And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little scroll open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Now, I am surprised that by now John could even hold a pen to write with all the things that had been happening to him and all the things that he had been seeing. A lesser man would have been prostrate on the ground and unable to stand or look. But I suppose after all the visions and so forth that had come before with John that he had made some adaptation by now, and he wanted to write down what these thunders said.
This angel was huge, and the roar of a lion coming from him must have been awesome. And these seven thunders, don’t think of these like distant thunder rumbling in the background on the horizon; something where you see the lightening flash, and then count to five and then there’s a rumble that rolls across the way. No, no! Imagine thunder close enough that there is no discernible delay between the lightening and the sound, and you’ll be a lot closer to what this was probably like. A crack rather than a roll. What do you suppose the seven thunders said that John could not write?
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And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little scroll open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Now, I am surprised that by now John could even hold a pen to write with all the things that had been happening to him and all the things that he had been seeing. A lesser man would have been prostrate on the ground and unable to stand or look. But I suppose after all the visions and so forth that had come before with John that he had made some adaptation by now, and he wanted to write down what these thunders said.
This angel was huge, and the roar of a lion coming from him must have been awesome. And these seven thunders, don’t think of these like distant thunder rumbling in the background on the horizon; something where you see the lightening flash, and then count to five and then there’s a rumble that rolls across the way. No, no! Imagine thunder close enough that there is no discernible delay between the lightening and the sound, and you’ll be a lot closer to what this was probably like. A crack rather than a roll. What do you suppose the seven thunders said that John could not write?
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Now, this is an ominous silence. After all the seals that had been opened before: the four horses of the apocalypse had thundered across the landscape, there’s been religious confusion, persecution everywhere, a rain of meteors—not a shower, mind you—like a rain they’ve been hitting the ground; and there’s been earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, and signs in the heavens. And then there’s silence for a half an hour.
Now, half an hour is not a very long time, or it is a long time if you’re waiting for the next thing to happen. I wonder if it’s long enough to bring a man to the mouth of his cave to see if all the calamities that he’s been fleeing from are past.
This is the Book of Revelation. It’s chapter eight. The Lamb of God has taken this book from the hand of him that sat upon the throne, and he has begun one at a time to open the seven seals on this book. The book is the story of the end of the age of man. We’ve had our time here. We’ve been walking about on this planet for at least 6,000 now, making all of our mistakes, and time, for us, will draw to a close. It’s the story of the end of the age of man, and the beginning of the age of the Lamb of God. A different world. The old song, There’s a New World Coming, is right. Then, finally, the seventh seal is opened. There’s an ominous silence for about half an hour. Then, in total silence, seven angels step forward.
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts its unripe figs, when it is shaken by a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the generals , and the mighty men, and every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath has come; and who shall be able to stand?
Who indeed? When you consider what’s going on, when you consider that this that is happening is what really everybody thinks about when they think about the end of the world. We have a meteor shower that’s coming down, and this time they’re not burning up in the heavens, but they’re actually hitting the ground. Scientists tell us that this has happened in the past, and what happened in the past led to some of the great extinction when the dinosaurs disappeared off the earth because of all the clouds of dust and smoke and volcanic action and earthquakes and meteors hitting the earth threw so much dust in the air it blocked the sunlight, plant life died off and everything in the food chain that depended on it died off as well. The end of the world indeed.
There was a movie some years ago about a meteor that struck at or near Phoenix, AZ, I forget the title of the move, but. I’ll never forget this one scene where a man comes up to a state trooper after all the big event is taking place and he says, Well, what’s happened to Phoenix?
And the trooper looked at him and said, There is no Phoenix.
Now, when you imagine that it’s like a tree that has been shaken badly and the fruit is falling to the ground like plop, plop, plop
, all over the place, and you transfer that to meteors striking the earth, and you realize that one of them could actually destroy a city; well, I don’t want to scare you to much, but they say something like this has happened in the past, and that it’s sure to happen again. Scientist who specialize in looking at the universe and studying probabilities tell us that if something can happen, it will happen eventually. And, of course, if it already has happened, which it has on this planet, which has happened to the moon if you take a look at it, it’s going to happen again. Apparently it is going to rain very large objects from the sky at one point. In the movie, only one meteor, the people should have fled the city; some did and some didn’t, some had time, some didn’t. When the day of the wrath of the Lamb has come, there will be no place to run to.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
There are two things that need attention in this statement: This know also
connects what he is saying with what he has just said—and we will need to talk about that. The word perilous
, though, is not exactly what Paul said. Other translations render the Greek word here as terrible
or difficult
. Actually, it comes from a Greek root that means to weaken
. It is certainly true that what Paul describes here is a perilous time for men of faith, but it is perilous because the times are weakening—that is, they are debilitating, they tend to take us down.
For Paul to caution Timothy as he did is suggestive that, for all he knew, they might be living in the last days. Paul didn’t know, of course. Jesus made it plain that no man knew the day or the hour. But that didn’t keep him from looking at the signs of the times. But then he when on to explain to Timothy, at some length, what it was he was driving at. We’ll see this as we continue in 2 Timothy, chapter 3.
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll, and to loose the seals thereof?
