw their hearts away from God—at that moment there were none. He used the lovely and beautiful things, and it is still so. I tell you now, there will be more in hell forever who were determined to enjoy the beautiful things, but without God. Satan has used those lovely gifts of the creator to draw the hearts of men and women away from their personal Lord.

It would be a sorry story and an abysmal situation for us to be in this morning, could we not turn now and celebrate the victory of the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

The Lion who overcame the tempter

1. By forgoing his own satisfaction and pleasure in order to do God’s will

We are told that soon after his baptism, the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights he was hungry, and, because he was a real man, hunger would have meant suffering and pain. The tempter said, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread’ (see Matt 4:3).

It was a clever temptation, wasn’t it? If the devil came to me and said, ‘Make these stones into bread,’ I’d say, ‘Don’t talk nonsense’. I’ve never been tempted to make stones into bread; I couldn’t do it, so it would be no temptation to me. But Jesus wasn’t just a mere man, he had the power to turn stones into bread; and the more power one has, the greater the temptation is. The things that we have are so little, and yet they prove to be too much for us to hold. They drag our hearts away from the Lord and our zeal declines.

Power is a very difficult thing to hold, but let me now advertise to you the one of whom it will be said that he is worthy ‘to receive power’ (see Rev. 5:12). Why is he worthy to receive all the power? It’s because he can handle it. In the desert, when the prince of this world sought to snare him in his net and bring him down to the very pit, the great Lion of the tribe of Judah overcame. Yes, he had the power to turn the stones into bread; but who said that he should, and for what purpose would he do it?

You say, ‘He’s got every right and every reason to do it. I mean, he’s hungry; and if you feel hungry and you are able to satisfy it and make yourself feel good, isn’t that the basic principle upon which the universe works? If it feels good, do it. I’ve got an appetite, so I’ve got a right to have it gratified.’

Ah, but, my good friend, the universe doesn’t work on that principle. The universe was not created to satisfy my hunger; it was created to do the will of God. The Lord Jesus said on another occasion, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing of, for my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work’ (see John 4:32, 34). Blessed Son of God though he was, if God should call upon him to go hungry in the doing of his will, then he would go hungry.

Brothers and sisters, we need to come back and see the Lion overcoming, because in our modern generation it seems to me that sometimes we are in danger of being snared in the enemy’s net. It is not only worldly people who make pleasure their supreme principle; even in our spiritual exercises and in our church programmes, we are in sore danger these days of following the world and making our own pleasure, our own enjoyment, our hedonism, the thing that is the main principle.

If I enjoy the meetings of the church, I come; if I don’t enjoy them, I don’t come. If I enjoy the work of the Lord, I do it; if I don’t enjoy it, I don’t do it. Sometimes we preachers are the guiltiest of the lot, when we get down on our knees and represent the living God as though he were a salesman selling a few pills to make people feel good.

‘Are you feeling blue or down in the dumps? Well, Jesus can help you’, we say.

‘Oh, you’re not feeling bad; you’re actually enjoying yourself? What a pity! I thought I could sell you some Jesus pills.’

In making our own satisfaction and pleasure the basic principle, we are perpetuating Satan’s strategy. If we are saved we must learn to go hungry, if it is our creator’s will. Faced with such temptation, the blessed Lord overcame. Consider the marvel of it. The Lion of the tribe of Judah—heir to the whole universe, with the right to command every angel and to enjoy every mineral and flower that was ever created—went hungry, because at that moment it was his Father’s will. His response to Satan was, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matt 4:4).

2. By refusing to demand that God should do his bidding

Wouldn’t you agree that the devil is a past master at temptation? If he can’t attack at one point, he’ll attack at the opposite point. He came again to our Lord, and said, ‘You are a remarkable young man; your dependence on God is wonderful to behold. You’re prepared to trust God even when you’re hungry. I’ve got a suggestion to make; come with me.’ So he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. ‘You trust in God, don’t you? Now, step out in faith. Doesn’t the Bible say, “He will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone”? ¹¹ Throw yourself down and demonstrate to the whole world that you are a man of faith and you trust God’ (see Matt 4:5–6).

You say, ‘That’s marvellous. What’s wrong with that? We all have to step out in faith, don’t we?’

Yes, we do, but faith in what? Who said he was to step off the temple? Whose idea was it? Faith isn’t just, ‘I want to do something and I feel strongly about it, so I shall do it’. If faith is genuine, it’s a response to God’s word. Just imagine if he’d stepped off the temple when it was full of people. That would have been dramatic: the people would have left off worshipping God and come to look at this new wonder. Instead of ministering to the praise of God, he would have drawn their attention to himself. Faith doesn’t mean that I propose the programme and God has to back me up with his resources. He isn’t in that business. It is God’s universe; God’s plan; God’s work. If he tells me to do something, he will back me up with his resources. But he’s God and I am his servant, so I must await his bidding. In so doing, the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed again.

3. By rejecting the offer of kingly power in exchange for worship

And then there came the third test as the tempter took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Said he, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours’ (see Matt 4:8–9; Luke 4:5–7).

You will observe that here speaks someone who can’t forget he’s a creature. He said, ‘I will give you all the authority and glory of these kingdoms, for it has been given to me’ (Luke 4:6 NIV). In the wisdom and inscrutability of God’s own plans, Satan has been given and allowed to gain power. Said he to the Lord Jesus, ‘I’ll give it all to you if you will fall down and worship me’. But we should understand what he meant by worship. He didn’t mean worship in the particular religious sense of sitting around Satan and singing some hallelujahs and praises to him. The Hebrew and Greek words for worship very often simply mean to bow down before and recognize as the supreme authority the one before whom you bow.

‘Look,’ said Satan, ‘let’s do a deal. You want to convert the world to God, and that’s a beautiful ideal; but it’s no good hitting your head against a stone wall. There are certain things in this world you’ll never change, like sin for instance. I am the ultimate authority when it comes to the world and its kingdoms, so you’ll have a rough time if you think you’re going to beat me. But if you would moderate your language a bit when you’re preaching and acknowledge that I am the ultimate power, then you can have the lot.’

That’s a temptation that the church of God has not always been able to resist, and it has compromised with evil. In the book of Revelation we shall read of horrible compromise, even on the part of those who profess the name of Christ. But the Lion of the tribe of Judah overcame this temptation also, saying, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’ (Matt 4:10).

‘Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him’ (v. 11).

Overcoming the world

You can buy success in this world, you know, but it’s at too high a price. True success is found only in serving the will of God. Praise God for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who has prevailed: he not only overcame Satan, but in that sense he overcame the world. Through his apostle John, listen to him exhorting the rest of us who follow him:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:15–16)

Does it mean that Christians mustn’t enjoy the world? Is it wrong for a Christian to enjoy the scent of roses, the beauty of flowers, the taste of food, marriage and all the other lovely things?

No, it doesn’t mean that. John is talking about the world set against God—the world that Satan has engineered by taking its beautiful things and drawing our hearts away from the Father. If they do not bring us to him, then those lovely things become a curse. Holy Scripture tells us that God richly provides us with everything to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17). We are to enjoy them, but let us see to it that the joy of the lovely things brings our hearts nearer to the Father, instead of taking them away.

I’m sure that my brothers and sisters who come from the East will not need to be told about our failings in the West. In my boyhood, there was much unemployment, pain and hunger even in England. In those days, believers often found it easy to wait on God, as there wasn’t anything else they could do. Then after the war came our great prosperity, and in his mercy God gave us beautiful things. Some of us had cars that we never had before, and if you’ve got a car you have to use it. If you’re at work all day long, when it comes to the prayer meeting and it’s the only night you have free to go for a drive in the country, well, what would you do? There’s nothing wrong with driving a car or going out into the country, is there? Of course there isn’t; it’s even necessary sometimes. But without our noticing it, the lovely things often drew our hearts away from the Father, and thus you’d find perhaps a hundred people on Sunday and only about ten at the prayer meeting on Monday.

You know, if we were to carry on like that, it would be dangerous to take us to heaven. If a little old Austin Mini would keep you from the prayer meeting on earth, what would happen if God gave you a whole galaxy to look after in eternity? I hope he will, incidentally. I hope I’m not going to always be singing hymns around the throne. With due respect, I’d like some time off to go and investigate the universe and see how it works, wouldn’t you? But if a Mini down here would keep me from the prayer meeting, what would happen if I had a whole galaxy or ten cities or something to look after up in heaven? I might never attend the choirs of heaven at all. That would be disastrous, wouldn’t it? In this temporary world I can enjoy the lovely things that God gives, but at the same time I must learn to guard my heart against loving them so much that there’s no time or energy left to love the Father.

‘I have overcome the world,’ says Christ (John 16:33). He has demonstrated his worthiness, and one day, because he knows how to handle it, the whole universe, earth included with its riches, its economics and all else, shall be put into his hands. He has a right to enjoy it, but how many of us have the right to share the enjoyment? We don’t have the right, do we?

Said John, ‘I turned to see this Lion of the tribe of Judah, and I saw a Lamb standing as though it had been slain’ (see 5:6). Who is worthy to take the scroll, break the seals and send forth the judgments? He is worthy because he is the Lion who himself never yielded to temptation, and he is worthy also because he is the Lamb who was slain.

The Lamb who was slain

Now you’ll notice the choirs of heaven taking a new, perhaps deeper, note.

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (5:9–10 KJV)

He was slain

The word slain is an ugly word in Greek: they don’t say, ‘for you were sacrificed’. No, this is just the crude, plain word, ‘slain’. It reminds us that when Christ came to Calvary, this sinful, selfish world was filled with envy: ‘For [Pilate] knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up’ (Matt 27:18). They took him and tore him and murdered him (vv. 27–31). Will they have any ground for complaint, when he in turn sets loose the judgments of God?

He has redeemed us to God by his blood

But more than that: he was slain and has redeemed us to God by his blood. He has bought us back; he has redeemed us. And once more, here is a story verging on the incredible. Why should God bother with this little planet? If you were walking along the road and some irreverent mosquito landed on your brow and had the audacity and impertinence to sting you with its venom, what would you do? You wouldn’t think twice; you’d slap it into oblivion, as you do with midges that irritate you. Tell me, when God made this world and put mankind in it to serve him, why didn’t he dissolve the whole show when man disobeyed and went over to the enemy? He wasn’t hard up for galaxies; why didn’t he blast it into nothingness and start again?

One of the answers must be that, if God had used his power simply to destroy mankind and the devil, Satan would have said, ‘You’ve lost, God. You are almighty; you can destroy everything if you want to—we’ve never disputed that. You made a world for men and women, but you couldn’t keep their affection, and I’ve won. I used your own good things to win their hearts, and you can’t get them back. All you can do now is to use your almighty power and destroy the lot.’

Out of every tribe and language and people and nation

But God wasn’t defeated. Before the Lamb opens the seals that shall deluge this world with fire, before he eventually destroys the old and substitutes new heavens and a new earth (see 2 Pet 3:7–13), God is going to win the battle against Satan. He shall redeem mankind, not all, I know, but men and women out of every tribe, language, people and nation. He will win their hearts back again. That’s the worthiness of Christ to destroy the old and bring in the new, for he has won and brought men and women back to God.

How can God win back human hearts?

You say, ‘By using his power, of course. Isn’t he a lion? He’ll come to mankind in their rebellion and start roaring. That’ll bring them back, for they’ll be so scared they won’t be able to do anything else.’

But a lion’s roar has never won anybody’s heart and love. For it is not now a question of power: power cannot command love. The issue at stake is, will they love God or will they love the world? Will they love the things that God has created more than they love God himself? How shall God win the battle for their hearts? What kind of power will overcome the human heart and bring it back from its rebellion to genuinely love God?

Ah, look at this Lamb who has been slain (v. 6).

You say, ‘That’s not overcoming; that’s defeat—he has been slain.’

Have you ever seen such a lamb before? This Lamb has seven eyes and seven horns, and horns in biblical language stand for power. This is the power of the cross: ‘For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men’ (1 Cor 1:25). How can God win back your heart, or mine either, or the hearts of other men and women?

You say, ‘I know what to do: bribe them. Give them a Cadillac or a Rolls Royce or even an aeroplane. That will win them.’

‘But they already have those things.’

‘What has Satan given them?’, you say.

‘He’s given them the world.’

‘Well then, God had better give them two worlds.’

That is how some parents treat spoilt children and lose their love forever. But God knows better. It was those very things that took us away from him, so how will he get us back? He will not merely show us his creation, but his heart and himself. ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isa 53:6). The Lamb of God died at Calvary, for that’s what God is like.

Words may fail to explain it, but you know it in your heart, don’t you? What was it that bowed your heart in willing obedience to Christ? And what makes you suffer and toil and sometimes go hungry, when you don’t need to do it? You know that if you were to compromise with the world’s system you needn’t go hungry; so what makes you love and serve this Jesus Christ and at times suffer privation for him?

You say, ‘It’s the power of the Lamb who was crucified for me. If that’s what God is like, then I find it impossible to resist him, and I must follow him forever.’

He has made us a kingdom and priests and we shall reign on the earth

The Lion has prevailed; the Lamb has been slain. But not merely to rescue us from our trouble: that would never be the final answer, would it? Mankind has got itself into trouble and is worthy of the judgments of God. We have gone astray to serve our own pleasures and desires instead of serving the will of God. If the Lamb of God were to come and bear the judgments to set us free to carry on going our own way, that would but perpetuate the trouble, wouldn’t it? That’s no solution to earth’s need. The worthiness of the Lamb is this: he not only redeemed us to God by his blood, but he has made us a kingdom (5:10). That is the true reading of the Greek at that point*—he has made us a kingdom*. That is, a company of people who willingly obey God. He has changed us from rebels into obedient servants, and made us a kingdom of priests to serve God and to serve others.

If it were advertised to the world that Christ is worthy to set loose the judgments and reign because he’s redeemed sinners at the cost of his life, perhaps the world would approve (they’ll eventually have to). But if it were advertised that Christ is worthy to set loose the judgments and reign, and God were to say, ‘Take Gooding as an example. He’s somebody who obeys me and my Son has made him part of my kingdom’, the response might be different. At that point, it would make them begin to tremble a little, wouldn’t it?

‘Oh, really?’ says my neighbour. ‘I hadn’t noticed it myself. Is that so?’

‘Yes, and he’s made him a priest, you know. He’s one of the people who lives for God and for others.’

‘For others? How interesting. I’ve never heard that before. Do you mean him?’

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Pet 2:9 NIV)

If that be so, may God help me, and grant by his grace that he who triumphed at the cross may continue his good work in me and perfect it. So that when the Lord Jesus comes again, he may be wondered at and admired in his saints as they reign with him, and the universe is called upon to see what Christ has made of his people (Heb 13:21 KJV; 2 Thess 1:10).

Universal acknowledgment of God and of the Lamb

With that, we’re told that the heavenly multitudes bring their praises to the Lamb (Rev 5:11). John heard the living creatures, the elders and the uncountable myriads of angels around the throne, say with a loud voice,

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing! (5:12)

Then he heard a remarkable thing:

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 honour and glory and might for ever and ever!’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshipped. (5:13–14)

It is not surprising that those in heaven and on earth should acknowledge it, but did you hear the other voices from the very abyss itself, and Satan among them? The voice of ‘every creature’ shall be heard! The doctrine of universalism isn’t true: alas, all are not going to be saved. This very book tells us that Satan and others will be cast into the lake of fire, which is eternal (Rev 20:10–15). But in the end, everyone in heaven, on earth and under the earth will have to admit that God’s throne has won and the Lamb is worthy.

You see, it is a moral and spiritual battle. It’s not who has the greatest physical power in the universe, but who is the greatest moral and spiritual power. Through Isaiah the prophet, God said, ‘By myself I have sworn . . . “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall [confess] . . .”’ (Isa 45:23). And when you first hear it, it might just seem to be the words of some omnipotent dictator. But see how the New Testament tells us that this pronouncement of God is to be fulfilled: ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God [acknowledge God, NIV]’ (Rom 14:11). Yes, it shall happen, but when it happens, here is the statement of it:

. . . Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:5–11)

I think he’s glad to hear it, and I hope it’s not an impertinence on my part, but sometimes in my devotions I tell God the Father, ‘Oh God, I bow my knee and I confess your power and your glory, and I must tell you why I do it. I don’t do it simply because you are the Almighty, but I do it because of what Jesus Christ has shown me you are.’ And in the name of Jesus, I bow my knee to God.

The opening of the six seals

A few things will keep us now for just a few moments. As is proper, we have spent a long time on chapter 4, about the worthiness of God, and chapter 5, about the worthiness of the Lamb. In chapter 6, the Lamb proceeds to open the scroll and loose the seals, and when he does so, a number of exceedingly unpleasant things occur upon earth.

Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come!’ And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!’ When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. (6:1–8)

The critic would say, ‘Well, so what? That’s nothing new; it’s been going on for centuries, hasn’t it? Little dictators, and bigger ones too, getting on their high horses and going forth to conquer with that lust for power in their hearts.’

And so we think of the Assyrians in their day; or Napoleon making all the excuses he could find, but in his heart it was just war games and lust for power. He went forth conquering and to conquer. As a result of it all, war has followed and peace has been banished from the earth. With war, there come shortages of food and famine; and with shortages of food and famine and rotting bodies on the face of the earth, there come disease, death and plague.

You say, ‘What we see in these judgments is nothing new’.

In a sense, it’s nothing new; but we should bear in mind that down the centuries God in his mercy, by his Spirit, has restrained the wickedness of the human heart. Had he not done so, this world would long since have perished under its own iniquity. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 says clearly that there’s coming a day when he who now restrains will no longer do so, and the mystery of lawlessness that is already at work shall be set loose, and the world will see what happens when God the creator removes his restraints and lets man’s selfishness go to its own extreme (vv. 1–11).

That’s been the trouble, hasn’t it? ‘We have turned—every one—to his own way’ (Isa 53:6). ‘All right,’ says God, ‘if you will have your own way, and not be drawn by my love to return in obedience to me, then have your own way.’

When the Lamb breaks the seals of the scroll, evil is unrestrained. Before he closes down the whole show and institutes the kingdom of Christ, God will yet demonstrate to mankind what the fruit of his sin is. Human foolishness, enmity and selfishness will result in a great stream of martyrs, and when the fifth seal is opened God asks them to be patient while his plans are perfected and promises that one day he will reward them. That’s a very solemn thing.

In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul tells us of the judgments of God. Because men would not retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a reprobate mind to do all kinds of evil and revolting things, and in the lusts of their hearts to dishonour and defile their very bodies (Rom 1:18–32).

You say, ‘Such an outlook on life and to do those things is very sinful. Surely God will judge them for it?’

But wait a minute; that is the judgment of God. He is judging them for it. They wouldn’t have him, so God’s judgment was that he ‘gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity’, and that’s why they do these things—God gave them over to it.

When I was a boy at school, I used to be punished now and again for my sins and misdemeanours and had to write out lines, as we called them—corrective moral sentences. We had to write them out many times until they penetrated our thick skulls. And the one I was asked to write was: ‘Experience is a hard school, but fools will learn in no other’. God’s judgments are like that to begin with. If they will not have God, then let them learn that human intelligence and moral judgment are not independent products of human wisdom; they come from God. And if they refuse to have him, then their moral judgment will go corrupt and perverse, and destroy them in the end.

These five judgments lead up to the great climax when the sixth seal is opened and heaven departs. Men discover to their horror that there is a throne in heaven, and it is occupied. They call on the rocks to cover them, but in all creation there is nothing that can hide God’s creatures from his face, and from the wrath of the Lamb (6:12–17).

Two principles of salvation

Chapter 7, which concludes this part of Revelation, is much debated, particularly by the systematic theologians. They should most certainly be allowed the last say as to what this chapter is about and who the companies are that are represented there. But, as I said the other night, my task this week is not that of a systematic theologian. I content myself therefore with commenting upon how these two groups exhibit two of the principles of God’s salvation.

Sealed

First, there are the 144,000 who are sealed on their foreheads, so that no blast of wind or storm shall harm them (7:1–8). We must read this in its context: it doesn’t mean that no believer will ever perish through flood, famine or disease. Indeed, there are diseases that have been spread abroad in the world by mankind’s own sinfulness. We are part of the world community, so we are affected by its diseases, famines, floods and other catastrophes. However, we must be careful how we interpret what happens to us. No drop of the wrath of God will ever fall on any believer, and nothing can rightly be interpreted as the wrath of God. We are sealed. Whether we are people of this age or in the decades yet to come, Jews or Gentiles, this principle of salvation is common to all: ‘we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory’ (see Eph 1:13–14; 4:30).

Saved

Then there is a great multitude from every nation that no one could number (7:9–17). Take an extreme case: the great tribulation. Those who come out of it cry triumphantly with palm branches in their hands, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ (v. 10). One of the elders explains who they are and what they’ve done: ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God’ (7:14–15). This is showing us salvation in its finality. We have been occupied with the throne of God; now we come full circle to the results of redemption, which we see exemplified in this particular group.

They are before the throne of God

Perhaps last night you grew a little tired with my constant emphasis on prepositions in the Bible, but at least you may receive this one with joy and gladness. What an unspeakable wonder it is to be before the throne of God! By what divine wonder has he redeemed me, a creature of dust, six feet of clay: a sinner and a rebel against the throne of God? He has purged me of my sin, so that I can stand before and in the full blaze of the glory of the throne of my maker—not in some obscure corner of his universe, where God could perhaps conveniently overlook me.

What else does salvation secure?

They serve him day and night in his temple

Don’t you read it with gladness, my brothers and sisters? You wish it were so now, but the present constraints of our limited creation and our own failings and feebleness mean that our service to God is intermittent and desultory. There’s coming a day when we will not only stand before the throne, but also serve him day and night in his temple.

He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence

God shall respond to it. He shall take his tabernacle, his tent, and spread it over them, so that the sun shall not strike them, not any scorching heat—creation shall no longer hurt the redeemed of God (see 7:15–16). We said it on our first evening together, and we must say it again. Creation has hurt many of us; it’s no good pretending otherwise. This is a lovely world, but creation hurts people and it hurts Christians still. We think of the sorrow of parents whose child is disabled; and of the child who has the intelligence to see what life could be without some inhibiting weakness or disease. The effects of natural disasters, like floods, avalanches and earthquakes, hurt us, for this is a disordered creation.

But there is coming a day when he who sits upon the throne will spread his tabernacle over us and creation will never hurt us again. The greatest dreams and most wonderful visions of what it is to be a creature of God shall be fulfilled.

The Lamb will guide them to springs of living water and wipe away every tear

Later on, we must come back to this wicked earth; but the drama of the narrative here has taken us on to the great eternity, where there shall be no more death, sorrow, tears or pain: for the former things are passed away (Rev 21:4).

So now, as we briefly close in prayer, may God’s word and Spirit abide in our hearts, and these things, as they sink down into our hearts and imaginations, fill us with joy unspeakable, already tinged with the coming glory of God (see 1 Pet 1:8).

Shall we pray.

So Lord, bless us as we have tried here this morning to read and to understand thy word. We thank thee for it, and now, as each of us responds to thee in our heart, we cry, ‘Worthy is he who sits upon the throne: worthy is the Lamb’. Help us to serve thee as one day we shall, day and night, in thy temple. For thy name’s sake. Amen.

¹¹ Psalm 91:11–12.

5: Section Three

Part 1: The Silence of God (8:1–5)

We come now to Section Three of the book of Revelation: to the opening of the seventh seal and the blowing of the seven trumpets. It is nowhere nearly as well-known as Section Two, which we studied yesterday and again this morning; and truth to tell it is far more sombre and less calculated to stir our worship. Some people hold that perhaps Section Three is the most difficult to understand and to interpret, and this evening I do not propose or claim to be about to give a definitive interpretation of this passage. If we were going to come at all close to that, we would certainly need all the skilful help of the systematic theologians. Tonight, however, our task remains much more simple, fundamental and elementary; and that is to survey this section as a whole to determine its central and pervading theme, if we can; and then to ask how its individual parts are related one to another and how they contribute to that pervading theme and the message as a whole.

The literary form of Section Three

We start then with some ground-floor-level observations of the formal shape of Section Three. On sheet 7 of your notes, I have listed its contents as I understand them. There are four parts in this section, as there were in both Section One and Section Two; and Section Three also has a major series of seven things.

In Section One (sheet 3 of your notes), you will remember that the series of seven things is the messages to the seven churches; and those seven appraisals come in position four as the last part of Section One.

Section Two (sheet 6 of your notes) likewise contains a series of seven, namely the judgments that come as the Lamb opens the seven seals of a scroll; and you’ll notice that they do not come at the end, but in position three.

Now we come to Section Three, which also has a series of seven. Like Section Two it is a series of seven judgments; and they come neither in position four nor yet in position three, but right at the very beginning of the section, and it is with them that the section starts. That is a simple observation of the form of the section.

I mention it now to prepare our minds for what we shall find in later sections of the book, and it will not be until we come to them that we shall begin to perceive the significance of how these series of sevens have been placed in each of the major sections.

The background to the imagery

More now to the point of the central thesis of Section Three. Like Sections Two, Four and Five, its setting is that something is opened in heaven and John sees an article of tabernacle furniture, which on this occasion is the golden altar of incense. And then he sees an angel with a golden censer being given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne of God (8:3). As we have spoken about this before in the preliminary survey of the book, we do not need to repeat it in detail. But, just to review the lesson that we learned then and imprint it more firmly on our minds, imaginations and memories, let’s look again at the model of the tabernacle and observe exactly where these pieces of furniture stood.

The ark and the golden altar of incense

As we all know so well, the ark—the throne of God—stood in the holiest of all, which was at the back or furthermost division of the tabernacle. The Lord deigned to dwell there, and to meet with Israel from between the two cherubim that were on the propitiatory—the mercy seat—which in turn was on the ark (see Exod 25:21–22).

The golden altar of incense did not stand in the holiest of all. It stood in the Holy Place, just outside the veil and directly opposite the ark. As we noticed before, the reason for its position was that the golden altar of incense was functionally related to the throne of God. When the priest came at the hour of prayer and stood at that altar, offering incense and making supplication before God on behalf of the nation, he believed that he was addressing his prayers to the God who sat enthroned between the cherubim on that symbolic throne in the Most Holy Place.

Of course, in giving directions for this altar to be in such a position, it speaks volumes to our hearts about the very nature of God and the nature of his almighty throne. But isn’t it extraordinary how we grow so used to it? We practise the privilege every day—morning, afternoon and night—and sometimes the wonder of it escapes our attention. The almighty God could rule by decree if he chose to and take absolutely no notice of what we think and be blind and deaf to our, sometimes, silly little suggestions. Yet the fact is that he himself directed his people to construct an altar of incense where they might come and make their intercessions to him—and, if you please, their proposals and suggestions. What a magnificent God he is! When they were a race of slaves, scarcely gone out of Egypt, the Israelites had to be taught by these elementary symbols, shadows and types. But even then God invited them to come as near as he could possibly let them. Their priests would come inside and stand by that veil just outside his presence and make the people’s proposals and requests known to him. I repeat, what a magnificent God he is! Tonight, as you bow before him at your bedside or your chair and call upon him, the blessed Lord will listen to your prayer.

As I speak about it, I can’t refrain from remembering what happened on one occasion when the incarnate Son of God was here on earth (see Mark 10:46–52). Surrounded by a great crowd of enthusiastic followers, he was approaching Jericho—or was he just leaving it? We shall not stop to decide the question. Outside the gates there sat a blind beggar. On hearing the crowd, he enquired what all the fuss was about, and when they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by he saw his opportunity. From where he sat in the dust and the filth, he cried out, ‘Jesus, Son of David’—he had the sense not to say, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’—‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ And the crowd said, ‘Be quiet! He’s no time for flea-bitten beggars like you. He’s going to Jerusalem, probably to be interviewed by Caiaphas or some important person in the Jewish Sanhedrin, or Pilate the Roman governor himself. He’s no time for you.’ But the more they said, ‘Keep quiet!’, the more he shouted.

And then the miracle of grace happened. The great Son of David stopped in his tracks and asked for the man to be brought to him.

And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to him, ‘Rabbi, let me recover my sight.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. (vv. 50–52)

Don’t tell me that this story was made up by the church for propaganda purposes. This is God, who is prepared to listen to us and ask what we want. Where it is for our good, he will give it and allow us to cooperate with him as children with a father, as servants with a master, and make our suggestions before the throne of the government of the universe.

So that is the background to the imagery which is used to open this particular section of the book of Revelation. Earlier in our survey we noticed that in Section Two John was given to see the throne, and now in Section Three he sees the incense altar that stood before the throne. The coming together of Section Two and Section Three is therefore not accidental or haphazard. The throne in Section Two and the incense altar in Section Three are there because functionally these two pieces of furniture were related.

God’s silence and his delay in answering prayer

Having briefly considered the throne of God in our last two studies, we come now to the altar of incense, the altar of prayer. In our survey we noticed the dramatic opening of this section—that when the seventh seal was opened, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. With everything silent, half an hour must have seemed a veritable eternity to John as he stood there waiting and wondering what should happen next, and what should break the silence.

The silence was eventually broken by the prayers of the saints. That in itself raises a problem. Why did God wait half an hour before allowing the prayers of the saints to come up before him? In our preliminary studies we observed how the silence of God in the face of the evil of men has troubled God’s people all down the long ages of history. Psalm 94 is a classic expression of the problem:

O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’ (vv. 1–7)

Behind the poetry of that psalm you can sense the agonies of God’s people who’ve been persecuted by evil men; from the widow and the fatherless, to the ancient believing businessman nearly put into bankruptcy. They prayed for God to intervene, only to be met by silence and God apparently doing nothing. As in your imagination you listen to the fervent prayers that went up to the throne of God, you can understand the plea and the puzzled enquiry, ‘O Lord, God of vengeance, how long will you be silent and not avenge your people? Can’t you see, Lord, how the wicked have taken advantage of this? They mock us every day of the week. They say, “Where is your God? Pray on if you like but there will be no answer, for there is no God.”’

Why then is God silent? It is a big problem; but in Psalms 96 and 98 we observe that the psalmist has discovered the answer, and he bids all the earth—the mountains and the fields and the trees of the wood and everything else that can—to rejoice. The rivers are to clap their hands, and the hills are to sing together for joy before the Lord, ‘for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity’ (see 96:11–13; 98:8–9). And the psalmist’s joy, as you see, is because it has been intimated to him that the answer to this problem will be the coming of the Lord to judge.

One day there was born in a stable at Bethlehem a baby who was the Son of David. When he grew up, there were many, many more than just the eleven apostles who genuinely believed he was the Son of David and God incarnate. And they said to themselves, ‘Now our troubles are over, the Lord has come!’ John the Baptist waxed eloquent about it, and he had a right to do so because he was a prophet. Dressed in camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey, he spoke to the people in no uncertain terms. Said he, ‘You’d better start repenting because there is one coming after me—he stands among us already—who shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the garner, and the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. You Pharisees, listen: you’d better start repenting, for the axe is laid at the root of the tree’ (see Matt 3:7–12; Luke 3:7–9, 16–17 KJV).

Wouldn’t anybody going through a park or an arboretum, who sees an axe lying against the root of a tree, jump to the conclusion as to what the gardener is about to do? He is going to chop the tree down. Many thought that the time had now come: the Messiah was here and he would put down evil. Hallelujah!

As John the Baptist looked around him, he not only saw the crowds but he knew about Herod the king leading a dissolute and immoral life—he had taken and married Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. In the name of the Messiah, John called on him too to repent and break off his adultery. For the Messiah had come, and if Herod didn’t repent he would be dealt with. But Herodias didn’t like it, and Herod put John in prison.

I don’t suppose it troubled John too much at the start. ‘Let Herod put me in prison; Jesus is the Messiah and he has come to put down evil. I have witnessed in his name, I have stood manfully for him as a prophet, I have publicly commended him—he surely must come and deal with Herod and let me out of prison.’ When he heard footsteps and the key turned in the lock he thought that the Messiah had come for him. But he hadn’t; it was the jailer with his breakfast. Time went on and Jesus didn’t come. John had heard about the big crowds around Jesus, and he sent his messengers to put the question to him point blank. They asked him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ (Matt 11:3).

Some people will be ready to say, ‘But you mustn’t suggest that John the Baptist had any doubts. After all, he was the greatest of all the prophets. You’re not going to say he doubted that Jesus was the Messiah; surely he was still convinced that he was? The reason he sent his enquiry to the Lord Jesus was this. He said to himself, “Jesus certainly is the Messiah, but he seems to be a little slow in making it known, so we should try to get him to say it openly and tell us where he stands.”’

They thought that Jesus would now have to say it quite clearly, ‘Yes, I am.’ So those who hold to this theory say that John wasn’t doubting; he was just making a suggestion about how the Lord’s publicity campaign could do a little bit better.

But what was that, if it wasn’t doubting? Didn’t Christ know what he was doing? Hadn’t he got the timing right? So he sent his troubled servant a report of the many miracles he had done (Matt 11:4–6). Knowing the prophets, and Isaiah in particular, John would have recognized that some of Isaiah’s prophecies were being fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, and his heart would have been strengthened.

