SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and it is my pleasure to be leading us through the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, number 66.
SPEAKER_00: And we are going to be in chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to turn there in your Bibles, we're calling our study The Hope of Glory.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because that's where all of this is leading.
SPEAKER_00: And as we read all of this with all these amazing images, we're constantly be reminded as we go through the book of Revelation of the fact that it's the return of the king is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have this hope of glory that all that God has said and promised will indeed come true.
SPEAKER_00: As we looked at the first five chapters, and I love this summary by Eugene Peterson.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to throw up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: Through worship, there is an immersion in the centering reality of God's rule and redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the person in whom God's will is victoriously accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: The church is the community in which we know and are known by God.
SPEAKER_00: And worship is the action by which we practice and enjoy the presence of the creating and redeeming God.
SPEAKER_00: Now we learned in our last chapter about this sacred scroll, chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: And we focused on a question there.
SPEAKER_00: Who is worthy to open the scroll?
SPEAKER_00: And that there was just a pause in the vision of the heavenly realms as John was experiencing all of this.
SPEAKER_00: There was a pause, and it seemed like there was an the answer was nobody's worthy.
SPEAKER_00: And so in that silence, the next thing you hear is John weeping, and we were told he was weeping greatly.
SPEAKER_00: And I think his own pastor's heart, his own broken heart over the fact that nobody could open this sacred scroll, this sacred book, because it had the message of God's salvation, God's covenant promises for his people in it.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants that to get out.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us eventually to be able to read that and hear that good news.
SPEAKER_00: And so he weeps, and then one of the elders steps forward and says, Hold on a second, don't weep anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You see over there, there, that right there, the lion of Judah, the root of David, the lamb that was slain, pointing right at Jesus in this heavenly vision that John is having.
SPEAKER_00: He's worthy to open, to break the seals and open the scroll.
SPEAKER_00: And so because of Jesus, we indeed have access to the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Revelation 6 overflows with amazing images.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these will be familiar to some of you.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you'll stay with me until the end of the chapter, the end of this teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it ends with a question which I think is awesome and amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really kind of the ultimate question, in a way, uh, that all of us ask at some point in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So hang in for the end of chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at what it says.
SPEAKER_00: But before we do, let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, what we see not, would you show us?
SPEAKER_00: What we know not, would you teach us?
SPEAKER_00: And what we are not, Lord, would you make us as we study your word today?
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you give us a clearer vision of your truth, a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love toward us.
SPEAKER_00: Praying this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And amen.
SPEAKER_00: So John continues as he's writing down this revelation that's unfolding before him.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, he says I saw like 50 times.
SPEAKER_00: So he's this is one of those kind of dream sequences for for you that you remember every little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm the worst guy at remembering anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: I hardly ever remember my dreams.
SPEAKER_00: My wife remembers every detail uh where we were, what we were doing, how fast the car was going, what we were wearing, everything.
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember any of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know which one you're like, but here John is just reminding us 50 times that he saw this.
SPEAKER_00: And he saw when the lamb broke one of the seven seals.
SPEAKER_00: And there it is.
SPEAKER_00: What was just one chapter ago?
SPEAKER_00: Despair over the fact that nobody could do this.
SPEAKER_00: Here now the lamb is actually doing this.
SPEAKER_00: And the lamb breaks one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with a voice of thunder, Come.
SPEAKER_00: And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
SPEAKER_00: The second seal is going to be open now.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And when he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come.
SPEAKER_00: And so each one of these four living creatures that are around the throne, right near the Lamb of God, as the Lamb of God breaks open the seal, one of these four living creatures says with a thunderous voice, Come, and summons is given.
SPEAKER_00: And each one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse start to come out, right?
SPEAKER_00: So the second one comes out.
SPEAKER_00: This time a red horse went out, and to him who sat on it it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another.
SPEAKER_00: And a great sword was given to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have the first horseman gonna go to the earth, and he's all about conquest.
SPEAKER_00: He's all about the ambition of men to conquer greed, to take over, to be in control.
SPEAKER_00: And the second one is about conflict, which does result when everyone else is pursuing conquest or being the trying to be number one or trying to be the first or to have the last word uh or to assert the self, just like we have in our world today.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually what happens is we have this cacophony of competing stories.
SPEAKER_00: My autobiography, my I want what I want, and I want it now.
SPEAKER_00: And the world just, you know, spirals down into chaos because everybody's seeking to conquer, and everybody is living in conflict, seeking to slay one another.
