Grace in Tullahoma

The Little Scroll – 19

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? As a youth pastor, I’ve seen some pretty weird things get eaten. And I gag almost every time…not just when I eat it, but watching them! Have you ever eaten too much of a good thing? Do you know the feeling in your stomach at Easter, Halloween, or Christmas when you eat tons of candy early in the morning and it makes you feel just blah?

Tonight, as we continue in our series through Revelation, we are taking a little pause before the final trumpet is blown and the final judgment comes down. This chapter is kind of an interlude before that final, seventh trumpet is blown. We get another magnificent picture of the grandeur of the occupants of heaven, and we see something interesting get eaten, but of course which has greater purpose and meaning. So, let’s dig in.

Revelation 10

God is bigger than you think. (1-3)

Some people have thought that this angel was actually Jesus. But it refers to him as “another mighty angel,” showing it is like an angel previously mentioned, not Jesus. But this angel is a representative of Jesus.

“Angels are mentioned more than 60 times in Revelation, mighty or strong angels three times (5:2; 10:1; 18:21). The angel, coming down from heaven, is described as “mighty,” perhaps because he is both majestic (10:1) and mammoth (10:2, 5, 8). Demons ascend out of the abyss in chapter 9, but this angel, as God’s servant, descends from above. He comes to earth with great authority as God’s ambassador.”[1] “This is not Christ but His heavenly representative.”[2]

We need to get a good picture in our minds of this angel. Think through the New Testament. What happens most times someone encounters an angel? They freak out! Usually the first thing the angel has to say is, “Don’t be afraid.” Angels are more magnificent and unlike anything we know. But this angel even greater…a “mighty” angel.

How does it describe him? He’s coming down from heaven. He is wrapped in a cloud. There’s a rainbow over his head. His face is like the sun. His legs are like pillars of fire. He sets one foot on the sea and the other on the land. His voice is like a roaring lion. Loud thunder follows the sound of his voice.

“If this is how impressive one who reflects God’s glory is, how much more impressive must the Lord himself be?”[3]

I am convinced that we need a far bigger view of God in our lives. We need a bigger view of God when we’re fighting temptation. We need a bigger view of God when we have anxiety or are depressed. We need a bigger view of God when we pursue the things of the world thinking it will satisfy us. We need a bigger view of God so that we will live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). God isn’t just bigger than we think, but…

God’s plans are greater than you think. This whole section is full of Old Testament wording and imagery. Remember last week we saw that many of the judgments coming down paralleled plagues that God performed on Egypt as the led the people to freedom in Exodus. The same imagery purposefully continues here. Think back to where we ended last week in chapter 9 where the wicked saw God’s judgment come down yet still didn’t repent.

“The wicked who survive the trumpet judgments are like Pharaoh in that they refuse to repent (9:20-21). Meanwhile God’s people are being delivered through these judgments on the world. Just as Israel was led out of Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land by the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, so now in Revelation an angel who is wrapped in a cloud and has legs like pillars of fire is going to lead God’s people. Just as Israel was led to Mount Sinai, where God revealed himself to Israel and gave them his word, so this angel in chapter 10 is going to give God’s word to John.”[4] That “his legs were like fiery pillars,” is a picture of stability and uncompromising holiness and it brings with it the meaning from Exodus of guidance, protection, and deliverance.[

The Woes of Evil – 18

I would rather learn from others’ mistakes than from my own. What about you?

“We have a great need to see evil for what it is.”[1] “As we study John’s vision and observe the armies of darkness battling in the future, we can better understand how similar spirits of wickedness try to torment us today.”[2] As we look to the future, we need to let it affect us today.

Revelation 9

God is sovereign over evil. God allows evil, and uses evil for good purposes, but he doesn’t cause evil. We will see this more throughout this message, but it is true throughout the Bible, it is true throughout the world, and it is true in your life.

Revelation 9:1-5

This passage refers to Satan and his actions.[3] The statement in verse 1 is similar to Luke 10:18 where Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Danny Akin says about this, “Lucifer, the star of the morning, son of the dawn (Is 14:12), the anointed cherub (Ezek 28:14), was cast out to God’s presence and heaven’s glory when sin was found in his heart. Now as we move toward history’s climax, he is allowed a diabolical freedom on the earth that he was previously denied.”[4] Since Satan is so prominent here and going forward, we need to see some things about him. He’s been mischaracterized over the years. He’s seen as this big red man will horns and a pitchfork who rules over hell and is in a back-and-forth battle with God since the beginning. That’s not reality.