But there were certain notable things Isaiah had said which Jesus didn’t claim to have done: one was to put down God’s enemies and trample the wine press of the wrath of God (Isa 63:3). Christ left all that unsaid because at this stage he hadn’t come to do that. Then late one evening John heard other footsteps. Could this be the Messiah? But when the door opened, it was the executioner with his sword. John went to a martyr’s death; Jesus had not put down evil.

We need to listen to history and to the plain statements of Scripture, for if we don’t we shall get our ideas of the kingdom of God all muddled up and expect God to be doing now what he isn’t doing now. The early apostles made a similar mistake: they thought that Jesus was the one who would liberate Israel from the domination and oppression of the Roman Empire (see Luke 24:21). But he hadn’t come to do any such thing. He hadn’t come to interfere in the politics of the Roman world. When they came to arrest him in the garden, he submitted to their arrest, to their false accusations and died on a cross.

You say, ‘Yes, but he’s risen and on the throne of heaven. Surely he controls everything now and is in the process of putting down evil?’

Is he really? And how many dictators has he put down since his resurrection? Some of the early Jews did believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and, with all their expectations of what the Messiah would do, they thought that now they were Christians it would be a glorious life of peace and prosperity. Instead, they not only found themselves persecuted by the synagogue and very often cast out by their family and friends, but they lost their jobs and some of them lost their lives. The Epistle to the Hebrews witnesses to the fact that they began to waver and to doubt whether Jesus was the Messiah after all.

The Christian attitude towards injustice

If he is the Messiah, when is he going to put down evil? And what should our Christian attitude be when we suffer for the Lord’s sake? Should we not cry for justice to be done; for the Lord to rise up and avenge us of our enemies? Perhaps I ought to turn aside here because of the theological difficulties that some people have on this very topic.

There have been gracious and godly men and women who have said to themselves, ‘All this crying to be avenged cannot be the true Christian attitude. In Old Testament days it may have been appropriate for the psalmists, because they worshipped a God who was a man of war. But we are followers of the Lord Jesus, the crucified Lamb of God: surely we shouldn’t pray to be avenged? We must put up with the suffering and love our enemies.’ Part of that is true, isn’t it?

. . . because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. . . . When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten . . .’ (see 1 Pet 2:21, 23)

But it isn’t the whole truth, as we can see if we will reflect upon the teaching of our Lord himself. We cannot accuse him of having preached anything that was not Christian in its standards, and he told a whole parable on this very matter of the need to pray to be avenged.

The parable of the Persistent Widow and the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1–8)

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. (v. 1)

Why are they never to give up praying, and what are they to be praying about? What are the prayers in which they must persist until God answers them?

To illustrate the point, our Lord said, ‘There was a widow in a certain city, and her enemy cheated and oppressed her’, taking advantage of defenceless widows as men would in those cruel old days and still do: cheating them out of their stocks and shares, bank balances, property and farm, moving the fences and all that. She went to the judge and asked him to intervene. She wasn’t wanting him to rain down terrible anger upon the head of her adversary; all she was asking for was justice. But the judge was a rascally old fellow himself, and he wasn’t in the mind to do anything about it. So, for a while he did nothing. But the woman wouldn’t take no for an answer, and she kept on coming and coming and coming to him until he said, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming’ (vv. 4–5). What a pest the woman was, so in the end he avenged her and justice was done.

‘Will you stop praying to God?’, said our Lord. ‘Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?’ Of course he will; though our Lord added that he is longsuffering over them. It may appear to be taking a long time, but he will avenge them. Said Christ, ‘he will give justice to them speedily’ (vv. 7–8). But until he does, you mustn’t give up praying; you mustn’t lose heart. If we were to give up praying that God will intervene and see that justice is done, what would we be saying about the character of God? Even though that wicked judge had no care for justice, righteousness or truth, would you say it was worth pestering him because eventually he was moved into action, but it wouldn’t be worth pestering God because he doesn’t really care all that much for justice, righteousness and truth? To stop praying for him to intervene in the world and put down evil would in its way be a slander on his character, for the God of heaven is a ‘Father of the fatherless and protector of widows’ (Ps 68:5). He will avenge his people as quickly as his wisdom allows. ‘Keep on praying,’ said Christ. And then he added the melancholy observation, ‘Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ (v. 8). Why raise that question? It’s because God’s apparent silence will last for so long that, before it is broken, many people will have given up faith in God altogether.

How Christ responded to injustice

If that isn’t enough to convince us that it is right to pray for evil to be put down and God’s people avenged, then let us consider the attitude of our Lord Jesus. You will tell me, perhaps, that when he was reviled, he prayed for his enemies. He said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34). So he did; and he tells us to pray for our enemies too (Matt 5:44). But let us not forget what Peter adds.

. . . Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. (1 Pet 2:21–23)

Christ didn’t take the view, ‘It doesn’t matter whether you crucify me or not. I’ll love you just the same, and you’ll not get into any trouble for crucifying me’. No, no. When he was on his way to the cross the women of Jerusalem came out to him, shedding their tears over the fate of this ‘poor young man’, who was suffering so unjustly. He told them firmly though graciously to dry their tears. ‘Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will . . . say to the mountains, “Fall on us” . . . For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’ (see Luke 23:27–31).

In a moderately decent society with laws that are normally kept, if the nation at this juncture commits this terrible perversion of justice and crucifies the innocent Son of God, what do you think will happen when the tree is dry? God hasn’t forgotten Calvary, nor the fact that wicked, cruel, ambitious and evil men murdered his Son and spiked him to a cross. He hasn’t brushed it under the carpet. There will come a day when men and women shall cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of him who is seated on the throne (see Rev 6:15–16).

It was in the conviction that God will one day intervene, execute judgment and avenge him, that our blessed Lord was able to go to the cross, bless his enemies and not retaliate. In his mercy, he would give them an opportunity to repent and find forgiveness through his atoning death. But for those who do not repent, a day of judgment is coming.

The Apostle Paul has the same attitude as Peter had. Is it because vengeance is a thing that ought not to be done? No, no, says Paul:

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ (Rom 12:19)

We are assured that God will one day recompense us for not taking the matter out of his hands in order to avenge ourselves, and that will take away the rankling sense of injustice from our hearts, won’t it? With the knowledge that God will put the thing right, we need not concern ourselves with it, other than simply to pray and wait for God’s own time, and get on with showing his mercy, even to our enemies.

The opening of the seventh seal

The fearful time of silence yet to come

From that diversion we return to our passage and follow its central theme. ‘There was silence in heaven for about half an hour,’ says John (Rev 8:1). We should perhaps now observe the position in the book of Revelation where this particular section comes. It is not at the beginning but at the end of the opening of the seven seals. Though we cannot follow a strict undeviating chronology throughout the book, it is evident that this scene comes late on; not at the very end, but getting towards the end. There was silence for about half an hour, and then it was broken by the prayers of the saints. It is pointing forward to a day when there shall come a silence of God that will eclipse all his other silences that have ever been. It is warning of a time of such severe persecution upon the people of God of that day, that nothing like it will ever have been known before. The main purpose of the prophecy is to prepare them in advance for the terrible silence of God that they shall then suffer.

The blowing of the seven trumpets

But now let us take the lesson in the order in which it is given to us. When the half-hour of silence was finished, then came the trumpets, loud trumpets; each one causing, bringing or accompanying some terrible judgment of God falling upon the earth (8:1–9:21; 11:15). God is now beginning to break the silence and visit earth on behalf of his people.

The judgments are partial and not yet complete

As you read down through the list in chapter 8, you will notice first of all that they are judgments on the created earth and heaven, and earth in particular. On the other hand, most of them are only partial and not yet complete. It’s a third of this and a third of that: a third of the waters and the shipping destroyed, the light of the sun and moon reduced by a third, and so forth and so on. They are but partial judgments inflicted upon creation as God rises up and begins to deliver his people.

We find an immediate analogy with his judgments on Pharaoh. After the groaning and tears of the Israelites that had gone on for years, when God finally came down to deliver them he didn’t proceed at once to destroy Pharaoh with a flash of lightning. Before Pharaoh’s eventual destruction, there came a series of nine plagues. These were warning voices to Pharaoh: uncomfortable visitations, meant almost as gospel messages to Pharaoh that he should give up his tyranny and let God’s people go, or else worse would happen to him (Exod 7:14–10:29). God is merciful, even in his judgments.

And so it is here—the judgments that come under the trumpets are not final judgments, are they? The early ones are not even in ‘the great day of God’s wrath’. They are preliminary messages, preliminary trumpet blasts, with God beginning to put his finger on the earth and upon the heavens to remind evil men that ‘the earth is the Lord’s’. God had to do that with Pharaoh too. When Moses went to him and said, ‘In the name of God, let my people go that they may worship me’, Pharaoh hardened himself and defied the living God. Therefore, God had to demonstrate to stubborn Pharaoh that the God of redemption is also the God of nature, the God of creation; and he began to put his finger into the physical elements of the universe—the rivers, the fountains, the fields, the animal life, the lightning, the thunder and the hail.

That is a very necessary lesson, which God will one day repeat. There are many ungodly people who think of religion as fairy tales that are told to children when they go to bed to stop them from being afraid of the dark, and that’s all it is. They think the story of redemption is merely a kind of imaginative story, which you can believe if you like. They say that it has nothing to do with the external reality of this world. Nothing to do with science: physics, cosmology and chemistry. But before the end, says this passage, God is going to interfere in the running of earth, the cosmos and the seas. He will demonstrate to men and women that he, the God of redemption, is the God of creation and they’d better start listening to his voice while there is yet time, or worse will follow.

The judgments include the release of demonic forces upon the earth

But there is another thing that you may care to notice about these plagues in Revelation chapters 8 and 9. That is, God not only puts his finger on the sky, the sea, the earth, plant life and animal life, but we read in chapter 9 that he sends down an angel who opens the door of the abyss and lets out thousands of demons (vv. 1–11). Why would God allow demons to come out of his prison house? We find one of the reasons at the end of the chapter. Men and women have turned to idolatry, to occultism, to worshipping idols (v. 20). And Paul says, ‘the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God’ (see 1 Cor 10:20 KJV). If it might cause them to repent, God in his mercy lets them taste the end result of what they are doing. If they indulge in criminal acts and persecute the people of God, perhaps God may be allowed to say, ‘I have a prison where I normally put my criminals. What if I were to unlock the door and let some of them out?’ It is warning of the seriousness of occult practice and idolatry, and it was chilling to hear earlier of the great invasion of occult practices in the East, as there is also in the West, of course.

The judgments do not lead to conversions

But let us recur now to a general argument. It is true that many people refuse to believe that there is a throne in heaven: they don’t believe there is a God. And one of the reasons why they want to believe there is no God is because instinct tells them that if there is, then that God must judge the world one day.

They’re like the first-century Roman poet, Lucretius. Lucretius wasn’t a scientist, but when he heard of the early version of the atomic theory, invented by the Greeks long before Christ, he was so delighted that he wrote six books of poetry about it, if you please.¹² It obviously had deeply moved his heart, and some of the wonder that led him to write poetry was his sheer fascination with this wonderful insight into how atoms and things work in nature.

But his other reason is stated plainly in the introduction to his books. Says Lucretius, ‘Consider now this wonderful scientific theory, and how it sets you free from the fear of the gods. All those old stories of how they would one day punish sinners have been proved wrong, and that’s a tremendous thing! From the atomic theory we now know that when a man dies, the atoms that compose him all come to pieces and disappear, and that’s the end of him. There is no life after death, no gods to worry about (or if there are, they are not waiting to punish us), and no such thing as hell.’

Science is not all that moves people to adopt atheism, is it? There is also the instinctive feeling that if there is a God, there will be a judgment and there will be a hell. But if you try to argue the case with your friends who are of that frame of mind, and bring them to the point where they see it’s irrational to deny the existence of a creator, you’ll commonly find they try the other position. So they’ll say, ‘I can’t admit there’s a God, for if there is, why doesn’t he judge?’ How perverse can people be? First, they want there to be no God, because if there is he might judge; now they say there can’t be a God because he doesn’t judge. We used to hear it many times during the war: ‘And what’s come of your Jesus now?’

I have an elderly Jewish friend in Belfast. Often he has told me, ‘I don’t know whether to believe there’s a God or not. Where was your God and where was your Jesus when six million of my fellow nationals were being gassed?’

‘If there’s a God, why doesn’t he judge?’—the implication is that they would believe if God were to start judging. But would they? When the judgments under the trumpets have come and we reach the end of chapter 9, it says,

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (vv. 20–21)

The judgments of God per se do not convert people, any more than the judgments of God converted Pharaoh; nor any more than the judgments of God in the lake of fire will convert anybody.

God’s demonstration of the state of the human heart

But this passage indicates that God yet has a more severe test for mankind, and a more severe demonstration of the state of the human heart as it really is. It will involve such suffering and trial for the people of God of that day that, before John is told what the demonstration will be, God sends a strong angel down from heaven to assure him that it is only going to last for a very short time. The angel swore that from now on, ‘there would be no more delay’ (10:6). In the days when the seventh trumpet sounds, God’s mystery would be finished and his purpose brought to fruition (see v. 7). But there is to be a tiny gap when the sufferings of God’s people are intense, such will be the demonstration of what actually lies in the human heart. We are told in chapter 11, so let us concentrate first on the prime elements in it.

The two witnesses

There’s going to come a time when God sends two witnesses (11:1–14). Of course, curiosity asks the obvious question, who are they? And the answer is, I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you even if I did! The question is, what are they? We are given to understand that they are ‘the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the [whole] earth’ (11:4). They give their testimony to God over this comparatively brief time of three and a half years, and are equipped with special powers from God, as Elijah was (v. 6).

And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky [the heavens], that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. (11:5–6)

God is going to put on what will be his final witness to these people, an exhibition of exceedingly obvious supernatural power such as the church has never had. Power to shut up the very heavens, power to strike the earth with plagues—such invincible power that no one can harm them or touch them for this defined period. It will be so self-evidently supernatural that all who see it will have to admit it (v. 11).

You say, ‘The world will get converted pretty soon with a powerful witness like that. Would that God would give us a few supernatural miracles to do now, and that would convert the world. Miracles are the thing.’

Ah, but wait a minute. When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss shall overcome them (v. 7). Their voices are silenced and the supernatural power is overcome. You can imagine how it will be reported on television, can’t you?

‘Now we have scientific evidence and proof that there is no God. What some people thought was the final stronghold of supernatural power has been destroyed. At last, all those things that the weak-hearted among us attributed to supernatural power, and put forward as evidence for a God, have incontrovertibly been proved to be nothing of the sort. There is no God. When they didn’t understand some scientific phenomena, they appealed to the God of the gaps to explain it. But now that has all disappeared and we are free of God!’

The vision of Zechariah (Zech 4:1–14)

God is also silent. That is not absolutely unprecedented, of course, for as we read this prophecy we must remember a terrible period in Jewish history. Israel had long since come back from the exile, and, according to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophecy of Zechariah, when they came back they started to rebuild, first the temple and then Jerusalem City. However, all the little nations around them began to create trouble and eventually they appealed to the great imperial power to have the work stopped. But God encouraged the Jews to carry on rebuilding, and he appointed his two servants, Joshua and Zerubbabel, to lead them. He gave them a vision of a lampstand that was supernaturally fed by two olive trees. It was a dramatic vision to explain to his people that this testimony they were building for him on earth would be maintained by God’s own Spirit: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts’ (Zech 4:6). God did maintain the testimony; the temple and the city were rebuilt and Israel was restored to her land, at least in part.

The time of Antiochus Epiphanes IV

The years went by until it came to 167–164 BC, by which time Israel were under the Seleucids, whose emperor was Antiochus Epiphanes. For certain political reasons, he determined that the Jews must be brought more closely under his authority. To do that, their religion had to be banned and they were forced to worship the gods of the state. The Jewish high priests of the time were really secularized humanists, though they pretended to be religious. Alas, with their connivance this Antiochus set up the abomination of desolation in the temple of God at Jerusalem.¹³ He offered a pig on the altar, he brought in temple prostitutes, and he banned the possession of Scripture. Any mother caught circumcising her son according to the law of Moses was taken with her baby and thrown over the walls of Jerusalem to dash their brains out on the rocks beneath. It was an offence against the state to worship Jehovah, the God of heaven, and everyone had to bow down to Antiochus’ image.

It was a sore trial for the Jews, of course, in that terrible moment when Antiochus’ servants entered the holy temple of God and set up their abomination. Then what happened? Well, nothing happened—no lightning came to strike them dead, no thunder roared—simply silence. Only at the end of much trial, tribulation and warfare was the temple vindicated and set free. God had it written into holy Scripture to serve as a prototype of what shall happen on a far grander scale at the end of this age (see Dan chapters 11–12; Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14). It will be God’s final witness.

The resurrection of the two witnesses

For three and a half days the dead bodies of these two prophets shall lie in the street (Rev 11:8–9). And what will the world do? What about all those people who say, ‘If there’s a God, why doesn’t he judge?’ What will they say when the last evidence of supernatural power has been removed and it appears to have been proved that there is no God? The Bible says that the world will go delirious with joy (v. 10). ‘Marvellous! Oh, thank . . .’—but then there’s nobody to thank. ‘Let’s rejoice and give presents to each other. At last we’re free; there’s no God! Those miserable killjoys, always preaching to us about eternal punishment and such things; it was all just fusty mediaeval allegories, stories and fables. There is no God and there never has been.’

The world will be delirious with delight, until three and a half days later God intervenes and the two witnesses are resurrected and taken home to glory (11:7–13).

You say, ‘Why will God do it like that?’

Because, before he finally judges men and women, God will show what actually lies in the human heart. God isn’t a tyrant, you know. People can give all sorts of reasons for not believing the gospel and cover their real feelings and beliefs. In talking with your friends, haven’t you often sensed that their arguments against Christianity, which appear to be intellectual, aren’t really the trouble. They’re using the intellectual arguments as a smokescreen to cover deeper reasons within their hearts. But God is going to judge the secrets of men and women by Jesus Christ; and before his final wrath falls God will have demonstrated, not least to the people themselves, what their real heart attitudes and motives are.

The testing of Job’s faith

Why will God allow such trials to be inflicted on the people of that day? Why did he allow such a period of suffering in the years BC when Antiochus set up the abomination of desolation? The silence of God raises a question that must concern us all as believers: why does he allow us to be tested by the most extreme test? The book of Job chapter 1 gives the answer in part.

When the sons of God came to present themselves before him, Satan was among them. God said to him, ‘Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’.

Satan smiled his cynical smile, and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason? Do you imagine that he believes you, loves you and serves you because of his faith? Well, I happen to know Job and I can tell you differently. Of course he says he believes you. Haven’t you blessed him with flocks and herds and houses, the most beautiful wife in the district, marvellous sons and daughters, and everything his heart could wish for? It’s no wonder he says he loves you, but if you touch his goods and his health you’d find out whether his faith is genuine or not. Then you’ll find out whether he’s a believer or not. Take from him the goodies, and he’ll curse you to your face’ (see Job 1:6–11).

And did the Almighty say, ‘Don’t talk such wicked nonsense and slander, Satan; I won’t hear it said’? He didn’t. He said, ‘If that’s your accusation, prove it. I give you permission to touch his goods, but don’t touch his life.’

God must be justified, and if his salvation means that we’re saved by faith, then he is morally obliged before the whole universe to demonstrate that faith is faith and not just what we call cupboard love. That is, loving God for what you get out of him. So Job was brought to the very dunghill, where he almost wondered whether God cared for justice or not; he thought that God had got everything wrong. But in the end he came through and his faith was demonstrated to be genuine before heaven, earth and hell.

Strength to stand

So it will be in the end time. But the silence will not be complete, will it? We read in Revelation 10 that, before this final silence happens in the vision, God sends another mighty angel to John. He came down from heaven, and he put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. He had a little scroll open in his hand. The scroll contained messages that were pleasant enough to read intellectually, but when John digested their contents they turned bitter in his belly. They surely were the announcement of the final trial that would come upon the world and Jerusalem City; but even as he was given the scroll he was assured of God’s faithful promise. The angel lifted his right hand to heaven and swore by almighty God that there would be no more delay. In just a little while, the mystery of God and the great and glorious promises of the gospel that he had preached through his prophets all down the centuries would be fulfilled. But before then there would be unparalleled persecution and trial. Just as God was preparing John for what he was about to see, so he will prepare his people of that time for what they must endure.

The testing of our faith

We turn now in the final moments to apply these principles that pertain to the end of the age to our own lives.

If God is going to cure us of idolatry, sooner or later he must test us. To demonstrate that faith is faith he must leave us with just himself and nothing else, so that we learn to trust him when all the evidence seems to go against his very existence.

How shall he strengthen us to be able to do that? As an analogy I borrow the lesson from the great vision that John was given of the angel coming down from heaven (10:1–7). Don’t ask me now whether that angel was the Son of God or not! Watch the angel’s stance, can’t you see him? He has a scroll in one hand and his other hand is raised to heaven. Does the scroll say, ‘Trust God and life will be a bed of roses from now on’?

Oh, my brother, my sister, God’s not afraid to tell you that ‘in the world you will have tribulation’. He doesn’t want you trusting him under false pretences, with the impression that everything will be like heaven on earth. ‘In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you’ (Isa 43:2).

The angel raised his right hand to heaven and swore by almighty God of his unbreakable loyalty and allegiance. You can trust him: ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay’ (Heb 10:37). It’s only a little while and the trial will be over, the mysterious promises of God complete; and then you shall know the joys and glories and wonders of the things that God has prepared for you. And the fact that your faith has been purified until there’s no dross left in it means that you will be able to enjoy the blessings of that eternal realm without any impediment (see 1 Pet 1:6–7).

So may God use our study this evening to encourage us all, for his name’s sake.

Shall we pray.

Our Father, we thank thee for thy holy word. We have understood but a few things in it, and many things remain to be explained. But Lord, tonight as we sit here and think of thy suffering people throughout the ages, we bless thee, God, for thy wonderful ability to maintain the faith of thy people through thick and thin. Thou wilt at length be justified before the worst fiends of hell, and thine ability to keep the faith of thy people will be proved to the hilt. We thank thee tonight, Lord, that thou hast the courage to tell us that trial oftentimes lies before us. We bless thee for the comfort of thine assurance, ‘God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tried above that you are able to bear’. And now, Lord, as we go this evening from the study of thy word, which is interesting and delightful to our minds, we also perceive that, if these lessons are true, bitter and difficult trials may yet lie before us. Therefore, Lord, in thy grace let us take hold of thy word and thine oath, that by these two unchangeable things we who have fled for refuge may have strong consolation to take hold of the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and that enters into that within the veil. Grant us, O Lord, that when our particular time comes we may glorify thee even in the midst of our trial. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

¹² De Rerum Natura (‘On the Nature of Things’, or ‘On the Nature of the Universe’ as it is often translated).

¹³ He set up an altar to Zeus over the altar of burnt offering.

Part 2: The Time for Judgment and The Two Witnesses (8:6–11:18)

If, as I think, there are six major sections in the book of Revelation, then, from a literary point of view, at the end of Section Three and the beginning of Section Four we stand at the midpoint. This morning we must eventually attempt to move forward to at least reconnoitre the territory in Section Four.

Before we do that, however, we have some unfinished business to complete in our study of Section Three. Last night we passed over many points of substance and importance, which would be very necessary to consider in order to come to a full and accurate understanding of that part of the prophecy; but we were concentrating on tracing the main and pervading theme. In addition to that, we said nothing whatsoever about the fourth part of Section Three, which is listed for you on sheet seven of the notes. It is such an important part of Section Three—such a helpful summing up of the pervading theme of that section—that we must spend a little time at the beginning of our study this morning considering what it has to say.

The seventh trumpet

Thanksgiving that the time for judgment has come

As we have now come to expect, the fourth part of Section Three is a comment on the whole of the section. Just like at the end of Section Two one of the elders commented on and summed up its significance, so now at the end of Section Three all twenty-four elders who sit on thrones before God fall on their faces and worship God, summing up the significance of its tremendous topic in a short comment.

The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has [or ‘is’] become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.’ (11:14–18)

Our reading has reminded us that the major theme of the comment is a question of timetable. As these great dignitaries get up from their thrones and worship him who sits on the central throne, the thankfulness that rises from their hearts is because the time has come. As I said, it is a question of timetable, and you perceive that it fits in with what has been the pervading theme of this third section, announced at the start—how long will God remain silent in the face of evil? How long will he sit quietly and not avenge his people who are oppressed and suffer under the persecution of the enemies of God and his people? And therefore, their comment aptly sums up what has been the major concern: ‘We give thanks to you that the time has now come for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth’ (see 11:17–18).

The coming messianic kingdom and reign of God

In the course of their remarks and comments on the timetable, we should notice what the great voices in heaven say first: ‘The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ’ (v. 15 ASV). At least, that is one possible translation of the Greek used by John at this particular place. It would be possible to translate it in a slightly different fashion: ‘The kingdom of the world has now come’. That is, the worldwide kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ has begun to be. Whichever of the two translations you prefer, we should notice two things about this important statement.

First, in the Greek phraseology the emphasis lies on the verb. It stands first in the sentence as a tremendous proclamation. In Greek, they say, ‘It’s happened!’. Oh, the joy of the announcement: ‘It has come! It has begun to be!’ The verb is in the Greek aorist tense, but it is what the pundits would call an ingressive aorist, such that it means, ‘it has now begun to be’ or ‘it has now happened’. In other words, this is the beginning.

Secondly, we should notice that the word for ‘kingdom’ is in the singular. But, whichever of the two translations you prefer, it should not be translated, ‘the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’. The noun is in the singular; it is ‘the kingdom of the world’, meaning God’s kingdom—his worldwide kingdom. The voices are not saying, ‘Thank God that all over the long centuries, one by one the kingdoms of this world have gradually been transforming themselves, inch by inch, country by country from paganism to Christianity. Gradually, one by one, they have been becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And now the map is complete: the last kingdom of this world has been added and the whole lot can be said to be the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.’ No, that is not what the Greek is saying. It is talking of the kingdom, singular—the kingdom of the world: God’s kingdom and God’s rule set up over the whole world.

The remarks of the elders further reinforce the fact that that is the true interpretation of the voices, for they proceed to explain by what process the worldwide kingdom of God has now come. ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign’ (v. 17). It is more important than ever to notice here that the Greek verb ‘reign’ is an aorist. Once more, it is an ingressive aorist, meaning not, ‘you have been reigning all through the long centuries’; but rather, ‘at this time—this time that has now come—you have entered into your reign. You have begun to reign.’

When we recur to the former verb, we can see what the passage means: ‘You have taken your great power; and by taking your great power you have set up your kingdom at this point and begun to reign.’ Now these are startling statements, are they not? It will occur to us at once that they raise some very big questions.

First, what can it possibly mean that God has taken to himself his great power? You could understand it if it said, ‘You’ve taken away the power of the beast and all the tyrants of the earth and taken over their power and made it yours’. But that isn’t what they say. They say, ‘You have taken your great power’. In other words, ‘You have now asserted your power’. And that raises the question: But surely God has been reigning all down the centuries—what does it mean that he’s now taken his power? Didn’t he always have the power?

And alongside that is the other question: What can it mean, then, that the kingdom of God has now come? We should notice, therefore, how the term kingdom is described here (v. 15). It is described as the kingdom of our Lord—God the Father, as we call him; and of his Christ—that is to say, this is the messianic kingdom of Christ.

Different meanings of the term Kingdom of God in the prophecies of Daniel

It is helpful and profitable for us to notice that the term ‘kingdom of God’ is used in at least two different senses in holy Scripture, and it is particularly important that we learn to distinguish between them. To help us with that, let’s go back to the prophecy of Daniel and read there how the term is used. Daniel is addressing his majesty, King Nebuchadnezzar, and telling him the significance of his awesome dream.

The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men. (Dan 4:17)

There’s no mistaking the meaning here. Daniel is asserting that God already reigns. He has always reigned in the affairs of men; he is reigning at the moment and will always and forever reign. (If you should have an Old Testament that is based on the Septuagint translation, you’ll scarcely know which verse I’m referring to.)¹⁴

Let’s go now to verse 34 to hear a comment from Nebuchadnezzar himself, who has been chastised by God and has at last returned to sanity—not too soon, of course—and now he comments on what he has learned in this bitter experience:

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honoured him who lives for ever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. (Dan 4:34)

The truth that God rules has penetrated even Nebuchadnezzar’s brain. God’s kingdom is present; it ever was and it ever shall be. God has never ceased to rule in the kingdoms of men. So ‘the kingdom of God’ is used in that sense, both in the Old Testament and in the New. Daniel understood it full well.

But now let us pose the question that has been on our minds in the study of Section Three of the book of Revelation. Does the fact that God’s kingdom already exists mean that God has already put down evil and there is no problem with the question of evil? No, of course it doesn’t. The fact that he reigns is what constitutes the problem. Yes, he puts down an old tyrant like Nebuchadnezzar and chastises him and teaches him sense. (There were many people in that day too, who said, ‘Why didn’t he do it earlier?’.) To complicate the matter, these verses tell us that from time to time God raises up people like Nebuchadnezzar, and it’s the Nebuchadnezzars of this world who are a major part of this problem of evil. I repeat, it is because we believe in our hearts that God does reign already that constitutes the problem.

What we want to know is: If he is reigning, why doesn’t he do a bit more reigning? Why does he content himself with just putting down a Nebuchadnezzar now and again? Why doesn’t he put down all the evil men full stop, and put an end to the problem of evil? Daniel talks about the matter in the visions he has recorded for us.

How will evil finally be put down?

In Daniel’s vision in chapter 7, and in others of his visions, he makes us aware of what the timetable for the future holds. Far from God proceeding immediately to put down all evil, in this vision given to Daniel we are warned that the future holds an eruption of almost unparalleled evil. Daniel sees the rise of a number of Gentile imperial systems, and the last of them is a beast so hideous that in his awful strength he stamps, he bites and he destroys. Not only does he rise to his power by the merciless slaughter and destruction of millions, but he will be so arrogant in his power that he thinks he can defy the Almighty himself (7:25). Far from the present continuing reign of God putting down evil, God himself warns us that evil will wax worse and worse (2 Tim 3:13). How then, according to Daniel, will it be put down? In his vision in chapter 7 he saw that, because of the blasphemous words that the final beast spoke against God, ‘the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire’ (v. 11). That’s how he was put down.

What happened next?

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (vv. 13–14)

So now we have another aspect of God’s rule over the earth. We saw that his kingdom has continued from the beginning, is now and forever shall be. But here comes a new element: the permanent putting down of evil in our world is accomplished by God’s direct intervention in judgment and by handing over the kingdom to the Son of Man. Here in Daniel 7:14 is the Old Testament version of the phrase that we read in Revelation 11:15: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’.

When will the messianic kingdom be set up?

There are, then, two senses of the kingdom of God. We must now bring these things over to the New Testament and ask ourselves an important and basic question: When is Messiah’s kingdom to be set up? The answer that Daniel gives is that it shall occur at the time of the destruction of the beast. But now we come to a point over which Christians have disagreed, and sometimes very severely. Let us try to consider the thing patiently with one another and come to a biblical conclusion.

Could we think that the messianic kingdom of Christ came when he was born in Bethlehem? Was it then that he put down all evil beasts, tyrants and dictators and freed the world from persecution? Well, no, he didn’t do that when he was born in Bethlehem. Of course he didn’t. Humanly speaking, he was himself the victim of the dictators of his day when he was put to death under Pontius Pilate.

Could it be that the problem of evil was solved and the kingdoms of the world became his in his resurrection, ascension and being seated at God’s right hand in glory? Well, if they were, a lot of people don’t know about it. First, I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to face the question squarely and honestly in the light of history. Did the ascension of Christ put down evil, slay the beast, stop the persecution of the faithful, give rewards to God’s servants, the prophets and saints, and institute the messianic kingdom of Christ? By no stretch of interpretation of history can it be regarded in that way. Soon after the ascension of Christ Rome persecuted the believers; and even before then they were already being persecuted by their own Jewish people.

Who shall enumerate the vast sorrows of the world, let alone the vast sorrows of Christian men and women all down the centuries? You can’t read the account of the sufferings of God’s people since the ascension of Christ without a sense of their sorrows and sufferings: ‘O Lord, how long do you not avenge our blood?’. Think of the cries that went up from the faithful in Israel when they were being systematically gassed. ‘O Lord,’ they cried as they sang their psalms, ‘O Lord, how long?’.

The New Testament makes it perfectly clear that the ascension of Christ was not going to put down evil; but there is a sense in which Christ is establishing his kingdom now. He illustrated it with the parable of the Sower (Matt 13:24–30). Within that spiritual kingdom that Christ has been setting up by the sowing of his word through his servants, he indicated explicitly that the tares shall be allowed to remain until the harvest.

We are told by Luke that enthusiastic crowds followed our Lord on his last journey to Jerusalem. There may well have been hundreds, if not thousands of them, who really believed that Jesus was the Messiah. When they arrived from the north and came to the Jordan Valley outside Jericho and began the steep ascent to Jerusalem, there were many who expected that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately (see Luke 19:11). And you can see the sense in which Luke is using the term. All these pious Jews, who now believed in Jesus, always believed that in one sense God’s kingdom has never ceased to exist. But when Luke says that they thought the kingdom of God was to appear immediately, at this moment, he’s using the term in the sense of the messianic kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. They thought Jesus was the Messiah, and he was; and that he would only have to come over the brow of the hill, descend into Jerusalem City and the kingdom of God and his Christ would be established there and then.

