Revelation 11:1-14

July 19, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 19:55 in the audio file.

Or, Being on the Wrong Side of Prophecy

Maybe you’ve run into the buzzword argument which threatens that you don’t want to be on the wrong side of history. It sounds bad. It also assumes a number of things in order to have its emotional effect (which, it is entirely an emotional appeal, and possibly includes a number of logical fallacies).

To be on the wrong side of history means that you have not progressed enough to see how our fathers, and many of our neighbors, are not just old and outdated but obviously wrong, as in ignorant or prejudiced or worse. The assumption is that modern viewpoints must necessarily be more accurate. We moderns see better, we have more information, we are smarter everyday.

When it comes to certain products, there may be something to this. Only once you’ve made a thing can you test it and then improve it. It requires not only developing materials and production methods, but also knowing the purpose of the thing. Does that work with persons? Cultures?

The sin of hatred and prejudice toward men based on outward appearance and having a different skin color is a real sin, and in the middle of the last century there were numerous effects. But that sin has always been sin, and it still is sin, regardless of the colors of the hater and the hated. The answer to that sin is not progressing in our mindset, it is repentance and forgiveness and sanctification in Christ. We are not on the right side of history because we preach against hatred, we are living according to God’s Word.

The right side of history argument is often used today by those who see the ethnic conflict as a playbook for embracing homosexuality (a denial of natural relationships) and transgenderism (a denial of natural identity). We’re told that disagreement with those lifestyles/sins is equal to discrimination, to hatred, and we don’t want to end up on the wrong side of history again. Who wants future generations writing about how mean and stupid we were? The more evolved are the more accepting are the more virtuous.

In reality virtue might be being in the minority; it definitely isn’t defined by the majority. (That’s the fallacy of ad populum, arguing because of the popularity). Virtue likewise isn’t defined by one’s position on a timeline, though there are different ways to demonstrate virtue depending on when you’re living. Being right depends on a standard, and that standard is not based on percentage or by historical perspective.

I bring it up to riff off it in two more ways, two considerations of being on the wrong side of prophecy.

As Christians gathered to hear God’s Word we want both to understand prophecy for the sake of our faith and hope and obedience and blessing, and we want to understand prophecy for sake of our witness and warning to the world that they might also come to the Lord and Savior. We can be on the wrong side of prophecy by not accepting it as believers (which is not a great place to be) or by not accepting it as unbelievers (which is an even worse place, with eternal consequences).

For believers, the book of Revelation is work. I can’t remember exactly, and I didn’t do a search, but it seems like commentators regularly say “this is one of the toughest passages to interpret.” Of the commentaries I’m reading, many of them said it again about chapter 11 with the temple and the two witnesses: difficult and debated. I’d like to propose that some of those challenges arise from tying their faith behind their backs. Their faith is on the wrong side of prophecy.

I’ve said from the start of our study that everyone’s problem with the Apocalypse is that it hasn’t happened like it said, or like it seemed to us it would, or even “soon.” But most of the alternatives[...]

Revelation 10:1-11

July 12, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 17:15 in the audio file.

Or, The Bittersweet Little Scroll

God created us with a built-in mechanism that turns off our pain sensors at a certain point. It is, most of the time, a mercy. Shock is a medical condition where the body shuts down certain processes because it’s just too much to handle. We go numb, physically and mentally. We’re only fit for so much negative feedback.

This is also true when it comes to the problems around us in our environment. We can only take so much bad news before we cover our eyes, close the tab, or keep scrolling for a new cat video. We don’t want to see it; it’s too sickening. This ability to turn off attention is part of the discussion about how effective it is to show pictures of aborted babies; the sight may be so gruesome that it loses effect. Instead of horror and disgust, we go into denial overload.

As Solomon said, in much wisdom and knowledge there is much vexation and sorrow (Ecclesiastes 1:18), so it is better to be oblivious. Dumb, fat, and happy depends a lot on the dumb. We are in a crisis season, not just because 2020 has more waves of crises than an alphabet of hurricanes, but because evil will continue to do evil, especially if we don’t want to deal with it anymore. There is a godly impulse to desire a quiet and peaceable life, and also, burying our talent because we don’t want to deal with the cheating banker won’t win approval from the Master when he returns.