SPEAKER_00: And the great sword was given to this horseman.
SPEAKER_00: And when he, the Lamb broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature sing, Come! And so they're all saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: They're summoning one of the horsemen.
SPEAKER_00: And I looked and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: What do scales remind you of?
SPEAKER_00: Justice, yeah, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard, as it were, a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine.
SPEAKER_00: And so some voice in the center of the four living creatures is getting pretty specific with the pair of scales and what's gonna happen there.
SPEAKER_00: And and and what we have here is sort of the inversion of values, and all of a sudden a denarius, which was a full day's wage, the average day's wage, takes that just to buy a bit of wheat.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're gonna go with the poor man's wheat, you get the barley.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's scarcity, um, and there's famine that comes upon the earth because of these four horsemen of the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_00: And when he, the lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come! And again, I'm kind of making it dramatic because their voices are supposed to be like thunder.
SPEAKER_00: Um not like the buzzing of a bee, but like thunder.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I looked, and so in his dream, John sees a pale horse or an ashen horse, it might say, in your English Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And he who sat on it had the name Death, and Hades was following with him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if Hades is on a, you know, riding behind him on the same horse, or or if Hades is riding alongside him on a smaller horse or behind him or whatever, but it's death and hell together, okay?
SPEAKER_00: In this fourth case.
SPEAKER_00: And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, 25% of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so here you have these four horsemen of the apocalypse, some of which you've probably heard of before, and we'll talk about that in a second.
SPEAKER_00: But drawing from all of these images from the from the Old Testament books like Zechariah and Jeremiah, and um uh we we we've got references in this chapter to Exodus and Hosea, and just over and over again, it's clear that John knew his Old Testament Bible and even his New Testament, because when you compare Revelation chapter 6 to Matthew 24, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and you've you've got to just take the time and do that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to do that in our session here today, but but you've got to take the time and do that and just compare those two.
SPEAKER_00: Just it's it's really amazing.
SPEAKER_00: The fifth seal, verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: When he broke the fifth seal, the Lamb is breaking these seals one by one.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I John saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So this is another fascinating thing.
SPEAKER_00: This time, no horseman, no horse, no horseman, nobody being sent to the earth to do something.
SPEAKER_00: But here, remaining in the heavenly realm, under the altar, and this is an interesting image too, because in the temple, in the tabernacle, you had these two altars.
SPEAKER_00: You had the the altar uh of sacrifice and purification as you as you first start to come in to the uh to either the tabernacle or to the temple once it was built.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the inside you have the altar of incense.
SPEAKER_00: But these souls, they're underneath the altar.
SPEAKER_00: And they're the ones who have who have died.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they have been slain because of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: They haven't been slain because they're foolish, they haven't been slain because of their own reckless living.
SPEAKER_00: They've been slain because of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's religious persecution, and more specifically, Christian religious persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And there's never been a time.
SPEAKER_00: There's never been, I mean you know, the 20th century, the most violent century of the but take all 19th centuries preceding the 20th century, add up all of the Christians who've been persecuted in those 19th centuries, and it doesn't equal the number of people that have been persecuted, the number of Christians that have been persecuted in the 20th century.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's really sobering when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this ashen horse comes out, and he's got the authority to do this, and then this fifth seal is like this the scene is remains in heaven, and it's the souls of those who have been slain because of the word of God, because of the testimony which they had maintained or they were faithful to.
SPEAKER_00: I love this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And they cried out with a loud voice, these souls did.
SPEAKER_00: So not only are they visible to John in some way, and I don't know how that is, but they're also, he can hear them.
SPEAKER_00: They're audible in some way.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what they're saying: these souls uh underneath the altar, these souls of the people who have been faithful saints, faithful to Christ, faithful to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they're saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?
SPEAKER_00: And the idea there is on those who killed us, those who were at odds with you, God, who were at odds with your people and who killed us for our faith, just because we trusted in you and believed in you and named you as our King, Savior, and God, and put our hope and confidence in you.
SPEAKER_00: And even with that, we shared in the sufferings of Christ, and we were taken in death.
SPEAKER_00: And yet here they are, alive in the heavenly realm, visible in some way to John, and audible in some way to John, and waiting for something to happen in front of John.