So our Lord had to check their enthusiasm. It wasn’t going to be so, and he told the parable about a nobleman who first went into a far country to receive a kingdom, and then returned (Luke 19:12–27).

The New Testament witnesses to the fact that the kingdom of this world, that is, God’s universal, messianic kingdom—‘the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’—was not timetabled to happen immediately after the ascension of Christ. When, then? Well, you’ll notice the position of the announcement in Revelation 11. It comes when the seventh and final trumpet is blown. With the notes of the last trumpet sounding in their ears, it is then that they say, ‘Now has come the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah’ (see v. 15). They further specify what they expect to happen—not necessarily all at once, of course, but the train of events that they associate with this time having come: ‘The nations raged, but your [God’s] wrath came’ (v. 18). Do notice that this kingdom of the Messiah is not set up by preaching the gospel. It is set up by the coming of the wrath of God—‘the great day of his wrath’. And the coming of his wrath will mean ‘the time for the dead to be judged’ (which has not been happening throughout all the centuries of the Christian era); and ‘for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great’ (v. 18).

Our Lord Jesus commented upon it himself to his twelve apostles: ‘In the [regeneration], when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Matt 19:28). That is to be their particular and personal reward; it is called the regeneration. But when will they sit on their thrones and reign with Christ in this particular fashion? The other passage in the New Testament that records our Lord’s use of similar phraseology is in Matthew 16: ‘For the Son of Man is going to come [in the regeneration] with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done’ (v. 27). His words are very clear.

It is to be noted, of course, that what John is being told in Revelation 11—‘now has come the kingdom’ (see v. 15)—is not to be understood as having come at the time contemporaneous with John on the Isle of Patmos. It is a prophecy of what would yet be. That is made obvious by the fact that the final trumpet hadn’t sounded when John stood on Patmos. God shall not take his great power and begin to reign in the sense of establishing the messianic kingdom on earth until the last trumpet has been blown. The whole thing is a vision of the future.

Why focus on the messianic timetable?

But why should we trouble our heads about this kind of timetable? The importance is in our practical evangelism, of course; in estimating the task that God has given to us and what we must expect to happen.

What if we had it in our minds that the Lord Jesus has already set up his messianic kingdom in the world, but the trouble is that a few dictators here and there haven’t yet submitted to him? So, to put into practical effect the messianic kingdom that’s already been instituted, our job is to help Christ to ‘break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel’ (Ps 2:9). Of course, if we don’t succeed with the gospel, we’ll take our own rods of iron and smash them in some other fashion.

You will remember certain periods in history when Christendom decided that this was precisely what it had to do with some obstinate Turks and others who wouldn’t accept that the Messiah’s kingdom had come and the pope was Christ’s vicar. They even possessed Jerusalem: it was outrageous!¹⁵ So Christendom got out its armies and tried to rule them with a rod of iron. What oceans of tears came out of it, and what ghastly misrepresentations of the gospel.

In our day we need to be clear about the brief that has been given to us; for there are perhaps more people now than there used to be who hold the view that our Lord will not come until after the millennial kingdom. As Christian preachers, pastors and teachers, they believe that it should be their job in the power of the Spirit so to spread the gospel that the great age of millennial glory, peace, satisfaction and bliss will come on earth; not by the coming of Christ but by the efforts of the church. Their belief is that the church will be the most significant institution in the whole world, so the messianic kingdom can come without the Lord Jesus coming. He will set up the messianic kingdom after the church has thus pacified the whole world.

My brothers and sisters, with all due respect to those who hold this view, if we were to get that into our heads, we shall one day be sorely disillusioned. Only the divine intervention of ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory’ will suffice to put down the outflowing of evil that is to come and to establish the kingdom of God (see Mark 13:26). Daniel says and now Revelation is about to tell us that, although there were parallels in times past, it will then reach a peak of blasphemy and apostasy, with severe persecution of the true servants of God and those who bear the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17).

This is not simply a deduction that we make from the figurative language of the book of Revelation; the straightforward statements of the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapters 1 and 2 tell us the same thing. This hideous blasphemer, the man of sin, to use Paul’s phrase, will sit in the temple of God claiming divine honours (2 Thess 2:3–4 KJV). How shall he be disposed of, and when shall the great day of God’s wrath come? He shall be destroyed by the epiphany—by ‘the glorious appearing’ of our Lord Jesus Christ (see Titus 2:13).

The time for reward and judgment

The time has come for the dead to be judged: to reward prophets and saints and those who fear God’s name: to destroy those who destroy the earth (see Rev 11:15–18). At that time God in his righteous judgment will give rest to his faithful servants: he will justly relieve them of all their sufferings and give them their reward.

Says Paul, ‘He will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might’ (see 2 Thess 1:5–9).

These are the directives of the New Testament that must inform us as we go about fulfilling the mission that the Lord Jesus has entrusted to us in the world.

¹⁴ Septuagint translation of Daniel 4:17. ‘The matter is by the decree of the watcher, and the demand is a word of the holy ones; that the living may know that the Lord is most high over the kingdom of men, and he will give it to whomsoever he shall please, and will set up over it that which is set at nought of men.’

¹⁵ Jerusalem was ruled by the Ottomans for 400 years (1516–1917).

6: Section Four

Part 1: The Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet (11:19–13:4)

We have come to the end of Section Three and to the beginning of Section Four. Before that, I propose to ask you to work patiently with me as once more we do some foundational study into the literary form of this book of Revelation.

Doubtless you have found in your experience that the study of the word of God brings times of elation and joy as our spirits are raised to heaven and we praise the Lord. But it is not always so, is it? There is hard, painstaking work that lies underneath any true understanding of the Scriptures. And it is to such painstaking work that I now invite you to join with me.

The pre-shadowing of section themes

Section Two

Let us first take our bearings and notice one feature in particular about the way John has arranged his material. Turn back in your notes to Section Two, to the judgments that come as the Lamb opens the seals of the scroll (6:1–17).

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Rev 6:9–11)

Under this fifth seal we see what amounts to an outburst of deeper persecution of believers. The result is that many of them lose their lives and they are seen under the altar, which is a symbolic way of saying that their lives have been sacrificed. As they cry to God, ‘How long, O Lord, are you not going to avenge us?’, they are told they must wait a little time. The incident is simply the opening of one of the seals, after which the vision goes on to other things. But the Holy Spirit of God has thereby given notice of a topic that he is about to deal with in much greater detail. It is the persecution of the saints; their intercessions and pleadings with God to avenge them; the fact that they’ve got to wait a little time until others are also persecuted, and then the reward will come.

Section Three

As we have just seen, that theme is then taken up in Section Three and is in fact its main topic. So, let’s go to Section Three to see a similar construct. As we were considering last night, in chapter 11 we have the description of the two witnesses, the two prophets. They are the two lampstands and the two olive trees who exercise their supernatural ministry before the Lord of the earth, and no one can hurt or destroy them for the time being. But we are told that when their ministry is eventually complete, ‘the beast that rises from the [abyss] will make war on them and conquer them and kill them’ (v. 7). That’s an interesting bit of information, isn’t it? At that point, you might well scratch your head and say, ‘That’s interesting, but who is the beast? You’ve not told us about him before, John. It doesn’t make all that much sense, as we don’t know who he is. Have you fallen into the bad habit that some preachers have of using technical terms without explaining them first? You shouldn’t do that. You ought to go to a class on hermeneutics and learn that if you’re going to use a technical term, you’d better explain its meaning.’

But I don’t think John is begging our pardon. You see, he now wants to bring up the idea of the beast that rises from the abyss (11:7); so anybody with any sense can see that it’s some infernal creature and the very powers of hell are going to be allowed to extinguish the testimony of these two final prophets. But that’s enough to know for the moment, because Section Four is about the beast and John will define his terms and tell us more there.

And so, though there may be some chronological progress in this series of judgments, you’ll notice what John is doing. From the beginning of one series of judgments or events he carries a theme through right to the rational end of that theme; and then in the next section he will backtrack to one item he has just mentioned and expound that. We shall see the same thing in chapter 17 with Mistress Babylon. In Section Four she receives very little notice the first time (14:8); and when you’re wondering what it’s all about we come to Section Five where she is described in great detail.

The symmetry of Section Two and Section Four

The ark of the covenant and its relevance to the theme of Section Four

As we take our bearings in this fourth section, we see what we have noticed now so many times in the preceding sections. It begins with something opened in heaven, and then a piece of heavenly furniture appears:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. (11:19)

This time what appears is the ark of the covenant, and in our survey of the book we saw its significance. Housed within the ark are the terms of the covenant that God made with Israel:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt . . . You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them . . . (Exod 20:1–4)

That forms a very fitting background to what is to be the main theme of Section Four, which is the rise on earth of a hideous dictator and the foul imitation of the blessed Trinity. The dragon engineers the rise of the beast and leads the world in their insane adoration until they attribute divine honours to him and say, ‘Who is like the beast?’ And the second beast, his minister of information and broadcasting, contrives that the nations of the earth shall make an image of the beast and commit that basic offence against almighty God of bowing down to worship the idol and image of a man. We can see, therefore, the relevance of the setting.

The throne of God and the throne of the beast

Now I want us to do another little bit of research and notice the significance of something I’ve pointed out to you from time to time in our earlier studies. You may have wondered why I was doing it, for the point would not have been immediately clear.

First of all, look at sheet three of your notes. This is the analysis of Section One of the book and its four main parts. It has a series of seven and they are our Lord’s evaluation, appraisal and judgment of his churches. They come at point four of the section.

Then look at sheet six of your notes. That is the analysis of Section Two, which also has four major parts and a series of seven judgments; but they come not at point four but at point three, so the form of Section Two is different from Section One.

Keeping Section Two in front of you, now look at sheet seven, which is the analysis of Section Three. It also has four parts to it and likewise a series of seven judgments. But in Section Three the judgments do not come at point four, nor at point three, but at point one.

You say, ‘This is all tiresome stuff. Such preaching is not fit for human consumption.’

But wait a minute. Let’s look at sheet eight, the layout of Section Four with its four parts and a series of seven. Not simply the occurrence of the verb ‘I saw’ seven times, but a series of warnings and then judgments, which stand at point three. Put that alongside your sheet of Section Two and compare them for a moment. We start with the simple observation that the seven series of judgments in Section Two come at point three, and the seven series of warnings and judgments in Section Four come at point three.

You say, ‘Well, that’s how it is. John did like variety, and he got in as much as he could. But there’s a limit to what variety you can do, so some of them ought to be similar, I suppose. They can’t help but be similar.’

Ah, but wait another minute. What is the topic of Section Two and what is the topic of Section Four? Notice that Section Two begins with the description of the throne of the almighty Creator, and the choirs of heaven singing to him upon his throne, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power’ (4:11). It is a depiction of the throne of God. Now look at Section Four, which is the story of the throne of the beast. In part two of Section Four we are told that the dragon gave this beast his power, his throne and his authority (13:2).

The holy trinity and Satan’s imitation

Even if that were all that we could observe of the similarities between these two sections, would it not be enough to justify the summary that I have put at the head of each of those two sheets?

We saw yesterday that the major question of Section Two was the throne of God and the worthiness of God and of the Lamb to receive the worship and service of God’s whole creation. We spent long minutes discussing the worthiness of God first, and then the worthiness of the Lamb to enforce the government of God and the grounds on which the Lamb is worthy to do it. The Holy Spirit was greatly concerned to explain to us and to the world in general that, when God sets up his kingdom, the grounds on which he calls for mankind’s obedience and submission are the worthiness of God and the worthiness of the Lamb. As the Lion Christ has overcome, and as the Lamb he has been slain.

Now in Section Four we see the rise of Satan’s imposter and the setting up of that terrible throne, which is a mockery of the real throne. We watch that ghastly imitation of the Trinity. The dragon takes the place of the Father; and just as the Father gives the throne to the Son, the dragon gives the throne to the first beast. And just as the Holy Spirit delights to witness to the Lord Jesus and to glorify him, the second beast, the false prophet, takes it as his task to glorify the first beast and, if he can, get every heart on earth to bow in worship at that imposter throne.

But there is more. Section Four is going to point out the grounds on which the throne of the beast demands the world’s obedience, and describe the techniques that will be used for the establishment of his throne. This is not merely to distract our minds with a little prophecy on an otherwise boring Monday night and set ourselves interesting puzzles. It’s because we can learn from the future and apply the lessons to the present.

In John’s first Epistle, he says, ‘we know that antichrist is coming one day, but already many antichrists have gone out into the world’ (see 1 John 2:18). For John, the coming of the great antichrist is therefore not just an impractical interest in sterile timetabling: already there are antichrists who, in their little way, are fostering and preparing people for the coming of the great antichrist. We too need to be wise as to their tactics and how they will go about their task, for the war is the same. At the end of the age there will come a mighty great battle, but it’s a battle in the same war that we are to fight in our day and generation.

Two songs of victory

But the formal comparison of Sections Two and Four can help us a little bit further. Look down in Section Two to point four. It is the comment of the elder upon the uncountable multitude (7:9–14). John sees them coming with palms of victory in their hands, crying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne . . .’.

The elder says, ‘John, who are these?’.

And John replies respectfully, ‘Why do you ask me? Don’t you know yourself?’

So the elder proceeds to tell him, ‘These are the ones that have come out of the great tribulation’.

No wonder they’re shouting and singing and praising God. What a victory this has been! They have been under the pressure of this terrible ‘great tribulation’. Satan had done his worst, and now they’re coming out victorious. Look at the palms in their hands and hear them crying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne . . .’. Their robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and they stand before the throne of God.

Come now to Section Four, point four, and there is another song. We are told it is the song of those who come victorious from the beast. That’s different, isn’t it, from the comment at the end of Section Three that we were discussing this morning? In Section Three we were not told of people overcoming or escaping; it wasn’t an escape story. The comment there was on the timing of the judgments of God.

But the comments at the end of Section Two and the end of Section Four are both in response to escape stories—stories of triumph. In Section Two it is those who come victoriously out of the great tribulation; and in Section Four it is those who come victorious from the beast. Let the beast do what the beast will, there’s an air of victory about the place. Let’s share it, my brothers and sisters!

You say, ‘Tell us first, who are these that stand victorious by the sea of glass?’ (15:2).

When I get home to heaven, I’ll tell you! Even if you don’t understand who they are, don’t begrudge them their hymn of praise, will you? See what they’ve done! They’ve come victorious from the beast. Isn’t that something? And if one day you come across them, you’ll want to congratulate them and say, ‘When we were down there on earth we read your story, you know. We had an easy time of it ourselves, our sufferings weren’t worth talking about. But after your victory over the beast, what a tremendous inspiration it was to see you standing by the sea of glass, singing the praise of God. It so thrilled our hearts that we said to ourselves, “Well, if they can sing and they’ve got a victory like that in those circumstances, we’d better stop talking about our problems. Why shouldn’t we start talking instead about our victories and be nerved and encouraged by the songs of the redeemed to overcome as well?”’

I haven’t time now to draw the parallels between all the other parts of these sections; you can do that yourselves. By way of example, what I mean is that in Section Two, point one, the throne of God is described; and in Section Four, point one, in the battle that rages the child is caught up to the throne of God. And thus and thus you can compare the parts all down the list.

Both Christ and the believers shall overcome

But I want to point now to one very big difference between Section Two and Section Four. In Section Two the actual word overcome is reserved for Christ alone: ‘The Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome’ (see 5:5). Yesterday our hearts were moved to worship as we thought about his overcoming, but there’s another side to the story. Section Four will use the word of believers also. It’s not enough that Christ has overcome; believers have to overcome as well. How shall they overcome the beast?

You say, ‘That’s easy enough. When the going gets tough, God will bring out his heavenly cannon, aim it at the beast and blow him to smithereens. The beast has been destroyed and the saints have overcome.’

You will search the whole of Section Four, and you will not find any record of the beast being destroyed.

‘How did they overcome him then?’, you say.

They had to face him and all his threats when he was in his prime and overcome him while he was still in power.

I’ve never thought much about the possibility of becoming a heavyweight boxing champion of the world, and I think I’ve left it a little late to become one. But I have thought from time to time how easily I could have overcome Cassius Clay.¹⁶ You’ll see how old-fashioned I am, because that’s the only name of a champion boxer I can think of. I would put on my boxing gloves and face him in the ring—gingerly, of course. I wouldn’t come too close. And just as he was about to land the knockout blow, someone from my corner of the ring would hand me a pistol and I would shoot him through the heart. As the great Cassius Clay lies dead on the floor, I would raise my hands in that frantic fashion like boxers do and claim to be the boxing champion of the world. ‘I have overcome him; there he is.’

I think the referee would not agree. You don’t overcome by destroying your opponent; you’ve got to stand up and fight him.

It’s one thing for God to overcome the beast; but that’s not the point, is it? I have to overcome the beast; not by getting God to destroy him but by facing him. Even though we shall not be called upon to face the beast in that day, be sure we shall have to face one or more of his predecessors. There are many antichrists in our own day, and we are called upon to overcome them and not leave it all for God to do.

There is some profit in the necessary work of patient literary study, even of the basic literary form of a book like Revelation; for it deals with its topics and puts one side and then another. And to get a completely balanced view of things, we need to understand both sides of each question.

That’s enough for now. You’ve got an afternoon off, for which I’m sure you’re grateful. Let us just bow and give thanks.

Father, we thank thee now for thy holy word. We thank thee for the care with which thou hast written it. Help us, O Lord, we pray, to be diligent, exact students. We thank thee that when we come to see the exactitude of thy word, it produces in us an ever-deepening trust in its inspiration, and when we see the holy balance, it strikes us as being true to life. Lord, sometimes we become so unbalanced; we see one side and not the other. And therefore we pray for thy grace that we may give attention even to these eternal formal arrangements of thy word, so that we might catch the deeper lessons that they were meant to convey.

So we thank thee for the Lord Jesus, and worship thee again for his great victory and praise thee that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome. O Lord, only help us, we do beseech thee, that we too may overcome in our day and generation. For his name’s sake, Amen.

¹⁶ American professional boxer (1942–2016) who won the world heavyweight championship on three occasions. In 1964, he took the name Muhammad Ali.

Part 2: Satan’s Lie or God’s Truth? (13:5–14:13)

We come now to study in earnest Section Four of the book of Revelation, to which we have introduced ourselves briefly. By dint of its much repetition, Section Four becomes the story of a great war. It is a war that has been going on all down the centuries, sometimes rumbling on beneath the surface of events and at other times breaking out into brutal hostility. But the passage before us this morning tells us that at the end of this age it will erupt with the most extreme and ferocious intensity.

The battle for the allegiance and devotion of the human heart

The contestants in this war are, on the one side, God Almighty; on the other side, his satanic majesty, the devil himself. The issue at stake is the ultimate allegiance and devotion of the human heart. That is why in this section particularly the word worship occurs with great repetition, though the phenomenon is to be seen elsewhere all through Revelation. It is worship not just in the sense of singing hymns and praising the Lord, of course, but worship in its basic sense. At least, in the basic sense of this particular Greek word for worship, which means to bow down before someone; to admit that they have the ultimate authority and power and you must yield to them the ultimate allegiance of your heart.

In this battle there are only two choices, which comes from the nature of things, and there is in fact only one who has the right to the ultimate devotion of the human heart. This comes from the sheer reality of the situation: there is only one God because there is only one creator. As we noticed yesterday, in Section Two of this book—the section that is particularly the counterpart of Section Four—the worthiness of God to receive the ultimate loyalty and allegiance of everything he has created is spelled out clearly and in no uncertain terms. This is the reality behind the universe; this is the truth of everything that exists. It was made by God and it was made for God, and God as creator claims the logical, rational and truthful devotion of everything he has made. That is the truth.

The love of the truth or the worship of the lie

In this war God stands on the one side with his truth, but on the other side stands Satan with his sophisticated and persuasive lie. The war is to be raged between God and Satan—between the truth and the lie. We are not told of the origin of evil in spheres higher than our own world; though maybe there are hints here and there in holy Scripture of that dread rebellion that seems to have occurred in heavenly places long before our planet existed. But we do know of the lie in the early dawn of human history that was spread by the serpent in the garden. Does it not say an enormous amount about the heart and character of God that he didn’t immediately squash the lie by annihilating the serpent, and the woman when she believed it? He could have directly used his almighty power to squash all those slanders of his character that Satan had spread. But, as we saw the other day, that would have played into the hand of his enemy.

God has let the lie proceed and chosen to answer it in a way that shows the truth and what the nature of truth is. Of all the things that almighty God can do, there is one thing he cannot do, and that is to compel the love of the truth by force. Dictators can compel you to bow down before them, and if you refuse they will make you pay the ultimate penalty in the surrender of your physical life. But no dictator in the whole universe can compel you to love him. Truth is not some philosophical abstraction that allows those with a philosophical and scientific bent to find endless fascination in pursuing it in their own particular spheres. Truth is ultimately neither a philosophical nor a scientific abstraction: truth is a person. When the New Testament sums up the final judgment of mankind, it says, ‘God will send [people] strong delusion, that they should believe a lie . . . [who] had pleasure in unrighteousness’. Why will he do it? ‘Because they received not the love of the truth’, says Paul. Not merely ‘the truth’, but ‘the love of the truth’ (see 2 Thess 2:10–12 KJV). Mere intellectual consent to the truth will save nobody, even if it is the truth about the creator of the universe. In this war nothing is won unless the victor can get for himself the love of the human heart. As I said, there are only two choices. Either we receive the love of the truth—that is, God and his truth; or we shall bow down to the lie—that is, Satan’s lie.

Somebody might say, ‘I don’t agree that there is only that stark alternative. I don’t need to bow down to Satan’s lie; but then I don’t need to bow down to God and his religion either. I can maintain my freedom and owe allegiance to nothing except myself, or to reason, or whatever else I choose to set up as my own ultimate goal.’ But the person who argues like that has already been deceived by the lie.

As you well know, there was the lie spread through Eve to Adam in the garden, contrary to God’s word and God’s truth. ‘Take of this fruit’, said Satan. But he didn’t say to them, ‘And if you do, you will have to fall down and worship me’. He was too cunning a strategist, of course. What he presented to them was a third alternative: ‘If you take of the fruit of this tree in independence of God and his truth, you shall be as God’ (see Gen 3:5). This alternative was a dastardly and devilish lie, and at the end of this age that will be demonstrated in all its clarity. For it is not merely the fact that God is the truth; as Creator he is the only one worthy and able to be the true goal of human allegiance. But when the gloves come off and the battle is on, I say it with reverence, Satan won’t regard the holy compunctions of God and he will proceed to use his satanic and superhuman power to compel allegiance. He won’t care whether he is loved or not; he will be content to use his superhuman power and devilish terrorism to force men and women to bow down to him.

Mankind needs to be warned because this kind of thing has happened all down the centuries, in greater and lesser degrees at certain periods in history, when Satan has stage-managed the rise of certain dictators. Men and women, who never thought they would bow down to such things, have bowed down. It was so when the Roman emperors, such as Tiberius and Nero, in their half insanity and their fears, instituted their reigns of terror, and later with Domitian and others. It wasn’t just ignorant people in the streets who bowed down; not just weak men and women and infants. When the battle came to its reality it was the cream of the intellectuals in their universities, in the government and in the senate. In the ancient Roman histories, it is a sad and chilling thing to read how the senate not only bowed down and grovelled before the totalitarian terrorist emperors, but when a few men stood up to them, like Thracius Peter, they hated them because it exposed their own cowardice.

I speak with great sympathy, but nowadays it is an unpleasant thing to hear academics say, ‘Well, we didn’t believe it; we knew it was a lie. But if we had rejected it and stood for the truth we would have lost our jobs. So we taught the lie to our students.’

At the end of the age, the pressures to conform to the lie shall be greater than the world has ever seen. In all this great battle for the love and allegiance of man’s heart, God does not stand idly by on the sidelines. If Satan is going to fight, then God will fight. And I tell you straight, according to Scripture God is going to win the battle. His method will not be to lambast and defeat his foe by the stark use of naked, almighty power; though when it is appropriate, God will not hesitate to use it.

If this is a battle for the truth and what truth is like, may I remind you of the scene we thought about the other day in that most tremendous battlefield when God incarnate came down to fight the devil and all his hosts. As our blessed Lord Jesus stood before the little governor of Judea who was responsible to Tiberius the Roman Emperor, Pilate said to him, ‘Don’t you know I have the power?’. With divine love mixed with contempt, our Lord said, ‘But Pilate, I am the kind of king who has come to witness to the truth’ (see John 19:10; 18:37).

If the battle cannot be won unless we not only know the truth but also love it; and if the truth is ultimately a person, then let us pause for a moment in our study and see what was actually at issue at Calvary. ‘I have come,’ says Christ, ‘to bear witness to the truth.’ And the truth about you and the truth about me is that we were made by a creator who not only commands our obedience, but such is his love that he would give himself rather than we should perish.

The literary form of Section Four

But now we must proceed to some patient literary study. When we come to Section Four we see that it is formed of four parts. It is laid out for you on sheet eight of your notes, from which you will notice that it is composed of three trilogies, followed by the final victory song of those who attained victory over the beast. By three trilogies, I mean that the first three parts of the section are in groups of three incidents or topics.

In the first trilogy (11:19–13:1) Satan is frustrated: 1. There is the scene of the woman and the male child with the dragon standing before her; 2. there is the war in heaven; and then 3. there is the persecution of the woman. In this trilogy, we see the woman, the child and the devil. The incidents hang together because they are all about one topic.

The second trilogy (13:1–14:5) Satan is apparently victorious: 1. There is the rise of the first beast, as Satan stands upon the seashore and stage-manages his rising. Incidentally, I judge that to be the correct reading of the manuscripts: John was not standing on the seashore, but Satan was. 2. There comes the second beast, who ministers on behalf of the first beast. 3. John turns around and sees the Lamb. He isn’t standing on the seashore; he is standing on Mount Zion with one hundred and forty-four thousand who had already overcome the beast. So far, John had been watching the dragon standing upon the sand of the sea, manipulating the rise of the two beasts, but when all seemed to be going Satan’s way, the Lamb appears on Mount Zion.

In the third trilogy (14:6–15:1) earth’s inhabitants are warned against the Beast: 1. There is the series of warnings. 2. John sees the Son of Man sitting on a white cloud, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 3. Then the judgments themselves: the wrath of God is completed.

And the last part of the section (15:2–4) is the final victory song of those who attained victory over the beast. 1. They are standing by the sea of glass and fire; 2. they are singing the new song of Moses and the Lamb. 3. God’s righteous acts are made manifest.

The thought-flow of Section Four

These, then, are the contents of the section. Now let us look at the thought-flow that runs between the trilogies.

In the first trilogy we find that in all three incidents Satan is frustrated and defeated. He fails in his attempt to devour the male child; he is turned out of heaven, having been defeated in battle; he comes down to earth in an attempt to persecute the woman, but fails even in that. As I say, in the first trilogy Satan is defeated and frustrated, and we are told about that before we come to the second trilogy.

In the second trilogy, the apparent triumph and victory of Satan are described. So large is his victory that all who dwell on the earth shall worship him, except those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

In the third trilogy comes God’s warning to earth in light of that apparently universal victory. Before it is utterly complete and before the judgments of God descend, here is God’s last appeal to mankind not to believe the lie but to believe the truth; not to worship the beast but to worship the Creator, and if it is possible to save their lives at the very last moment. And then the judgments proceed.

The comment: And finally, victory over the Beast. As is very apt, now come the songs of those who actually do conquer the beast and win their battle.

The first trilogy: signs in the heaven—Satan frustrated (11:19–13:1)

So much then for the thought-flow of the four parts of Section Four. We come now to the significance of the first trilogy, which is standing first, of course. It is always a good basic question to ask of any paragraph of Scripture: ‘What’s it doing here? Would it make any difference to the story if it stood somewhere else?’

Why is this particular trilogy first? It is because the second trilogy is going to depict the almost universal success and victory of Satan and his crew, but before it happens God in his wisdom takes us behind the scenes and shows us the facts. Although Satan’s empire apparently comes to universal success, it is doomed from the very start. And why is it doomed? It’s because it has been founded on unsure foundations and rests on rotten props.

Let me use an analogy. If an invading army comes into a country to possess and hold it, there will be certain strategic points that are vital for its occupation. However much territory the army takes, if it cannot secure these strategic points it will never be able to hold the country permanently. So it is with Satan’s empire. In the end days, he will appear to be universally victorious, and such will be his apparent triumph that they will say, ‘Who is able to make war with the beast?’ (see 13:4 KJV). The people might be in danger of being impressed by his apparent victory and think he is so powerful that it is not worthwhile trying to resist him. But, before it happens, God in his mercy says to them, ‘Come, please look at the situation behind the scenes. Satan’s whole pompous empire is built on false foundations; it has failed to take the strategic points and the battle is won.’

In fact, the war has been won before Satan’s final battle begins.

‘How is that?’ you say.

Well, let’s look at what we can see on the surface of the chapter.

A preview of Satan’s defeat

A woman and child

The first picture is of a pregnant woman who was about to give birth, and Satan stands before her to devour the child (12:1–6). After all, he knows his own strategy and tactics, and apparently he is as aware as anybody else of who the child is going to be.

You say, ‘Tell me who the child is’.

Well, fancy asking that question! We have to listen to what the child is going to do. It says he is going to rule the nations with a rod of iron (v. 5). And Satan has enough wit to know that both of them can’t rule. If the child is going to rule the nations with a rod of iron, then Satan can’t rule them with his rod of iron. And if Satan is going to be successful and rule the nations with a rod of iron, he must destroy this child as soon as he’s born. If he can’t, the game is ultimately up. And so, coward that he is, he stands there in all his forms of terror, a great red dragon coming to a woman in her condition.

That’s just like him. There he stands, ready to devour her child as soon as he is born. ‘There’s no hope,’ you say, ‘the child will fall right into his jaws.’ But just when you see those ugly crocodile jaws opening, the child is caught up to God and his throne. You can almost hear Satan gnash his teeth, for he has lost; in a sense he can do what he likes now and it doesn’t matter.

War in heaven

But Satan has another string to his bow and now he sees the strategic point that he’s got to make. It’s no secret that it’s not only Christ who shall reign. God has determined that the age to come shall not be put in subjection to angels but to man: not only to Christ but to Christ and all who trust him (Heb 2:5–9; 2 Tim 2:12). Satan will be thrown out and his angelic administration removed and replaced by redeemed human beings.

And so Satan sees his opportunity and comes to fight in the courts of God (12:7). He’s not armed with Kalashnikov rifles, of course, but with moral arguments to plead his case before the host of heaven and lay hold upon the very morality and justice of God. He is called ‘the accuser of our brethren’ (v. 10 KJV)—believers, in other words. Sensing he has found a weak point, if ever there was one, Satan presses it day and night as he accuses them before God.

‘It’s all right, God, to exalt your sinless Son Jesus Christ to the throne; but you can’t exalt these miserable human beings just because they call themselves believers. They’re sinners as much as the rest, aren’t they? You’re going to turn me and my angels out of the heavens because we’ve been rebels; but haven’t they been rebels? With my help, of course, but that’s beside the point. They are rebels, and look at the way they live. If you’re proposing to put them alongside your Son on the throne of the universe, surely your very heaven would grow dark for the sheer injustice and immorality of it?’

But he loses the battle and gets thrown out. He has lost, and we are told it in advance (vv. 8–9).

Satan persecutes the woman

Then he goes off to try and destroy the woman who gave birth to the child. But even there he is unsuccessful and returns to do all he can to persecute the rest of her seed. We shall have to see how he loses that battle, but you get the drift of thought, don’t you? What a marvellous God, God is! He tells us these things before they come to pass. He is standing now on the sidelines, but he’s all round his people, encouraging them and buttressing their faith. I nearly said that there are certain things that God can’t do. He cannot force people to love him, and now before the last great battle comes he tells them, ‘Oh, please don’t go over to Satan’s side, for he has already lost’.

The assurance of victory over Satan

1. The seed of the woman has overcome

‘Who is this woman with the child?’, you ask. You’ll not let me get away without telling you, or else you won’t pay my fare home! There have been many interpretations of the good soul and of who her child is; the difficulty in deciding between them is that there’s a lot of truth in all of them. We have to get used to the idea that some figures in Scripture stand for multiple things, and particularly so with the woman and her seed.

Allow me to remind you how this idea of seed is used elsewhere in Scripture. Take Abraham, for instance: God promised him seed (Gen 15:5). Who was the promised seed that God promised to Abraham?

You say, ‘Well, that’s obvious; it was Isaac’.

Of course it was Isaac, but will Isaac complete the explanation? Not according to Paul. In Galatians he tells us that the seed is Christ (3:16). There is not just one fulfilment of the promised seed, and without Isaac there would have been no Christ, would there? But Isaac wasn’t enough in himself, and when God promised seed to Abraham ultimately he had the Christ in mind.