We’re in a trying time, and we just don’t want to believe certain things because then we can’t justify complacency. What’s more, who wants to be “that” guy? “Here comes Noah again, saying that it’s going to rain. What is that even?” Who wants to be seen as a hater? It takes real maturity to be intense while being at peace, to hate evil while rejoicing always, to have eyes wide open without a calloused heart, to speak humbly and honestly and hopefully.

With a similar view to increasing difficulty, a mighty angel comes to recommission John for his prophetic task in Revelation 10. The visions he’s seen up to this point have been glorious, and ghastly. He’s seen angels around heaven’s throne and demons rise from the pit of hell. All the seals on the scroll have been opened, six of the seven trumpets sounded, widespread torment and destruction and death but without repentance (9:20-21). The intensity of the seventh trumpet is like a full crescendo in a quarter note. We’ve not hit the peak of wickedness or of God’s wrath. Before that comes, an angel visits John and gives him a taste from a bittersweet little scroll. John needs not to quit now.

Though the ESV has two paragraphs, there is a description of the angel’s stance found three times in chapter 10: on sea and on land. The mighty angel has his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, an image of God’s sovereignty over all the earth.

The Angel Brings a Little Scroll (verses 1-4)

Just as there were two visions between seals six and seven, so now there are two visions after the sixth trumpet: a vision of a little scroll Revelation 10:1-11 and a vision of two witnesses Revelation 11:1-13; the first introduces the second.

1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.

John sees a mighty angel, though John doesn’t give us more detail about the angel’s identity. He heard a “mighty angel” in Revelation 5:2 asking who was worthy to take the scroll held by one sitting on the throne.

The attributes of this angel are attributes of God in other places, leading some to identify this angel as Christ. For example, God is “clothed” or wrapped with a cloud, like a full-body mask. In Psalm 104:3 clouds are a chariot for the Lord, and in Revelation 1:7 Christ is “coming in the clouds.”

And even a [...]

Revelation 9:13-21

July 5, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 30:30 in the audio file.

Or, Unrepentant and It Feels So Fine

The information age in an election year is apparently like a 24-hour truck-stop kitchen, something is always getting dropped in the fat. Some of the information/data torrent is worthwhile, and I’ve tried to sift and skim and sort through a lot over the last few months, as have many of you. For a few months I got out of my regular reading routine, but a while ago I realized that I needed to add some fruits and fiction back into my diet because consuming so much fried covid was giving me indigestion.

Based on the strong recommendation of Glenn, I started an 1883 story by George MacDonald called, The Princess and Curdie. I’m only about halfway through it so far, and just tasted for myself the meat that Glenn had teased in front of me. But I’ve enjoyed it, and I wonder if Andrew Peterson didn’t get some of his ideas for the Wingfeather Saga from it. Anyway, there’s a part that pictures a reality among mankind that has been sped up among us these past months, and a part that will be even more dramatic in the final days.

all men, if they do not take care, go down the hill to the animals’ country; that many men are actually, all their lives, going to be beasts. … They do not know it of course; for a beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast the less he knows it. … To such a person there is in general no insult like the truth. He cannot endure it, not because he is growing a beast, but because he is ceasing to be a man.

Men are turning into what they will be. Some are turning into beasts, and one of the symptoms that cannot be separated is that the more beastly a man becomes, the less aware and sensitive he is to being a beast. Most jerks aren’t lying about being oblivious to their impact on others, the oblivion is part of the Platonic ideal of jerkness.

Sin causes sinners to be satisfied in their sin. Sin causes sinners to be surprised at the idea that their sin could be their problem. Sin, which destroys them, is their “precious.” Like a fool ground in a mortar with a pestle (Proverbs 27:22), the folly won’t be squeezed out no matter how hard you press.

In the sixth trumpet judgment, a multitude of demonic death-dealers come to earth and the ones who don’t die conclude: This is fine. They won’t quit their love of other gods, they won’t quit doing what is gutting their souls. It is part of the second woe, worse than the first, and not fine.

Similar to the locusts straight from the pit in Revelation 9:1-12, we read John’s announcement of judgment, a description of those who cause the destruction, and a summary of the response.

The Moment of Release (verses 13-16)

For the first time, the angel who blows the trumpet initiates further action for himself.