And he looked all over heaven, and he looked all over earth, and he couldn’t find anyone that was qualified or worthy to open this book and break the seals, to look inside of it. It was only when the slain Lamb came on the scene that one was able to open it, and to break the seals.
This book, this strange book, is the story of the end of the world. That’s a sobering thought. I remember the first time I ever heard that expression. I was just a boy growing up and living in the northwestern part of Arkansas. It was in the early years of World War II, and everybody was worried a lot back in those days. They watched the news daily, they listened to the radio, they read the papers, and it didn’t look good. These were pre-television and pre-air-conditioning days. On a hot summer evening when supper was over we didn’t set around inside the house you went outside and sat on the porch. You maybe swung back and forth in a porch swing or a rocking chair or if you were like us kids, we used to like sit on the cool concrete of the porch and think about this, or play with that, yet in our ears we were hearing what our elders were talking about. And I remember them saying that one of the signs of the end of the world was wars, and rumors of wars; and boy there was plenty of that in 1942 and 1943. I worried a lot about those things in those days. I remember, in fact, there was a light in the sky one night and I thought, This is it, This is it. The Lord is coming back, the end of the world is coming. I think it must have just been the Auroras borealis, but it sure sobered me up a lot.
Well, only the Lamb of God who is identified in the pages of Revelation as Jesus Christ was found worthy to break the seals and to look on the book, and the only reason he was found worthy was because he was slain. He is the one that was killed, died for our sins, and the sins of the world, and he’s the one who’s qualified. And it’s not really a matter folks of looking into the book, but the breaking of the seal opens up the events. It’s actually, perhaps the start of the countdown toward what people are fond of calling the end of the world. It’s spooky to think about, isn’t it? The seven seals on this books are the seven steps up to the end of the world. I’ll bet you’d like to know what those seven steps are, wouldn’t you?
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
Now, this book
was probably a scroll, and scrolls were usually written only on one side. You would write on the inside of a paper and you would roll up the writing on the inside. This one was written within and on the outside and was sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the scroll, neither to look thereon.
We’re reading from chapter five of the great Book of Revelation. John is in vision, and John doesn’t even know what’s in this book and he was weeping uncontrollably because no one is found worthy to open it—not one of the elders, not one of the cherubim, not even, apparently, the one who is sitting on the throne and holding the book. Now, if you caught the earlier broadcast, you’ll know that the one sitting on that throne is none other than God the Father: the one who is, and who was, and who is to come—the eternal, the great God. He is holding it. And they’re weeping and looking around saying, Who can open this book?
What is this book, who can open it, and what is its significance?
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a carnelian stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in appearance like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones: and upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white clothing; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightning and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
Now, if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like where God is, you just heard an eyewitness account. A man named John was caught up in vision to where the very throne of God is, and was shown what things are like there. And, to the best of his efforts, he sat down and wrote it all down for us. We’ll find in the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation.
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens[.]
Thus begins the sixth of the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia in the mysterious Book of Revelation. If you haven’t got any background in this, these are found in the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation. And what many do not understand is—they’re used to the epistles of the apostle Paul and the epistles of Peter and the epistle of James, and not many realize is that of all the epistles in the New Testament, one of them is the Book of Revelation. It’s a letter. It’s a long letter. And within the long letter are seven letters written to seven churches—real churches on the ground in Asia Minor in the first century. Someone took this letter from John and went to each of these churches, stood before the group and read the letter aloud for them to hear. And John says:
Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
And so it is that this letter, penned by John, contains within it seven letters to seven churches. And they are sent around to be read, not just one letter in each church, but all the letters to each of the churches with special emphases to each one of them.
I’ll never forget the first time I stood on the Mount of Olives and looked out over the old city of Jerusalem, and I wondered why on earth someone would ever fight over the place. I wonder if so much blood has ever been shed over any comparable piece of real estate. Because it has gone on for so long, and so often. It was on that same hill where Jesus spoke further about what Jerusalem could expect.
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
I marvel over that, because so many people think that these are signs of the end. But Jesus said, the end is not yet. Nevertheless, I expect you have heard of something called Armageddon
. It is a word that has entered our language. It means the site or time of a final and conclusive battle between the forces of good and evil, or the battle taking place at Armageddon.
I have been there and stood on the hill of Meggido and looked out across the valley. The place called Armageddon. And, just like with Jerusalem, I wondered, Why here? What for? There are no natural resources to fight over. Not even a strategic location.
So I looked in the Bible to see what I could find. Let’s begin in Revelation, chapter 16…
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works that you have a name that you live, and are dead.
This is from the great Book of Revelation. The speaker, the one who has the seven spirits of God, and holds the seven stars in his right hand is nobody else but the risen Christ. The letter is the fifth of seven letters written to seven churches in Asia Minor, that place you and I call Turkey, late in the first century. They are a part of a vision given to the apostle John who was told to write down everything he saw and heard, and to send this writing, this letter, to these seven churches. They were real churches in real time. They were composed of real people with real problems. They had real lives, they had real names, they knew one another. So if the name of a person was mentioned in a letter, you could kind of look at that person and they would be there right in church with you on this day. But these seven churches were also symbolic of something else.