You say, ‘That will do then; that’s all we need to know’.

No it isn’t, for Paul goes on to explain that as believers we are Abraham’s seed. He argues first that the inheritance was promised to Abraham’s seed, which is Christ. Then he goes on to say, ‘For you are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. There’s no distinction between Jew or Gentile, or anything else; you’re all one in Christ when it comes to the grounds of your inheritance. For you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, like a man puts on a garment that completely covers him. If you then are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise’ (see Gal 3:26–29). The fulfilment or significance of the term ‘seed’ with Abraham is not single but multiple.

It was so too with God’s promise to King David. The dynasty of David’s predecessor, King Saul, was never established. His sons never ascended his throne. But to King David, God said, ‘When you are departed, David, I will raise up one of your sons to sit upon your throne. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you’ (see 1 Chron 17:11–13). Who was that son of David?

You say, ‘Solomon, of course’.

Yes; but just Solomon? Well, no, not just Solomon, because when you come to the Epistle to the Hebrews the inspired writer will quote that promise and apply it to the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 1:1–5). In some sense God was a father to Solomon, and Solomon was treated by God as a son; but the original promise went far beyond Solomon and was meant to be fulfilled eventually at a far higher level. David’s son—to whom God is a father, and to God he is a son—proved to be none other than the incarnate Lord himself.

Thus it is most likely that the interpretation of the woman and the child in Revelation, particularly the child, shall likewise be multiple. Indeed, the image of a woman giving birth to a child is found in two or three places in the Old Testament in prophetic contexts, but allow me to suggest that the first reference must be to the garden of Eden.

Consider in your mind’s eye a woman, a serpent and the woman’s seed. The word dragon is a Greek word for serpent. It is generally used for extraordinarily ferocious serpents, but it does mean ‘serpent’. The image of the woman, the serpent and the woman’s seed is obviously pointing to Genesis and that moment in human history; not when Eve came all beautiful from the fashioning hand of God, but when she stood with her guilty husband, Adam, defeated and fallen, deceived by the devil’s lie. When God came down to the situation, what did he do? His first remarks were directed at the serpent, who was responsible for this great catastrophe (3:14–15). The woman had believed the lie, ‘You shall be as God’; and with his divine foreknowledge God could see how this lie would spread until one day the seed sown in that ground would grow to a colossal harvest. At the end of the age vast millions on earth would believe it, and Satan would raise up his final expression of the lie in the form of the beast—a man parading himself on earth claiming to be God, helped by demonic and Satanic powers. And what would God do about it then?

So you say, ‘The only safe thing for the Lord to have done would be to crush that lie once and forever. Stamp on the serpent, stamp on Eve and stamp on Adam, so that it would not be propagated anymore.’

I think I would have chosen that, for it would have been safer, wouldn’t it? But God didn’t. There Satan stood with the fallen woman and the fallen man, thinking he’d won and ruined the creation, and God announced he was going to let them carry on. Carry on? Yes, because what Satan hadn’t thus far perceived was the way God had made the human race. He had made it so that even after they fell he could get inside his own creation, become a man and fight the devil as a man. What a strategy; you can’t be up to what God will do next, can you? And doesn’t it make a marvellous contrast now as we read that ancient story against the background of what shall be at the end of the age?

What is God’s answer to mankind’s insane, devil-ridden urge to climb up and be God and banish him? ‘Well,’ he says, ‘if man is going to try and be God, I think I’ll become man.’ Can you visualize that scene in your mind’s eye? Look at that woman—call her Eve, call her humanity, call her Israel, call her what you will, and ask, ‘What wonder is this? What child is it that she is carrying?’

Verily God, yet become truly human— Lower than angels—to die in our stead; How hast Thou, long-promised ‘Seed of the woman’, Trod on the serpent and bruised his head!¹⁷

Oh, where should we have been in the battle, but lost and defeated and consigned to God’s everlasting hell, had it not been that another came—that lovely Man, that supreme Man, the Son of Man, ‘Verily God, yet become truly human’? Find me another story in all the universe that is incredible enough to think that the almighty, inimitable God should confine himself to the womb of a woman. It would be a little bit more believable, perhaps, if the woman had been sinless. But she was a member of a fallen race, and with all due respect I remind you that Mary too was a sinner. It is a story that is so wonderful as to be scarcely credible, that almighty God should be prepared to confine himself to her womb and become human in order to fight and to win our battle for us.

It was to the serpent that God announced: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel’ (Gen 3:15). That original promise given to Eve was not immediately fulfilled, and over the centuries we have had exhibitions of Satan’s attempt to frustrate and destroy God’s announced purpose.

There was a time in Egypt when that sinister pharaoh reigned. He was a prototype of the man of sin if ever there was one. Inspired surely by the devil himself, for reasons that went beyond his little head, he decided that Israel as a nation must be destroyed. This brought about the first instance of anti-Semitism and genocide, as the pharaoh decreed that every male child born to an Israelite woman must be taken and thrown into the Nile to be devoured by the waiting crocodiles (Exod 1:22). But God saw to it that Israel was delivered out of the jaws of those crocodiles.

Later in the history of Israel a woman by the name of Athaliah, who had family connections with apostate Ahab and Jezebel of Israel, was on the throne of Judah. When she saw that all the royal family of Israel had been destroyed, in her mad frenzy she murdered all the royal family in Judah. The promise of God to bring in his Messiah came within a centimetre of being absolutely destroyed and brought to an end. But as the massacre was underway a nurse found a little boy of the royal family, picked him up and ran away, and the line of Judah survived (2 Kgs 11; 2 Chron 22:10–23:15).

Then the time came when our blessed Lord himself was born of Mary. On hearing that there was a king born to the Jews, Herod enquired where he was so that he might come and worship him; and not being able to find him he vented his rage on all the children under two years old in the vicinity. Having been warned in a dream, Joseph took the child and Mary to safety in Egypt (Matt 2:1–18).

And then came the great battle, the centre of all human history, when Jesus Christ hung upon a cross and the very hounds of hell gathered around him like a besieging army. But, as Paul says in the Epistle to the Colossians, ‘Christ spoiled the principalities and powers . . . triumphing over them in it’ (see 2:15 KJV). When they thought he was safely in their grip, he eluded their grasp, rose up from the dead, ascended and sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven (Heb 8:1). He is there now and Satan has been defeated.

I can tell you even more. Although you sit here at these tables and are fighting your battles, sometimes getting wounded and often tired, it is reliably reported that at this very moment you are already seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). Oh, do shout hallelujah! You’re in glory with the Saviour and the war is won, though there are many battles still to be fought.

2. The saints will overcome and reign with Christ

I needn’t elaborate on it further; you can see the point of it. If it is God’s good pleasure to have his redeemed reign with Christ, Satan senses the weak point here and attacks them day and night. You know, sometimes we must revise our notions of Satan. We can picture him as the great red dragon full of terrorism, but Satan uses other methods. He concerns himself with morality more often than we think. Let us remember that Jude says we are not to despise principalities and powers. When Michael disputed with the devil, he dared not bring a railing accusation against him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan’ (see Jude v. 9).

We cannot know for sure, but perhaps when Michael was sent on the task of burying the body of Moses, Satan disputed it on moral grounds. ‘The reason you’re having to bury Moses at all is because he rebelled against God when he smote the rock, and for that sin and rebellion God said that he should not enter the promised land. But God has his favourites and he gives Moses a state funeral, and the chief angel even comes down to attend it. That’s God for you: he punishes some sinners, and favours others just because he happens to like them.’

And what would you imagine Michael said? He didn’t say, ‘Satan, who are you to complain? You’re not really concerned with morality.’ If a moral claim can be lodged against God’s purpose in dealing with his people, it doesn’t matter who raises it. If God is acting unjustly, even the devil himself has a right to raise it. The answer is not to dismiss it and say, ‘We don’t take any notice of you, Satan’. The scene is the court of heaven, God is the judge and the thing has got to be answered morally and justly. God cannot act partially. The devil presses his accusations against believers day and night.

How will they overcome him?

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb

Let’s ponder what that means. Some people talk of the blood of the Lamb as if it were some kind of magic. When Satan smells it, sees it, or something, it frightens him and he runs off. But that’s not what it means; there’s no magic in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is a token of the death of Christ: it’s a legal answer to all the claims that Satan can bring against the people of God. When Satan raises their sins and iniquities and their injustices, God’s answer is the blood of Christ. For God does not forgive his people unjustly; he has found a way of forgiving their sins that is one hundred per cent just and righteous. Happy are those people who have learnt to plead the blood of Christ before God in the heavenly court against the accusations of the accuser.

They overcame him by the word of their testimony

Now we have to pause, for we must take it seriously. These people are saying that they have a right to stand because of the blood of Christ. They have repented, they have trusted the Saviour, they believe the Lord and his blood covers their sin. Satan isn’t going to give up easily, and he says, ‘Yes, I can’t dispute that the blood of Christ avails for all believers, but are you a believer?’ How would you know whether a person is a believer or not?

Two things are required.

1. ‘He who confesses me before men,’ said the Lord Jesus, ‘him I will also confess before my Father and the holy angels, but he who denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father’ (see Matt 10:32–33; Luke 12:8–9 NKJV). I feel ashamed to stand before you today, when I remember what some of you have had to endure in your testimony for the Lord. But I speak simply as the mouthpiece for God’s word.

2. ‘They loved not their lives even unto death’ (Rev 12:11). The period of history this is pointing to concerns the end of the age, when to confess the Lord Jesus will be to invite physical death, and then those demands of the Lord Jesus will be seen in their true light: ‘If you confess me, I will confess you; if you deny me, I will deny you.’ What if it means death? Here, Satan has his last go. ‘Ah yes,’ he says, ‘they don’t mind a little loss of money or status. But touch their lives, God, and bring them to a position where if they confess you they’ll die, and you’ll find that they’ll cave in.’ These believers win the case because they loved not their lives even unto death.

We have to overcome, my brothers and sisters, and we have to show that we are genuine believers. May God help me; I’ve had it so easy. The mystery is why God apparently tests some more than he tests others. The testing at the end of the age will be ferocious beyond anything else. Let us not forget what our Lord enunciated as a general principle: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14:26). These terms of discipleship challenge our hearts, don’t they? May God give us help to practise them in the ordinary affairs of daily life so that we might be ready for any great climax that should come.

God will be seen to be just

Satan was thrown down and they won (12:9). You see, God has to be justified, which is what Paul says in straightforward language. Talking of the coming of the Lord Jesus in power and great glory, he says that God will put down those who have persecuted believers and set believers free from their suffering.

This is evidence of the righteous judgement of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels . . . (2 Thess 1:5–7)

The issue then will be, is God just? For the Lord to come and raise some people to glory and consign others to eternal perdition, the world will want to know, ‘is it just?’. Suppose they see me exalted to heaven with Christ, will any of my neighbours have grounds to say: ‘Well, I’ve known some Christians who were utterly devoted to Christ and they deserve it, but I wouldn’t have thought that of him. They were on Christ’s side; anybody could see that. But has God exalted this fellow to glory? Some God, then. It isn’t just.’

God not only has an answer that satisfies his own standards, namely, the blood of Christ; he wants an answer to give to the whole world, and that is, the witness of our lives.

Says God, ‘It is just that I should raise this dear believer to glory now with Christ.’

‘Why is it just?’, says the world.

‘If you need evidence of the justice of it, look at her life. She was on Christ’s side; she served him and was prepared to sacrifice her life. It is manifestly just that I raise her to glory.’

This is the moral battle before the universe. In the great disputed area of morality in which Satan engages with God, may God grant us so to live that we may overcome.

The third trilogy: Warnings and judgments (14:6–15:1)

Israel shall be saved

And finally, the third part of the trilogy. Satan lost the battle in the courts of heaven and was cast down to earth (12:7–9). The question naturally arises: when was he cast down? Well, not at Calvary, unless you think that Satan has given up accusing you in the presence of God. Do you suppose that is true? He has not given up; he accuses us still. One day he will be cast down, and then he shall have a very short time left to stage his deceitful empire.

We saw that when he was cast down, he tried to persecute the woman who had given birth to the male child. Not Eve, of course, nor Mary, both of whom have long since been with the Lord, but Israel. God has purposes for Israel, and let us Gentile Christians remember it. We are not to say, ‘Israel failed and God put us in their place. Look what good boys and girls we are; Israel will never be restored.’ To talk like that is to indulge in foolish arrogance, says Paul. ‘Israel have not fallen that they should permanently fall and be kept down. One day a deliverer shall come out of Zion, and he shall turn iniquity from Jacob, and in that day all Israel shall be saved’ (see Rom 11:25–27). Hence the fury of Satan’s antagonism against Israel, and his attempts even down the Christian centuries to destroy her. He has lost up to the moment, and, in spite of his savage cruelty, God at the end will bring Israel through triumphantly, to his glory.

That’s the background to the battle. We shall have to consider the battle itself and then move on to Section Five. The two sections are related, so we shall do that later this evening.

Faith to stand

Before we close, let us recur to thinking about the seriousness of the two demands that are made if we would overcome the devil. They overcame him ‘by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death’ (Rev 12:11). And I say to myself, ‘What would happen to you, Gooding, if you were faced with the ultimate decision?’. For I remember a stronger man than I, whose name was Peter. Confident in his love for the Lord Jesus, when the Lord Jesus told him, ’Peter, this night you will deny me three times,’ he said, ‘You say wonderful things, but if you don’t mind my pointing it out, sometimes you get it wrong, and you’ve got that wrong, Lord. After all this time, you still don’t really know me. It is possible that some of these others would deny you, but I would never deny you. I’d go to prison and to death for your sake’ (see Luke 22:31–38).

He wasn’t aware that in himself he had a weakness, and when the battle started it would undo him. If he had said, ‘Lord, I didn’t know I was like that, but if you say I am, how can I overcome this weakness?’, the Lord would have shown him how. But he wouldn’t listen, and so the Lord said to Peter, ‘You’re going to deny me’. And then, to my everlasting comfort as well as to Peter’s, he added, ‘Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again strengthen your brothers’. Notice that he didn’t say, ‘If ever you come back’, but, ‘when you have turned again’ (Luke 22:32).

And so it happened. When the trial came, his courage went. His testimony was blown sky high and his godliness was smashed to smithereens. All was broken and lost, except for one thing: his faith remained. The Lord Jesus had not prayed that his testimony shouldn’t be shattered or that his courage wouldn’t fail. They both were, and in a sense they had to be. What the Lord Jesus had prayed for was that his faith wouldn’t fail. Without that faith, Peter would have completely ceased to be a believer, so the Lord Jesus gave himself to intercede for him. It is an enormous comfort to my heart to remember that Christ has no favourites; he prays for all his genuine people against the time of their trial. Because he ever lives to make intercession for them, he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him (see Heb 7:25).

See how it worked out. Before the trial came, Peter didn’t one hundred per cent believe the Lord. In most things he did, but his faith was still not perfect. And when the Lord said, ‘You’re going to deny me’, Peter said, ‘Nonsense, nonsense.’ He didn’t believe the Lord. When it happened and he denied the Lord for the third time, suddenly in the darkness of the night a cockerel crowed. Peter heard it and he saw the Lord standing, looking at him. No words needed to be said. When he heard the cockerel crowing, Peter discovered that the Lord had been right after all. He had said, ‘You’re going to deny me’, and Peter hadn’t believed it. But he believed it now and became a stronger believer than ever he was before. He now believed Christ, and in the flood of his tears and the turmoil of his emotions he went out into the dark. Would he ever find the courage to come back? How would he face the other disciples and the shame of it, and how would he face the Lord? Would he ever master his grief? It was when the cockerel crowed that he remembered the words of the Lord Jesus, ‘I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me’. In the dark tempest of that storm and in the blackness of his midnight there arose a new light and the possibility of dawn. Christ had told him that he would betray him; he had also said, ‘but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again . . .’ (Luke 22:31–34). As sure as the cock was crowing, he did turn and come back.

My brothers and sisters, Christ can’t believe for us; he’d do it if he could. We’ve got to believe for ourselves and we’ve got to overcome for ourselves. But we don’t fight alone in this battle. And since faith is the final citadel that Satan must take if he is to win, we have a great high priest who not only died for us at Calvary but he arose and is at the right hand of God interceding for us that our faith shall not fail. Let the temptation last as long as it may, he will bring all his true believing people home to glory.

You remember what we saw in Section Three. There is an incense altar standing before the throne of God, and one day the prayers of the saints that have gone up in the name of our blessed Lord Jesus, combined with his divine intercessions and merits, shall secure that the temptation is finished and his people have come through triumphant.

Shall we pray.

Lord, we thank thee now for thy words and we come to these very serious challenges. Blessed Lord Jesus, we would not blunt the edge of thy word nor lessen the extent of thy demands, but thou knowest our weak hearts. We cannot boast before thee of our own faithfulness or our own courage, and we have things that we must deal with in thy presence, with thee and thee alone. And yet we praise thee for the example thou hast given to us in thy servant, Peter, and we bless thee for thine intercessions. O Lord, continue them we pray, as most assuredly thou wilt. Because thou ever livest to make intercession, so wilt thou save to the uttermost those who come unto God by thee. And therefore we praise thee, for thine own name’s sake. Amen.

¹⁷ H. D’Arcy Champney (1854–1942), ‘Jesus, our Lord, with what joy we adore Thee’ (1902).

Part 3: God’s Answer to the Beast and Satan (14:14–15:4)

At the end of this evening I propose to give a brief introduction, however superficial, to Section Five of Revelation, and to conduct a survey of the symmetry between the various Sections. In the first part of our session tomorrow morning I should like to concentrate on Section Five without having to go through a lot of preliminaries. For the main part of this evening, then, we shall aim to cover the rest of Section Four.

Our study of Section Four so far

You will find it helpful to have your notes ready to compare Section Two with Section Four from time to time. Like all the other main sections of the book of Revelation, we noticed that Section Four is composed of four major constituent parts, and we set ourselves to discover the function of the first part—what I have called the first trilogy (11:19–13:1).

Part two of Section Four, the second trilogy, describes that period at the end of the age when, by Satan’s manipulation, there shall arise the most hideous world dictator. He shall not immediately appear to be hideous to those who dwell on the earth. In fact, multitudes will welcome him as the greatest genius ever, and they will cry ‘peace and safety’ as they experience what appear to be the tremendous benefits of his worldwide rule (see 1 Thess 5:3). Of course, behind it all lies the deceit that Satan will perpetrate on the inhabitants of earth. So, the second trilogy describes that period of the apparently complete and universal victory of Satan’s king.

It will be so terrible, particularly for God’s people who are living at that time, that God in his mercy has set the first trilogy before the second: before he describes what the reign of the beast will be, God takes his people behind the scenes. Indeed, he transports them from earth to heaven to show them the outcome of the beast’s almost universal rule. However great the success of his empire may appear to be, it cannot last, for it is built on inadequate foundations and founded on rotten props.

In order to retain a universal empire there are certain vital strategic points that have to be taken, captured and held. In this first trilogy Satan makes three attempts to capture these, but he fails in every one of them and is eventually thrown down from heaven to the earth (12:9). Realizing his time is short, he does his dastardly best to take the final of these strategic points, and fails there as well. It is a defeated and furious Satan who stands on the seashore to manipulate the rise of his great universal empire. So then, we are strongly comforted when God shows us the truth behind the empire, knowing that it cannot last. However severe it shall be under the beast, the trial of the believers in those days will presently end and they shall be victorious.

The second trilogy: Satan apparently victorious (13:1–14:5)

So now we come to study that second major part of Section Four, the second trilogy, where we shall consider the throne of the beast and what that throne is based on. From time to time we shall be comparing it with what we found earlier in Section Two, which told us of the throne of God and the worthiness of God and of the Lamb to receive the worship and service of God’s whole creation, and on what grounds God will insist on this loyalty and service. By vivid contrast, we are now to consider the throne of the beast and the grounds of his demand for universal worship. Then we shall consider God’s answer to the beast and to his master, Satan.

1. The first beast and his throne

In the first part of the second trilogy, John tells us:

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.  And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.  One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ (13:1–4)

The first ground on which the beast will demand that people grant to him divine honours, obedience and worship is the power of his throne. His fascination over the people is simply his apparent superhuman power. He had a wound from a sword and lived (13:14). We are not told exactly what form the sword wound took, but instead of perishing under that mortal wound some superhuman power will bring him to life again. It appears there will be a staging of some kind of resurrection. We don’t need to know more about its details to see at once that it is a fake resurrection. Yet the people will cry out in their astonishment, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ His power seems to be demonstrably superhuman, and the conclusion people will reach is that his power is irresistible. If he’s had the wound of a sword and his superhuman power, whatever it is, has restored him to life again, who could possibly make war with him? Only a fool would try. So wisdom’s part is to submit and recognize the reality of his superhuman power, and all the world shall grant him the divine honours he seeks.

‘Who is like the beast?’, they say (v. 4). That will call to mind the questions that are raised in the Old Testament, notably in the song that Moses and the Israelites sang when they stood on the banks of the Red Sea and saw Pharaoh and his hosts overcome by the power of God. In their gratitude and praise and admiration, they say, ‘Who is like the Lord Jehovah?’ (see Exod 15:11), which was the central doctrine of Israel’s faith. Many Hebrew parents named their children Mikhayahu, or in modern language Mikhael (Micah), meaning ‘Who is like God?’, ‘Who is like Jehovah?’. Of course, the question is rhetorical; no answer is expected unless it is ‘No one is like Jehovah’. He is unique; but at the end of the age such will be the impressive supernatural power given by the dragon to the beast that people shall say he deserves the ultimate worship that should be God’s. You already know that it’s an imitation, don’t you? A resurrection is something you would be very suspicious of; but if a supernatural power raises this beast from some death or other, how would anybody know it’s a fake?

Don’t we preach that the gospel is the good news concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh but proclaimed and declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead (Rom 1:3–4)? Isn’t that basic to your gospel? You say the resurrection of Christ is a historical fact, and you fill in all the historical details and the evidence; and then you press upon your hearers the implications of it. You tell them, ‘Jesus Christ was raised from the dead; obviously by the supernatural power of God, for only God can raise the dead’.

Suppose the beast comes along with the same argument: ‘My resurrection proves that I am God’. You can’t disprove the fact that the power that raised him is supernatural, so what will you say now? If you were there, how would you know it was fake and false, and how would you convince anybody else that they shouldn’t worship the beast on the very same kind of grounds that you worship the Lord Jesus? Here we should observe that power is not the final adjudicator. Oh, do beware, my dear brothers and sisters. From time to time it has pleased God to validate his gospel with powerful miracles; the very basis of the gospel is the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead. But please understand quite clearly that power is not the final arbiter between what is truth and what is a lie. Be wary of ‘power evangelism’, won’t you?

What is the thing that distinguishes the gospel of our blessed Lord Jesus from the gospel of the beast? Both have resurrections, but there is a difference between the two. Look back at Section Two, paragraph two, and compare it with paragraph two of Section Four.

In Section Two, the Lamb was also slain and then raised again. Where is the difference? Section Two will tell you that the Lamb was slain, not as some political dodge or publicity stunt; the Lamb was slain to redeem us from our sins by his blood, to reconcile us to God, to cleanse us from the guilt of sin and to solve the great moral heritage of sin and rebellion hanging around our necks that threatens to destroy us. Here you see your Saviour God, not simply by the fact that he had the power to raise Jesus from the dead, but first of all that ‘Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures’ (1 Cor 15:3). That is a thing to be remembered, for it is how we can test all kinds of religions even in our own present time. Religion, as such, has no atonement to offer.

Two years ago, I was in Kyiv and enjoyed my stay immensely.¹⁸ I was welcomed by the headmistress of a state-run school to address the school on the topic of Christianity. She not only welcomed me like I was her long-lost brother, but she told me I was free to speak in this Russian state school on Christianity and anything about it that I liked. If I wanted to talk about the historical side of Christianity, all the better, but anything I liked. As I stood there talking, I had to pinch myself to make sure I was in Russia, and then to remind myself that I was doing in Russia what I couldn’t do in a state school in America. After the talk, the deputy headmistress came up. She was a friendly soul and very responsible. Graciously she asked, ‘What do you really think about unidentified flying objects’?—UFOs as we call them.

I said, ‘Madam, that’s a very interesting question. Actually, we haven’t had many, and those we have had, the government said weren’t the real thing, so I’m afraid I have to say I’m quite ignorant about them. But I understand you’ve had a lot over here.’

And she said, ‘Yes, we have. It’s actually said of one of the recent ones that when the occupants got out of it, they told the local people that Buddhism was the right religion and not Christianity. What do you think of that?’

I said, ‘That’s altogether remarkable. As you probably know, it depends on which form of Buddhism it is, but many of them believe in the transmigration of souls. They say that if you have been an exceptionally good person in this life, when you die you needn’t come back to this life again and you become a spirit in the world beyond. These spirits are available to get in touch with earth, to help men and women in their difficulties in life. If they said Buddhism was the true religion, they could perhaps be disembodied spirits or demons. As for their claim that Buddhism is the true religion and not Christianity, let me tell you what my experience was just a year or two ago.

‘I was in Japan, and a Japanese lady came to me after a Bible study. She said, “I really like your Lord Jesus and I want to believe in him and be a Christian, but why do Christians say that Jesus Christ is the only way to God? Why can’t you allow that Buddhism is also a way to God? In other words, there are many paths up the mountain, and they all meet at the top.”

‘So I said to her, “I’ll tell you why I think Jesus is the only way, because for me it’s a practical problem. I’m a sinner and my problem is not that I don’t know I ought to be good; I know that all too well. I don’t need any preacher, parson or priest to tell me that I haven’t been good. Therefore, my problem is, how can I find forgiveness of the sort that will uphold my own values, let alone God’s values, and allow me to respect myself? It’s no good saying sin doesn’t matter—we can just forget it and brush it under the carpet—because if my sin doesn’t matter, what I do doesn’t matter; and if what I do doesn’t matter, then I don’t matter and nobody matters.”

‘My difficulty with Buddhism is that it has no answer to the problem, for in Buddhism there is no such thing as forgiveness. So for this very reason I don’t have any difficulty solving your problem about the UFO. Jesus Christ is the only one who comes alongside me and offers the forgiveness that is my fundamental need. He’s the only one who says, “Look, I’m your Creator. You have broken my law and deserve to perish, but I love you. It was for your sake that I gave my life on the cross, and through me you may have forgiveness. It’s not a question of saying merely that Jesus Christ is the only way to God—he’s the only one who has anything to offer”.’

And it remains true. Alas for modern criticism that in some circles has given up the doctrine of the atonement and merely preaches religious ethics. Of course they don’t see any difference between religions that’s worth talking about. But the mark of the true thing is not just a demonstration of supernatural power in the resurrection of Jesus; it’s what Jesus did before he was resurrected that counts, namely his atoning death. He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:3).

2. The second beast and his deceptive signs

Then there comes a second beast, the minister of information for the first beast (or disinformation, according to how you look at it). We are told that he has two horns like a lamb, but he speaks like a dragon (13:11). When you first see him in the vision, you think he’s a lamb—perhaps even the Lamb. But as you listen to him speaking, you don’t hear the voice of a lamb but the voice of a dragon.

‘So is he a pretence too?’, you say.

Yes, a very good pretence. How would you know if he is a deceiver? How would you recognize that what he says is not the voice of truth but the voice of the dragon with the lie? He does some marvellous signs, but his signs are deceitful and there’s no denying that they are very clever lies:

[He] performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that [he] is allowed to work in the presence of the beast [he] deceives those who dwell on earth (Rev 13:13–14)

That’s not bad going, is it? Incidentally, that is what 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 warns us about. ‘When the beast comes, he will come with all deceivableness and lying wonders,’ says Paul (see v. 9). And our Lord said that if it were possible, false Christs and false prophets would deceive the very elect (Matt 24:24).

In the Old Testament, it was when Elijah brought down fire from heaven that he was able to convince the crowd that Jehovah was the true God and Baal was false (1 Kgs 18:17–39). Notice the extent of the deception that the second beast will perpetrate in those coming days. His miracles won’t be silly; they will apparently have all the hallmarks of being miracles of God, such as fire coming down from heaven. ‘He’s no less than a modern-day Elijah’, they will say. On what grounds could we perceive that the signs were false?

You might answer, ‘We’ll see what he does with his signs. Will he use them to convince people that they are to make an image of the beast and bow down and worship him?’

Yes, but aren’t you in the habit of giving copies of the Gospel of John to your unconverted friends, and John says the reason it was written was this:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (20:30–31)

Having believed that he’s the Son of God, you bow down and worship him on the basis of those signs, so what is the difference? How would you know that the signs of our Lord Jesus are real and true, and the signs of the second beast are deceitful?

Well, one straw in the wind is this: through those signs he leads the world to make an image of the beast and then bow down to it, and the image can show who worships it and who doesn’t (some kind of thought reading, perhaps?). ‘He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed’ (Rev 13:15 NKJV).

And then he brings in a new law that no one can buy or sell except they take the mark of the beast on their hand or forehead. ‘This calls for wisdom,’ says God, ’let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666’ (v. 18).

You say, ‘Tell us what that is going to stand for? Was it Nero Caesar, or somebody else?’

Well, I’m not going to attempt to answer that tonight because I don’t know. But I can tell you what it does represent. ‘It is the number of a man’, comments the Holy Spirit. It shows the utter degradation and humiliation of the people of earth, that in the end they bow down and worship a mere human, and take his mark on their foreheads and on their hands, and own themselves as his property.

The choice between God’s man and Satan’s man

What’s the difference between this man and the man Jesus? Well, everything in the world! The Holy Spirit points out that the beast is all the while a mere man, trying to raise himself up and become God: ‘A man who exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped,’ says Paul (see 2 Thess 2:3–4 NKJV). Man trying to be God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not a man trying to be God, is he? He’s not a man trying to climb up. Oh, the loveliness of it, it’s the other way round: he is God come down to be a man.

. . . Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men . . . Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . (Phil 2:5–10)

Jesus Christ is not a mere man, who after his death was foolishly served by his followers and turned into some kind of demigod. The story is the other way round: God became man. It is right and proper, therefore, to worship him, and in so doing no one commits blasphemy.

The worship of Satan the dragon

But isn’t there a deeper thing? When the first beast gives his great demonstration of power, the people are led to worship not merely the beast, but consciously they worship the dragon who gave the beast his power (see 13:4). Of course, the people who worship him won’t call him the dragon; that’s God’s description of him and the title John uses. What do you suppose they will call him? I can’t tell you, but I suspect they’re very likely to call him the Great World Spirit who has given his power to the beast, and is now using the beast as the beast gives himself to be used by the Great World Spirit. Of course I cannot say for sure, but it would not surprise me if was so, for John tells us that antichrist comes, but also that there are already many antichrists. And this is how you’ll know them: whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ, this is the liar, this is the antichrist (see 1 John 2:18, 22).

Satan’s deceptions

Many years ago, when I was a student, I was giving some lectures in a place far from here. After the lecture a gentleman came up to me in some distress. He told me he’d been in the British Air Force and had been out in India where he’d studied deeply into Indian philosophy. He’d gone through not simply superficial yoga but all the profound physical, psychological and spiritual exercises that they go through, and had advanced far into Indian spiritist philosophy. Coming home and being demobbed from the Royal Air Force, he had begun to feel his life was a bit empty, so he began searching for reality. A man who was working on the Royal Air Force station began to point him to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and one day he wanted to receive Christ as best he knew how. He told me, ‘I didn’t know what to say, so I said the Lord’s Prayer. But I’m still troubled.’

As a result, he came to my rooms, and sometimes he was in such breathing convulsions, looking white as a sheet, that I thought he was going out of his mind. I found the only possible thing to do was not to pray with him, but to sit by his side and read the word of God. It was the only thing that calmed him down. You’ll be pleased to know he eventually found the Lord and wrote to me many years afterwards to tell me that he had found peace through the written word.

In all his days the man had scarcely read the Bible. But at one stage we got talking and I said, ‘Tell me, when you were studying Indian philosophy, and when you were studying theosophy in England, what did they tell you about Jesus? Did they tell you that he was the Christ?’

‘Oh no,’ said he, ‘they told us that Jesus isn’t the Christ. The Christ is the Great World Spirit, and Jesus lent himself to the Christ to serve the purposes of the Great World Spirit. Jesus is now in the seventh category somewhere out in the blue. When the Great World Spirit comes again there will be another person whom he will fill. But they said quite clearly that Jesus is not the Christ.’

I said to him, ‘Let me read you a short verse from Scripture’. So I read the verse that we’ve just quoted: ‘Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?’ (1 John 2:22).

Because I am an old man and given to reminiscing, permit me to tell you another story along that line. Not so many years ago I was sitting, like Nebuchadnezzar, at ease in my house in Belfast, when there came a knock on the door. I found a bright young lady of about twenty years old on the doorstep, waiting to evangelize me. She told me she had been to London to meet a certain group of Indian people who had come over to evangelize Britain, and their leader was the Messiah. She’d paid her £10 and had seen the light.

‘What do you think of that?’, she asked.

I said that it was very interesting. ‘I’m sure you’ve seen the light. My difficulty would be to know what light it is you have seen, because the Bible says that even Satan’s ministers transform themselves into angels of light [see 2 Cor 11:14–15]. So, doubtless you’ve seen the light of some kind, but which light is it?’