13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

The voice from the … golden altar is probably the angel we met at the altar in chapter 8 who presented the prayers of the saints to God (8:3-5). The four horns or knobs symbolize strength, like the horns or antlers on a fighting animal. So one angel blows the trumpet, and the altar angel commissions the horn-blowing angel.

”Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” The number of angels is similar to chapter 7 and the four angels who hold back the winds of destruction, though those angels were at the four corners of the earth. Similar to earlier in chapter 9, havoc is released, though the Euphrates River is not a gateway to the abyss. These four angels and the army that follows them are not known in other apocalyptic literature, but they are known to God.

That they are bound indicates that they are [...]

Revelation 8:13-9:12

June 28, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 19:05 in the audio file.

Or, The First Woe When Death Can’t Be Caught

P.G. Wodehouse once wrote to a friend about how there are some things in life that don’t break down very well into percentages, such as getting hit by a car. We’ve likewise past the point in the Apocalypse where percentages of interpretations work very well. It’s not quite all or nothing, positively past or fully future, but it’s close. We crossed the line when we left the Lamb around the throne in chapter 5. Doug Wilson made a similar point at the start of chapter 6:

“We also come to the point where Christian interpreters shake hands with each other in order to part company, not to be reunited again until the resurrection of the dead in chapter 20.”

There is just less percentage of compatible overlap between the approaches. It’s bad form to say, about the same verse, that it happened, it is happening, and it will happen. For example, the trumpets blew before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 (the preterist approach), or the trumpets continue to blow in every generation in their own ways (the idealist approach), or the trumpets have yet to blow, and we are all waiting for the great tribulation (the futurist approach).

We are examining the Revelation together. I have been, and plan to continue, raising some alternative understandings of the various parts. But as I said, it’s hard to share percentages here. It’s also more difficult to persuade someone who is in the middle of the ocean that it would make better sense if they were on a bike. But I’m accountable as a teacher, and we can all keep treating each other charitably because we’re all on Jesus’ side. (Plus, it’s good practice for dealing with the mask mandate, ha!)

Remember where we’re at in the book. The Almighty, seated on the throne, handed the seven-sealed scroll to the worthy Lamb, and the Lamb has broken all seven seals. The seventh seal initiates seven trumpets given to seven angels. In chapter 8 verses 6-12, four angels blow the first four trumpets which results in massive, but not complete, destruction on earth. These judgments are meted out in percentage, with a third of land and sea and sky taking hits.

As G.K. Beale points out, “the cosmic order of the luminaries is essential to the continued welfare of the world,” and so the welfare of the world is not so well. The material cosmos is becoming more of a chaos, and it reflects God’s judgment on the moral chaos among men. The created patterns are being un-patterned, not just as retribution on men, but in some sense as a reflection of man’s devolution.

That’s just the first four trumpets of seven. There is something remarkable about the final three trumpets as they are singled out and identified as woes. Unlike the first four, these are direct torments on men, and each receives almost as much attention as the first four combined.

In Revelation 8:13-9:12 we’ll see the woes announced, the first woe of demon locusts unleashed, and the announcement that the first woe has passed.

The Eagle’s Cry of Woes (verse 13)

This is an unfortunate non-chapter break, meaning that this verse doesn’t summarize the first four trumpets, it announces the final three trumpets.

Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!” (verse 13)

The eagle isn’t circling like a vulture, but it might as well be. Around the throne in Revelation 4:7 one of the living creatures had the appearance “like an eagle in flight,” but this creature is different. The only other time an eagle appears in Revelation is chapter 12:14, where a “woman was given two wings of the gre[...]

John 10:22-31

June 21, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 15:00 in the audio file.

I am still surprised, and sometimes disturbed, when I read or watch people who seem to consistently misread, misunderstand, and misrepresent the facts/data before them. The last few months have surfaced many problems and just as many stories to explain them.

We must remember that there will always be at least two narratives, two angles, and two kinds of incapable. One type of person is incapable of seeing the light, the other type of person is incapable of seeing without the light. Some will see evidence that demands a verdict, others will see verdicts that deny the evidence. If it is true with what is clear, of course it is true with what is confusing or complex.

John 10:22-31 provides a perfect case study on the antithesis between the two narratives.

The Setting

We’re almost at the end of three years of Jesus’ public traveling, preaching, miracle working, and confronting.