SPEAKER_00: He can see all of this, and the image we're given is one that lights up hope in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: How long, Lord, before you vindicate our faith and trust and hope in you?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they're longing for the day when Christ returns and sets all things right, when God decides to wrap up human history, and that day is coming and it's actually going to be alluded to, and the next seal is opened.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord responds to them in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: You see, there was given to each of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been killed, should be completed also.
SPEAKER_00: Now, note this at least their number isn't complete.
SPEAKER_00: There are more who will be joining them.
SPEAKER_00: And that number has been determined in the heavenly realm.
SPEAKER_00: And those souls who have died and who were living underneath the altar there, that John could see and that John could hear had been robed in the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They were wearing white robes that they had been given.
SPEAKER_00: And they've been comforted by being told that they rest a little while longer.
SPEAKER_00: The day is coming, the number has been set, you see.
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing when you start to think of that.
SPEAKER_00: Rest a little longer, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Let your nap just go a little longer.
SPEAKER_00: How many times have you wished for your nap to go a little bit longer?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But the day that you're longing for, the day of justice, is coming.
SPEAKER_00: The day of the vindication of the name of God, the name of Jesus, and your confidence and your hope in Jesus, the vindication of your faith in Christ, that day is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12, I looked, John did, when he broke the lamb breaks, the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood.
SPEAKER_00: Notice these words like and as all the time.
SPEAKER_00: He's just, his mind is bone, his eyes are popping out of his head.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't really know how to describe some of this stuff, and so he has to resort to these comparison words over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
SPEAKER_00: And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it's rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's a whole lot of shaking going on.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea is that the end of reality in the physical universe, especially in this planet Earth, is it seems to be happening.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that can be shaken is being shaken, and this sixth seal is being opened, and it's being shown to John that all of the earth is quaking.
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
SPEAKER_00: The sky was split apart like a scroll, rolled up like a scroll.
SPEAKER_00: Every mountain and island moved out of their place.
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the earth and the great men, verse 15 says, and the commanders and the rich and the strong, and every slave and free man.
SPEAKER_00: So no matter who you were, didn't no matter what kind of earthly privilege you have, you're running, you're hiding themselves in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's interesting, the these ones who presumably had set themselves at odds with God, presumably had been among those who had actually slain those who had been faithful, whose souls were now under the altar in the heavenly realm as history progressed.
SPEAKER_00: These ones are hiding now in caves, and they're actually recognizing that there's somebody sitting on the throne, and that the wrath of the lamb, which is such an interesting thing to say.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't think of lambs.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not like it's not like lambs are kind of like vicious, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a panther, a tiger, a lion, sure.
SPEAKER_00: But the wrath of the lamb, you know, it's like, this isn't like some kind of, you know, tough guy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like, you know, Lambo, no, Rambo Lambo.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not that.
SPEAKER_00: There's no such thing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't think of it that way.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, in God's economy, that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: The Lion of Judah is the root of David, is the Lamb who was slain and now reigns forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: And one day every knee will bow and recognize that he who sits on the throne and the lamb are one and the same.
SPEAKER_00: God the Father, God the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And these people who are hiding in these caves are hoping that the rocks will fall on them, just put them out of put them out of their misery, right?
SPEAKER_00: And verse 17 is the one that just foreshadows the return of the righteous king, the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 says, For the great day of their wrath has come, and the reference there is to the Father and the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: The great day of their wrath has come, and then chapter 17 or chapter 6 closes out with this question in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: And who is able to stand?
SPEAKER_00: So the day, the great day of their wrath has come, and who will be able to stand?
SPEAKER_00: What a great question.
SPEAKER_00: The presumed answer is nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Not one.
SPEAKER_00: And just like we had in chapter five, there was this moment where you're going, woo, who's worthy?
SPEAKER_00: And there's this silence, and the next thing you hear is the weeping of John, and you think, oh, no one's worthy to open the scroll.
SPEAKER_00: No one's going to be able to open up to us the salvation of God, the message of God's promises and salvation in that sacred scroll.
SPEAKER_00: And here at the here at the end of uh of chapter six in verse 17, who will be able to stand those ones that are hiding in fear from the wrath of the Lamb?
SPEAKER_00: They ask that question, probably thinking there's no answer.
SPEAKER_00: And there is an answer.
SPEAKER_00: But you'll have to wait till chapter seven next week when we study that, unless you want to read ahead on your own.
SPEAKER_00: But you'll find the answer there.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: What do we find here?