We were talking about it when the leader of her group came up, and he wasn’t very pleased. He said, ‘You evangelicals in Northern Ireland are narrow-minded, but we’re all really preaching the same thing. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah.’

I said, ‘Do you really?’

‘Yes, of course I do. I believe he’s the Christ.’

I said, ‘How interesting. You also believe that your Indian leader is the Christ, don’t you?’

‘Well, of course I do.’

I said, ‘Where is he?’

He said, ‘At the moment he’s in New York’.

I said, ‘That shows he isn’t the Christ, because our blessed Lord said that if at any time someone comes and says, “Behold the Christ is here or there or somewhere else”, you’ll know that he isn’t the true Christ [see Matt 24:26; Mark 13:21]. And if you say your Christ is in New York, that tells me straight away that he’s not the Christ.’

He was getting a little bit annoyed at this stage, and he said, ‘We do believe that Jesus is the Christ, and our man is the Christ as well.’

I said, ‘No, you don’t’.

We antiquated Irish still have milk delivered in bottles and there happened to be two empty bottles standing on my doorstep. I said, ‘There are two milk bottles down there, aren’t there?’.

‘Yes, two bottles’, he said.

‘If they were both filled with milk, how should we describe them? Would we say there were two milks there? No, we wouldn’t say there were two milks, we would just say there was milk; but the milk was in one bottle and in the other bottle—two bottles but one milk.’ And I said, ‘You don’t really believe that Jesus is the Christ, do you? You don’t even believe that your man is the Christ. You believe that the Great World Spirit is the Christ and that the Great World Spirit filled the man Jesus when Jesus was on earth, like the milk fills this one bottle; and now the Great World Spirit is filling your man, like the milk fills the other bottle. You believe the Great World Spirit is the Christ; not Jesus, nor even your man.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘you can have it that way, but that is what we believe.’

I said, ‘Now we’ve got it clear, haven’t we? You deny that Jesus is the Christ. May I read you a verse of Scripture?’, and I read him the same verse, ‘Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?’.

Satan’s object in raising up the beast, giving him his power and filling him with his satanic spirit, is so that mankind shall eventually fall down and worship the Great World Spirit, who is Satan himself. Perhaps you can see, even from my simple stories, how difficult it is sometimes to get the truth out of people and help them to see through the deceptions. As they’re believing in this guru and that guru, they think they are still believing in Jesus and you can combine the whole lot of them. And the fact is that there are many antichrists already, and the mark of them is that they’ll talk about the Great World Spirit and deny that Jesus is the Christ. It’s deception, and we need to know how to deal with it in our day because we may expect an enormous surge of occultism, New Age movements and all kinds of Hinduism, spirit worship and demonism masquerading as though they are compatible with true Christianity.

3. The Lamb standing on Mount Zion

Let’s turn to something happier as we come now to chapter 14. That is, to the third element in the second trilogy of Section Four. The systematic theologians debate at great length who these 144,000 are, standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb (v. 1). As usual, we will do what we’ve been doing all along in our studies: following the major themes of the book, seeing how they cohere and leaving it to the systematic theologians to solve the next order of questions. Here, then, is God’s answer to the beast, and part of God’s salvation is demonstrated in this answer. Because all believers of whatever era are saved according to the same principles, we may profitably consider how these people have been saved.

God’s answer to the beast

Said John, ‘I’ve been watching Satan at his tricks. As he went off to make war, the old dragon stood on the seashore [see 12:17]. Then his two beasts came and his empire grew. I was entranced by the success of this universal kingdom, when I happened to turn around, and if it wasn’t the Lamb himself standing on Mount Zion!’ (see 14:1).

All the while that Satan has been arranging his empires the Lamb has been standing on Mount Zion. When you see the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, wouldn’t you come to the conclusion that it’s rather futile for Satan the dragon to stand on the seashore?

Why do the nations rage and . . . the kings of the earth set themselves . . . together, against the Lord and against his Anointed . . . ‘As for me [says God], I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’ (Ps 2:1–2, 6)

Then the Messiah, the King himself comments,

I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’ (vv. 7–8)

The 144,000 purchased out of the earth

The Lord Jesus stands on the holy hill of Zion, where God has placed him. To put it in the terms of the earlier vision, the male child has been caught up to the throne (12:5). The interesting thing is that he doesn’t stand alone; he has 144,000 with him. Oh, look! They’ve no mark of the beast on their hands or foreheads. In fact, written plainly on their foreheads is the name of the Lord Jesus and the name of his Father, so that everyone can see who they belong to (14:1). If the men on earth have sold themselves to the beast, taken his name and are now his property, these 144,000 are glad to announce to the world that they are the property of the Lord Jesus and his Father.

The word virgins in verse 4 is used metaphorically. Normally, true believers are regarded as feminine—the bride of Christ who resists the advances of the world; but now the Apostle John uses the male metaphor. These are men, but they are virgins. That is to say, they have had the Lamb as their goal in life and the ultimate desire of their hearts, and that is what they have pursued. They may be physically married or not; that’s beside the point. We’re talking about the love, devotion and allegiance of the human heart. These men have given their deep, profound and most fundamental love and allegiance to the Lamb, and they follow him wherever he goes with absolute devotion. ‘And in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless’ (vv. 4–5)—there is no deceit and no pretence in them. They follow him who is true because they’ve seen through the lie of the devil.

The point that’s raised is: how did the Lord get them? I sometimes think there is a certain irony in the word of God, for the Scripture replies twice over that they were ‘bought (redeemed) from among men’ (see 14:3–4). The old beast and his false prophet had recently laid down their law that you won’t either buy or sell unless you take the mark of the beast.

And so you ask, ‘How did you manage to get these people, Lord?’.

Says he, ‘I bought them out of the earth’.

The beast can make what restrictions he likes on the international market, but God isn’t going to be pushed out. He entered the market too, he bought them and that’s why they’re his. Bought them with what? He bought them with the blood of his own [Son] (see Acts 20:28).

We stand here at the central battle of the war, the contest for the human heart; the question is, who is prepared to pay the bigger price? The Lamb won and he has bought these men.

When I look at you, my brothers and sisters, could this be your story? Why do you carry on living for the Lord Jesus and following him? Why do you sacrifice for his sake? Couldn’t you do much better in the world? Why go hungry, for instance?

The beast came along and tried to buy them. He made them the offer that they could have anything—food, businesses, homes, cars, clothes, position, fame and wealth—provided only that they bow down and worship his image. If they refused, then they could neither buy nor sell; famine, hunger and death faced them.

And along came the Son of God, and what did he offer them? Well, he said that for as long as they needed it, his Father would see that they had enough. But they were to know that in the world they would have tribulation, and in following him there would very likely come times for some of them when they must be prepared for pain, torture, sacrifice and death.

Would you not give the same answer as they did, if I asked you, ‘Why do you bother to live for Christ and sacrifice for him when you know that you could do much better in the world? Aren’t you free?’

Would you not say to me, ‘Yes, in a sense I’m free; it was my own decision. And yet I’m not free, for Jesus Christ has bought me.’

Jesus, thou hast bought us, Not with gold or gem, But with Thine own life-blood, For Thy diadem.¹⁹

Oh, what a marketplace this world has become, where two buyers plead for the souls of men and women. And what would God want with me? Why would he trouble to come and buy me? I cannot explain it, but I can tell you this: the heart of God so wanted you that he was prepared to pay the infinite and indescribable price (see 1 Pet 1:18–19).

A new song

At this stage John heard the sound of music. Because they had been bought, ‘they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth’ (14:3). I wonder what that new song was about. Well, didn’t we read about it in Section Two—in paragraph two of course (Rev 5:9–10). Only those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb can understand the music of heaven, and I think if I had to choose between the commerce of earth and the music of heaven, I should choose the music of heaven.

The third trilogy: Warnings and judgments (14:6–15:1)

1. The messages of the three angels

Finally and briefly, we have to consider the judgments that are peculiar to this particular part of the Revelation.

A first angel comes with a warning and a last-minute plea from God Almighty before people finally and irrevocably commit themselves to taking the mark of the beast. It is an appeal from the very heart of God to worship only the Creator who made the universe (14:6–7). That’s a simple gospel, but it’s very basic and very potent. Of all the things that Satan has got up to, he has never made a universe. Basic human instinct would tell you that if you’re going to worship, you should worship the Creator and nothing less.

A second angel follows, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality’ (14:8). And for the moment, we’re not told who Babylon is nor the significance of her fall. We have to wait until the next section of the book.

But to anticipate it a little, Babylon has been that great system, the false woman and false bride that, in the name of her worldwide religion, has encouraged the nations of the earth to compromise with the beast. She lusted after the beast herself, wanting to influence him and control the very empire of Satan. In the course of her endeavours, she has been pleased to murder and get rid of any narrow-minded, uncompromising, bigoted fundamentalists who stood in the way. She has been a delusion to multitudes of people, who say, ‘There you are, Babylon says it’s all right: you really can be religious and yet join in with the beast’. To stop her influence, God Almighty has it proclaimed in the ears of men: ‘Take no notice of Babylon, for she has fallen as a result of her own folly’ (see 18:2–3).

Then the third angel sounds a solemn warning: if anyone worships the beast, the result will be everlasting torment (14:9–11). The truth is, there is only one Creator, and the biggest insult you can offer him is to reject his gospel, deny him and the Lamb, and worship the creature instead of the Creator.

A solemn voice is then heard from heaven, saying that, such is the persecution, death for a believer will be a mercy; and since God’s people need not fear death, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on’ (14:13).

2. The harvest of the earth (14:14–20)

The corn and the grape harvests

After this comes the harvest—first of the grain, and then of the grape. The grape harvest is obviously a harvest of judgment (vv. 17–20); and what shall we say of the corn harvest?

The exegetes and expositors are divided in their opinions. Some of them say that in some parts of Scripture the corn harvest and the grape harvest stand together as a double symbol for God’s judgment on the wicked at the end of the age. They may be right. I find it difficult to believe, however, that at the end of this age, when the harvest of the earth is complete, there shall be absolutely nothing in it for God at all, don’t you? And I think I have the Lord Jesus on my side, for when he used the analogy of a harvest in his parable of the tares, he said the wheat²⁰ harvest is at the end of the age, and the reapers shall come and gather the tares into bundles and cast them into a furnace of fire. The true wheat shall be gathered into the Lord’s granaries (see Matt 13:24–30). Please don’t tell me that in that final day, when the harvest of the earth is reaped, there shall be nothing for God at all: nothing but judgment on the wicked.

Two aspects of salvation: first fruits and ripened corn

1. Firstfruits: The saving of the 144,000 ‘who had been redeemed from the earth’. They are said to be ‘first fruits for God and the Lamb’ (Rev 14:3–4). The aspect of salvation dealt with there is that they were bought from the earth: they were redeemed by the blood of Christ.

2. Ripened corn: The next aspect of salvation is the ripening of the harvest; the final one that is seen in the harvest of the corn (v. 15). Some translations say the harvest is overripe, but that’s a mistranslation of the Greek, actually. The Greek says the harvest is dried up, and when corn is ripe it simply dries; at least wheat and barley do. The harvest has been ripened.

And now you’ll see the wisdom of God. He triumphed over the beast—with the blood of the Lamb he bought the 144,000 out of the market of this world. They are redeemed; they are purchased; they are bought. And then he left some of them under the beast, and the beast did his very best to destroy them, but it simply ripened them for the heavenly granaries. I like that! You see, the worst persecution that Satan could ever bring upon the people of God will be turned by God’s divine strategy and used for the ripening and maturing of the character of his people.

Victory over the beast (15:2–4)

John’s comment on what he saw and heard

1. The sea of glass and fire

We are taken now in the vision to the great sea of glass that is before the presence of God in his tabernacle, to see those who have come victorious from the beast and from his image.

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. (15:2)

2. The new song

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.’ (15:3–4)

Moses had two songs (Exod 15:1–18; Deut 32:1–43). One of them he taught Israel when they stood on the banks of the Red Sea and saw Pharaoh and his hosts drowned, and they escaped. They were victorious over Pharaoh, and they sang until their lungs were fit to burst. ‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.. . . Who is like you, O Lord . . .?’ (Exod 15:1, 11).

Pharaoh had wanted to keep them so he ran after them (see Exod 14; 15:9). ‘They’ve come to the Red Sea and they can’t get any further. My armies are behind them and they’re trapped. If they dare to go into the sea, they’ll be drowned, so they won’t do that.’ But that is what they did dare to do, and it proved not to be death but life. When Pharaoh and his hosts tried to do the same thing, the waters came over them and they were all drowned. What for Pharaoh was the instrument of destruction, for the Israelites was a passage to life and glory. When they had walked through to the other side, we are told, ‘the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses’ (14:31). As they stood with Moses on the banks of the Red Sea they sang of the marvellous works of God.

Satan thinks that he has the power of death, and through fear of death his intention is to keep people in bondage for the whole of their lifetime. Our blessed Lord Jesus has made it possible for us to conquer: he has destroyed him who had the power of death, and we are free and able to walk safely through to the other side (see Heb 2:14–15).

And so, when God at last puts forth his mighty power and crushes the beast, these people shall sing: ‘Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed’ (Rev 15:4).

3. The nations will worship the Lord

All shall own that he alone is worthy. What a victory it is; for they were already singing to this effect before God’s wrath was finished (15:1, 5–8). Satan must have gnashed his teeth, for since the dawn of history and the garden of Eden, he’s tried to persuade men and women that God is against them. And now they have overcome the beast, and in spite of everything they’re singing the song of the Lamb and giving expression to their heartfelt belief that God is indescribably marvellous.

Do carry on singing, won’t you? Sing when you’re in the middle of the battle, for this is the note that Satan does not wish to hear. It is a triumph for these people, who have come into the Lord’s presence through a sea burning with fire, to be able to sing that they still think God is marvellous. This is the victory of all of life’s experiences and the severe trials that come into all of our lives.

Sometimes Satan’s temptations and pressures seem almost irresistible: ‘What do you think of God now? How can you carry on believing that he loves you?’ With tears in your eyes and a heart that’s fit to break, the battle will be won if you can stand up in the face of Satan’s slander and reply, ‘I don’t care what you say; God is wonderful and I still trust him’.

‘This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith’ (1 John 5:4).

¹⁸ Prior to Ukraine declaring independence from the former USSR.

¹⁹ Frances R. Havergal (1836–1879), ‘Jesus, Thou Has Bought Us’.

²⁰ The Greek word sîtos, (σίτος) translated as ‘wheat’ in this parable, can also be translated as ‘grain’ or ‘corn’.

7: Section Five

Part 1: God’s Wrath is Finished: His Glory Fills the Temple (15:5–16:21)

In the first half of tomorrow morning’s session, we must begin to look in earnest at Section Five of the book of Revelation. Fortunately for us, it is one of its better-known passages. Many theories have been advanced concerning it, which are discussed at great length in the commentaries. That comforts my heart because I have to confess that I shall have to deal with it very briefly. As you know, we are not attempting to do a verse-by-verse exposition, but a survey of the book, and naturally some parts are surveyed more than others.

The literary form of Section Five

It will help us to prepare our minds therefore, if we can just look at the formal arrangement of the contents of Section Five. On sheet nine of the notes you have a detailed analysis, and it will be helpful if you follow this with me.

Just like all the other sections, this one is composed of four major parts and starts with something opened in heaven. In this case, it is the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony (15:5 KJV). But instead of seeing some article of heavenly furniture, what is now perceived is smoke from the glory of God (v. 8).

In other words, coming now towards the climax of the book, we have moved from the Holy Place into the Most Holy Place; not to look upon the ark, the symbolic throne of God, but to see the visible evidence of the presence of God himself—the Shekinah glory of the immortal God. It is the glory that Moses and the Israelites saw when the tabernacle on earth was complete and the cloud descended (Exod 40:34–35). It is the glory that Solomon and his people saw when the temple was complete: ‘fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house’ (2 Chron 7:1–2).

Here in Section Five, when the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven is opened and you see right into the most sacred place, you finally see the glory of God. Smoke fills the holiest of all, so that no one is able to enter until the seven vials of wrath are finished. As usual, we shall have to ask ourselves how that vision, which is the setting of this section, relates to the topic and subject matter of what follows. We shall consider that tomorrow, God willing.

Comparing the sections

One other thing that I should like you to do this evening is very simple. I should like you to notice the formal arrangement of the material in this section, and in particular to fasten your attention on the series of seven judgments. The other night we began a little experiment in our research. In every section of the book of Revelation there is a series of seven judgments, and we began to notice where each of them comes in their particular section. Let’s go through that again very briefly.

Section One, on sheet three: we saw a series of seven, which in a sense is a series of judgments. It comes at the end of Section One at point four. It is Christ’s appraisal of his seven churches: his praise of them but also his criticisms and announcement of chastisement unless some of them repent. The churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea come under the scrutiny of the eye of the Lord and judge of the church.

Section Two, on sheet six: it also has a series of seven judgments, the opening of the seven seals, which come not at point four but at point three.

Section Three, on sheet seven: it too has a series of seven judgments, the blowing of the seven trumpets, coming not at point four nor at point three, but at point one.

We half suggested to ourselves that perhaps this is merely for the sake of literary variety, for to have the same pattern everywhere might make for dull reading and perhaps John was simply varying the order of things to make it more interesting. But then we came to:

Section Four, on sheet eight: we noticed that it is a series of seven warnings and judgments, which come not at point one nor at point four, but at point three.

Symmetry between Section Two and Section Four

Then we had a sudden fit of memory and said, ‘Wait a minute! Wasn’t there a previous one, where the judgments came at point three?’ And when we looked back at Section Two we saw that the seven judgments come at point three, as they do in Section Four.

Having seen that, we went on to notice that there is a remarkable symmetry and sharing of phraseology between all four parts of those two sections. And then we discovered the more important thing, that the reason for the formal equivalence in the way they’re set out is that both Section Two and Section Four are dealing with a similar topic—one from one side and one from the other. Section Two deals with the throne of God and the worthiness of God and the Lamb to receive the worship and service of God’s whole creation. Section Four deals with the opposite: the throne of the beast and the grounds of his demand to receive universal worship. With that in mind we come now to:

Section Five, on sheet nine: a series of seven judgments—the pouring out of the seven vials, and they come not at point four nor yet at point three, but at point one.

Symmetry between Section Three and Section Five

Although it is late at night, perhaps we may have another fit of memory! In which section did the judgments come at point one? Isn’t it Section Three? So let’s put Section Three [the seven trumpets] beside Section Five [the seven vials] and see if there are any formal similarities between them. The judgments under the trumpets and those that come under the vials are remarkably similar, and intelligence would demand that we ask ourselves why that should be.

It doesn’t take long to observe that the two series of seven judgments are almost the same. But whereas, for instance, in Section Three it’s a third of the sea that’s turned to blood; in Section Five it’s the whole of the sea. In Section Three it’s a third of the rivers and springs of water that become bitter; but in Section Five all the rivers and springs of waters become blood. In Section Three one third of the sun is darkened; in Section Five the sun scorches men with fire. And so forth and so on.

Now look at point two in each of these two sections

In Section Three the strong angel comes down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, a rainbow over his head and his face is like the sun. In his hand is a little scroll, which is sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly (10:1–2, 9). In Section Five we’re introduced to Babylon, clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels and pearls, and in her hand, not a scroll but a golden cup of wine, sweet and pleasant to the taste, but full of unclean things (17:4–5).

More to the point, in Section Three the great angel swears by the Creator that there shall be no more delay (10:6). He is concerned with the question of the silence of God and why there is an apparent delay in God answering the prayers of his people and avenging them. The angel swears an oath to comfort them, saying that there will be no more delay. Whereas in Section Five, on being shown the judgment of Babylon, John is given a panorama of history. He is told the timetable in terms of the history of imperial powers on earth, and by that timetable he is given to know when Babylon will be destroyed and the saints of God avenged.

I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. . . . the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. (17:7–11)

In Section Three, point two, doesn’t the angel use the term ‘mystery’? ‘He says, ‘When the seventh angel sounds, the mystery of God shall be fulfilled’ (see 10:7). In Section Five, we meet Babylon, ‘and on her forehead was written a name of mystery’ (17:5). It is indeed a mystery of iniquity.

Then we come to point three in each case

In Section Three, the focus of attention is on Jerusalem, the holy city, trodden underfoot by the Gentiles for forty-two months (11:2). In Section Five, attention is concentrated on the city of Babylon the great, what you may call the unholy city. And whereas Jerusalem is downtrodden of the Gentiles, Babylon says, ‘I sit as a queen, and mourning or desolation I shall never see’ (see 18:7).

In Section Three, after the 1,260 days, the lampstands of the prophets’ witness are extinguished by the beast (11:3, 7), and in Section Five, when Babylon is finally judged by the Lord, we read that no lamp shall ever shine in her again (18:23).

And finally, point four in each of these sections

In Section Two the comment²¹ was by the great multitude coming with their praises to God for his salvation, having come out from the great tribulation (7:13–17). It is an escape story. At the end of Section Four we hear the song of those who come victorious from the beast (15:2–4). It also is an escape story.

But neither Section Three nor Section Five is an escape story. In those sections the comments are in the form of thanksgiving and hallelujahs to God that the time of his judgment has come, the time to avenge his servants, to give reward to the prophets and saints, and to destroy them that destroy the earth (11:15–18; 19:1–10).

So Sections Three and Five are not only formally the same, but all the way through they share common themes. And why is that? The reason is, of course, that once more they are discussing the same problem from two different points of view. I have tried to sum up the viewpoints for each of the sections in the statements at the top of the sheets.

In Section Three it was the problem of the silence of God in the face of evil and his apparent delay in avenging his saints, apostles and prophets. And when the section ends, the time has come to reward and to avenge the prophets, the saints and those who fear God’s name.

In Section Five the Holy Spirit concentrates on the judgment of Babylon. Why Babylon? Because it’s Babylon, says the Holy Spirit, that has been largely responsible for the persecution of the saints, the apostles and the prophets. In her was found the blood of all the slain (18:20, 24). When at last Babylon is judged, the voice breaks out in heaven, calling upon the apostles, the prophets and the saints to rejoice, saying, ‘God has given judgement for you against her!’ (18:20). This is a filthy woman, drunk with the blood of the martyrs and the saints. In her mad career of trying to sit upon the beast and use the beast for her own interests, she has been largely responsible for the persecution of the saints, the suppression of true teaching and the execution of the prophets all down the ages. At last that great persecutor is judged and destroyed by God, and the prophets, saints and apostles are finally avenged.

And so, as I say, Sections Three and Five deal with the same theme but from different points of view. We’ve already considered Section Three, and our task tomorrow will be to answer the question as briefly as we can: What is the point of view in Section Five? Tonight, before you go to bed, if you do a little thinking on that score as a little extra bit of homework, that would be all to the good. But I have no right to expect you to because yours has been a heavy day. Thank you for your patience in listening.

Shall we just commit our studies to the Lord.

Lord, now we put ourselves before thee once more. We thank thee for this day and the way thou hast enabled us to use it to wait upon thee and to study thy holy word. Now our minds and our bodies are tired, and we commit to thee what we have tried to learn. What is of thy Holy Spirit, implant it upon our minds and memories, that in the days to come he may revive it as we may have need. In it all, show us the good that we should retain and what is false that we may discard. But in it all, be pleased to use it, we do beseech thee, to the glory of thy Son. Today, by thy grace, we have heard thy call, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength’. By thy grace, we have sought to love thee with our hearts and with our minds, though now our minds are tired. Take these little sacrifices of our time and energy for thy dear Son’s sake, and use them for his increased glory. In his name, Amen.

²¹ See Study Notes page 1, Comments, Song, Response, etc.

Part 2: The Fall of Babylon and the Marriage of the Lamb (17:1–19:10)

Forgive me for working you intolerably hard and late yesterday evening, but it has the benefit this morning that we can proceed at once to study the main theme of Section Five without having to go through the tiresome and perhaps distracting preliminaries of literary study. Literary study of books like the Revelation is very necessary, of course, basic and fundamental; but if we concentrate too much on literary affairs and formal structures, it could be in danger of becoming mechanical, and still worse as an end in itself. Literary structures are only there in order to present the word of God more efficiently. And if literary structure gets in the way of our feeling and appreciating and perceiving the impact and the glory of God’s holy word, then it must be told to take a back seat.

This morning we come to a passage of Scripture that is particularly awesome. In previous sections of the book, when something has been opened in heaven—perhaps a door or the seventh seal or the temple of God itself—some part of the furniture of the heavenly temple is seen. But now in Section five they all completely fade from view as we contemplate the very glory of God himself. We see the smoke from his glory and power rising and filling the temple: God ‘who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see’ (1 Tim 6:16). To see the glory of God is a thing almost unbearable for a mere human being.

When the famous prophet Elijah was called to the entrance of his cave, that holy man wrapped his face in his cloak at the awesome experience of beholding the glory of the Lord passing by (1 Kgs 19:9–13). When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God said, ‘There is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen’ (see Exod 33:18–23).

It is a marvellous thing for us to see the glory of God in redemption. We rejoice in our Christian privilege as outlined by Paul in Second Corinthians. Unlike even Moses and Elijah, he says, ‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another’ (3:18). To see the glory of God in redemption is unspeakably magnificent; to contemplate the glory of God in his judgment is awesome indeed.

In Section Three we saw that it was the prayers of the saints that led to the outpouring of the judgments of God on the world. It was the smoke from the incense mingled with their prayers that broke the long silence. It was the coals from the censer, overturned and emptied out on the earth, that gave the signal for the angels to blow upon the seven trumpets and for the judgments to come (8:1–6)).

In Section Five we are dealing with a similar theme of smoke filling the temple. But notice the difference in the setting. It is not now from the prayers of the saints, but smoke from the glory and power of God, who for long centuries in infinite patience has put up with the wickedness of mankind. If I dare to use the word, it is the innermost feelings of almighty God that now shine through, such is the demonstration of his heart, character, holiness, righteousness and truth. When this is revealed, no one can enter the temple of God until the judgments are finished (15:5–8).

You’ll notice that when the angels come out from the innermost shrine of the temple they are not carrying censers with the prayers of saints, but bowls that, in the imagery of the passage, have been filled up in the august presence of God. What they are pouring out upon the earth is the reaction of God himself, the expression of his character. These bowls are filled up with the wrath of God.

At once it must be said about the anger or wrath of God, that it is his strange work, or, if I may use the term, reluctant work (Isa 28:21).

The longsuffering and patience of God

1. Abraham’s offspring

We are told in Genesis 15 that when God came down to speak to Abraham and outlined his purposes for his people, he indicated that it was his good intention to give them the inheritance of the land of Canaan, but he was not going to do it yet. In fact, Abraham’s seed would be slaves in a foreign country, and afflicted there, year after year after year. If I were Abraham, and had I dared, I would have said, ‘Tell me, Lord, if you really love us why will you put up with it? If you have a heart for the cries of my descendants in Egypt, why would you allow their suffering to go on for so long before you break their captivity?’ But God goes on to say, ‘After their suffering, I will bring them out and bring them into this country. Not yet, Abraham, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’ (see Gen 15:12–16).

Oh, the amazing wonder of the longsuffering of God, having patience with the most infamous of sinners and loath to execute his judgment on them. If need be, he will wait for centuries until the cup of human iniquity is full to overflowing, and God himself can wait no longer. It is a magnificent picture of God, that he will not be hurried to his judgments by the taunting of ungodly men.

2. The scoffers

Peter warns that scoffers will come in the last days, following their own sinful desires, openly mocking the Almighty and dismissing his existence. They shall say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation’ (2 Pet 3:3–4). By taunting the patience of the Almighty, they are willingly ignorant of the past severe judgments of God on our planet, which served as a beacon to warn the men and women of succeeding generations. The reason why God puts up with the taunts of the scoffers who mock him is precisely because he is patient, not wishing that any should perish. But Peter warns that the day of the Lord will come, and who shall abide his great wrath? (2 Pet 3:9–10).

The awesomeness of it is conveyed in the symbolism that opens and closes this section. Smoke rises at the beginning (15:8), and again at the end (19:3). When Babylon has been judged a second time, the great company of heaven says, ’Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever’. Isn’t this statement appalling, in the true sense of that word? But the smoke arising for ever and ever shall not be something that God Almighty is ashamed of, for it is the outcome of his judgment. It expresses his character, which doesn’t change: it will be the same in all eternity.

3. Pharaoh

When God judged Pharaoh, Scripture tells us that at first he had patience with him. It was only after many a warning, when Pharaoh hardened his heart, that God destroyed him and turned him into a vessel of wrath. Meaning, a vessel through which God advertises his wrath and lets men and women know what he feels about sin so that others may be warned (Rom 9:17–18, 22–23).

Forty years later, when the two spies entered Jericho City to reconnoitre what was the psychological state of the inhabitants just before the armies of God marched in to destroy it, they were housed overnight by Rahab, a harlot. The story of her conversion is delightful and wonderful—how she ‘turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God’ (1 Thess 1:9). And what was at the basis of her conversion? She whispered to the spies, ‘Gentlemen, I know your God is the true God. Here in Jericho we’ve heard what he did to Pharaoh’ (see Josh 2:8–11).

4. God desires that all people should be saved

God’s judgments are deserved by those impenitent sinners who suffer them; but in his mercy he reserves his right to use the exhibition of his wrath to lead other men and women to repentance, faith and salvation. ‘[He] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim 2:4). 

The fact that the Bible preaches eternal punishment is not something to be ashamed of—and still less denied, as it has now become popular to do in some evangelical circles. If God’s judgment is just, it is something for which heaven will eternally sing ‘hallelujah’.

God’s character expressed in the judgments

We come then to think about the judgments of God as they express the character of God himself. The proper attitude as we approach this subject would be to take our shoes off our feet, for we’re not dabbling now with mere literary structure; we are face to face with the awesome, holy character of God. Pray for me, my brothers and sisters, lest I say something in the course of my remarks that is unworthy of the glory of God or offensive to his dignity.

Some people repudiate the whole idea that God would punish anybody. They say, ‘We can believe in a God of love; but by definition a God of love would not punish anybody because punishment is inconsistent with love. These pictures in the book of Revelation of people being tormented in the presence of God and of the Lamb are such a revolting portrayal of God that we cannot accept them as inspired Scripture, worthy of a place in the holy canon.’

The pouring out of the vials: God’s wrath is finished (15:5–16:21)

1. Smoke from the glory and power of God fill the temple

Let’s look first of all at those who execute the judgments of the vials. We are told that, ‘out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes round their chests’ (15:6).

Perfect justice

I don’t know what your taste in dress is. Nor indeed what would be your favourite colour; but white, that mixture of all colours, is beautiful, is it not? I remember as a little boy standing in a seaside resort in England, where they had a beautiful fountain with coloured lights all around it that came on now and again. When the lights turned blue the water took on the shape of mountains, and when they turned green it took on the shape of waves of the sea. And then they turned red and purple and scarlet and pink and all the colours of the rainbow, and we stood open-mouthed. Finally, the lights shone on to the fountain in absolutely pure, dazzling white, and I can remember to this day the wonderful roar of approval that went up from the crowd. The white was so magnificently beautiful.

These angels who come out from the temple of God with the vials of God’s wrath are not hags or witches with puss oozing out of their eyes and their teeth, and talons and claws oozing blood. Their clothing is spectacularly beautiful. But clothing is only symbolic, isn’t it? At the end of this very section of the Revelation we shall read of the Lamb’s wife, who has made herself ready: ‘It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ (19:8). Not some dull white, but brilliant white. And then the symbolism is explained: ‘for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints’.

But with these seven angels, who are representatives of God, it represents the perfect righteousness and justice of God. The wrath of God is unlike our anger, though sometimes we confuse the two. When we think of the wrath of God, we shouldn’t picture it as that emotion we often have—those feelings that surge up inside us, all mixed with spite, envy, self-pity and sheer sadism that delights in cruelty. It is a muddied, dirty and polluted thing. We try to explain it as just anger, but in our hearts we know it’s not the brilliant pure white of justice and righteousness. God’s wrath is like himself, absolutely just with no pollutant in it. It isn’t a form of losing his temper or his self-control; it is an expression of his brilliantly white, beautiful character.

Perfect love

The angels had golden sashes round their chests. Of course, being so elaborate, these golden sashes call attention to that part of their anatomy. These are angels whose affections and feelings are beautiful and valuable. Praise God for some angels who can really feel. The trouble with our modern world is that in many places we have lost the ability to feel properly. What we take for love and call love very often isn’t love at all, but a perversion of that glorious emotion.

We had a court case in Northern Ireland just the other month concerning a soldier and his wife who were living in the barracks. He became enamoured with a woman soldier and they had an extensive immoral relationship. In the end, she apparently made friends with the soldier’s true wife and suggested they go for a walk in the woods. The woman had brought a very sharp knife, and when they got into the woods she took the soldier’s wife and slit her throat and killed her. Then she ran out of the woods and hailed a passer-by, saying that a terrible thing had happened and they had been attacked. The case came to court, and the jury’s verdict was that it wasn’t murder; it was simply that she had a passion for the soldier and love made her do it. When the judge handed out the sentence, it was so small that the murderer herself laughed and said it was ridiculous. She’ll be out in a few years, in fact, and the judge wished her well in her future life. How is that love? The very notion of love is perverted in some quarters these days, and there can be more sympathy for the criminal than for the victim.