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. (John 10:22-23)

This answers the where and the when. The “where” was the temple, in particular the colonnade of Solomon which was a row of columns supporting a roof, located on the east side of the temple overlooking the Kidron Valley. It would have provided a bit of shelter during bad weather. (We read about the same location in Acts 3:11 and 5:12 when the apostles preached there.)

The “when” was the Feast of Dedication. The “Feast of Dedication” was not established by the OT. It is connected with an inter-testamental event, namely that in 167 BC Antiochus Epiphanes ransacked Jerusalem and polluted the temple. During this time it was a capital offense to possess a copy of the law or to circumcise a son. Within a few years the Jews grew strong enough to revolt and under the leadership of Judas Maccabaeus they recaptured the temple on 25 Kislev (December) 164 BC.

The people celebrated the rededication of the temple for eight days, and it was decreed that a similar eight day feast of dedication was to be held every year. This is Hanukkah. It was also called the Feast of Lights because of the lighting of lamps not only in the temple but in individual homes.

This is probably two months after verse 21, since the events from 7:1-10:21 took place around the Feast of Booths at the end of October. This is the last time we see Jesus in Jerusalem before His return for Passover in the spring when He will be killed.

It is ironic that the very Feast the Jews were celebrating was part of their story. They were awaiting the fulfillment of temple worship, the Messiah, but they missed the fact that Jesus was the fulfillment of the feast. Their story involved national and political deliverance so that life would be better. God’s story was of deliverance from sin so to eternal life as a gift for His Son. Their story was close, but they misunderstood God’s story.

The Question

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24)

I think the so is an interesting way to begin the verse. It’s a “therefore.” Because Jesus was walking in the temple the Jews gathered around Him. The idea of gathered is that they circled around Him, they cornered Him. It’s like they see their opportunity, because there is no mention of any crowds. For that matter, even the disciples aren’t mentioned though it’s likely they were near. Now the Jews can have it out with Him without a friendly multitude to protect Him.

And they demand an answer from Him. We get the idea that they were ready to take immediate, decisive, and hostile action against Jesus depending on His answer (especially since in verse 31 they take up stones[...]

Titus 1:1-4

June 14, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 17:20 in the audio file.

Or, For the Sake of the Faith of God’s Elect

I am old enough to remember when my beard was long and when we used to see each other like this every Sunday. We are going to have stories to tell after this is all over, and though I can count on a calendar that we spent twelve Lord’s Day in abnormal ways, the time has a calculation of its own. In the history books maybe it will be called BC and AP, Before Coronavirus and After Panic.

I’ve read and listened to and considered a lot about what was and what will be normal. It’s been a popular narrative to hear people say that this time, when everything has been shut down, has given them great opportunity to reflect on whether or not all the things they were doing were necessary. So many say they’ve got things they plan to change. And that’s fine, though I can say that when I tried out that narrative for myself, it fit like an Elsa costume for a five year-old (which is to say, it didn’t fit well in a couple ways). I like what our family, our church, our school were doing, and it was all worth doing.

That “normal” was not passive or easy. But that normal allowed for more choosing of what could be disrupted for sake of making progress. A solid foundation allows you to try out new furniture arrangements, or non-structural remodeling, not concerned that the floor is going to cave in. “Stay on the couch, save lives.” That’s another narrative that I’d like to shut the book on.

As for the church, knowing what we knew then, I don’t know if we would have done too much different. Though I do think “next time,” or “this fall,” we’ll be looking for some additional, better, more trustworthy information before shutting it all down. The lockdown has shown both the blessings of not having our own building (and mortgage payments) in crazy economy, and also the limitations of not having a building, for sake of services and other meetings. We don’t expect not to suffer, to have it all convenient for Christians, but also our worship and our ministry to one another beyond screens is essential. It’s worth building, it’s worth defending.

That said, we have a lot to be thankful for. The flock has done well. We were mostly well equipped, for thinking and for unity, for this last season. We have some cautious saints, some conflicted, and others more combative, but I didn’t see our people biting and devouring one another. The time to build an ark is before the rain, and our Kuyperian efforts to see all of life as lived before the Lord Christ have helped us stay afloat.

