Revelation 15
Before we read our passage from
Revelation tonight, I want to just point out a couple of things
that you’ll notice as we make our way through the passage. First, just very briefly an outline.
You have in 15.1 a picture of angels and the plagues, and that’s
going to be the topic of our study tonight, the angels and
their seven plagues. Then you have in 15, two to four,
a picture of the saints, the sea of crystal and the song of
Moses and the song of the lamb they sing. We did cover last
week, just a little bit of 15, one through four, but we’ll use
it to set the stage for tonight. And then in 15, five through
eight, you have a picture of the earthly tabernacle, but in
heaven, a picture of the angels and the plagues. And then in
chapter 16, a description of each of the seven bowls. So that’s
what’s taking place tonight. Tonight in our passage is also
the final of the sevens, the seven bowls of wrath that the
angels that they will pour out on the earth. And in previous
sections of judgment with the seals, for example, the seals,
not the animals, but the seven seals, only one fourth of the
earth was judged. So tonight is complete judgment.
And then with the trumpets a few weeks back, only one third of
the world was judged. But tonight with the seven bowls,
you see 100% judgment. So let’s look together at Revelation
chapter one, or 15, starting at verse 1. Again, John begins
the way he did so often last week. I think this is maybe the
42nd time or so he says the phrase, I saw. So he begins in 15.1. 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 images 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 and of God, 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. Who will not fear, O
Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations
will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been
revealed. After this I looked, and the
sanctuary of the tent of the witness in heaven was opened.
And out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven
plagues, clothed in pure bright linen with golden sashes around
their chest. And one of the four living creatures
gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath
of God, who lives forever and ever. And the sanctuary was filled
with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one could enter the sanctuary
until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. Then
I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels,
go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath
of God. So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the
earth. harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore
the mark of the beast and worshipped its image. The second angel poured
out his bowl into the sea and it became like the blood of a
corpse and every living thing died that was in the sea. The
third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs
of water and they became blood and I heard the angel in charge
of the waters say, just are you who O Holy One who is and who
was, for you brought these judgments, for they have shed the blood
of saints and prophets and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve. And I heard the altar saying,
yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments.
The fourth angel poured out of his bowl, he poured out his bowl
on the sun and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They
were scorched by the fierce heat and they cursed the name of God
who had power over these plagues. but they did not repent, nor
did they give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his
bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into
darkness. People gnawed their tongues in
anguish. They cursed the God of heaven for their pain and
their sores, but they did not repent of their deeds. The sixth
angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and
its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the
east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out
of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false
prophet three unclean spirits like frogs, for they are demonic
spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the
whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of
God, the almighty. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays
awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked
and be seen and be exposed. And they assemble them at the
place that is in Hebrew called Armageddon. The seventh angel
poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out
of the temple from the throne saying, it is done. And there
were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a great
earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the
earth and so great was the earthquake. The great city was split into
three parts, the cities of the nations fell. And God remembered
Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of
the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away and
no mountains were to be found. and great hailstones, about 100
pounds each, fell from the heavens on the people, and they cursed
God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
Amen. This is God’s word. May we take
comfort in it and warning as well. Stuck in the middle of this passage
is one of the Beatitudes of Revelation. You remember from Matthew’s Gospel,
the Sermon on the Mount, also the Beatitudes. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are those who mourn. The Beatitudes are the blessed passages and in Revelation there
are six Beatitudes and one is plopped right in the middle of
chapter 16. It’s right after the sixth bowl. It’s in the midst
of the description of the battle of Armageddon and it’s right
before the seventh bowl. Those heavy great earthquakes
and hailstones and all are right in the midst of it. But this
beatitude in verse 15 of chapter 16 says, And so this beatitude
is one of the one of the summaries of blessings,
I guess you might say, to those who are in Christ. And when we
think of these Beatitudes, we think of how we’re blessed on
earth, and then how we’re later blessed eternally in heaven. But right in the midst of all
this chaos of wrath and judgment, and this is the wrath of God
like we’ve never seen before. We see it in the story of Calvary
when God’s wrath is poured out on Christ, but it’s localized
to a man on the cross. But here we see God’s relentless
judgment placed on the whole earth. and on the wicked. But
I want us to take note of this beatitude because before we get
into all these seven plagues and these seven horrible bowls
of judgment, we want to remember that God’s people are safe. God’s
people are protected from these things. He keeps us. He saves us. He watches over
us. And it says to us in 1615, blessed
is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may
not go about naked and be seen exposed. So in the midst of these
seven full and final and terrible judgments, we see God protecting
his people. What’s he saying to us in this
beatitude? and blessed is the one who keeps his garment on.