Satan is not all-powerful. God has to give him the key to the bottomless pit, just like God had to allow him permission to afflict Job (Job 1:12). God dictates what Satan and other demons are allowed to do and not to do. There is a limitation on what they can do. They can torment, but they can’t kill. And we see in these passage a limitation on their time—five months.

“The normal life span of a locust was approximately from May to September, or five months.”[5] These locusts that come out from the abyss[6] are likely demons. And they flood the earth, causing harm, tormenting mankind “spiritually, physically, and in every other way conceivable.”[7]

Satan is not to be followed. If you don’t follow God, you follow Satan. That sounds harsh, but it’s biblical. When the Apostle Peter was saying he won’t let Jesus be killed, Jesus shouted at him, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matt 16:23). Jesus says earlier, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matt 12:30).

Satan inflicts those without the mark of God on their foreheads. I love how Jim Hamilton explains this:

“Back in 7:3 it was the servants of God who were sealed, and we see in the letters to the seven churches in chapters 2, 3 the kinds of things the servants of God suffer. But no matter how bad it gets, when the scorpion-like locusts show up, you want to be among the servants of God! You want to have the seal of God on your forehead. Satan will try to counterfeit this seal with the number of the beast, and he’ll try to make life miserable for those who don’t have the mark of the beast (13:16-18). Revelation shows us that we definitely want the seal of God on our forehead, not the mark of the beast. God makes the servants of Satan miserable in chapter 9, and Satan makes the servants of God miserable in chapters 2, 3. God will comfort and sustain his servants, but Satan will only abuse and abhor his. You don’t want to serve Satan.”[8]

We need to see the woes of evil and its harsh judgments in order to fuel our fight against those evils now.

Revelation 9:6

Can you imagine being tortured so severely that you seek to die but can’t? Listen to how John MacArthur paints a picture of the magnitude of what will happen.

“So intense will be the torment inflicted on unbelievers that in those days (the five months of v. 5) men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them. All hope is gone; there will be no tomorrow. The earth people have loved and worshiped will have been utterly devastated, the land ravaged by earthquakes, f

The Prayers of Saints and Trumpets of Wrath – 17

Why won’t God do anything about the evil in the world? I hear that question a lot, and actually, I think about that question a lot. It has a lot to do with what I study and write about in my PhD work. I want you to think deeply for a second. We’re going to do a little exercise. If you were God, what would you do about the evil in the world?

Well, if you say, “Just get rid of it,” where does that leave you? Haven’t you sinned? Shouldn’t he then get rid of you? What if you say, “He should just make us where we do not sin.” Well, then you would lose a whole lot of good. We would just be robots and incapable of so much that we enjoy, like love.

We agree that evil should be dealt with. That’s justice. And justice is a good thing. But we also want mercy when justice should be given to us. And we want to know and experience love. Well, that’s exactly how God has dealt with evil. All of that. He expressed his love for you by taking on flesh, living the perfect life that you can’t, to die a sacrificial death in your place. And there’s coming a day when he will pour out his wrath, in perfect justice, on the world who has not received the free gift that he’s offered. There’s justice. There’s mercy. There’s love. And it’s all good and perfect.

We’ve seen his sacrifice and love, but we’ve yet to see his complete justice. So, that has us still crying out now amidst evil and hardship. And God wants us to cry out. And he promises to hear us and to act. He IS going to deal with evil, and it starts with your prayers crying out to him.

Revelation 8

Keep praying. Your prayers will be answered. (1-5) In Revelation 6:10, the martyrs who died for their faith cried out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then in the next verse they were told to “rest a little longer.” And what’s about to unfold is the answering of their prayers, and yours.

God is about to pour out his wrath on this world. And he has long planned its coming. There are echoes of it all throughout the Old and New Testament. And only God the Father has known its timing. So, why does God wait for these prayers? Have you ever wondered what the purpose of prayer is? Why should you pray if God knows what’s going to happen and God is in control and sovereign?

