“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.”
Revelation 1:1
The Lord gave us an opportunity this summer to hear from a variety of gifted preachers! I am personally thankful and our church is wonderfully blessed to have so many gifted Bible teachers who were able to fill in, sometimes with very little notice, due to my sudden cancer diagnosis.
But now it is time to come back to our long series in Revelation. The video above and this post will give you an excellent overview of the second half of the book. The book of Revelation is structured around three series of seven: seven seals on a scroll, seven trumpets sounded by angels then seven bowls of God’s wrath poured out. The seals affect one quarter of the earth, the trumpets affect one third and the bowls impact 100% of what remains from the previous judgments.
We paused the Revelation series at the opportune moment of chapter fifteen: a worshipful interlude between the trumpet and bowl judgments.
“Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!'”
Revelation 15:1-3
With the seven bowl judgments in chapter sixteen, “the wrath of God is finished.” God’s perfect justice is coming soon. And when it does come, it will be complete. It will be perfect. We will feel the force of that justice in chapters sixteen through eighteen. Then the tone will shift from destruction to celebration with the return of Christ in chapter nineteen. We heard the cry of the martyrs earlier: “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10).
That “how long?” gives way to “Hallelujah” in chapter nineteen!
“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, for his judgments are true and just…’ Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah!’ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!'”
Revelation 19:1-4
Just as the heavenly host and all of creation cried out in worship in chapter four, so we hear heaven and earth singing praise to the Lamb as the book concludes!
So come be encouraged by the justice of God, His faithfulness to keep His Word, His final victory over sin and evil, and His plans to renew all things in the creation of a new heaven and earth!