In these days it is also clear how powerful narrative is. People want a story to explain what is happening, and regularly will choose the narrative over facts or data. Even the statement “We will do everything based on science” is a story, and it often puts a cover over the fact that the story is largely, or even completely, make-believe.

I would like to remind us of our narrative. It is one that helps to explain what we see and to encourage us to endure. We have a story in which Jesus came into ruthless and capricious government, into ethnic conflict (in His day between Jews and Gentiles), into sickness and disease, to give eternal life.

It’s a narrative of truth. It’s a narrative that accords with godliness, with nerve to stand apart from unrighteousness and in good works. It is a narrative of hope. So many of man’s stories focus on how we’re going to die, this focuses on eternal life. We will return to our normal study of Revelation soon enough. But as God’s people, keep remembering our narrative, the good news we’ve heard and are living in.

Make Believe Narrative

Many people’s lives are empty, meaningless, and frustrated. It’s because the only thing they have to live for is themselves. Of course, living for oneself is not the fabulous life because no one is really that fabulous. There is no bigger[...]

Revelation 8:6-12

June 7, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 20:05 in the audio file.

Or, The Blasts of Blood, Burning, and Bitterness

The first four trumpets belong together, and also the next “And I looked” occurs in verse 13, compared with 8:2, so verses 6-12 will be our focus.

The trumpets belong with and are blown after the breaking of the seventh seal. In context, after the silence in heaven for half an hour in the previous paragraph, the trumpets initiate the next phase of apocalypse. The prayers of all the saints are presented to God, and God is so pleased that He cues the angel to throw down judgment, and the trumpets are blown.

There is a shift with the breaking of the seventh seal, and the completely opened scroll, with atypical silence in heaven and the prayers received. The trumpets are next level regimen (a prescribed course or system), not a unit of soldiers but a prescribed course of action (i.e., a “regiment”), and the final three trumpets bring woes “to those who dwell on the earth” (8:13). An eagle appears in verse 13 and announces woes before the last three.

These first four disrupt the earth’s ecology, and indirectly men. The fifth and sixth target men directly, the seventh is similar to the fifth and sixth.

In titling the sermon, “The Master’s Trumpets,” I’m playing on John Knox’s self-aware duty to “blow his master’s trumpet” and perhaps his most famous book, “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regimen of Women.” Of course, the seven trumpets are given to angels, but they are given by order of the Lamb (Revelation 8:1). This is the regimen of retribution (compared to revenge, retaliation) prescribed by the Master.

Are these “warning” judgments, or more “hardening” judgments? And are we willing, let alone eager, in our own context, for God to harden the hearts of the unrepentant to make His righteousness known? More signs against Pharaoh meant more of God’s power being shown, as Exodus 9:16, and quoted in Romans 9:17. What if God wants to show how stupid sin is? Judgments may lead to repentance, they may make a point about judgment itself.

Comparisons of the trumpet judgments to the Egyptian plagues are fine, but mostly to show that God’s arsenal has not been depleted. Similarities to the seventh (hail), the first (water to blood), and the ninth (darkness) plagues respectively show through the trumpets. It is also interesting that most who view the trumpet judgments in Revelation as symbols and who relate them to the plagues of Egypt do not take the plagues of Egypt as symbolic.

On the nature of the trumpet judgments, Morris says that it would be a “great mistake to read this fiery, passionate and poetic spirit as though he were composing a pedantic piece of scientific prose” (quoted by Mounce). For my part, I want all of us to keep reading the words of the prophecy and see what makes sense of John’s vision.

6  Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.”

The seven angels were introduced in verse 2, prior to the parenthesis of prayers adding fuel to the fire of God’s judgment. In verse 6 each angel has received his trumpet and is “prepared to blow” it. Instruments are up, lips are pursed. They are ready to sound off.

The verb (σαλπίζω) for “blow (a trumpet)” is a cognate with the noun (σάλπιγξ) for “trumpet.” But “blow” is fine, so is “sound” (KJV, NASB) or “publicize with fanfare” (BAGD). If we were John Knox, we might say “blast.”

The angels are unleashing God’s judgment, one trumpet blow at a time.

First Angel (verse 7)

The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up[...]

Revelation 8:1-5

May 31, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 16:55 in the audio file.