He’s speaking spiritually. He’s wanting us to keep alert,
to keep our eyes on the coming of Christ, keep our eyes on the
word of God, stay in church, stay in the scripture, keep worshiping
God while all hell breaks loose on earth. But he also speaks
of not just staying awake, but keeping our clothes on. Remember
when Adam and Eve sinned against God, what did they realize? They
realized they were naked. They realized they were ashamed.
And so what did they do? They covered themselves. And
so in the scriptures, to be clothed is a spiritual sign of God covering
you, God protecting you, God giving you your human dignity. But to be naked is to be exposed,
to be exposed spiritually. You know the great tale from
days of old, the king with no clothes on. He didn’t know it,
but he was exposed before the people. And that’s what the people
who do not follow God are like. They are not clothed. They go
about naked and they are seen exposed. And God says, blessed
are those who are awake and who keep their garments on. And so that in the middle of
this message of great judgment, And so we want to go to the final
seven judgments. And as we do, I want us to see
a couple things before we land on these seven. First of all,
there’s a picture of the angels coming out of the tabernacle
in heaven. So Raiders of the Lost Ark, where
is the tabernacle? Where are its utensils? Where’s the Ark of the Covenant?
It’s in heaven. It’s in the place of reality
to which it pointed back in the days of the Old Covenant. But
in this tabernacle, of this sanctuary in heaven, you see the seven
angels with their seven bowls getting ready to do the work
of judgment. But we also see the saints who
are around the sea of glass, and we see them sing the song
of Moses and the song of Christ. These are the ones who have made
it through life, and they have graduated from the church militant
to the church triumphant. But there’s also this picture
of the temple, the presence of God, the inner sanctuary, the
holy of holies of Almighty God in heaven, the four creatures,
the angels, the messengers clothed appropriately for their task.
But now we land on the seven bowls of God’s wrath, and they
will be delivered by these angels out of the sanctuary in heaven. and they will come and release
these bowls of wrath on the earth. There are hints back to the plagues
in Egypt where God was showing without a shadow of a doubt that
he is God and he is the ruler of creation. Let’s take a peek
at each of these seven bowls. The first one comes in chapter
16 verses 1 and 2. It says of John, I heard a loud
voice from the temple telling the seven angels, go and pour
out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. And one
of the things you have to think about is seven bowls of wrath
being poured out on the earth simultaneously is a pretty destructive
thing. Maybe some of you have been in
the backyard and you found a little tiny anthill and you ever think
about the ants from their perspective when they see your big size 12
foot coming down upon their anthill they worked so hard on and here
comes your size 12 foot in judgment. You don’t want an anthill and
so what do you do? You mash it into the ground hoping to destroy
their colony. Well, you look up from heaven
And you look up at these seven bowls coming down in a really
overwhelming sense. And so the first bowl is verse
two. The first angel went, he poured
out his bowl on the earth. Harmful and painful sores came
upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshipped
its image. This is a judgment of nature. Painful boils that affect the
body inside and out. We’ve heard tell of leprosy or
these skin diseases that pop up on people from time to time.
We hear of transmitted diseases through poor lifestyle choices
and other things, but these are inflicted on the whole earth
all at once. They’re literally poured into
the earth, painful sores inside and out, poured on those who
worship the beast and have the mark of the beast on him. That’s
a pretty, pretty terrible thing. We think of God calling leprosy
down on some, or God striking some with boils in Egypt, but
this is the entire earth. The second bowl we find in 16.3,
it says, In a sense, the food supply is gone. There’s no shrimp.
There’s no flounder. Sea trout, there’s no shrimp
or scallops. There’s no I mean, can you think
about it? Think about it This is kind of
a funny way to think about it But but hell for some people in Burlington
would be up the harbor house closed, right? You ever ride
by there at night? The parking lot is full it’s
sort of a joke a funny way to think of it, but but if God struck
the sea and he would remove a major source of food. He would strike
a major source of supply for the earth. And so the second
bowl, again, is a strike against nature. And this isn’t local.
