Second Presbyterian Church Sermons

1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” 3 Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.” 6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Big Idea: The focus of Scripture, the very purpose of all history, is the revelation of the love of God in Jesus Christ. That love is revealed in this passage through Christ’s judgment on sin as well as His marriage to you.

As counter-intuitive as it may sound, the first reason disciples of Jesus Christ will praise their Savior throughout eternity is that He judges sin. While someone caught for a crime may initially be grateful for an authority who lets it slide, eventually, that same person will realize that such a leader makes for a chaotic culture. While justice sometimes stings us when we do wrong, in the end it should be welcomed because it provides safety to the weakest, reward to the innocent, and joy for the repentant. Jesus loves all His image bearers too much not to punish sin.  His love is proved by keeping us from self-destruction. This is why God is praised for His judgements that are “true and just” in verse 2. At the return of Christ, all His saints will finally, fully be who they were always meant to be. God’s truth and justice will have been shaping them bit by bit into more of that image while they await Christ's return, when the true image will be realized.

God’s standards for judging sin are His truth and righteousness. That Christ upholds truth and justice for His abused followers should warm our hearts to love Him. God has amply warned that mistreatment of His people will be one of the three major reasons he destroys the world (Rev. 18:23). No matter how history has been revised, of what you have been falsely accused, how hidden the stories of the persecuted have been—God remains the guardian of the truth and will ensure that it is established eternally. His righteousness will be the standard against which all thoughts, words, and deeds will be measured. His righteousness will further be revealed as the only explanation of every righteous act and that which must be substituted for our sinfulness to even make it possible to live in His presence. This is the only New Testament passage in which “hallelujah” occurs, reminding us that it is a unique praise reserved for the final victory of righteousness over evil (vv. 1, 3, 4, 6; cf. Ps. 106, 111-13, 117, 135, 146-50).  

God’s strategy for getting sinners from their former bondage to the devil in the city of destruction, through a dangerous world, and into the kingdom of heaven is called salvation. We have mistakenly come to refer only to our initial conversion as salvation. But the Bible calls the whole redemptive plan of God "salvation."  Isaiah referred to the strategy by which God walks us through the dangers of this world into heaven as the “walls of salvation” (Isaiah 26:1). Those walls are made up of pastors, youth directors, teachers, parents, peers, legal authorities, institutions, all the various means of grace, spouses, siblings and thousands of other "building blocks" that serve to keep us on the narrow road of Christ. Sometimes it hurts to bump into these walls, but the alternative is to go over the edge and onto the other road, the wide road, that leads to destruction. God’s goal for His elect is for each one to be brought home to heaven; the highway of His salvation is walled, for our protection and prospering, all the way to the celestial city. 

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Here we encounter the most beautiful picture in all of Scripture of the love of Jesus for us, His people (Is. 54:5-7; Mt. 22:2; Ep. 5:32). Despite who we have been and who we remain, Jesus dares to betroth himself to us (Hos 2:19). He chose us knowing we had nothing to offer Him, and He is taking all of redemptive history to prepare a great celebratory feast to announce to the whole cosmos that we are His bride. 

John grasps for similes to describe the deafening shouts of those gathered in Heaven as Christ celebrates the final redemption of His bride the Church. He calls to mind the loudest phenomena He has experienced in creation—the triumphant shouts of an uproarious crowd of people, a mighty waterfall, and terrifying peals of thunder. He combines all of these in a desperate attempt to convey how loud and triumphant the worship in Heaven will be.

Why this unprecedented, deafening celebration in Heaven? Because of what is being revealed about the manner of God’s salvation of His Church. All redeemed humanity, all the angels of heaven, and all creation will revel in God’s beautification of sinners such as us. Of course, we will all be overjoyed that the “marriage supper of the Lamb has come,” but we will be even more amazed at the readiness of the “Bride.” 

Years ago, my friend Kim, a physician in Philadelphia, was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of liver cancer. Soon after diagnosis, this once vibrant, athletic, brilliant young woman showed the signs of this devastating disease wreaking havoc upon her body. However, something dramatic and unheard of occurred in the middle of her battle: She got married! A man whom she had known for several years came back into her life and said, “I want to marry you.” During the proposal in her hospital room, Kim took his hand and put it on one of the tumors now protruding from her body and said, “Do you feel that?  That is going to kill me.  Do you still want to marry me?”  He said, “Yes! I am going to marry you. Will you marry me?”  That is love! I can guarantee you that she never questioned that her husband loved her and was committed to loving her—come what may. 

You and I have been loved even more extravagantly than that by God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ. By keeping His love in the forefront of our minds, we will never cease to worship Him. 

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1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 2 And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. 3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.” 

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; 5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6 Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. 7 As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’ 8 For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.” 

9 And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. 10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.” 

11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. 14 “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!” 

15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, 16 “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! 17 For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” 

And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” 

19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste. 20 Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!” 

21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more; 22 and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more, 23 and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. 24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”

Big Idea: Over and again in this book, we have seen Jesus beckoning to His children. While He denounces sin with the harshest of words and threatens evil with the most terrifying of judgments, He stretches out His arms to His children so as to say, “Come out from among those other loves which only wage war against your soul. Come to the one who truly loves you” (4-5). John identifies three reasons—all arising from self-love—that God will destroy the City of Man at the Last Day: the love of money, sorcery, and persecution of the righteous. 

According to Revelation 18, the primary evil for which God will judge the world is the love of money. This fierce judgment promised on economic idolatry is startling to most of us in this era because we have become so comfortable with materialism. But it is not a new thought in our study. On numerous occasions, John has alluded to the fact that Roman idolatry had more to do with economic gain than true spiritual devotion. Worshiping the Emperor’s image did not require a sincere heart, but securing federal funds for your city required worshiping the Emperor’s image! Participation in idol feasts did not require you to be a true believer, but it was required participation if you wished to remain a member of your professional guild. Therefore, John says that taking the mark of the Beast often looks like blending in in and hiding your identity as a Christian in order to prosper financially.

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The second evil God will finally defeat is sorcery (φαρμακεία), which is descriptive of the devil’s methodology. Here John reminds his readers that modern societies succumbing to sorcery stand no more chance of escaping judgment than did Old Testament Babylon (Is. 47:9; Na. 3:4). Sorcery is any strategy by which the devil advances his agenda, which is to do whatever he can to hinder the gospel’s advance. This includes experimentation with tarot cards, Ouija boards, obsession with burial grounds, research of Satanic spells, drug and alcohol abuse, and pornography (which is most common). There is nothing inherently powerful about any of these practices, but the devil is a spiritual terrorist, and if he can convince you that these things hold power, he will use them to abuse you.

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The final reason the devil’s forces will be judged is because of the Christians they have persecuted and killed. Our comfort as Christians is that when we suffer for Christ, Jesus suffers with us. When Christ intercepted Saul on his way to Damascus to kill Christians, He asked, “Saul, why do you persecute me?” He comforts us by saying, “Precious in his sight is the death of his saints.” And He assures us with the promise: “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you” (2 Th. 1:6). In our text God promises to repay our persecutors “double” for all their sins (18:6). 

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