Or, How the Prayers of the Saints Fuel the Judgment of God

Every prayer we make adds fuel to the fire of God’s wrath. When we feel pain and cry for help, when we observe evil and cry for deliverance, when our chests pound with longing for God to do something, God does something. Even our tastes of blessing and our gratitude for His goodness makes the fury of the furnace of His righteous anger hotter.

Christians are gun-shy when it comes to imprecatory prayers, that is, prayer-curses, such as asking the Lord to break the teeth of His enemies and let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime (Psalm 58:6, 8). Many church-goers in this generation imagine themselves to be the kinder, gentler type of believers, but softness does not decrease God’s vengeance. We pray that God would grant repentance, and if He won’t, that He will do what is right.

The church cannot have it only one way. Christians cannot love grace and how grace teaches us about God and brings us to God without recognizing that grace is also great because of what wrath we deserved. It can be reverse engineered as well. The more we consider wrath, the more valuable we see His mercy to us in Jesus, and the glory of the Lamb slain and resurrected. The evaluation of one side isn’t one-sided. For another example:

But there are two vast, spacious things,

The which to measure it doth more behove:

Yet few there are that sound them;

Sin and Love.

(George Herbert, “The Agony”)

Try to get to the bottom of love without understanding love’s reach to the sinner. Try to consider the depth of sin without understanding its rejection of love. At the cross we see both; Christ took God’s judgment to ransom a people for Himself, and at the end of the world we see God’s love for righteousness and love for the righteous as He judges the sins of men.

The martyred souls under the altar in Revelation 6:9-11 prayed for justice, and while those cries may be included in this paragraph (Revelation 8:1-5), nothing in the text or context limits the identity of the pray-ers to martyrs or limits the nature of the prayers to calls for judgment.

Verses 1-2 describe the scene and introduce seven angels and seven trumpets. Verses 3-5 describe the work of one angel and one instrument.

Worship of the Lamb happened immediately preceding the seals being broken by the Lamb (chapter 5 then 6), and worship of the Lamb happens again immediately before the trumpets being given (chapter 7 then 8).

The Seventh Seal (verses 1-2)

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (verse 1)

Every one of the seven seals is opened by the Lamb. To the one who has born the judgment of God by being slain and ransoming people for God by His blood (5:6, 9, 12; 7:14), jurisdiction is given. Jesus taught this Himself, that the Father has given to the Son to the Son to execute judgment (John 5:22, 27).

The seventh seal is the last one (cf. Revelation 5:1). The scroll is now fully open. This may indicate that the final judgments on the earth will begin, the end of world history as anticipated.

Silence seems significant contrasted with the great multitude “crying out with a loud voice” in the previous scene (Revelation 7:10) along with the angels praising, presumably with the same loud voice (Revelation 5:12).

This is the only silence in Revelation, which would be a unique feature as a hinge in the judgments. It is silence around the throne in heaven, not on earth, and again, “silence is not a characteristic of heavenly rest” (Thomas).

Silence doesn’t mean empty, it means full of tension, pregnant. This silence consumes. Silence is often connected to awe and judgment.

That the silence lasted for about half an hour begs for some attention. Why so specific about a time, 30ish minutes, rather than even something vague such as “[...]

Revelation 7:9-17

May 24, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 20:20 in the audio file.

Or, Salvation Belongs to Our Lord

John sees two visions between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals. The first vision, in Revelation 7:1-8, concerned the sealing of 144k of the sons of Israel, which I believe refers to a future generation of Jews who are chosen to believe in, and witness for, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

The group in the first vision is portrayed with a definite number from a distinct people group, while the group in this second vision are portrayed as innumerable and from all the people groups on earth. Also, the first group are on earth, this second group are in heaven, around the throne of God and the Lamb.

As we look at verses 9-17 we will see the worship of the saved, then we’ll see more about their identity and the divine favors they receive.

The Worship of the Saved (9-12)

In contrast to the “number” of the sealed in verse 4, John writes,

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 and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!”

More details about the identity of this group are the focus starting in verse 13, but here, the focus is on the contrast with the preceding vision. No one tries to count this multitude, and there are no limits or boundary lines based on ethnicity or family or location. Every nation andall tribes and peoples and languages are represented. It doesn’t say that all people are saved, but that all kinds of people are saved.

This belongs with God’s covenant to Abram/Abraham (Genesis 17:4-6).