This isn’t, you know, a hurricane striking the Bahamas. or a tornado
striking a Midwestern town or something localized that inflicts
temporary pain and suffering. This is the whole earth being
affected and it is full and final. The third bowl we see in verses
four through seven, the third angel poured out his bowl into
the rivers and into the springs of water and they became his
blood. So he’s done the sea, now he’s judging the waters on
the earth. I heard the angel in charge say,
Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought
these judgments, for they have shed the blood of saints and
prophets. You have given them blood to drink. It is what they
deserve. And I heard the altar saying,
yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments.
You know, sometimes we hear people say Old Testament God angry,
New Testament God full of mercy. Well, how do you like the New
Testament God? He’s angry. He’s angry with sin. He’s angry
with the beast. He’s angry with the devil. He’s
angry with those who have worshiped the image of the beast. And it’s
in a sense, after these three judgments have been released
on the earth, the sores, the blood of the sea, the blood of
the waters of the earth, it’s in a sense these holy ones are
saying to God, oh man, this is bad, but you’re right to do this. You’re right to do this. And
what does he justify his right to do this? Well, first of all,
God’s character is one of justice and holiness. These people have
shed the blood of the saints and the prophets, and they deserve
every lick of the cup of God’s wrath which they are drinking.
And so in the midst of this, there’s a reminder that these
folks deserve what has been coming to them. And besides that, they’ve
had preachers of the earth for generations proclaiming God’s
wrath and judgment to come. Well, the fourth bowl comes in
verses eight and nine, The fourth angel poured out his bowl on
the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They
were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God,
who had power over the plagues. They did not repent and give
him glory.” Again, it’s a judgment on nature. The sun is a curse.
It is no longer a blessing of common grace. You know, we say
sometimes the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Well, sometimes
too much rain is judgment. Here, too much sun. is judgment. It’s an abnormal and supernatural
event. I forget how far the sun is away
from us. Several hundred thousand miles,
like 221,000 miles or so. But could you imagine if the
sun were closer? You go out in the morning to get the paper
these mornings where it’s chilly out, but when the sun comes around
the corner and it lands upon your skin, you feel its heat.
But could you imagine if there were no relief from the sun,
which is so hot, and God in his current mercy restrains its great
heat from us. Maybe global warming will come
true in this fourth bowl. The fifth bowl, we find in verses
10 through 11, the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne
of the beast. Its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People
gnawed their tongues in anguish. They cursed the God of heaven
for their pain and their sores. They did not repent of their
deeds. Remember, when the fifth bowl comes, the fourth bowl is
still active. The third bowl’s still active.
The second bowl’s still active, the first bowl. And so when the
fifth bowl is poured out, this spiritual bowl of Satan’s spiritual,
Empire being cast into darkness. You see these wicked people,
their restlessness, their darkness, their grit, their strain against
God, their blasphemies. And so they are now in spiritual
anguish, but they still have the sores. They’ve had no food.
They’ve had no water. and the sun has baked them. And
so you have this picture of dried up, sore infested people who
are starving to death. And God judges them in this fifth
plague as darkness is plunged, spiritual darkness upon these
people. They gnaw their tongues in anguish.
Can you imagine? They curse the God of heaven
for their pain and their sores and they do not repent. of their
deeds. Then there’s the sixth bowl,
verses 12 through 16. The sixth angel poured out his
bowl on the great river Euphrates. Its water was dried up to prepare
the way for the kings from the east. And this is where everybody
gets into Russia and China and all the evening news business.
And he says, I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and
out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false
prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. for they are demonic
spirits. They are performing signs who
go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them
for the battle on the great day of the Almighty. And then there’s
the beatitude in verse 15. And it says in 16, they assembled
them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. We remember that in Genesis,
when God’s people sinned against him, that God promised a perpetual
and ongoing war. There’s a battle between the
seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent. The serpent will
continue to nip at the heels of God’s people. And one day,
Satan’s head will be crushed by God through Christ and his
great victory. But there’s this perpetual and
ongoing war. But this is the great and final
battle of this war since the beginning in Genesis. It’s evil
versus Christianity. It’s personified or displayed
in the demonic spirits or the frogs. Next time you see a frog,
don’t think of a prince. You know, if you kiss the frog,
it’ll turn into a prince. Think of Satan and spiritual
warfare. But the kings of the earth, the
masses of the earth are deceived. They are being gathered together
for this great battle where God will ultimately when God will
ultimately cast them into outer darkness.