God’s sovereignty means that he not only appoints the ends, but the means by which those ends are reached. As Jim Hamilton says, “One of the means to the ends that God has appointed is prayer.”[1] God uses your prayers as the means to accomplish his desired ends. He desires that you and I be involved in his work in the world, and that includes his justice coming.

So, if you ever feel like your prayers don’t matter, or they never get answered, let these verses encourage you. God may be saying, “Just a little while longer.” And he certainly hears them.

Creation will be judged. It’s not just humanity that is fallen, but creation itself is. What we see here is devastation that comes upon the earth and also impacts humanity. These judgements that follow these four trumpet blasts parallel those found in Exodus when God brought judgment upon the Egyptians and delivered God’s people. I think it is a purposeful parallel because God is doing the same thing, except this time on a far grander worldwide scale. He has delivered his people, and he is judging those who are against him.

(6-7) First Trumpet – 1/3 of earth burned

This first trumpet corresponds with the seventh plague that God brought against Egypt. Can you imagine the devastation this would cause? One third of all the earth, one third of all the trees, and all of the grass is completely burned up, sizzling, and smoke rising. Can you imagine being alive when this is happening? I once had to help put out a crop fire. It took us over an hour because the fire circle just kept growing larger and larger. It’s the most exhausted I’ve been in my entire life, trying

Revelation – The Worship of the Nations – 16

Who watched the UT-Bama game Saturday? Everybody. It had millions in viewership. I bleed orange. I went to UT, and that’s where my wife and I met. I went to every home game while in college. If you are a UT fan, what did you do when that winning field goal was kicked? If you kept watching, what did the fans do at the stadium? Erupted! And we can use that word literally. There was literal seismic activity, as if an earthquake, the roar of the crowd was so loud. Everyone then stormed the field, tore down the goalposts, and threw them into the Tennessee River. That’s some intense worship!

Many Christians don’t open their mouth to sing but will scream at the top of their lungs when their team wins. Many Christians will not be moved to tears at the thought of the gospel, yet manly men will cry when the Vols upset Bama. I’m purposefully drawing a parallel here because this is the picture we see in heaven of the 144,000 that we started to look at last week. We see those who are sealed worship the only one who is worthy of our worship. And I want you to see how it describes their worship later in Revelation 14.

Revelation 14:1-3

We tried to finish all of Revelation chapter 7 last week but only got halfway through. Tonight, we will finish it. Let’s recap a little of what we finished with last week and read the whole chapter in context again.

Revelation 7:1-17

Last week we saw that God is eager to save. Not just here with you, but he so loves the whole world that he gave his only Son. And he saves people from the whole world.

Christianity is global. (9) Our worship here on earth should be a foretaste of our worship in heaven. This is one major reason you see such a big push against what is referred to as Christian nationalism right now. And I think rightly so. If a brother or sister in Christ, from another country, was in one of our worship services around July 4, would they be able to worship? In a lot of churches, I don’t think so. I think we should thank God for our country, but many forget that Christianity is not an American religion. Yes, we have freedom of religion, and that is incredible, and we should thank God for it, but Christianity is a global religion, and it is even thriving in places where there is no freedom of religion.

One pastor was telling me how they were changing their services to more rightly reflect this biblical truth, and a church member came to them asking, “Aren’t we going to be having a God and country worship service this year?” And he told her, “I think we’ll just stick with the God part.”

Christianity is global. That’s how it’s been from the very beginning, with the Apostle Paul taking the gospel to the ends of the known world. That’s our calling and commission as Christ followers, from Christ himself before he ascended into heaven…to bring the gospel to make disciples of who?…all nations. And that is what we see and hear around the throne of God.

Every people group is represented around God’s throne. The gospel is going to be heard and believed among all the peoples of the earth. (10)

Hear what Jesus says in Matthew 24:14, amid his teaching on what will happen at the end: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Here’s how I believe biblical prophecy to work. I believe there is often an immediate fulfillment and a future fulfillment. There is an immediate fulfillment that they see in their time, but there is a future fulfillment they won’t ever see, but God intends.[1] I think this is true in the case of this passage. Jesus lists many things that will happen before the end and wants his people to have an expectation of the end happening at any moment. Hear what one commentator says,

“All nine of these preliminary events in fact occurred before a.d. 70, though most if not all have recurred many times since then as well. Variou