“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. (Genesis 17:4–6 ESV)

Both Jews and Gentiles are saved (cf. Romans 1:16); in the seed of Abram “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). The gate is narrow and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:14), and also the saved are a quite a crowd.

This multitude are in God’s presence, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Unlike the throne room vision of chapter 5, these are human rather than angelic beings. They are accepted before God, and their white robes suggest at least purity if not even more a context of conquering and victory. The palm branches belong with the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:40, 43), a remembering and rejoicing in the Lord’s victory for His people as He delivered them from the Egyptians.

This is a praise service, wherein they shout with loud shouts, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!” It’s how they got before Him, because He saved them. Salvation is God’s work, a monergistic effort, though two divine Persons are mentioned, and we know that the third Person of the Trinity also accomplishes the one will. The phrase, “salvation belongs to” is not very frequent in the Bible, found in Psalm 3:8 and Jonah 2:9 and here in Revelation. It is not just a great shout, it is the hope of men and the eternal lyric of worship. We do not trust in horses (Psalm 20:7), we do not trust in princes (Psalm 118:9; 146:3), when troubles come we look to the Lord.

The heavenly choir from chapter 5 are back to add on their praise.

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, “Amen![...]

Revelation 7:1-8

May 17, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 16:50 in the audio file.

Or, The Number and Nature of the Sealed

It has been 70 days since our last time together in the Apocalypse. Of course, the last 70 days have been their own sort of revelation, and while it shouldn’t be identified as the Great Tribulation, it has included some here-to-fore unseen power-grabbing devastation. Plagues of locusts have nothing on partisan legislators when it comes to devouring the land.

We had just considered the breaking of the sixth seal which caused such turmoil on earth that kings self-quarantined into caves. The rich and the powerful hid themselves, the slaves and the free were panicked.

Usually these sorts of prophetic pictures take some imaginative effort on our part if we want to envision the destruction across earth. But at least for me, the last ten weeks have been stranger, and stronger, than fiction. We have seen a tribulation trailer, and, of course, the trailer isn’t finished playing yet. Between the novel virus and the traditional political manipulation, we have more reasons in real life to wake up from our comfy readings of Left Behind.

At the same time, there is nothing new under the plandemic. Shouldn’t we sympathize a little better with the church in Ephesus with their patient endurance and hatred of evildoers while also remembering not to forget our first love? Can’t we relate a little better to the Smyrnaeans whose neighbors kept slandering them and caused them economic loss, and long to be faithful unto death? How about the faithful in Pergramum where Satan’s throne was, or in Thyratira where they needed to hold fast? Can’t you picture, at least a little more clearly, some of the Christians in the first century saying to each other, “How has the world gotten so crazy?” And doesn’t it challenge us a little more, like a trumpet blast inside our noise-cancelling headphones, to hear Jesus keep saying things like, “To the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations” (Revelation 2:26)?

We’d gotten past the letters from Jesus to the churches in chapters 2-3, through the worship of Jesus as Lion and Lamb in chapters 4-5, into Jesus opening the seals on the scroll of judgment. Chapter 6 reveals the first six seals. The first four seals are the four horsemen, bringing false peace then taking peace then bringing famine and pestilence and more of the sword to death. The fifth seal showed the martyred souls crying for justice. The sixth seal brought a great earthquake and stars falling and the sky vanishing.

I found a note after that Sunday which questioned my interpretation of those events as actual events. I still think these are not mere representations of bad things, but realities of bad things as retribution on those who will not submit to God. The final question of chapter six is the one all men must deal with, “the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

There is an answer to that. Those who can stand are those who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. In chapter seven, we are introduced to two visions that emphasize God’s effective care for His own.

I am no stranger to the disagreements over the number and nature of those discussed in the first vision, verses 1-8. The second half of the chapter is a little easier to deal with, though some see both visions as talking about the same group in different ways. What seems to be the case is that judgments have paused between the sixth seal at end of chapter 6, and the seventh seal which is opened at beginning of chapter 8. Chapter 7 describes a pause in the action.

Whatever else, these two visions leave no doubt about who will stand. God will preserve His own from judgment and bring them to salvation where there will be no hunger, no thirst, and tears will be wiped away.

The first vision has a lot of numbers and requires some visionary math. It s[...]