The woman of Tekoa: 2 Samuel 14

Is loving consistent with punishment? You may think this is a modern idea and that if you look back, particularly at the Old Testament, they were savage times when the question of whether love was inconsistent with punishment would never have been raised. But it was, so pardon me for five minutes while I remind you of an incident in the life of David. It is in the part of Samuel that contains a whole list of so-called love stories, though some of them are rather strange.

This is the story of Absalom, one of the king’s sons, who one day murdered his brother. Being aware that this was a capital offence in his country he fled into exile, lest the king and his officers should catch up with him and punish him with death. At first the king was very grieved; but you know how it is, as the years went by other feelings began to surface in his heart. He was sorry for his son who had been murdered, of course; it should never have been done. But then the murderer was his son too, and can you keep these things up forever? Absalom showed no signs whatsoever of repenting and he never did repent; not even after he was brought back home. But the king’s heart began to feel for Absalom and he wondered if he could bring him back.

Joab, the king’s commander-in-chief, saw the situation and how the king’s heart was moving. So he thought up a scheme that might persuade David to bring back his son, Absalom, the murderer. So he got a wise woman of Tekoa to dress up in black as though she’d been in mourning for a long time and sent her into the king to spin him a yarn. Can you see her coming in: all in black, dishevelled hair, the tears managing now and again to come down the old face? It was all a put-up show, of course.

And the king said, ‘What is your trouble?’.

With a sob or two she said, ‘Oh King, it’s terrible! You see, I had two sons, and one of them killed his brother. I am a widow; my husband’s dead and I had just two sons, and one of them is dead too. And now, the people of my town are saying to me, “Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may execute him for the murder”. But if they do that, they’ll make things doubly bad. I’ve already lost my husband and one son—this punishment is absurd. I’ve had enough grief losing one son, and if they take the other son, as they say they must, I shall be utterly bereft. Please help me!’

David was a kindly man who had never thought of these things in any deep philosophical manner. He said, ‘Well yes, I see your point. When you think about it, this punishment would be stupid. Go home and we’ll see that nobody touches your son, and you can keep him.’

And she said, ‘Thank you very much, but aren’t you behaving like that too in refusing to bring back Absalom, your son? I know my son was murdered, but punishing the other son won’t do the murdered boy any good. It is done and you can’t undo it; you might as well try to collect water that’s been spilt on the ground [14:14]. My son is dead, so how will it help him if we execute his brother?’

‘Of course it won’t’, said the king. ‘It won’t bring the boy back to life. As I said, go home and I’ll see that nobody touches your son who did the murder.’

And then she said, ‘God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast’ (v. 14). It had just about enough religious truth in it to conceal the lie. It is a fact, of course, that God does devise means so that his banished ones shall not be permanently separated from him.

That is true, but if we go to the New Testament and ask how it is possible for God to bring home banished sinners, the means are nothing short of the death of his own dear Son. So that he might be just when he justifies the sinner, God laid on his Son the iniquity of us all (Isa 53:6). Of course it’s a lie to say that God doesn’t take away life; the whole Bible from one end to the other preaches the opposite.

Let’s come back to the woman’s argument. She loved both her sons and didn’t want her boy executed. First, we may test it by having a word with the boy who’s now dead. It’s difficult to imagine it, but you’re walking along the street and there he is lying on the ground in his blood. We’ll suppose the impossible, that the boy can speak to us, so you say to him, ‘What happened to you?’

‘Can’t you see that I’ve been murdered? What are you going to do about it?’, he says.

‘What do you mean, “do about it”?’

‘Well, I had a right to live. What are you going to do about this colossal injustice? My murdering brother is still enjoying life and I’m dead.’

And you say, ‘I have every sympathy with you that you’re dead, but quieten down a little bit. That’s how it is in life: it’s no good crying over spilt milk. You’re dead, and now that it’s done it can’t be undone. At least that’s what your mother says. She says that she loves you, but we shouldn’t do anything to your brother. She’s just argued to the king that whatever we do to your brother won’t help you, so that’s that. You’re dead and you’ll have to accept it.’

Do you suppose the dead boy would say, ‘I now perceive how much my mother loves me, isn’t she a marvellous woman!’? No, he wouldn’t, because true love will never say that sin doesn’t matter.

If I choose to drive my car when I’m drunk, and run over your child and kill her, if I don’t repent God will have that against me for all eternity. Why? Is it because he’s a fiend? No, it’s because God is love, and he loves your child. Not just today, he’ll go on loving her through all eternity. Never will true love say, ‘She got run over, but never mind. The poor man got drunk and we should really have sympathy with him.’

There would be forgiveness for me, if first I would repent; and not by saying that sin doesn’t matter. It is by the love of God, who in the person of his Son bore the penalty for my sin.

What about the brother who committed the murder? His mother says he shouldn’t be punished. ‘It’s love’, she says, ‘for punishment wouldn’t do any good.’ Good to whom? Are we to say that murder, and more seriously the state of his heart, doesn’t matter? If you really loved him, what would you wish for? That he should be allowed to go on unrepentant, still nursing that foul attitude of heart, or should he be helped to see that he’s done wrong? If he refuses the help and refuses to repent, what would you want God to do?

Should he say, ‘If you think that’s a good attitude and I can’t convince you otherwise, we’ll just agree to differ and you’re still welcome in heaven’? That’s false too, isn’t it? If our hearts are eaten through with evil passions, envy, hatred, lusts and cruelty, and we do wrong things, should a God of love leave us as we are? Or, if need be, by very uncomfortable chastening, should he begin to make us aware that we need to repent and be healed.

And suppose sinful men and women refuse God’s preliminary warnings and judgments and go on like that to the great and final judgment, what would you have God do then? The Bible’s answer is that, as long as they remain in that attitude, they will be forever conscious of God’s wrath and disapproval.

The aim of the series of judgments

Now as we return to our topic, we shall see that the judgments that come under the vials in this section do not all happen at once; just like the other judgments that fall under the seals and the trumpets (chapter 8). It is not one fell swoop and they are finished, but rather a series of judgments gradually mounting in intensity. They are not aimed simply at destroying for the sake of destroying, but as a voice that, if possible, leads men and women to repentance.

You say, ‘Some people are destroyed under those preliminary judgments.’

Yes, but not all. We read that so many were destroyed.

‘And the rest of them? By what right will God destroy some and leave the others?’

Well, he has a right to do as he pleases. God knows where an individual has got to in their personal attitude towards him, and he reserves the right to do with the person like he did with Pharaoh. Having waited long with him, having put him under his chastening rod and pleading with him by many an uncomfortable circumstance and plague, when Pharaoh got to the point that he would not repent, even after admitting that he was a sinner, then God reserved the right to cut him off. His aim was so that the rest of the people might have a warning and be brought to repentance and faith.

These ‘preliminary judgments’ then, are like the plagues on Egypt in Exodus 7–12. There were nine of them, and only at the end, with the tenth, came the final judgment upon Egypt. In these judgments, the wrath of God is being filled up; but even they are gradual and measured with early warnings before there is the final great day of God’s wrath.

The principles of the judgments

Now we must proceed as quickly as we may with the study of the detailed judgments of God that fall when the vials of his wrath are poured out. They come in Revelation 16, and I have listed some of their details for you on sheet nine of the notes. Let us look, at least at some of them, to see their principles of judgment.

As we pointed out last night, many of the judgments under the seven vials in Section Five seem to repeat the judgments under the seven trumpets in Section Three, only in a more severe form. If not exactly the same, they are similar. One of the tasks of an expositor would be to explain why that is. Why do these judgments so closely resemble the judgments under the trumpets, and in some cases they are almost the same? Was John hard-pressed to think of another possible form of judgment, so he had to repeat himself? We’ll dismiss that right away, for this is inspired Scripture. So why? In this particular series of judgments some of the outstanding differences are that, from time to time, comments are made on their quality, which invites us to think of them as expressions of the justice and love of God.

2. The seven vials

The first judgment: Painful sores on people who have the mark of the beast

So the first angel went and poured out his [vial] on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshipped its image. (16:2)

Do remember that this is the first judgment; it is not the final one. There is still time for men and women to repent, if they will. Here are people who have taken the mark of the beast and they’re enjoying their limousines and posh houses and all the rest of it. They can buy and sell and prosper because they have knuckled down under the beast and taken his mark. The fearful danger is that they will go on like that unless they are made to sense the hideousness of the disgrace they have committed, not only against God but against themselves.

As it was explained to us last night, the mark of the beast is the mark of a mere human being. What has become of the freedom and dignity of the human spirit that God gave to men and women made in the image of God, so to demean, disgrace, humiliate and wrong themselves to take the mark of a mere man and bow down at his feet and become his slaves? What has become of their own self-respect? God made mankind in his own image; what would you have God do when they demean that image and can’t see they’re doing anything wrong in bowing down to a fellow human being and paying him divine honours?

The holiness of God demands that these people must be helped to see what they’re doing to themselves, so God puts a painful sore on them. If it’s a personal thing that disfigures the person, it is painful and reduces their glory and beauty, doesn’t it? It’s meant to cause them to sense that it’s a visitation from God and begin to ask ‘Why?’; and through that physical excrescence and pain to see the moral and spiritual indignity that they have committed against themselves. Would you prefer a God of love to let them go on just as they are and live happily ever after?

The second and third judgments: Sea, rivers and fountains of water become blood

The second angel poured out his [vial] into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. The third angel poured out his [vial] into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the [angel of the waters] say, ‘Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgements. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!’ (16:3–6)

Nature is personified: ‘I heard the angel of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One . . .”’. What would you have God to do? An earth polluted with their bloodthirstiness, their wicked persecution, their wholesale massacre of life—if they go on like this, they’ll be in an eternal hell. He turns the water into blood, and men and women instinctively find the whole thing revolting, which is what God intended. Drink blood? Well, they’ve been shedding the blood of millions. Some cruel, wicked, evil men, who massacre thousands for their political ideals, can’t see sense. Might it be a good idea and a mercy to them to put them in prison and play them the dying screams of the people they’ve murdered, until they cannot bear it anymore? How will God wake people up to the enormity of their sin? If they don’t come to see it and repent, how can they be saved?

And I heard the altar saying, ‘Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgements!’ (v. 7)

Dear old altar! Altars don’t normally speak, but John heard this one speaking. It’s all a vision, isn’t it? Ah, what things that altar had witnessed of innocent lambs who died for the guilty—God’s gracious way of forgiveness in Israel. The altar represents the great atoning sacrifice of Christ, the blood of God’s own Son shed to buy sinful men and women: to redeem them and thus save them from eternal suffering and judgment.

And these two beasts have taken men and women who were bought at the price of the redeeming blood of Christ, and they’ve shed their blood as though they were cattle. What a fearful perversion of values to take somebody that God has bought with the blood of his Son, and shed their blood. The altar itself protests against this hideous perversion of values, and the redeeming blood of Christ that God has given to save men and women from eternal loss will forever protest that God is righteous in judging those who destroy the redeemed.

We haven’t time to look at all of the judgments in this series, so let’s look now at the one that begins in chapter 16, verse 12:

The sixth judgment: Kings of earth deceived by demons to come to war

The sixth angel poured out his [vial] on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (16:12–14)

‘What strange thing is this?’, you say. ‘Is God in league with demons or something to allow these poor, innocent kings to be deceived and persuaded to come to the battle on the great day of God Almighty, and to be destroyed?’

Who said they were innocent? We are now getting towards the end of the series of God’s great judgments in the earth, and in spite of it these men assemble for battle. Why do they come? They are enticed by demons, and God allows it. How shall we explain it?

King Ahab and the false prophets

Let me borrow a story from the Old Testament (1 Kgs 22; cf. 2 Chron 18). There was an infamous king in Israel whose name was Ahab. Well, perhaps he wasn’t so infamous as he was decidedly weak, and it was his wife Jezebel who was more infamous. He had persecuted the prophets and hounded them. Driven by Jezebel, they had attempted to execute Elijah himself, if you please. They had hounded Naboth the Jezreelite to his death, simply in order to add his vineyard to the king’s vegetable garden (21:2). On a number of occasions God had pleaded with Ahab to repent and turn from the idolatry that he had espoused under the influence of Jezebel. In his mercy, God had demonstrated to Ahab that he was the true God, yet in spite of it Ahab went on with his idolatry.

A town that used to belong to Israel by the name of Ramoth-gilead had been taken by the Assyrians, and there came a day when Ahab decided that it ought to be recaptured. So he had a word with Jehoshaphat, the good but sometimes weak-kneed king of Judah, and persuaded Jehoshaphat to go with him on a joint campaign. Before the battle, Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, ‘Enquire first for the word of the Lord’, so Ahab decided to have a bit of a religious ceremony. He and Jehoshaphat sat on their thrones and Ahab gathered all the false prophets together, and enquired of them, ‘Shall we go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or not?’ The false prophets put on a beautiful show and they said, ‘Yes, Your Majesty, for the Lord is with you. Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king’ (see 1 Kgs 22:5–12).

But Jehoshaphat leaned over to Ahab and said, ‘I’m sure it’s nice to have these prophets of Baal here, but isn’t there a prophet of Jehovah whom we could consult?’.

‘People don’t listen to the prophets of Jehovah nowadays. There is yet one man, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.’

Jehoshaphat said, ‘A king shouldn’t say such things. Let’s hear what he has to say.’

So an officer was told to bring Micaiah. On the way, the messenger said to the prophet, ‘It’s not my business to tell you what to do, but all the other prophets have spoken favourably to the king, so perhaps you should be tactful. I know you like to speak bluntly’.

‘What the Lord says to me, that I will speak’, said Micaiah.

So Micaiah arrived in front of the king and Ahab said to him, ‘Shall we go up to Ramoth-gilead to take it or not?’

And Micaiah said, ‘Yes, Your Majesty, go up and you’ll be successful; the Lord is with you’.

‘How many times have I told you to speak nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord, and you stand there telling me lies?’

So Ahab knew it was a lie. When the false prophets said it, he was very glad. Now, when the true prophet speaks, he says, ‘That’s a lie. Tell me the truth.’

So Micaiah said, ‘I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the angels standing around him. He said, “Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall to his death at Ramoth-gilead?” One of the spirits came forward and said, “I will entice him; I’ll be a lying spirit in the mouths of his prophets.” And the Lord said, “Go out and do so”. These false prophets who have spoken to you are telling you a lie that comes from an evil spirit; the Lord has declared disaster for you.’ (see vv. 19–23)

Did Ahab say, ‘I’m glad I called for you, Micaiah’? No, he didn’t. He said, ‘See that this fellow is put in prison’. And Ahab went up to Ramoth-gilead, believing the false prophets, knowing clearly that it was a lie (see vv. 26–27, 29).

At the end of this age, when the man of sin exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, God shall send those who are perishing a strong delusion, so that they may believe the lie, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved (see 2 Thess 2:3–4; 10–11). There are some solemn words in holy Scripture, are there not? In his justice, almighty God is at long last simply saying, ‘You know the truth, and you know what is a lie. Yet, in spite of it and my willingness to forgive you if you repent, you’re determined to believe the lie. So, then, have your way.’ That is awesome, isn’t it?

The demon-possessed man

The same kind of awesomeness was displayed in the life of our Lord Jesus, the Son of God incarnate. On one occasion, he took his disciples across the sea, and when they came to the other side they were met by a demon-possessed man, who for a long time had worn no clothes and lived among the tombs. The demons told Jesus to go away, but he didn’t go away, of course; he stood his ground and delivered the man from the demons. He sent them into a herd of pigs, which rushed down a steep bank and drowned in the sea. Out came the people of the town, and when they saw the man, now sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and heard what had happened, they were afraid and asked the Saviour to depart from them. He did not go at the bidding of demons and he rescued the man; but when human beings told him to go, he got into the boat and returned to the other side of the lake (Luke 8:26–39).

God will never turn himself into a tyrant. If people want to have the lie, then by God’s own decision they shall have it. But by embracing a lie, they must not suppose that the eternity they create for themselves has got to be an alternative paradise. How can it be, while they still hold to the lie and all the corruption that goes with it?

Judgment of Babylon

Finally, and all too briefly, we must look now at this particular judgment.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven [vials] came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters’. (Rev 17:1 NKJV)

John is invited to see the actual nature and process of the judgment upon Babylon: in other words, what form it took.

‘Who is Babylon?’, you ask.

I suppose the easiest way to come to an initial decision is to notice the way that Babylon, that unfaithful woman, the harlot, is represented in this part of the Revelation, in contrast to the bride of the Lamb. She is the opposite of what the bride of the Lamb is. Protestant theology held that Babylon was another name for the Roman Catholic church, but that surely is a mistake. Babylon was around in this world long before the Roman Catholic church came into existence. Babylon is the Babylon of the Old Testament. She is the mother of harlots—not merely one herself, but their mother (17:5). World famous for being the centre of idolatrous religious practice in the ancient world, she has become, in the first place, a symbol of corrupt, idolatrous religion.

According to the selection of material in this section, we ought to notice that there is not just one, but two descriptions of the judgment of Babylon: the judgment of the woman Babylon, and the judgment of commercial Babylon. The person concerned in the symbolism might be the same, the city of Babylon, yet there are striking differences between the two descriptions. The Babylon of chapter 17 is destroyed without mercy by the beast and the ten kings; but when the Babylon of chapter 18 is destroyed, the kings of the earth lament and are broken-hearted over it. So there is a difference, isn’t there?

Moreover, the Babylon of chapter 18 is described in terms that are taken from the Old Testament. They are sometimes used of Babylon, but in the prophecy of Ezekiel they are more fully used of the city of Tyre (Ezek 28). In the ancient world, Tyre was a commercial empire founded by the Phoenicians, who later set themselves up at Carthage. These were the merchants of the world, who had built their empire on trade. They took the beautiful vases that the Greeks produced and brought them across the Mediterranean to the savages who lived in England at the time. They persuaded the housewives that they must not use their old, broken earthenware pots, but the lovely ones produced by the Greeks.

And you say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’.

Nothing, in and of itself. It was a very interesting empire that raised the standard of living all around the Mediterranean (and made a lot of money in the process). They taught people to appreciate beautiful things—artefacts, clothes, shoes, hats, coats, furniture and what have you.

And again you say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’.

We shall see in a moment.

1. The judgment of the woman Babylon (17:1–18)

The perversion of beauty

These two women who are called Babylon are charged with using their beauty and the power and leverage that beauty has for perverse and wicked purposes. In the antichrist, we look at the male perversion of power; in Babylon, we look at the female perversion of beauty. I don’t know whether ladies know how powerful a force their beauty is, but it is, isn’t it? And it is good when they use it in the right way. But the power of beauty can be perverted, and the Babylon of chapter 17 perverted her beauty. She is famous for her religion, yet disloyal to the true God. As the inventor and continuator of idolatry, and mother of all the false religions of the world, she now rides the political beast in order to influence, control and use her fascination to govern the rulers of the earth. She is determined to rule now, and not content to wait until the King of kings comes to rule the nations.

Religion is fascinating to some political powers, and politicians who are not religious themselves will very often countenance religion as a useful tool for capturing the emotions of the people. Anyone who can command the loyalty of thousands, if not millions of religious people is a valuable asset to any government, and Babylon used her beauty to gain power over the beast. You mustn’t suppose that he ever believed her religion; but for a while they lived in an unholy union, and in the process Babylon murdered the true people of God. Joining with the atheist government of her day, she’ll do it again to keep power over the beast. She’ll compromise the very truth of God and the truth of his dear Son, and if need be collaborate in the elimination of true and faithful believers, prophets and Christian workers who refuse to bow down to the beast.

How will God judge her, and when will he destroy her? Says the angel, ‘Come, [John], I will show you the judgement of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters . . . and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast’ (17:1–3). Incidentally, did you notice where the beast is going? It comes up from the abyss and goes to destruction (see v. 8). Well, what a fool the woman was to sit on it!

If you’re standing in the street one day and a bus comes along that’s going to Berlin, if you want to go to Berlin you’ll get onto it. But if a bus comes along and the destination board says ‘Destruction’, wouldn’t you be a fool to get on?

The woman sat on the beast. The beast with the ten horns shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them (17:14). Poor fool of a woman; she could have been a queen at the Lamb’s side, but she was disloyal to him. She wanted to reign now and backed the side that will be destroyed. Notice that it wasn’t even the Lord who destroyed her. At one stage in history ten kings will come together to enjoy power with the beast for one hour; and suddenly they’ll decide to hand over their power and authority to the beast and work with him. They will have developed a hatred for this monstrous woman who sits on their back, and decide the time has come to destroy her, eat her flesh and burn her with fire (17:13, 16–17). It was the very politics whose back she had sat on that destroyed her.

You say, ‘Was that an accident?’.

No, for God had put it into their minds to give their power to the beast. If the beast had risen up by himself against her, she would have had the protection of the ten kings; but when the ten kings decided to give their power to the beast, it removed her protection and the ten kings and the beast destroyed her. Who put the idea into the kings’ minds to give their power to the beast? ‘I did’, says God (see 17:17). Having joined with the beast herself, can she complain if the ten kings now take sides with the beast against her?

‘Who is the beast?’, you say. ‘And what are these things about his heads and what have you?’ There are many interpretations of the beast, and where so many commentators disagree I would despair of being able to prove to you that my interpretation is correct, even if I had the time. But some help is available for us in coming to our decision, if we compare this second part of Section Five with the second part of Section Three.

In part two of Section Three, the angel is impressing upon John that the sufferings of the people of God will not go on forever, so that he can comfort their hearts. The time will come at last, when there would be no more delay; it will only be a short time until those who persecute the believers are destroyed (see 10:5–7).

In part two of Section Five, the point of showing the beast to John at this stage is the same. Listen to what the angel says to him about the beast and its heads. ‘Five have fallen, one is, the [seventh] has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.’ Then comes the final phase, and it will all be over: the angel is giving John some kind of timescale (see 17:10–11).

You say, ‘It doesn’t sound like a very short timescale to me. The other angel said there was going to be no more delay. Now it says that five have already fallen, one is, and then he’s got to have another one come after him for a little while, and then there’s going to be an eighth. That doesn’t sound very short to me.’

I suppose it depends on how you look at it. You see, for God, a thousand years is as a day, and a day is as a thousand years (2 Pet 3:8). He doesn’t count time as we count it. And what is more, God has to consider not only me and individuals now in my generation; he’s the God of the whole history. The explanation that makes sense to me is that he’s the God who’s been watching all the way along over the successive great world empires that are mentioned in Scripture. He has had the end in sight from the beginning and has been waiting all these long years and centuries whilst Babylon has been persecuting the prophets. Why has he waited for so long? One reason is his mercy to the many thousands and millions who have been converted and saved. And in the second place, he waits until mankind’s sin comes to a pitch that he’s never seen before. Other Gentile governments have persecuted true believers, but they have not necessarily been against religion. In some places, even the latest manifestation of Gentile atheistic political theory has been prepared to collaborate with religion, if religion is prepared to compromise and do the state’s business. But there is coming a time when a world empire will arise that is anti-God and anti-religion. In the place of God and religion, it will institute the worship of the worldwide state.

You say, ‘That’s terrible: is God going to allow it?’.

I tell you, my friend, he’s not only going to allow it; he’s going to use it. It was God who put it into the minds of those ten atheistic, demonic kings to give their power to the beast who put himself in the place of God, so that together they might destroy Babylon. If Babylon will be a harlot, untrue to the living God, and compromise with evil and with an atheistic state, she can’t complain if God allows a state to arise that will completely destroy her.

The judgment of commercial Babylon (18:1–24)

You say, ‘We all have to live; we have to do business. Are you telling us that we should go around in sackcloth or something? Shouldn’t we have the latest equipment—automatic washing machines and everything else? What’s wrong in it?’

There’s nothing wrong in it. They are beautiful things, but beauty has its dangers. The tragic danger of beautiful things is that, when men and women are full of them it can happen that they have no time for God. When she becomes affluent and rich, with every luxury you could possibly imagine brought from the four corners of the earth to make life an absolute delight, Babylon says to herself, ‘I sit as a queen. I shall never know famine, I shall never know distress, I shall never know sorrow’ (see 18:7).

For whose glory and for whose benefit is all this luxury and beauty? She doesn’t want to know about God; she doesn’t want to know about his Son, Jesus Christ; she’s not interested in the purposes of God in the earth. All the beauty is there for her own self-indulgence. Indeed, she is so determined to live her hedonistic, self-indulgent, pleasurable life that if the saints and the prophets get in the way she’ll have them murdered. She is ruthless, and in the end God judges her (18:8).

You say, ‘That’s serious, but isn’t it extreme?’.

My brothers and sisters, these things are told to us for practical reasons. The figure of speech of a harlot or an unfaithful wife is exceedingly unpleasant, but in the Old Testament God uses it frequently of Israel. He blessed Israel with lovely things—a land flowing with milk and honey, corn, wine, everything her heart could desire. She took these lovely gifts and beautiful things from God, and, instead of enjoying them and going back to God and serving him with all the love of her heart, she left God and went after her idols. ‘You became a harlot’, says God (see Jer 3:1). And the New Testament repeats the phrase:

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (Jas 4:4). Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:15–16).

Lovely and beautiful things of the world that take my heart’s affections away from the Lord lead me into spiritual unfaithfulness. And it’s not only the things of this world that can do that. Paul says to us, ‘I’ve espoused you to one husband, even Jesus Christ, and I’m concerned over you, my brothers, lest the old serpent corrupt your thoughts from loyalty to the Lord Jesus’ (see 2 Cor 11:2–3). In the pursuit of learning and education it is possible to find oneself in a situation where theories are put forward that impugn the authority and truth of Christ. If we want a degree, what shall we do? We have to be intellectually loyal to Christ, for presently we have to meet him.

Hallelujahs for God’s judgment (19:1–10)

So now, when the Babylons are judged, we come to the final comment/response:

1. The voice of a great multitude in heaven: ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgements are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’

And once more they cried out: ‘Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.’

2. The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who was seated on the throne, saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!’.

3. The voice from the throne: ‘Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.’

4. The voice of a great multitude: ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

2. The bride has made herself ready

The purity of beauty

I don’t know how weddings happen where you live. I can tell you a little thing about weddings in our part of the world. They appoint the time when you’ve got to be there, say twelve o’clock midday. Everybody has gathered, the bridegroom is there looking around very nervously, and the bride is always late. One of these days—would you believe it?—a bride is going to be on time. Hallelujah! The marriage supper of the Lamb has come, and, thank the Lord, his wife is ready.

I know weddings are special occasions: you surely don’t just jump into a pair of old jeans to come to your wedding, do you? If you’re going to look your best for your husband on the day, it’s understandable if you’re a little bit late getting your dress right and the last curl in place, because he is very important and the beauty you work at is for him.

When the marriage supper of the Lamb comes and we’re summoned to meet the bridegroom, what do you think would please him? What would he like us to wear—not just as to our external clothes, but as to the beauty of our character?

‘Listen,’ says the voice, ‘it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ (see v. 8). Ah, God likes that. The angels who came out of his presence to execute his judgment were clothed like that. It’s not a bad fashion to copy, you know. It’s better than the latest fashion in the magazines, actually. If the angels wore it, and God was pleased with it; if it’s an expression of his holiness, his abhorrence of sin and his persistence in his divine love and glorious righteousness, then why not dress like that? So the bride dresses herself in linen, brilliantly pure—‘for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints’.

Of course, her basic garments were washed in blood that she had by the redeemer’s own gift (7:14); but in all the waiting years she’s been sewing a life that hasn’t proceeded on the principle, ‘do I enjoy it, or is this pleasing to me?’. She’s been sewing a character, a life of deeds, with an eye on the time when she must meet the bridegroom. And she’s hoping that, when she does meet him, the bridegroom will greatly desire her beauty. And so he shall.

He’ll take all the lovely garments that his people have woven and stitched in the time of his absence to beautify themselves with lovely deeds, lovely attitudes and loyal faithfulness to the absent Lord, and as his bride he’ll grant her to clothe herself in them. My brothers and sisters, it’s not an exaggeration to say ‘what joy there shall be then’. Oh, the hallelujahs!

When a bride and bridegroom come out after the wedding ceremony, the guests are waiting with their cameras. Just imagine what it will be like when God hangs out his wedding decorations as his Son presents his beautiful bride, not only for the joy of his own heart, but for the admiration of the whole universe for all eternity. God help us to be beautiful and ready, in view of the day of Christ’s coming.

Shall we pray.

Lord, we have spent long at our study, and we ask thy grace now that we may think about these things that thou hast spoken to us, and in the coming days go on to develop them. But above all, that we may take their lessons to heart. Long as our study has been this morning, our lives are so short and the Lord Jesus is coming. We want to look our best when he comes. He gave himself to the church to cleanse us from spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Help us, we beseech thee, Lord, and if in anything we have been disloyal to him intellectually, emotionally or in other ways, draw near in the intimacy of our hearts and point out our faults, so that they might be repented of and cleansed away so that when he comes, we may be presented before thee and allowed to clothe ourselves with the righteous deeds that by thy grace we have performed. So be thy blessing upon us now, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

8: Section Six: The Victorious King Tabernacles Among His People (19:11–22:21)

Long ago—so long ago it could have been last Saturday—you will have received a sheet entitled Strategic Themes in Revelation. It is sheet two of your notes, and if you could retrieve it now it will help us as we come to our final study. From the middle of the book onwards, you will notice that we have three major sections in which women are prominent.

Section Four begins with the woman and the male child in contest with the dragon; and ends with the dragon raising up his beast and the false prophet.

Section Five: we meet another woman; this time it is the impure and false woman, Babylon. Then we read of the scarlet beast with his seven heads and ten horns, and how the woman tried to ride the beast and managed to do so successfully until it turned on her and actually destroyed her.

Section Six: as we move now to the climax of the second half, and indeed to the climax of the whole book, we meet another woman. But first we meet the King. He comes out as a powerful warrior to subdue his enemies, the beast, the false prophet and the dragon himself. He overpowers them and takes his loved and longed-for bride, the wife of the Lamb.

A royal wedding

When we see that, we can’t help reminding ourselves perhaps of that lovely psalm in the Old Testament, which the scholars tell us was written to celebrate a royal wedding.

My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king . . . You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you for ever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendour and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; the peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad. (Ps 45:1–8)

We catch the excitement, the wonder, the joy, the sparkle, the majesty and the dignity of this glorious occasion. The king is coming and he is going to be married, but first he must put down his enemies and he’s invited to gird on his sword. Then the psalmist remembers the wonderful excellency of the king: ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness’. He has a right to rule because he has ‘loved righteousness and hated wickedness’, and when he rules, his kingdom will be just. But first he must put down his enemies: ‘let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.’

What a delightful psalm it is! Having described the majesty of the warrior king fresh from all his triumphs, his charming wife is led to him. And now the psalmist has a little advice for her.

daughters of kings are among your ladies of honour; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. (vv. 9–11).

The psalm was written to celebrate royal weddings of kings long since gone. But when the Holy Spirit inspired the psalmist, we have permission to think that he had a person in mind, far greater than those original kings. ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever’ might have seemed a colossal exaggeration when it was first used of the kings of David’s line. But when we read the same words in Hebrews 1:8 we see another figure standing in his glory and brightness and recognize him to be Jesus Christ of the New Testament.

Doesn’t he have a right to rule, my brothers and sisters? Large parts of the book of Revelation have been devoted to the songs of triumph that celebrate his right to rule. He loved righteousness; he hated iniquity. This vision of the Lord Jesus’ coming reign is not wishful thinking—a kind of fairy story to save us from being afraid of the dark. We have seen this king on earth and the historical record tells us how he behaved: how much he loved righteousness and hated iniquity. His moral teachings stand above the pollution of this world like the snow on Mount Everest. But it was not merely in his speaking that he showed it: he loved righteousness in his doing. The righteousness of God was his joy, delight and constant goal. Never would he diminish one iota from the righteous standards of a holy God. And he hated iniquity—not with the fitful and varying hatred with which we treat it, some days hating it and some days liking it a little bit. He constantly hated iniquity.

How then could the likes of us ever have expected to be the bride of that majestic king? I’ll tell you the love story. He loved us without declining one little bit from his hatred of sin or his love of righteousness. He hated sin and paid the price of his love when he bore it for our sakes on Calvary; and in doing so he declared the righteousness of God. When they nailed him to the tree he cried in his forsakenness, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34), and in the hours of darkness he owned the rest of the words in Psalm 22, ‘Yet you are holy . . .’ (v. 3). One day he shall take his bride, and for all eternity he shall never be ashamed of her. It was not out of favouritism that he excused her sins; his love is perfectly holy and right. He loved us to Calvary and he will love us eternally.