SPEAKER_00: What do we read here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, six of the seven seals have been opened in chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: And here we find the first of a few cycles of God's righteous judgment coming upon a sinful and rebellious world.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll have it with the seals.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read it, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll read that here in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And they all will focus not so much on their own signs and their own symbols, but these are symbols in motion.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole point of these signs is to point not to themselves, but to something else.
SPEAKER_00: Like Scotty said, they're not the point, they're the pointers.
SPEAKER_00: The point is the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: The point is the root of David.
SPEAKER_00: The point is the Lion of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And all three of those are actually Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's why this book is the revelation of Jesus Christ, as we're told in chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the revelation of a prophetic jigsaw puzzle that you're supposed to put together.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the revelation of some kind of, you know, cosmic code you're supposed to decipher.
SPEAKER_00: And it's certainly not the revelation of just what's happening in the world right now as we know it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the revelation of Jesus Christ and his pursuit of a people he can call his own and how he has done everything necessary to make it possible for us to become his people.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you too and me, sinners though we are, to become his.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, let's just venture a little bit into chapter six and see if we can unpack and learn from some of what we see here.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, at least we have to recognize that we learn here there's evil in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's broken world.
SPEAKER_00: And evil must be recognized and repented from.
SPEAKER_00: Or, as we see here, uh it will be rooted out and dealt with.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's because the God who reveals himself in the pages of scripture intends one day to set all things right that have gone wrong in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you, like me, desire to see the world renewed or restored, then you also, like me, should rejoice at this good news that God intends to do that.
SPEAKER_00: To do that, if if, for instance, justice is going to roll down like a mighty river, um, first, as we see here in this chapter, God will begin to carve out a pathway for that river to roll out.
SPEAKER_00: And so he sends the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_00: Who are the four horsemen of the apocalypse?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that term has been interpreted to represent a wide variety of things since you know the two thousand in the 2,000 years that we've had this particular text.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's been interpreted as uh in in John's time and in the couple hundred years that follow in the early church as uh uh four divisions of of the Roman Empire itself.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's been seen as perhaps uh a group of four prophets or four false religions or or or some broad worldwide sweeping movements, uh religious or social or political, sociopolitical groups, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Catholicism, communism, capitalism.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, people have sort of pointed to all kinds of things and said that's where the that's where the four horsemen are.
SPEAKER_00: Um uh people have said, oh, it's it's it's some artists and some writers.
SPEAKER_00: Uh people have said it's an 80s rock band, uh, the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_00: In 1924, it was Notre Dame's uh championship football team.
SPEAKER_00: It was the it was the quarterback and three of the the offensive uh backfackfield, offensive backfield, uh, these four players, and here's a picture of them, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: They're they're riding on horseback because everybody, that moniker stuck with them, and they were a championship team, and everybody kept talking about how unbeatable they were, and they were called the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_00: But in our own time, more recently, uh, you know, this is this has been the name of a of a video game.
SPEAKER_00: It's been the name of a World Wrestling Federation team of wrestlers.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's been a set of action figures, and of course, as a lot of you probably have heard people do this before too, it's it's uh often identified with four, you know, mega evil, evil corporations, um, like like Google, Facebook, Apple, or Amazon or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: So, so the four horsemen of the apocalypse, who are they?
SPEAKER_00: Um good question and and worth asking.
SPEAKER_00: What do they represent?
SPEAKER_00: Well, all of this um depends on the way you interpret some of these things.
SPEAKER_00: So let me go back to my outline on that.
SPEAKER_00: There are four popular approaches: the preterist, futurist, historicist, and idealist.
SPEAKER_00: Sort of different categories or different ways of looking at uh and interpreting what we read in a book like this.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, I'll remind you, um, the book Revelation, as we know it, is three genres of literature at least.
SPEAKER_00: It is apocalyptic literature, which is um it's it's an unveiling.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that word means.
SPEAKER_00: Uh apocalyptic is uh it means unveiling, it means revelation, it's it's divine revelation as opposed to human discovery.
SPEAKER_00: That's a big difference right there, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't something we could find out on our own, even though many have tried to figure this all out.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is God revealing some things that he wants us to know about himself, about Christ that he wants us to know and trust and hope in, about salvation on offer by grace, through faith in Christ, about the way the world is broken, about the way that we ourselves need redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of that is so true in the genre of literature that's apocalyptic.