But this whole idea of Armageddon, you hear on the prophecy shows
about the battle of Armageddon. I remember when I was a kid and
went to the land of Israel, they took us out to the plains of
Megiddo. And I remember saying, and I had virtually no biblical
literacy at this point in time in my life, except what I learned
on the flannel boards in Sunday school. Probably at that point
in time, I had not read my Bible through But I remember them taking
us to this place, the Plain of Megiddo, and they’re saying,
this is where the great battle of Armageddon will take place. Well, that’s
what a lot of people in America think, that people have got to
gather there. All the kings have got to come there from the north,
south, east, and west. It’s a lot of what you hear on prophecy
television. that this battle has to take
place. But we consider and interpret these things as spiritual and
that in the heavenly places, God will battle against Satan
and evil and he will ultimately win. But isn’t it wonderful that
in the midst of all this chaos, God addresses the church militant
with this blessing, this beatitude, verse 15. Blessed is the one
who stays awake. Blessed is the one who keeps
their spiritual eyes open. Blessed is the one covered with
God’s word. Blessed is the one who is found
in Him and will stay safe through all these bowls of judgment. And then the final bowl, verses
17 to 21. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A
loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is
done. There were flashes of lightning. There were rumbles. There were
peals of thunder and a great earthquake such as there had
never been since man was on the earth. So great was the earthquake. The great city was split into
three parts and the cities of the nations fell. And God remember
Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of
the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and no
mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about 100
pounds each, fell from heaven on people. They cursed God for
the plague of hell because the plague was so severe.” This,
of course, is the last plague and the greatest one. It echoes
back to the plague of Egypt where hailstones came and fell upon the crops,
they fell upon the servants, they fell upon the people, and
up until that point in the plagues on Egypt, it was basically a
magic show between Pharaoh’s men and Moses. Throw down the
stick, it becomes a snake. Pick it up, it becomes a stick
again. It was a magic show. But then the plagues got more
and more intense, of course, ultimately ending with the Passover
and the plague of the death of the firstborn. But this is the
big one. This is the final one. This is
our last enemy as Christians. It’s the world. It’s Babylon. It’s anti-Christianity. and God pours out his wrath down
onto earth. It’s final. Satan’s realm is
struck. And can you imagine a 100-pound
hailstone? I mean, we hear about golf-sized hail, or pea-sized
hail, or maybe cherry-sized hail. Softball’s getting a little big,
but can you imagine 100 pounders? I don’t know what that would
be. It’d be bowling ball size, and then some, maybe. But this
is incredible. It’s complete destruction, and
it’s in three parts. Verse 19 tells us, the great
city was split into three parts, the cities of the nations, The
destruction is great, it is complete, and it is final. And as you make
your way through the end of Revelation, you see that God is coming. So what’s the word for us, the
word of encouragement? Well, a couple things. One is
we look at all the kings of the earth. We look at all the wickedness,
all the unrighteousness. We say from day to day and week
to week and from time to time, oh, look at the world. It’s gone
to pot. Where is culture going? It’s rotting away. It’s a dark
and dying world, a crooked and depraved generation. Well, we
need to remember God is going to judge it. They will not escape
judgment. There’s a little phrase in our
catechism that says, while man may escape judgment from men
on this earth, they will ultimately never escape God’s judgment. And that’s something for us to
remember. The world around us is wicked and evil, but their
day is coming. Another thing for us to remember
is the encouragement and the beatitude. And it’s, I mean,
this is a little bit of a humorous way to say it, but stay awake
and keep your clothes on. Stay awake spiritually. Discernment
is something greatly needed by Christians. We need to read the
Bible and look at the world. And as we read the Bible and
look at the world, we see God is in control, man will be judged,
and if we keep on our pilgrim path, we’ll make it safely home. But we also want to keep our
clothes on, as it were. We want to stay spiritually clothed
in the word and the promises and in the blessings of Almighty
God. And so while all this is going
on, while all the chaos is going on, the challenge for you is
this, and I’m sure it’s gonna be memorable. Maybe it’ll stick
in your minds all week. Stay awake and keep your clothes
on. Let’s pray together. Our Lord
and God, we thank you for this, your word, and pray that it would
encourage us to stay close to you, to stay in your word, to
stay close to your church and your people, not to fear what
is going on out in the world, but also, to be more than conquerors. For we remember that in Christ
we are more than conquerors. And so we want to stay in him
and close to him and walk with him. Help us to remember these
things, to trust in you, and to remember that judgment will
come. And when you come, make all things right and all things
new. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.