So the bride is ready (see the end of Section Five, 19:7); but first as the warrior king he must put down his enemies with a very sharp sword that comes from his mouth (see Section Six, 19:15). Then, in the order of these final chapters of the book, comes the bride, the wife of the Lamb (21:9). She stands before him dressed in gold, and the King greatly desires her beauty (see Ps 45). When you know who the bride is, you could think that it’s a bit of a fairy tale. What, you and me? Who can fathom that the King would desire our beauty? But it is indeed the most marvellous fact. He desired it when we were unlovely, wrinkled, sore-ridden and perverse. And when we were ungodly sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:6–8); he loved us and gave himself for us (see Gal 2:20). If he loved us then, my brothers and sisters, by the Holy Spirit’s permission you may draw the deduction that he’ll never cease to love you all through the endless ages of a long eternity.

The literary form of Section Six

Now we come to the climax of some of the strategic themes in the book of Revelation, and on sheet ten of your notes I have listed for you the four constituent parts of this final section.

1. The rider on the white horse

Firstly, there is a major vision in which John sees the heaven opened and a rider on a white horse comes out to execute the judgments of God on an evil and apostate world (19:11–21).

2. The new heaven and earth

Secondly, there is another major vision. It is the vision of the new heaven and the new earth, and the glorious city of the new Jerusalem coming down (20:11–22:15).

3. The three-fold testifying of Jesus

Thirdly, when those two major visions are over, there follow some comments: the three-fold testifying by the Lord Jesus (22:16–20).

4. The grace of the Lord Jesus

Fourthly, John pronounces the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with all the saints (22:21).

As I see it, that is the composition of the last and final section of Revelation. But I am aware that my structural analysis of the book, particularly of this final section, would be hotly disputed by many eloquent and able scholars.

They would say, ‘You have made an obvious and elementary blunder. A book that is so filled with sevens, upon sevens, upon sevens must surely have seven major sections. How did you not notice it? Your analysis only has six.’

And then, of course, bigger things hang upon the analysis of this part of the book. I scarcely know of any other point in Scripture where literary analysis gets caught up so soon in arguments about deep and profound theological questions. However you analyse it, the reason is that this section of the book is about the one thousand year reign of Christ.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. (Rev 20:1–3)

John tells us that he saw thrones, and the resurrected saints who had not received the mark of the beast reigned with Christ for a thousand years; though the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were ended (see vv. 4–5). And in verses 7 to 10, he tells us that when the thousand years are ended, Satan shall be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations. He shall succeed in some part, but as a result of his final rebellion, fire will come down from heaven and consume all his hosts—‘and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire’ (20:10).

A literal or spiritual millennial reign?

As I say, this passage is much argued about, but the question is: how is it to be interpreted?

Is it to be understood literally? That is, when our Lord appears in power and great glory and puts down his enemies, will his coming be followed by a literal reign of Christ over the earth for a thousand years before the world is brought to its end? Many of the earliest church fathers who followed the apostles believed that it would, and it should be interpreted literally.

Or is it to be interpreted spiritually? Then a reaction set in, and people came to question whether it was ever meant to be understood literally. They said that the thousand-year reign of Christ is not some literal reign in the future; it is to be explained in spiritual terms.

I’ll mention just two of the versions that have been in vogue over the years.

1. Amillennialism

The millennium is to be understood in some spiritual fashion of the reign of Christ now. In this interpretation, the binding of Satan happened at Calvary, when our Lord bound the strong man and set free those who were chained in his power. Satan was bound so that he should not deceive the nations anymore, because the gospel was going forth. If he seems to be bound by a very long chain and is seen wandering about from time to time, it is perhaps because God’s people do not claim the victory. If we did claim it, he would be kept bound in the abyss.

In this interpretation, the thousand years is a symbolic way of referring to this present age, from Calvary and Pentecost until the coming of our Lord at the end of the age. When Satan’s reign is over, that will be the end of the world. The great white throne of the final judgment will be set up and earth and sky shall flee away (20:11–15). That has been the majority view in Christendom for many centuries, and I suspect it still is.

2. Postmillennialism

In more recent years, another interpretation has been reasserting itself. It says there will be a time of wonderful peace and plenty in the future, which you may call the millennial reign. It will not happen after the coming of Christ but before it. This marvellous period of bliss and wonder upon the earth will not be instituted by Christ at his coming; it will be brought to fruition by the church, inspired and led by the Holy Spirit. By some final outpouring of the Spirit of God in the last days, the church will be so powerfully equipped that she will become the dominant force in the world. Under her influence, the nations shall cease their wars: ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks’ (Isa 2:4; Mic 4:3). A reign of peace and plenty will be introduced, and only when it ends shall the Lord Jesus come. That will prove to be the end of the world and the beginning of the new heaven and the new earth (21:1).

My analysis will not be approved of in either of these two views, and particularly on the first one that says the millennium is to be understood as a spiritual reign beginning with Calvary or Pentecost and extending to the end of the world. The reason is that if we take the thought-flow in chapter 19 from verse 11 onwards, we read how the rider on the white horse takes the beast and the false prophet who deceived the nations and puts them direct into the lake of fire. Only then, according to chapter 20, does an angel come down from heaven and bind Satan, who was the active spiritual power behind the beast and the false prophet.

Well now, if the binding of Satan happened at Calvary, then if you take the thought-flow as being continuous throughout chapter 19 into chapter 20, you arrive at a situation where there must have been a beast and a false prophet deceiving the nations before our Lord went to Calvary. Somehow they were put into the lake of fire at Calvary, and then Christ’s spiritual reign began when the devil was bound and put into the abyss.

The question arises: who were the beast and false prophet that deceived the nations before Christ came? And is it credible to think that, in his prophecies in the middle of the book about the rise of the beast and the false prophet, John is not prophesying at all? He is telling us what happened before Jesus Christ was born. That is scarcely credible, is it?

So other analyses are found to get rid of that difficulty. The idea then is that 19:11–21 end a major section of the book; and then 20:1 begins another, which is in fact the last section of the book. Like the form of many other sections, the end of chapter 19 takes us up to the coming of the Lord Jesus. But then chapter 20 begins a brand-new section that goes back into history and follows its own theme until the final judgment and the new heaven and the new earth.

Now, in one sense, that would be a very reasonable suggestion, wouldn’t it? In our studies of the sections that contained the seals, the trumpets and the vials, we found that each section follows its theme, sometimes right to the eternal state. And then the next section will come back again, start somewhere along the line, and in turn pursue its theme to finality. Theoretically, I suppose chapter 20 could begin a new section, which, as these people claim, goes back to where Christ bound Satan for the rest of the Christian period—which they say was at Calvary.

Therefore, if I’m going to contend that the last section of the book of Revelation extends from 19:11 to the end of the book, I must at least attempt to demonstrate my reasons, because theologically a lot depends on it. I’m aware that Christian people can have different analyses of one and the same book, and I speak with all due deference to those who believe differently. But let me say publicly, I deplore the way these subjects have sometimes been discussed by those who hold the literal millennium view and those who hold the spiritual view—those who hold the millennium is future and those who hold that it is present. Good Christian men and women have grown angry and heated and denounced the other side as though they were heretics. They have banished them and made what they feel is orthodoxy on these things a condition of Christian fellowship in the church. That kind of conduct is lamentable and more in keeping with unregenerate men and women than with those who love the Lord Jesus and one day shall be together in the heavenly city of the new Jerusalem. We are to think and we are to argue vigorously when we discuss these things, but we are to behave like Christian brothers and sisters.

The symmetry of Section One and Section Six

Now let me explain some of my reasons for analysing the literary structure of this last section of the book as I have; but first may I ask you to look back to our preceding studies?

We noticed that when you put Section Two alongside Section Four, there are vivid formal similarities, and also a very clear sharing of themes. Then, if you take Section Three and compare it with Section Five, there is a complete correspondence in the formal layout of the material, and once more those two sections are shown to be symmetrical in their themes. I wonder, then, what would happen if you took my Section Six and compared it with Section One—the only section that is left in my scheme.

In Section Six there are four elements

First, there is the major vision of the rider on the white horse coming to clear out all his enemies and make way for the new heaven and the new earth. That is followed by a second major vision of the new heaven and earth: the new Jerusalem City, and not of the bridegroom but of the bride. Two major visions: one of Christ and one of his redeemed people. After that there is the three-fold testifying of Jesus; and finally John pronounces the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with the saints. Keep that on one side and alongside it put the analysis of Section One.

In Section One there are four elements

It begins with a statement of the nature and contents of the book, and we are told in point two, that John is recording the testimony of Jesus Christ. There follows greetings and grace from the holy Trinity, pronounced on John’s fellow believers by John himself. These are comparatively short passages, and then there follows the first of two major visions: the Son of Man amidst the golden lampstands. And after that, the second major vision: Christ’s appraisal of his churches. So, in Section One there are two major visions: one of the Lord and one of his people, introduced by the testifying of the Lord Jesus and the grace pronounced by John.

You say, ‘You’ve got them upside down’.

Well, I didn’t write the book! I’m just noting their contents. Just as there are two major visions in Section One, one of Christ and one of the church, so in the last section, Section Six, there are two major visions, one of Christ and one of his people—the Lamb’s wife, which will include the church.

The other two things—the testifying of Jesus and the grace pronounced by John—come in Section One at the beginning; while in Section Six they come at the end, as is appropriate in a book.

And when you look more closely at the first major vision of Section One, as we did the other day, you will see that amongst other things the description of our Lord has the fact that out of his mouth was proceeding a sharp two-edged sword. He stood robed in all his official glory as the judge of the church about to pronounce his appraisal, and indeed his judgment, on his people. In the first major vision of Section Six, amongst other things the description of the rider on the white horse has the fact that out of his mouth proceeds a sharp two-edged sword with which he is about to judge and destroy his enemies.

In the second major vision in Section One, ‘Christ’s appraisal of his churches’, he announces rewards for those who overcome, and we noticed how many of those rewards refer to things that are eventually described in the second major vision of Section Six.

So it is that these two sections stand as a symmetry. And not only a literary symmetry; they agree in thought patterns, the one with the other. That is the first defence of my own analysis.

The thought-flow of Section Six in relation to the millennium

Now my second defence. In studying any book of literature, you must give attention not only to structure, but pre-eminently, if I may say so, and above all other things to thought-flow. The study of structure without thought-flow can be dangerous and can lead to wrong results. Thought-flow is the first and thought-flow is the last of all the things that must control our exposition of a book. We start at a particular point, and from the very first moment we ask, ‘By what logical progression of thought do we proceed to the next point? How far does the flow of thought extend down this passage and how far does it go on? Does it finish at the end of the first paragraph, and a completely new set of thinking starts in paragraph two?’ There’s no reason why it shouldn’t; but the first basic exercise is to see how far the thought-flow extends.

Of course, that is not only important in the studying of a book; it is tremendously important in the preaching of it. For it is when we have perceived the onward direction of the thought-flow of any passage that we can begin to preach it with confidence. It ceases to be our sermon about the Bible and becomes the Holy Spirit’s own sermon, as we follow his thought-flow and divine skill in the way he piles up observation upon observation, argument upon argument, this feature on that, and so develops the powerful points he is wanting to make.

As we now study their thought-flow, how will these passages in the Revelation fare? I have tried to indicate that on sheet 10.

First major vision: the rider on the white horse

I want you to notice that in this first part there are two tightly controlled trilogies, and both of them are interrelated.

The first trilogy (19:11–21)

First, there is the picture of the rider on a white horse coming out to judge—‘in righteousness he judges and makes war’ (v. 11). He is coming to war: what kind of war? It says, ‘He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God . . . From his mouth comes a sharp [two-edged] sword with which to strike down the nations . . .’ (vv. 13, 15).

Some people have said that this isn’t referring to the second coming of Christ at all; it is a highly figurative picture of what happened upon our Lord’s ascension. They say that ever since his ascension he has been at war with his spiritual enemies. The Bible is his great sword, which he thrusts through them with moral conviction by the authority and sharpness of his word, to slay them in the Spirit. In other words, to lead them to repentance and regeneration. They say that this is a magnificent description of the gospel going forth by the preached word of the risen Lord, which is their sense of how the warfare is to be understood.

Well, if you look at the next paragraph it can hardly be that:

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, ‘Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.’ (19:17–18)

What has that paragraph got to do with the previous one, where the rider comes out to make war? What has this invitation to the birds got to do with his making war? Is there any connection of thought whatsoever?

Well, of course there is, because in the ancient world when kings went out to battle a multitude of men were slain. Many of the dead bodies were left in the fields and the carrion birds came down and ate the flesh. The connection of thought between the first and second paragraphs is that the rider is coming out to war; he will slay his enemies and there will be bodies lying around. Then, as healthy scavengers, the birds of heaven are invited to come and clear up the putrefying flesh.

You say, ‘Aren’t you taking leaps and leaps and leaps of imagination?’.

No, because in the next paragraph of this first trilogy the war takes place.

First paragraph: the Lord comes out to war (v. 11–16);

Second paragraph: the birds are asked to come and be ready (vv. 17–18);

Third paragraph: the war starts:

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.(v. 19)

Then the rider on the white horse captures the beast and the false prophet and they are thrown alive into the lake of fire:

And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse . . . (v. 21)

In what sense were they slain? Were they converted to Christ by the gospel? Well hardly, for look what follows next. Here come the birds of paragraph two:

. . . and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. (v. 21)

Do you see how the thought-flow goes through the narrative? Those three paragraphs are connected and stand as a trilogy. First, the rider comes to do war; then the birds are called; the war takes place and the birds deal with the consequences. The thought-flow is tightly controlled, and to my mind it is indisputable.

This is not a description of our blessed Lord preaching the gospel and men and women being converted to God. For when people are killed in that sense (if that’s the right metaphor to use)—when they are slain with the gospel and brought to their knees and trust the Saviour—surely no bird of the heaven is invited to come and gorge itself on their flesh?

This is far more solemn. It is a highly pictorial description of our Lord coming in power and great glory to put down the beast. And how do we know that? We can refer to the theologian, Paul, who tells us when it’s going to take place.

And then shall that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his [second] coming. (2 Thess 2:8 NKJV)

The second trilogy (20:1–10)

But now we have to ask another thing. Has the second trilogy in the first part of Section Six got anything to do with what has just gone before, or are we now changing to a completely different subject and should regard chapter 20 as a new section of the book?

Chapter 20 begins with an angel coming down out of heaven with the key to the abyss. He binds Satan and puts him into it. Why should John talk about Satan here: has it anything to do with what’s gone before? Well, if the beast and false prophet have just been taken and consigned to the lake of fire, don’t you want to know what happened to Satan, the dragon who inspired both of them?

Section Four has told us explicitly that it was the dragon who came and stood on the seashore and engineered the rise of the false prophet to support his beast. We are also told that people worshipped the dragon (13:4). During that ghastly period of time Satan, the dragon, will bring up the beast and his false prophet, and with his deceptive signs the false prophet will deceive the nations (13:14). Satan wasn’t bound up in the abyss while they worshipped him, was he? When he is put into the abyss, he is put there ‘so that he might not deceive the nations any longer’ (20:3).

So now, when the beast and the false prophet are consigned to the lake of fire, reason has it that the story is going on relentlessly. This is not a new section beginning some other topic that hasn’t been mentioned so far; this is about what happens to the third member of that evil triumvirate comprised of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. The beast and the false prophet have been disposed of, and now the dragon is dealt with. Therefore, according to my argument, it follows that chapter 20 is not the beginning of a new section in the book of Revelation: the thought-flow demands that it is in strict continuation with what has immediately gone before.

In this second trilogy of Section Six we read of three things:

1. the binding of Satan (20:1–3);

2. the thousand-year reign of Christ with his resurrected people (20:4–6);

3. what happens after the thousand years are ended, when Satan stages a final rebellion (20:7–10).

Notice that at the final rebellion there’s no talk of the rider coming out on the white horse to destroy Satan and his hosts. There is no figure in the description that could be used of the coming of Christ. Simply that fire comes down from heaven and consumes those who have gathered for battle, and Satan is thrown into the lake of fire where the beast and false prophet are. Christ is not pictured as coming here at the end of the millennium: he has already come at the beginning (19:11), not the end. When it comes to the end of the world, Christ sits as the judge on the great white throne of his majesty. He doesn’t come to collect the criminals; as is proper in any court of law he sits on the throne and the criminals are brought to him (20:11–15).

Summary

In summary, the first major vision of Section Six deals with the millennium. It begins with the coming of Christ to put down the beast and the false prophet (19:20); at which point Satan is also bound for a thousand years (20:2). The next thing is that Christ and his people reign for a thousand years (20:6); and after the thousand years is fulfilled Satan is released and stages the final rebellion (20:7–10).

If you ask about my beliefs on chronology in the book of Revelation, I believe that it is to be understood perfectly literally. It is a chronological sequence—before the thousand years; the duration of the thousand years; and after the thousand years—telling us that before Christ winds up our universe, he is going to reign. He’s going to judge and make war and rule the nations with a rod of iron (19:11, 15). He shall ‘break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel’ (see Ps 2:9). Sometimes the millennial reign of Christ is spoken of as though it were almost paradise. Perhaps it shall be, but the descriptions of it here in the New Testament are of a reign that is rigorous, and it is severe when it comes to dealing with evil.

So much then for the thought-flow that is relevant to the topic of the millennium. I don’t wish to say more than that at this juncture. Of course, in the whole question of the millennium, we must also consider the theology of such a reign as we gather it from the rest of the Bible. That is another big story and one that I must leave to the systematic theologians.

You’ll excuse me for saying it once more, won’t you, but what I like to do when I’m talking to the systematic theologians is to remind them that, while my grasp on theology needs to be improved, they in their turn must start with the literary structure of the work they are considering and be prepared to rigorously analyse and defend their literary analysis, if they have one. Any theological system must be built on literary analysis and on the reading of the thought-flow of the book as it stands. If it’s built on anything else, it is liable to be defective.

Now we’re going to turn to much more pleasant things. When all the enemies are put down, the old heaven and earth have fled away and no place is found for them, there comes the great harvest of Time. So, we shall consider what God has been at over all the long years of earth’s history, as it is depicted here in the book of Revelation. What has been close to his heart: the product of his plans through the sufferings of Christ, the power of the risen Lord, and the workings of his Spirit.

Second major vision: the new heaven and earth

The third trilogy (20:11–22:15)

In this second major vision of the final section of the book, we have come to that glorious vision of the eternal city, the New Jerusalem (21:9–27). Not only has the description of its jewels and gems charmed the imagination of generations of believers, the lovely statements that describe the blessedness of those who shall be there have been of tremendous comfort and solace to them as they have gone through their fires of affliction, and nerved their hearts to courage and endurance. As one of our English hymns puts it,

The eternal glories gleam afar To nerve my faint endeavour; So now to watch, to work, to war, And then to rest for ever.²²

These are lovely things that go beyond our imagination, but God in his mercy has selected these well-chosen symbols to give us at least some comprehension of what it will be like. The rumour is that we’re going to spend a long time with the Lord—the whole of eternity. It wouldn’t be a waste of time, would it, to give a little time on earth to think about it? Oh, my brothers and sisters, may God help us now in these next few moments to consider what it will be to dwell above, and with the Lord of glory reign.²³ Is it possible that even here, with our human limitations, we might grasp some concept of what the eternal world will be for those who love the Saviour?

Do notice that the Holy Spirit adheres to his orderly presentation in these majestic and wonderfully spiritual things. So please turn to sheet 10 of your notes and look at the second major vision and the seven major elements to this third trilogy (listed as 1.a to 3.g).

1.a. The great white throne (20:11–15)

In the first element, we have the description of the great white throne and heaven and earth fleeing away. It is said, ‘if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire’ (v. 15). Why start the story there? Would it not have been better to append the settling of all the ugly crimes of earth to what has gone before, get it out of the way, forget it forever, and then start with the eternal city and all its undiminished joy and gladness? But the text will not allow us to do that. Notice how it begins:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and the sky fled away, and no place was found for them. (20:11)

If we are to understand the new Jerusalem and the new heavens and new earth, we must understand how the old heaven and old earth came to be removed. ‘They fled away,’ said John, ‘from the very face of him who sat on the throne.’ Oh, what majesty there must be in that face! It is the face of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, and we shall know him when we see him. His face was once so marred more than any man (Isa 52:14). Evil men spat their filthy spittle on his cheek and struck him. They blindfolded him, and said, ‘Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?’ They took a reed, and struck him on the head (see Matt 26:67–68; 27:30; Mark 14:65; 15:19). The man whose eyes they blindfolded, who could see more than any of his contemporaries, will one day sit upon the great white throne: ‘The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son’ (John 5:22). So majestic will his face be then, that the old heaven and earth with all their sorry tales shall scurry away, never to be seen again.

Now look at how John introduces chapter 21: ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,’ —and he can’t let us forget it—‘for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away’ (v. 1). He didn’t need to say that, did he? But he does, because he wants to keep up the flow of thought. He’s saying, ‘Don’t forget that the first heaven and earth fled away, and we know that it was at the great white throne’ (20:11). Why would he preface the story of the new Jerusalem with the story of the great white throne? Because, amongst other things, it’s going to tell us who shall not enter the heavenly Jerusalem; who will be rejected and sent to the lake of fire. We shall come back to it, but notice the remark that ends that final paragraph in chapter 20: ‘And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire’ (v. 15).

2.b. The new Jerusalem comes down (21:1–4)

In the second element of the third trilogy, the holy city comes down out of heaven from God. It is welcomed with a loud voice from the throne:

Behold, the dwelling place [tabernacle] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. (21:3–4)

This describes the new Jerusalem and its function to be a tabernacle for God.

2.c. God’s pronouncement (21:5–8)

In the third element of the third trilogy, there comes a pronouncement by him who sits on the throne. We notice that at the end of the comment, it says,

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (21:7–8 NKJV)

And we recur to the theme that we’re not being allowed to forget. But now, as against the negative statement in 20:15—those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life shall be thrown into the lake of fire—there comes the positive, glorious statement in 21:7—‘[those] who overcome shall inherit all things’ (KJV). Not only will they get into the city; they shall have it as their inheritance. It’s a lovely thought: the overcomers will inherit all these glorious things. But to that is added the warning: liars and all other unrepentant people shall be sent to the lake of fire. Notice the words, shall have their part: their inheritance shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone (see 21:8 NKJV).

3.d. The bride of the Lamb (21:9–22:5)

And now we come to the fourth element of the third trilogy. It is a long, long paragraph. Says John, ‘Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven [vials] full of the seven last plagues’ (21:9). He conducts John around the holy city to view the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. He describes the gates and foundations, the beauty of their adornment with every kind of jewel, and the street of pure gold (vv. 10–21).

Then he excites our imagination twice over: ‘. . . the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it’ (vv. 23–24). And again, ‘They will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations’ (v. 26).

These are lovely ideas. Not only does the city stand upon solid foundations and have these lovely gates, but the place is adorned. Who supplied these ornaments—the silver, the gold and the precious stones? I’m tempted to quote a Scripture to you:

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Cor 3:11–15)

You say, ‘Mr Preacher, those words are the description of a local church, and not heaven!’.

Are you really telling me that all you’ve built into the local church—the gold and silver and precious stones—shall perish with this world and nothing of it will survive into the world to come? Don’t you see the importance of the work you do in the church that now forms the temple of the living God (2 Cor 3:16)? It is being built upon the foundation of your gold, silver and precious stones. You do not build in vain. You shall see it again, when your eyes catch sight of that glorious city coming down from God. You’ll see the redeemed community there and the city’s spectacular foundations, its solid gates and all the wonders. As you run along in your inquisitiveness (if you’re allowed to behave like that in heaven), you’ll see this jewel and that jewel, and you’ll exclaim, ‘Oh, look at that! That’s a special-looking jewel. But wait a minute, I think I’ve seen it before somewhere. It looks to me like the jewel I nearly rubbed my fingers out polishing. You should have seen it when I first got it. It was a diamond, but it had a lot of rough edges. I spent a lot of time on my knees praying, and a lot of time in personal counselling and visitation. I wept and I laughed with them, and I taught them the word of God. Little by little, I saw the rough edges being smoothed down, and the very light of God begin to sparkle in that once-time bit of clay. And now it’s here: that’s my jewel!’

Oh, the joy to see the gold, silver and precious stones of your life’s work built on that foundation, and for it to pass the critical eye of the Master Builder himself, as he says, ‘I’m delighted to have your contribution to the adorning of the eternal city. Well done, good and faithful servant’ (see Matt 25:21, 23). What a marvellous possibility, and what light it sheds upon life and its significance, doesn’t it?

When God gave directions for the tabernacle to be built, eventually Israel went to work and built it (Exod 25–27; 36:1–39:31). The women wove and embroidered, the men who were carpenters shaped the wood, the goldsmiths did their part and the jewellers theirs. Eventually the day came when their work was complete, and they brought it to Moses. Of course, Moses inspected it to see that they’d done it as the Lord had commanded. To draw on Paul’s analogy, anybody who is in a race has to keep the rules (2 Tim 2:5). When he was satisfied with it all, Moses erected the tabernacle, and the crowning glory was that the presence and glory of God came and filled it (Exod 39:32–40:38).

That was only a picture. What will it be like to see the masses of redeemed people and what your handiwork has contributed, and to know that the Saviour has approved of it and built it into his eternal city? And not only that, but, wonder of wonders, to see God himself deigning to come down and dwell in it, expressing himself through his redeemed people, as his eternal light is refracted through the many different coloured stones of their personalities. What unspeakable glory! ‘By its light will the nations walk’, and the Holy Spirit will not let us forget that ‘the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it’ (Rev. 21:24).

But, but, but—nothing unclean will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life’ (v. 27). Every jewel must be genuine and every bit of gold pure: no distortion, no lie. Oh, the distortions and the unrealities of earth’s history; the fearful lie when men worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25). And that fearful abomination, the dragon, the man of sin and his false prophet with their deceiving lies.

That then is a sketch of the eternal city. It is the third trilogy of Section Six, and a passing glance now at the final three statements will complete the seven elements of the description for the moment. We shall look at them again at the end.

3. e. Veracity of the prophecy (22:6–7)

‘And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true”’ (v. 6).

3. f. Proper reaction to the prophecy (22:8–9)

Thank God, he opened our eyes in time to see what the truth is, and now we’re bound for the eternal city.

3. g. Direction for publication of the prophecy (22:10–15)

Nothing inside it will make or practise a lie. Blessed are those who enter it (22:14). And why blessed? They are blessed because of all the glories that are there. And blessed again because outside is an unimaginable hell of twisted, perverted humanity, who have chosen to cling to their falsehood rather than accept God’s truth (22:15).

Summary of the third trilogy (20:11–22:15)

This part of Section Six has seven elements in it. We’ll go swiftly over those items again.

1.a. Those who fail to enter the eternal city

First of all, we’ll consider those who miss the eternal city. It is said that on the occasion of the judgment before the great white throne, ‘the books were opened . . . and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works’ (20:12 KJV). But now let us immediately notice the decisive thing that determines whether any one is sent to the lake of fire. Do notice it, because these words are penned with exceeding care and accuracy. It does not say, ‘when the dead are judged according to their works, if anyone’s works don’t come up to the standard they are cast into the lake of fire’. It will not be whether their works are good enough: the only criterion that the passage mentions for being sent to the lake of fire is, ‘if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life’ (20:15).

You say, ‘Why is the question of works brought into it at all?’.

Because those who are sent to the lake of fire shall not be punished with one uniform punishment. The reason they go to the lake of fire is because their names are not written in the book of life, but the measure of their punishment will be determined by their works. It will not be one blanket punishment. Our blessed Lord is on record as saying, ‘it shall be more tolerable’ for some than for others (see Luke 10:14 KJV).

Let that answer some of the difficulties that sometimes press around our hearts, as though people who were honest, as best they knew how, but didn’t receive the gospel although they knew it, are going to be punished with the same punishment as the hideous dictators of this world. That is not true. I say again, all those whose names are not written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire, but the degree of their punishment shall be according to their works.

Isn’t it also true on the other side? Those who are introduced to glory enter on the grounds that their names are written in the book of life. All who believe shall be there, but the rewards and the stations of glory will be different. They too will be measured according to their works. But here is the definitive statement: ‘And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire’ (20:15).

My brothers and sisters, I must stop and allow you to rejoice if your name is written in the book, and you know it. It is a wonderful privilege.

The Lord sent seventy-two other disciples ahead of him on one occasion, and they came back all full of excitement, like returning missionaries are liable to be sometimes. This was the first missionary journey they’d ever been on and they’d just discovered the wonderful joy of working and witnessing for the Lord. ‘Lord, do you know what? Even the demons are subject to us in your name’. They felt powerful and important. Our Lord never was one to discourage missionaries, but this time he thought he’d better teach them a little thing about proportions. He said, ‘Very good, very good, but do not rejoice in this . . . but rejoice that your names are written in heaven’ (see Luke 10:17–20). As life goes swiftly by, why shouldn’t you allow yourself to rejoice as you contemplate all its successes? But outshining them all is the fact that your name is written in heaven, and one day you shall be there.

Is your name in the book? This is a Christian conference, but I never care to take risks. Shall we not pause at this very moment and make sure. My dear friend, are you sure your name is written in the book? If you should have any lingering doubts, may God give you the grace and wisdom before this day ends to see that you have been given the certainty by the Lord himself that your name is in the book of life.

2.b. New Jerusalem comes down and the tabernacle of God is with men

The second element of the description of the new heaven is that John sees the holy city coming down. I like its direction. You know, some people have the idea that when at last we go to heaven, we shall get into the new Jerusalem here on earth and when the signal is given it will begin to rise up. As we see earth disappearing, we shall lean out and say, ‘Bye-bye, earth! Good riddance to you. We’ve had enough and thankfully we’ll never see you again. We’re going off to heaven and shall never come back.’

But that isn’t quite the vision John saw. He saw a new heaven and a new earth. God is always going to have a material expression of his purposes and not content himself with what is spiritual only. John saw the holy city, not going up from earth to heaven but coming down from heaven to earth. This new Jerusalem is going to be the metropolis of God’s new universe, the centre where he dwells with men and women so that he may make himself known and be with them as their God (21:1–3).

You see, when God came down in the tabernacle of old and dwelt among the Israelites, you couldn’t have seen him because he is invisible. But you could have come to the tabernacle, and if you were a priest you could actually have gone inside to look at the colours and the cherubim. You might have stood in front of the veil and said to yourself, ‘I can begin to see what God is like, if his idea of beauty is this magnificent curtain’. And when you looked around at the cherubim on the roof, on the walls and all the way around—cherubim galore—you might have thought, ‘I’m in some company now!’.

Yes, you could have got some idea of God through the colours and the holiness and the marvellous perfumes of the Holy Place. But that had its limitations. You couldn’t go up to the curtain and say, ‘Hello, curtain, you’ve been hanging here for a long while. You have some nice designs on you; please can you tell me a little bit more about the Lord who dwells behind you?’ God is not going to dwell in that eternal state in a tabernacle made with hands with only figures of the true God (Heb 9:24); he’s going to dwell in a tabernacle formed of his redeemed people.

In between the hymn singing and all the rest of it, it’s going to be fun to be able to wander around this great new Jerusalem and to come across a living stone, a precious stone in the building. Perhaps you’ll say, ‘Hello precious stone, what part of the old universe did you come from?’.

‘From Germany’, might be the reply.

‘Well, it’s not a bad place to come from!²⁴ Now tell me what you know of God.’

If you’re prepared to stand there in eternity and listen, as they begin to tell you what they knew of God and their experiences of him, the very light of the incarnate God will come through your fellow redeemed person to you. Each stone will have a different message to tell and a slightly different angle and appreciation of the Lord. Oh, what will it be to be part of the great and eternal tabernacle where God dwells and through which he manifests his glory? It is the goal to which not only the book of Revelation proceeds but to which the whole universe proceeds.

2.c. Inheritance through overcoming

‘. . . and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.’ (21:3–6)

On what terms? ‘He who overcomes shall inherit all things’ (v. 7 NKJV). We have to pause to understand the term: what does it mean to overcome? Does it mean that there are some believers who overcome and they shall be part of the eternal city and inherit it, and there are other believers who failed to overcome and they shall not be allowed into the city and won’t inherit it? Of course not. It is in the writings of John that we come across this concept of overcoming, and he uses it in various senses and degrees. In 1 John 5, he uses it in its foundational sense:

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (v. 5) For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (v. 4)

In this world of great powers, what a victory faith is. As we have been hearing throughout this week, Satan and his hosts compete for the belief and allegiance of men and women, tempting them with giddy pleasures to lead them on to perdition. What a victory it is to have heard the truth of the gospel, and not only to have heard it but to have dared to believe it. ‘This is the victory that overcomes the world—our faith.’ And by definition, everyone who is born of God overcomes: it is the characteristic mark of believers that they do overcome. Yes, from time to time all of us fail; but the characteristic of a believer is that they overcome. Mercifully we have a great high priest who is there to restore us when we fall (Heb 10:19–22). And John reminds us that if somebody constantly lives a sinful life and makes no attempt to repent, then that person is not an overcomer—not even a true believer (1 John 5:18).

The one who overcomes, then, shall inherit all things. But all others ‘shall have their part . . .’. Oh, what a chilling word that is. What shall they inherit? They shall inherit the lake of fire (21:8 NKJV). They shall inherit the character they formed on earth—that shall be ‘their part’. They are ‘cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and liars’. That’s what they were and that is what they shall inherit. It isn’t that God takes a lot of innocent, nice, healthy, beautifully fragrant people and punishes them arbitrarily. Those who are consigned to the lake of fire inherit what they were on earth because we reap what we sow (Gal 6:7).