SPEAKER_00: It's a rev a revealing to us.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's also prophetic uh literature, and so we we we have the thus saith the Lord, we have him speaking forth, and we have him foretelling and forthelling things that are going to happen in the future, as well as things that are going on and helping us to understand those now.
SPEAKER_00: And then it's a letter, it's it's epistolary, it's it's a an epistle, if you will, or a letter.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there are these different views, though, as I said, of interpreting these things.
SPEAKER_00: The preterist view describes uh all of the events that uh we see in Revelation as corresponding to the time of the writing of the book of Revelation or its recent past.
SPEAKER_00: So all of the persecution that we read about might correspond for uh the first readers of the book of Revelation to the time uh likely uh during the reign of Emperor Domitian when persecution of Christians was on the rise.
SPEAKER_00: And so John, as he's writing to especially these seven churches in that area of the Roman Empire, experiencing that increasing persecution, they would have understood all of that.
SPEAKER_00: If you interpret it more in a futurist way, that you see the text describing events that are yet to happen in the end of the end times, you know, in the far distant future or whenever it is that the second return of Christ were to occur.
SPEAKER_00: The historicist view describes the event, the events we read about here during the ongoing history of the church between the first and second comings of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is falling in there, so some things have happened, some things have yet to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And then the idealist view, the text describes events fulfilled in all of the time periods identified in the other three views, which is the correct view.
SPEAKER_00: I'll leave that answer uh open for now.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I want you to continue to engage with the text and allow it to speak for itself, allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you, to speak to me, to convince us of the things that are true, to persuade us that we can trust and hope in Christ and in God and His uh sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it does help to ask what would the readers of the, you know, this letter, when it first gets passed around these seven churches, how would they have seen some of these things?
SPEAKER_00: And yes, perhaps they would have seen some things with these four horsemen and these the colors would have represented certain things, and so they might have interpreted it a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we've got to be uh uh responsible as we uh begin to interpret it and to apply it.
SPEAKER_00: There are so many images and there's so many amazing things, but remember they're pointers, they're not the point.
SPEAKER_00: Um, while we will read about angels and dragons and lampstands and trumpets and bowls and all those sorts of things, we don't want to fixate on those things as much as always look for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Where is he in this text?
SPEAKER_00: G.K.
SPEAKER_00: Chesterton once quipped regarding those who think they can explain everything in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Though St.
SPEAKER_00: John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it he's probably uh right about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, what might be helpful for us with chapter six?
SPEAKER_00: Well, certainly I think we see not only in this particular set of seven things, these seven seals, but we see it also with the seven trumpets uh and with the seven bowls, that the first four seem clumped together in each of the three cases.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think that perhaps each of these set of seven things are different ways of describing the same thing that God wants us to get or to begin to understand.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we see the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and we see them on different colored horses, and they're, you know, are they are they they seem to be going off to do different things and representing different things?
SPEAKER_00: What is that all about?
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's helpful to see them as a unit.
SPEAKER_00: So while there are those, and some some of my favorite commentators, some of the people I read, um, some will say that that first uh horseman and horse, because he's on a white horse, that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Of course that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's on a white horse in chapter 19, so that has to be Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not so convinced of that.
SPEAKER_00: Um myself, I look at this and I say, no, these four horsemen are much more nameless than that.
SPEAKER_00: They don't say anything, they just respond to a summons and they're sent off.
SPEAKER_00: And they seem to more rather represent conquest, that first one.
SPEAKER_00: And the second one seems to represent um conflict, that red horse, that horder on the red horse.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like the you know, the the the competition of everyone living with conquest in mind just leads to incessant conflict.
SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of see these four things as the ongoing way in which a rebel planet lives when it wants to live apart from God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is an image of God saying, I have given you exactly what you wanted.
SPEAKER_00: You want life without me, you're gonna see now what happens, what consequences attend when you choose to live your life as if God doesn't exist or God doesn't matter at all.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's conquest and there's conflict because everybody's a competing autobiography.
SPEAKER_00: My story's important.
SPEAKER_00: No, my story is important, my story is important, and everybody wants to rule the world.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's that third one, the black horse, which represents the the scarcity or the famine, as we're told there.
SPEAKER_00: And there is uh um the inversion of values, the you know, the the wheat that can be bought, but it takes a whole day's wage just to get a little bit of wheat, a whole day's wage just to get the the poor man's version of wheat.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there's margin, there's boundaries drawn there.
SPEAKER_00: Don't to that horseman, it's you're not allowed to touch the wine or the oil, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And so you see that God is sovereignly in charge of the consequences of the foolishness and rebellion of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So God's even controlling the negative consequences that should be falling upon a world that's rebelled against God.
SPEAKER_00: And then the last horse, the pale horse, the greenish color, if you will, represents the kind of sickness that leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: Um and we know a little bit more about that in the West now, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Um other parts of the world have known about this so many times, and and in ways much worse than we're experiencing even now.
SPEAKER_00: And yet for us, this rings true in a way, because some of us will read this and just go, oh my goodness, this is exactly like the world I'm living in right now.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody is is out for themselves, they want to conquer.
SPEAKER_00: There has led to all of this conflict and the inversion of values and the scarcity of what is needed and the abundance of things that aren't needed.
SPEAKER_00: Um seems like we have everything we don't need, and nothing we do need is that third horse, man.
SPEAKER_00: That's so important.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And then that last bit, man, the loss of life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, all of this is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about the four horsemen together, conquest leading to conflict, conflict leading to scarcity, and then that leading to death.
SPEAKER_00: Um, again, these themes kind of run through our Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the sixth seal is broken open, and what you have is the cry of the martyrs.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're not left with just the despair of that conquest and conflict and and scarcity and death.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have the the even the the voices of the souls in heaven under the altar, and they're under that altar, that great sacrifice that that has already been offered by the ultimate Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_00: They're right there, preserved and held safe right there, all the saints who've gone before us.
SPEAKER_00: And we and and and what happens is they sing out the same song we're singing now.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they're longing for the vindication of the gospel and the vindication of the good name of our God and the vindication of their faith and trust and hope in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so am I, and so are you, longing for the day when justice rolls down like a mighty river, where there's no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more conflict, as we've seen described with the four horsemen, and looking forward to that great day of the Lord, when yes, it will be his wrath that sweeps away all that's evil in this world.
SPEAKER_00: But he must do that.
SPEAKER_00: See, for justice to roll down like a mighty river, all of that is that is wrong, all that's broken, all that impedes justice must be swept away.
SPEAKER_00: And then justice can roll down like a mighty river.
SPEAKER_00: Well, these prophecies that we read about often have a near fulfillment and perhaps an intermediate fulfillment and a far distant fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to learn to read biblical prophecy that way, whether it's Old Testament prophecy, New Testament prophecy, and certainly this prophecy that we read about here in the book of Revelation that will keep us from the kind of mischief that thinks our day and time is what everything is always about, and our little world and the way we see things, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What do we learn from chapter six?
SPEAKER_00: I'll throw four things up for you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh first of all, I think we can learn to refrain from making end-of-the-world predictions.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus refused to answer the when will these things take place?
SPEAKER_00: questions from his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say this: who among us knows more than Jesus or thinks that they do?
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people have tried to sell some books, you know, 88 Reasons Why the Lord's Coming Back in 1988.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are.
SPEAKER_00: And the sequel, you know, uh, that book that was probably try they tried to write in 89.
SPEAKER_00: Whoops, I got something wrong, got to readjust my prediction set, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And that that's been tried so many times down through the ages.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we should all learn, I would think, from that that we don't really know uh when he's coming back.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus even said that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stand right beside Jesus on this one.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he said, No man knows the day or the hour, only the Father knows.
SPEAKER_00: And he set that in in place that way.
SPEAKER_00: And so we should refrain from making end-of-the-world predictions uh and realize we don't know more than Christ does.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, realize the four horsemen have been, are, and will keep riding until God wraps up human history.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: The results or the consequences, if you will, of humanity's lust for conquest conquest will continue to result in conflict, in scarcity, in inverted values of all kinds.
SPEAKER_00: And our desire to be our own king, conquest, our desire to to be our own little g gods will continue to unfold in ways that that issue in conflict and in injustice and scarcity and inequities and even yes, in death, because we can be so selfish as to ignore some of the simplest ways that we might be able to help others and love our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Um we can be so selfish to that on a personal level here in our own country, in our own city, as well as on a global level when there are people who are just waiting for someone to bring them some food, for some of them to bring someone to bring them some medicine.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, that's gonna continue to unfold until Christ at one point comes and sets the world right.
SPEAKER_00: But that leads me to the third thing, and that's to recognize and rest in the fact that all things are under God's sovereign control.