3. d. Features of the new Jerusalem

Now we come to the city itself. The angel shows John the gates and the foundations (21:12–14).

The foundations

The twelve foundations have the names of the twelve apostles written on them, for no other foundation can be laid but Jesus Christ as preached to us by his holy apostles and prophets (1 Cor 3:10–11; Eph 2:19–22). And while the foundation is Jesus Christ preached by the apostles, yet surely the Old Testament saints shall be part of it, will they not? Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham ‘was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God’ (v. 10). And indeed, if you listen to the Apostle Paul expounding the Christian gospel, he will tell you that its foundation began in the life of Abraham, for the great foundation of the city is justification by faith (see Romans 4). These are the great foundations of the eternal community.

The gates

But first we are told that there are twelve gates, and on each of them is inscribed the name of one of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. That is interesting, because the Old Testament tells us how the sons of Israel got their names (Gen 29:31–30:24, 35:16–18). It’s a very interesting story. Jacob had two wives and two handmaidens (don’t copy him!), and one by one they produced his sons. I’m sure it was rough going sometimes for his wives, dear souls, to live in competition with each other in Jacob’s home. Jacob—of all men on earth! I wonder what it was like. In those days when you had to compete to be the loved wife and have the most children, it was difficult if you didn’t have children. These dear women took the whole thing to God and prayed about their family life—the birth of their children, how many they had and their children’s lives. And when God answered their prayers and gave them children, they gave them names that encapsulated their own experiences of God. ‘God has heard my prayer,’ said Leah, and she named her son Simeon²⁵, to record how God had heard her prayer (Gen 29:33). Those twelve names, which summed up and encapsulated the experiences of those women, will be inscribed on the gates of glory. Well, of course they will! It isn’t just the great exploits of pioneer missionaries that shall make their mark in eternity; faithful women who walked with God, bore children and ran the family, their experiences of God shall be built into the eternal city.

There are twelve gates, and like the gates of any ancient city they are not merely places where you go in and come out. In the ancient world, the elders sat in the gate to govern the city. When Jacob saw his vision of the angels of God ascending and descending upon the ladder and God at the bottom of the ladder, that’s why he said, ‘This is the gate of heaven’ (Gen 28:17). What he’d seen was not the way into heaven. He wasn’t actually hoping to go there right away; he wanted to get married before then. He had seen the very location of the government of heaven. Here is God; and from here his angels are coming and going through the whole universe to carry out his government. This is the gate of heaven: the gates of the eternal city shall be the centre of administration for the universe.

The twelve pearls

Paul tells us that if we endure suffering with Christ, we’re going to reign with him and be part of his eternal administration (2 Tim 2:12). The qualification for that is being achieved in our daily lives now, as we learn to live and walk with God—for it is through life’s experiences that he is training us for the coming glory.

‘And the twelve gates,’ says John, ‘were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl’ (Rev 21:21). A whole gate made of one pearl; not studded with millions of little pearls? It must be some pearl, to be the size of a gate of this colossal city; and I’m tempted to say, then, that the church must be some oyster.

They tell me that pearls are formed when a grain of sand gets inside an oyster’s shell, and to ease the pain it secretes a substance which it forms into a pearl. I begin to think that if each gate into the city is one pearl, it must be some pain. My brothers and sisters, the way into the eternal city is through the sufferings of Christ, isn’t it? And then I think, how do we get entrance into the city? It is by faith, of course, and not by works. But then, as Paul and Barnabas strengthened the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith, they said, ‘for it is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God’ (see Acts 14:22). And Paul told the Corinthians not to lose heart, ‘for our sufferings and afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’ (see 2 Cor 4:17).

The street of gold

As he enters the city, John fastens his attention on the street, which is pure gold, transparent as glass (Rev 21:21). Inside the gate of an ancient city there was a big road that you’d expect to lead you deeper into the innermost part of the city. In that eternal city, what is the way made of that will lead you into deeper experiences of God? ‘The street of the city was pure gold,’ says John—so tried and purified, it was ‘transparent as glass’.

I suppose it’s not to be taken literally; it is a metaphor like the rest. It is what Peter says to his fellow believers: ‘. . . you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ’ (1 Pet 1:6–7). The testing of our faith here and now is so that, having been purified, it shall help us in the day to come to grasp the great wonders of God more deeply.

People object when I say that we shall need faith in heaven.

They say, ‘I’m sure we won’t. The Bible says that now ‘we walk by faith, not by sight’ (2 Cor 5:7). But when we get home to glory we shall see everything, so we won’t need faith.’

Well, we shall see a lot of things that we can’t see now. But let me put it to you: when you get home to glory, will you still have to trust the Lord? I mean, you trust him now, don’t you? Is it true that when you get home to glory, you won’t have to trust the Lord anymore? Of course not. When we get home to glory, shall we have to trust the Lord? Surely we shall. That is why God spends so much time purifying our faith in the here and now.

The temple

You walk along to the centre of the city, expecting perhaps to see a great temple somewhere. ‘Where is God in all this place?’, you say. ‘Where is his temple?’ When you find there isn’t one, it dawns on you that you are already in the temple, for you are in the presence of the Lord; you are ‘at home with the Lord’. ‘Its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb’ (Rev 21:22). You are part of the temple, and you are with the Lord. Like Paul, it would almost make you want to go, wouldn’t it?

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Cor 5:6–8)

the lamp

You’ll know that in this world you need the sunlight to bring out the best in things. Sometimes I have visitors who come and stay with me in Northern Ireland. I take them around to see the glories of the place—and we do have some glories, when you can see them! There are mountains and rivers and a marvellous coastline. But more often than not, as we drive along I have to say, ‘Sorry it’s raining today (and mostly it is); if it wasn’t raining, this would be beautiful. There’s a big mountain here and all the colours are superb, but you’ll just have to imagine it.’ Without any light, you can’t see anything.

So, when we get home to glory, how shall we be able to see all that’s in it? ‘And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb’ (21:23). In the shining of the glory you’re going to sparkle, my brothers and sisters. It will bring out every facet of your redeemed humanity. Oh, how lovely it’s going to be!

The occupants

By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. (Rev 21:24)

You say, ‘How could anyone contribute anything to that glorious city?’. I like the analogy in the book of Second Chronicles chapter nine. When Solomon was in all his glory, the queen of Sheba heard of it and came to listen to his wisdom. She brought him an enormous present, and then once every three years the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram:

Moreover, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum wood and precious stones. And the king made from the algum wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers. There never was seen the like of them before in the land of Judah. (vv. 10–11)

They made musical instruments out of the almug²⁶ wood, and the music in Solomon’s court was absolutely exotic. ‘All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present’ (vv. 23–24). 

What are you going to take to glory with you, my good fellow-believer? Something that will enhance the music of heaven? As the wealth of experience is brought into the holy city from all our far-flung places, there’s going to be music such as angels never knew, ‘For [they] have never felt the joys that our salvation brings’.²⁷ Out of the sorrows of earth and the sorrows of Calvary itself, God is going to bring a great harvest of glory to his name. What shall it be like when the Lord comes and takes us to the Father’s house, and we step inside the city and know ourselves to be at home in the immediate presence of God?

There shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; . . . and they shall reign for ever and ever’. (Rev 22:3–5 KJV)

No crying, no night, no death, but everlasting delight. And supremely, we shall see his face and serve him without pause. Now is the time for us to prepare, is it not? Believing in that eternal city and our eternal occupation, we submit our lives to God, so that by life’s day to day experiences he may teach us and form our characters, and when the day dawns we are ready to share the government with Christ.

Time has defeated me, although much more remains to be said. Just a brief reference again to the final three statements in the third trilogy, when the angel finished his description of the city.

3. e. Veracity of the prophecy (22:6–7)

Statement 1, by the angel

These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. (22:6–7)²⁸

3. f. Proper reaction to the prophecy (22:8–9)

Statement 2, by John and the angel:

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God’. (vv. 8–9)

3. g. Direction for publication of the prophecy (22:10–15)

Statement 3, by the angel and the Lord Jesus:

And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practises falsehood. (vv. 10–15)

Nothing inside the city will make or practise a lie. Blessed are those who enter it (v. 14). And why blessed? They are blessed because of all the glories that are there. And blessed again because outside there is an unimaginable hell for those who have chosen to cling to their falsehood rather than accept God’s truth (22:15).

To live without that truth, as if there were no God, is to live in unreality. It is to live a lie. What shall the portion be of those who unrepentantly choose so to live: neglecting God their Creator, and Christ their would-be Redeemer? It shall be to reap the final harvest in the lake of fire, and that is no temporary thing: it will be eternal existence.

These are the solemn but true words of God. We would gladly shut our eyes to them and wish it were not so, but in the end he has to talk to us straight. We need to be saved! The cross of God’s incarnate Son was not a game, and not unnecessary. Such a costly redemption was given by God because the alternative is beyond all measurement of suffering. Let us therefore take these things seriously and make sure that our names are found written in the book of life.

The three-fold testifying of Jesus (22:16–20)

1. ‘I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’

The response: ‘The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come”. And let the one who hears say, “Come”. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price’ (vv. 16–17).

2. ‘I [Jesus] warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book’ (22:18–19).

3. ‘He [Jesus] who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon”.

The response: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”’ (22:20).

There shall be days of unprecedented joy when sorrow and sin are gone for ever. It is no wonder that when true Christians read of these things and hear the affirmations of the Lord Jesus, ‘Surely I am coming soon’ (Rev 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20), we raise our hearts to him and cry unitedly, as the ancient church did, marána thá—‘our Lord, come’ (Rev 22:17, 20). Only in his coming can we have hope, not only for ourselves but for our sorry world.

‘THE GRACE of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints’ (22:21)

May our response echo the Apostle John’s—‘Amen’.

²² James G. Small (1817–1888), ‘I’ve Found a Friend; O Such a Friend’ (1863).

²³ Joseph Swain (1761–1796), ‘What will it be to dwell above?’.

²⁴ This conference was being held in Germany.

²⁵ Shimʻôwn, the Hebrew for ‘heard’.

²⁶ In the time of Solomon (c. 920 BC), Ophir was thought of as being overseas. Gold, almug (or algum) wood (i.e., sandalwood), ivory, monkeys, and peacocks were procured there. Many areas of the Arabian Peninsula have been proposed as the site of Ophir; the principal alternative locations overseas are East Africa and India. (Britannica.com)

²⁷ Johnson Oatman (1856–1922), ‘There is singing up in heaven’.

²⁸ Unfortunately, the audio ends here. The text has been supplemented by the remaining sections of the Study Notes, and short extracts from two other transcripts where David Gooding referred to these final verses in the book of Revelation.

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Study Notes

An Investigation of the Book of the Revelation in the Light of the Tabernacle

Our Approach to the Revelation

A time honoured way of studying the Revelation is to treat it as a sourcebook from which to take various pieces of prophetic information and, blending them with other prophetic matter derived from other scriptures, to build the whole into a system of eschatology.

That is, of course, a valid and valuable method of study. On the other hand, it is self-evident that God himself has not seen fit to communicate prophetic truth in the Bible in the form of systematic theology. In our studies we shall be attempting to investigate the Book of the Revelation as a book, to analyse its contents, to map out its major sections and to study their functional inter-relationships.

In the course of that we shall find that in four at least of the major sections of the book, the stage is set for the understanding of events on earth by a vision of heaven described in terms of the Old Testament tabernacle, which itself was, as we know, a copy of things in the heavens. We shall therefore renew and deepen our understanding of the tabernacle and use it as a tool for understanding the Revelation.

In so doing we shall observe in the literary structure of the Book of Exodus that the tabernacle, with its expression of ‘heaven brought down to earth’, stands in contrast to Pharaoh’s world which God plagued. The similarity between this and the situation in the Revelation, where the heavenly tabernacle stands opposed to the world of the beast on which God will pour out his plagues, is obvious. We shall enquire into its significance.

Among the topics that will be studied in depth will be:

1. The nature of God’s government and the qualification of the Lamb to judge.
2. The age-long problem of the silence of God.
3. God’s answer to human and Satanic perversion of power.
4. God’s response to the world’s perversion of beauty.

We shall also investigate the principles of salvation as they are displayed in the Revelation against the background of God’s judgments. And we shall examine the use of the tabernacle as a tool for communicating the gospel not only to a religiously-minded but also to a secular and atheistic world.

The Structure of the Book of the Revelation

1. 1:1–3:22	2. 4:1–7:17	3. 8:1–11:18	4. 11:19–15:4	5. 15:5–19:10	6. 19:11–22:21
1. Statement of contents . . . the testimony of Jesus (1:1–3)	Opened: Door in heaven	Opened: Seventh seal: Silence in heaven for half an hour	Opened: Temple of God in heaven	Opened: Temple of tabernacle of testimony in heaven	Opened: Heaven
2. John’s greeting: grace and peace from the Trinity (1:4–8)	THE THRONE and THE TWENTY-FOUR THRONES	BIG ALTAR and GOLDEN ALTAR OF INCENSE: SMOKE FROM THE INCENSE	ARK OF GOD’S COVENANT	TEMPLE FILLED WITH SMOKE FROM GOD’S GLORY AND POWER
	Pervading theme:	Pervading theme:	Pervading theme:	Pervading theme:
A. THE SON OF MAN – A sharp sword coming out of his mouth – Coming to address the SEVEN CHURCHES (1:9–20)	– The throne of God; Ch. 4: throughout; Ch. 5: throughout; 6:16; 7:9–11, 15, 17	– Timing 8:1; 9:5, 10, 15; 10:6; 11:2, 8–9, 11, 18	– Power and authority; Ch. 12: Satan’s struggle for power: the man-child and God’s throne; Ch. 13: the throne of the beast; Ch. 13; 14:7, 9; 15:2: the beast’s blasphemous claim to divine honours and worship	– Beauty and clothing 15:6 of the seven angels; 16:15: garments/naked; 17:4: of the Harlot; 18:12, 16: of Babylon; 19:7–8: of the Bride of the Lamb	A. THE WARRIOR KING AND JUDGE – A sharp sword coming out of his mouth – Coming to deal with the KINGS OF THE EARTH, THE BEAST, THE FALSE PROPHET AND SATAN (19:11–20:10)
B. THE LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES (2:1–3:22)	Other Tabernacle references: 6:1–7: living creatures; 6:9: altar; 7:11: living creatures; 7:15: tent	Other Tabernacle references: 9:13: golden altar; 11:1, 4: temple, court, altar, lampstands	Other Tabernacle references: 13:6: tabernacle of God; 14:18: altar of sacrifice; 15:2: the sea of glass	Other Tabernacle references: 15:7: living creatures; 16:7: altar of sacrifice	B. NEW JERUSALEM – TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN – BRIDE OF THE LAMB (20:11–22:15)
	Comment: (7:13–17) – by one of the elders	Comment: (11:16–18) – by the twenty-four elders	Song: (15:2–4) – by the victors over the beast	Response: (19:1–10) – by the great multitude	1. Threefold testifying of Jesus (22:16–20); 2. The grace (22:21)

Strategic Themes

I	II	III	IV	V	VI
1:1–3:22	4:1–7:17	8:1–11:18	11:19–15:4	15:5–19:10	19:11–22:21
SON OF MAN	LION OF JUDAH: LAMB SLAIN	STRONG ANGEL	WOMAN AND MALE CHILD	FALSE WOMAN: BABYLON	WARRIOR KING
Clothed with a garment down to his feet, face as sun, eyes as fire, seven stars in right hand, feet as bronze, glowing in furnace	Seven horns; Seven eyes	– Rainbow on head – Clothed with cloud – Face like sun – Feet like pillars of fire – Roars like lion – Foot on land and sea – In his left hand a little scroll	– Clothed with sun – Crown of twelve stars – Moon under feet; She, her child and seed attacked by Satan	– Clothed in purple and scarlet, gold, precious stones and pearls – In her hand a golden cup – She rides the beast	– Clothed in a robe dipped in blood – Eyes like blazing fire – On head many crowns; He overpowers beast, false prophet and Satan
What you see, write in a scroll	He takes the scroll, and opens its seals	John takes the scroll and eats it
and	and	and	and	and	and
SEVEN LAMPSTANDS i.e. seven churches	SEALING OF ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR THOUSAND AND SALVATION AND TRIUMPH OF UNCOUNTABLE THRONG	TWO LAMPSTANDS i.e. two prophets before Lord of earth and the temple	THE DRAGON, THE BEAST AND THEIR FALSE PROPHET	THE SCARLET BEAST AND HIS SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS	HIS BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE
I will remove your lampstand out of its place	The great tribulation	The beast shall overcome them	The beast overcomes the saints	The beast and the ten kings destroy Babylon	The kings of the earth bring their glory into it
but	but	but	but	but	but
To him who overcomes…	They come out of it… the sun shall not strike nor any heat…	They went up into heaven	Those who were victorious over the beast	The Lamb’s wife has made herself ready	He who overcomes shall inherit these things

Section I

Judgment begins at the house of God. Christ visits, praises, criticises, admonishes and if need be chastises, rallies and encourages his churches.

A. The Nature and Contents of the Book — 1:1–3

1. A revelation of which Christ is both author and central theme, about things that must soon take place.
2. Conveyed by Christ’s angel to John who testifies to everything he saw, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
3. To reap its blessing the prophecy must not only be read and heard, but kept.

B. Greetings, and Grace from the Holy Trinity — 1:4–8

1. From him who is and was and is to come.
   • From the seven Spirits before his throne.
   • From Jesus Christ (1) the faithful witness, (2) firstborn of the dead, (3) ruler of the kings of the earth.
2. Ascription of glory and dominion to Christ in light of
3. His love and redemption.
4. What he has made of us.
5. His coming manifestation.
6. Declaration by the Lord God:
7. The Alpha and the Omega._
8. Who is, and who was and who is to come.
9. The Almighty._

C. The Son of Man Amidst the Golden Lampstands — 1:9–20

1. Christ as judge: his official robe; the sword coming out of his mouth.
2. His purity and his power.
3. Christ strengthens John to write: ‘I am the living one, became dead, am alive, have the keys of Death and Hades’.
4. The scope of the writing: the things you saw, the things that are, the things that shall be after these.
5. The nature and significance of the lampstands and stars.

D. Christ’s Appraisal of His Churches — 2:1–3:22

1. Ephesus	I know your works . . . BUT . . . overcome . . . tree of life	cf. 22:2
2. Smyrna	I know your tribulation . . . FEAR NOT . . . overcome . . . crown of life . . . not hurt by the second death	cf. 20:14
3. Pergamum	I know your dwelling-place . . . BUT . . . overcome . . . hidden manna . . . white stone . . . secret name
4. Thyatira	I know your works . . . BUT . . . overcome . . . authority over nations . . . rule with rod of iron	cf. 12:5; 19:15; 20:6
5. Sardis	I know your works . . . AND . . . overcome . . . will not blot name out of book of life	cf. 20:15; 21:27
6. Philadelphia	I know your works . . . BEHOLD . . . overcome . . . will write on him name of God, name of city, new Jerusalem	cf. 22:4
7. Laodicea	I know your works . . . BECAUSE . . . overcome . . . sit down with me on my throne . . . my Father’s throne	cf. 22:1, 3

For the idea of ‘overcoming’ see 21:7

Old Testament Allusions and Features of the Seven Churches

Old Testament Allusions

1. Ephesus	I will remove your lampstand out of its place . . . To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God (cf. Gen 3).
2. Smyrna	Fear not what you are about to suffer. Behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you shall have affliction ten days (cf. the prophecy of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt: Your seed will be strangers in a country not their own and be enslaved; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. Gen 15:13).
3. Pergamum	You have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel (cf. Num 22–24).
4. Thyatira	You allow that woman Jezebel, who says that she is a prophetess, and teaches and seduces my servants (cf. 1 Kgs 16:29–31; 2 Kgs 9).
5. Sardis	I will not blot his name out of the book of life. cf. and the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam (II) (2 Kgs 14:27).
6. Philadelphia	He who has the key of David, who opens and none shall shut, and shuts and none shall open cf. a prophecy originally spoken of Eliakim, royal steward in the reign of Hezekiah (Isa 22:22).
7. Laodicea	I will spew you out of my mouth cf. the prophecy of the exile. . . lest the land spew you out also . . . as it spewed out the nation that was before you (Lev 18:28).

Features of the Seven Churches

1. Ephesus	Commended for their hate: blamed for letting go (aphekes) of their first love.
2. Smyrna	Them that say they are Jews and they are not but are a synagogue of Satan . . . behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison . . .
3. Pergamum	You hold fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas . . . who was killed among you . . .
4. Thyatira	Commended for their love: blamed for letting (apheis) the woman Jezebel teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication.
5. Sardis	You have a name that you live, and you are dead.
6. Philadelphia	I have set before you a door opened, which none can shut . . . Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and they are not . . . to come and fall before your feet . . .
7. Laodicea	Blamed for being neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. As many as I love I reprove and chasten.

Section II

The throne of God and the worthiness of God and of the Lamb to receive the worship and service of God’s whole creation.

A. Description of the Throne 4:1–11

1. Its occupant.
2. The rainbow round the throne: and round the throne twenty-four thrones: also occupied.
3. Out of the throne lightnings, voices, thunders.
4. Seven burning torches before the throne: and before the throne a sea of glass.
5. In the midst and round the throne four living creatures.
6. The grounds of God’s worthiness to be worshipped: he is the Creator: his creatorial purpose.

B. The Worthiness of the Lamb to Execute Judgment 5:1–14

1. The LION has overcome: by being The SLAIN LAMB with seven horns and seven eyes.
2. The new song: the prayers of the saints offered by the elders: the Lamb is worthy because:
   • He has purchased men for God with his blood;
   • He has made them a kingdom and priests to God;
   • They shall reign over the earth._
3. The angels’ worship.
4. The whole universe’s acknowledgement of the Lamb’s worthiness.

C. The Opening of the Seals 6:1–17

1. White horse: conquest.
2. Red horse: war.
3. Black horse: famine.
4. Pale horse: Death and Hades.
5. Martyred souls must wait to be avenged.
6. Climax: the great day of wrath
7. The half hour of silence (8:1)

D. Two Groups Saved 7:1–17

1. One hundred and forty four thousand out of the tribes of Israel: sealed, so as to suffer no hurt.
2. An uncountable multitude: they come out of the great tribulation.
3. The grounds of their salvation: they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.
4. Their blessings and consolations.

Section III

The problem of the silence of God in the face of evil and his apparent delay in avenging his saints, apostles and prophets.

A. The Blowing of the Seven Trumpets 8:1–9:21; 11:15

1. Smoke from the incense and the prayers of the saints leads to the breaking of the half hour of silence: thunders, lightnings, earthquake, trumpets, as censer is emptied out on the earth.
2. The seven trumpets: _a_. Hail and fire and blood: one-third earth burnt up. _b_. One-third sea turned to blood: one-third sea-life and shipping destroyed. _c_. One-third rivers, fountains, waters become bitter. _d_. One-third sun, moon, stars smitten: one-third reduction of light. e. Locusts from abyss torment men. Their king, Apollyon. f. Angels at Euphrates loosed. Invasion by vast army of horses. _g_. See* below.

B. The Strong Angel Sets Right Foot on Sea and Left on Earth 10:1–11

1. Clothed with a cloud: rainbow on head: face as sun . . .
2. In his hand a little book, sweet in mouth, bitter in belly.
3. Swears by Creator: delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel (see* below).
4. The mystery of God, according to the good news which he declared to his servants the prophets, SHALL BE FINISHED.

C. The Two Witnesses 11:1–14

1. The holy city trodden underfoot by Gentiles forty-two months.
2. After one thousand two hundred and sixty days the two LAMPSTANDS are extinguished by the beast. The dead bodies of the two prophets lie in city called Sodom and Egypt where the Lord was crucified. The world rejoices.
3. After three-and-a-half days the prophets are resurrected, taken to heaven, their testimony vindicated.

D. Thanksgiving That the Time for Judgment Has Come 11:15–18

1. At the seventh trumpet mystery of God finished.
2. Great voices in heaven: kingdom of world has become God’s and Christ’s.
3. Twenty-four elders who sit on thrones: fall on faces: give thanks that
   • God has at last taken his great power and begun to reign.
   • In response to wrath of nations, God’s WRATH has come.
   • The time has come for dead to be judged: to reward prophets and saints and those who fear God’s name: to destroy those who destroy the earth.

Section IV

The throne of the beast and the grounds of his demand to receive universal worship. God’s answer to the beast and Satan.

A. First Trilogy: Signs in Heaven—Satan Frustrated 11:19–13:1

1. A woman and child: the dragon stands before the woman to devour child: but the child is caught up to God’s throne.
2. War in heaven: accuser of brethren cast down: they overcome him: NOW has come salvation, power, Kingdom of God and authority of his Christ.
3. Satan persecutes woman: fails: stands on sea-shore.

B. Second Trilogy: Situation Resulting on Earth—Satan Apparently Victorious 13:1–14:5

1. I saw—the beast’s throne: his ‘resurrection’ and irresistible power: his claim to divine worship: he overcomes the saints.
2. I saw—the second beast’s deceptive signs: image: no purchasing without the mark of the beast.
3. I saw—the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with one hundred and forty four thousand purchased (!) out of the earth: A NEW SONG. In their mouth no lie.

C. Third Trilogy: Warnings and Judgments—Earth’s Inhabitants Warned Against the Beast 14:6–15:1

1. I saw—
   • First Angel: worship creator: hour of judgment come.
   • Second Angel: Babylon has fallen.
   • Third Angel: warning: mark of beast leads to eternal torment.
   • Voice from heaven: those who die in the Lord are blessed._
2. I saw—
   • Son of Man sitting on cloud: corn-harvest.
   • Another angel: grape-harvest: wrath of God.
3. I saw—
   • Seven Angels: announcement of seven plagues which will complete THE WRATH OF GOD.

D. Victory Over the Beast 15:2–4

1. I saw—the victors stand by the sea of glass and fire.
2. They sing the new song of Moses and the Lamb.
3. The grounds on which all nations will worship God and acknowledge his unique name and holiness: his righteous acts have been made manifest.

Section V

God’s eventual and swift avenging of his saints, apostles and prophets on Babylon who compromised with the beast in order to gain power and wealth and murdered God’s true people and preachers.

A. The Pouring out of the Vials in Which God’s Wrath Is Finished 15:5–16:21

1. Smoke from the glory and power of God fill the temple: None can enter till the seven plagues are finished.
2. The seven vials
   • Ugly and painful sores on people who have mark of beast.
   • Sea turned to blood as of dead man: everything in it dies.
   • Rivers and fountains of waters become blood._
   • Sun scorches men with fire._
   • Throne and kingdom of beast darkened.
   • Euphrates dried up. Kings of earth deceived by demons to come to the war of the great day of God Almighty.
   • Great voice out of temple, from throne: IT IS DONE. Great earthquake. Great city divided. Cities of the nations fall. Babylon the great remembered and given cup of God’s WRATH. Every island and mountain flees. Great hail.

B. Judgment of Babylon (A) 17:1–18

SHE SITS ON MANY WATERS AND ON SEVEN MOUNTAINS

1. Clothed in purple, scarlet: gold, jewels, pearls.
2. In her hand a golden cup of wine of unclean things.
3. The historical succession of empires: five fallen, one is, one is yet to come and must continue a little while: then the eighth . . . and he goes into perdition, overcome by the Lamb.
4. A mystery: Babylon . . . mother of harlots, drunk with blood of saints and martyrs of Jesus . . . she is herself destroyed by the beast and ten kings: ‘God put into their hearts to do his mind . . . until the words of God should be finished’.

C. Judgment of Babylon (B) 18:1–24

1. The unholy city: ‘I sit as a queen’: In one day her plagues come.
2. In her was found the blood of prophets, saints and of all slain: ‘God has judged your judgment on her’.
3. The city never to rise again: NO LAMP TO SHINE in her again.

D. Hallelujahs for God’s Judgment 19:1–10

1. By a great voice of a great multitude in heaven: salvation, glory, power are God’s for he has judged the harlot and avenged his servants.
2. By the twenty-four elders.
3. By a voice from the throne.
4. By the voice of a great multitude: God reigns: Rejoice! Give him the glory: the marriage supper of Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.
5. It was given her that she should clothe herself in fine linen.

Section VI

The coming of Christ in power and great glory to execute the wrath of God; the millennial reign of Christ with a rod of iron; the great white throne and the new heavens and the new earth; and all of this to prepare for the coming of the new Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God and the bride of the Lamb.

A. The Rider on the White Horse

First Trilogy: 19:11–21

1. In justice he judges and makes war: a sharp sword out of mouth.
2. Invitation to birds to the great supper.
3. The battle: beast and false prophet into lake of fire: the rest killed with the sharp sword: birds filled with flesh.

Second Trilogy: 20:1–10

1. Angel with keys of abyss: binds Satan and imprisons in abyss for one thousand years.
2. One thousand years’ reign of resurrected martyrs and those who refused mark of beast.
3. After the one thousand years: final rebellion: Satan into lake of fire.

B. The New Heaven and Earth

Third Trilogy: 20:11–22:15

1. • The great white throne: heaven and earth flee: if any not found written, cast into lake of fire (20:11–15).
2. • New heaven and new earth: new Jerusalem corning down: tabernacle of God with men (21:1–4).
   • God’s pronouncement: he who overcomes shall inherit: but . . . all liars, their part in lake of fire (21:5–8).
3. • Angel shows John bride of Lamb: and there shall not enter . . . anyone who makes a lie: and he showed me (21:9–22:5).
   • Veracity of the prophecy (22:6–7).
   • Proper reaction to the prophecy (22:8–9).
   • Direction for publication of the prophecy: outside are dogs . . . and everyone who loves and makes a lie (22:10–15).

C. The Three-Fold Testifying of Jesus 22:16–20

1. I, Jesus have sent my angel to testify; and the response of the Spirit, bride, hearers and thirsty ones (22:16–17).
2. I testify unto you . . . warning against altering the words of the book (22:18–19).
3. He who testifies says: surely I come quickly; and the response: Amen: come Lord Jesus (22:20).

D. THE GRACE of the Lord Jesus be with the Saints 22:21

The Two Halves of Exodus—Some Comparisons

1.	5.
a. Israelites reject Moses as judge: he flees to Jethro (2:14–22)	a. Jethro advises Moses how to organise Israel’s judges. Moses becomes the mediator of the law (ch. 18)
b. God’s self-revelation in the flames of the burning bush (ch. 3)	b. God’s self-revelation in the flames of Sinai (ch. 19)
c. Israel’s deliverance based on God’s covenant with Abraham (2:24)	c. Israel’s status, role and behaviour dependent on the covenant at Sinai (chs. 19–24)
d. Israel, God’s firstborn (4:22)	d. Israel, God’s special treasure from among all nations, priests, a holy nation (19:5–6)
2.	6.
a. ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me’ (9:1)	a. Directions for the tabernacle and priesthood (chs. 25–31)
b. The ‘finger of God’ intervening in the physical world (8:19).	b. The ‘finger of God’ in the revelation of the law (31:18)
c. God’s presence in the created world: the difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians is a sign to Pharaoh ‘that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth’ (8:21–23)	c. God’s presence among his redeemed people: ‘a sanctuary that I may dwell among them’ (25:8). Israel’s observance of God’s Sabbath rest after the creation of the world, a sign between God and Israel . . . ‘that I am the Lord who sanctifies you’ (31:12–17)
3.	7.
a. Israelites ask Egyptians for gold and silver (11:2–3; 12:35–36)	a. Israel turn some of the gold into the golden calf (32:2–4)
b. ‘I have brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt’ (12:17)	b. ‘These are your gods which brought you up out of the land of Egypt’ (32:4)
c. ‘You shall keep it as a feast (hag) to the Lord . . . forever’ (12:14)	c. ‘Tomorrow is a feast (hag) to the Lord’ (32:5)
d. Sanctification of Israel’s firstborn to the Lord (13:1–2, 11–16)	d. Consecration of the Levites to the Lord (32:26–29). The sanctification of the firstborn (34:19–20)
e. The Lord ‘passes over’ the door to protect the firstborn (12:13, 23)	e. The Lord puts Moses in the cleft of the rock and covers him with his hand to protect him (33:20–23)
4.	8.
a. ‘The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud . . . and by night in a pillar of fire’ (13:21–22)	a. ‘The cloud . . . was on the tabernacle by day, and . . . fire by night . . . throughout all their journeys’ (40:38)
b. ‘You have guided them . . . to your holy habitation . . . you will bring them in . . . the place . . . which you have made for yourself to dwell in, thy sanctuary . . .’ (15:13, 17)	b. The making, presentation, and erection of the tabernacle for God to dwell in (chs. 35–40)
c. The Sabbath in relation to gaining one’s daily bread (16:22–36)	c. The Sabbath in relation to building the tabernacle (35:1–3). ‘So Moses finished the work’ (40:33)
d. ‘They looked toward the wilderness and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud’ (16:10)	d. ‘The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle’ (40:34, 35)

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