SPEAKER_00: You see, all of these prophecies of scripture, all of these warnings that we read about, even with the four horsemen of the apocalypse, these things are meant to awaken us as we read them to the fact that history is not a series of cosmic accidents or the random collocations of atoms and chemicals.
SPEAKER_00: And they're certainly not just sort of an impersonal karma thing that's happening.
SPEAKER_00: No, we we see Jesus, the Lamb, proactive in chapter 6, setting boundaries, numbering with numbers and days and times, and so our God, this God of the Bible, our Savior, who is the lion of Judah, the root of David, the Lamb who was slain and now lives to reign, he has a day and time picked out already.
SPEAKER_00: And he's even holding back some of the negative consequences for some of the foolish things that we continue to do in our rebellion against him.
SPEAKER_00: So everything, all things are under the sovereign control of our God.
SPEAKER_00: And fourthly and finally, we need to remember to lean forward in hope, watching and waiting for the return of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's again just sort of the image of that in verse 17 just stirs me up.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to look at chapter 7 next week.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited, Pastor Tommy Bailey is gonna lead us through that next week, and I'm really excited to hear what Tommy's got to say and how this is gonna all unfold.
SPEAKER_00: But we need to remember to lean forward in hope, watching and waiting for the return of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We've been warned, we've been awakened, but guess what, folks?
SPEAKER_00: Um, we will not be shaken.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because our foundation, we have a firm foundation in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So if Revelation 5 focused on the question, who's worthy to open the scroll, man, uh that has been answered in Revelation 5 as they point into the line of Judah, the root of David, and the lamb that was slain and now lives.
SPEAKER_00: And now here in chapter 6, he's indeed opened six of the seals and begun to unfold for us what is in that scroll, the story of God's salvation, God's covenant promises to his people, God being in pursuit of a people he can call his own and making it possible for us to turn to him.
SPEAKER_00: But don't forget the way this ends with this question from those who are cowering in fear, but they're asking a question rhetorically.
SPEAKER_00: They think the answer is nobody, and they're and and I'm gonna tell you in advance, I'm just again, there is an answer here.
SPEAKER_00: It may not be what you think it is, but there is an answer here.
SPEAKER_00: They're asking the question, well, who in the world could be able to stand?
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are probably thinking, if not us, certainly no one.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, oh, and yet the rest of the story has to be read and told in the weeks to come.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do in the meantime?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, who's able to stand?
SPEAKER_00: Those who have built their house on the sand, Jesus talked about this, didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Those who build their house on the sand, their house is gonna be washed away.
SPEAKER_00: Those who built their house on the rock, their house will stand.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a little hint, okay, a little foreshadowing.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a couple quotes before I let you go.
SPEAKER_00: One uh from Scotty Smith.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's got a new 14-week study guide coming out.
SPEAKER_00: It's called Revelation Hope in the Darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm gonna have Scotty Cubba do another teaching from one of the chapters on Revelation before we finish up the book.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, in that upcoming uh study of Revelation, he says, our suffering in this world is under God's control, it has meaning and a tender redemptive purpose.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, especially those of you who are suffering, understand this.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: God is sovereign.
SPEAKER_00: And one day it's got a very redemptive redemptive purpose, our suffering does.
SPEAKER_00: Because God plans to wipe away every tear from our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And we will read that.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to get there.
SPEAKER_00: Chapters, those last three chapters, 20, 21, and 22.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do in the meantime?
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, we do.
SPEAKER_00: We lament with sadness over the brokenness in this world and in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We bow in humility before our King in worship, just like John in this book we call Revelation, immersing ourselves in worship, which is the centering reality of who Jesus is, as Eugene Peterson, that first quote I used in this study, the centering reality of who he is, with proper response to what God has done about all of this in offering us salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then we need to renew our commitment, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Our commitment to join God in the work that he is doing in this world to bring about the intersection of his greatest glory and the unfolding of his kingdom along the way, whatever that looks like, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we need to join God in what is his mission in this world, whatever that is, and we need to be open to that and be on our knees, praying, God, send us out, summon us and send us out to do your bidding, to do your will.
SPEAKER_00: Let us come and be bow before this, this, this holy God, um, who is, yes, the centering reality of of the entire universe and in all of reality.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let us worship him.
SPEAKER_00: He's holy, he's worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Um he's the lamb that was slain and yet stands now to reign over all of his creation.
SPEAKER_00: Um and by grace we trust in him will be renewed each and every day.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, this this is the proper response to recognize his worthiness, his holiness.