The Righteous Branch: A Christmas Sermon

Jeremiah 23:5

Jeremiah had one of the most difficult assignments of any prophet of God in the Old Testament. He was sent to the people of Judah to warn them about the impending invasion of Babylon and the destruction of the capital city of Jerusalem. The people of Judah, especially her leaders, firmly believed that, because Jerusalem was the city of God where the Temple was built and where the throne of David had been established, there was no real threat from any foreign power.

But Jeremiah continually prophesied against the sin of the nation and especially about the sin and failures of Israel’s leadership; the kings who sat on David’s famous throne in Jerusalem. Because of their failure to lead the people back to God, God was going to remove the city of Jerusalem and there would no longer be a descendant of David ruling there. Jeremiah’s ministry lasted right up to the time when the Babylonians came and knocked down the walls of the holy city and carried the king away into captivity in Babylon, leaving the city of David in a state of desolation. For the people of Judah, this was the one thing that seemed to spell the end of their world and all their hopes.

But in all his predictions about Jerusalem’s fall, Jeremiah also gave hope for the future, beyond the period of captivity in Babylon. This would not be the end of the nation. God would not desert them completely, despite His temporary wrath against them. Eventually, another ruler would spring forth from David’s line. He would be a righteous king, approved by God, and successful in all his endeavors. A righteous branch from out of David’s kingly line would come to do what all previous rulers and leaders of Israel had failed to do. The people of Israel were looking for a king who could save them from their troubles and give them peace and security. Jeremiah promised that this king would come, even when this looked to be impossible.

The fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy would require a man from David’s line, a man who was perfectly righteous in the sight of God, and a man who would be a king. The only person who could have fulfilled these requirements was Jesus Christ. The Gospel makes it clear that there was more to this prophecy than just the political fate of Judah and restoring them to their land. God was really leaking something about how His great plan of salvation would finally be accomplished.

The prophecy required that a man come from David’s royal lineage. The righteous branch springing forth from David’s line was fulfilled when Jesus was born. This fact was announced at his birth and then confirmed in the inspired writings of the Gospels. Matthew and Luke are particularly interested in the events surrounding the birth of Christ and in connecting these events to Old Testament prophecies. Both Gospels connect the birth of Jesus to David’s royal succession. The Messiah had to come from David’s family. Both Matthew and Luke give careful attention to the human ancestry of Jesus. In Luke, the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that “the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1.32). 

Matthew also focuses on the Davidic lineage of Jesus, but in a subtle fashion. When the holy family is forced to flee from Herod into Egypt, Joseph decides to then resettle in Nazareth. Matthew writes that this fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2.23). But a careful reader of the Old Testament will recognize that those exact words were never uttered by any prophet. Rather than quoting an exact phrase, Matthew is referring to several prophecies about a ruler coming forth from David’s royal lineage. The word from which the town of Nazareth is named means a shoot or a branch. Jesus is a Nazarene, which means that Jesus is the shoot or branch who would come from David to rule over Israel.

The prophecies about the Messiah promised that He would be a physical descendant of King David. The Jews were expecting a flesh and blood Messiah. They understood that much at least. The New Testament makes Christ’s physical descent from David a major point of the Gospel.

In his greatest exposition of the Gospel, the letter to Rome, Paul said he was “set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1.1). The Messiah can be identified by his human genealogy. The Savior was not going to be born a Greek, a Roman, or a Babylonian. He was going to come from the seed of Abraham and from David’s royal family. In the modern world when we want to give our qualifications for a job or position we present a resume. Our resume usually lists our experience and accomplishments which qualify us for the position. But in the ancient world, your resume would have been your genealogy. When the Gospel writers present Jesus’ lineage they are giving us His resume for being the Messiah that God had promised Israel. Jesus has the right qualifications to be the Christ who fulfills the promises and prophecies God made to Israel in the Old Testament. 

Gentile Christians often seem to miss the importance of these facts. We often disconnect the Gospel and Jesus from the story of Israel and the Old Testament, as if Jesus just appeared out of nowhere. But the Savior of the world could not have just appeared suddenly, as if from nowhere. Think of how confusing and mysterious that would have been! Instead, God had carefully prepared for the coming of His Son into the world. God set aside a special people and prepared them for what He was going to do in the world.

That is why the Gospel is for the Jew first. They were the people chosen to bring the Savior into the world. Without the whole history of the Jewish people, the birth of the Savior would have had no context at all. Jesus is called the King of the Jews. And He is that before He is anything else to us. Jesus was not born in Rome or Athens but in Bethlehem of Judea. The Savior of the world was and is a Jew. When we become Christians, we are becoming a part of the whole history of God with Israel.

Of course, Jesus is not just for the Jews. He is also the seed of the woman, prophesied by God Himself in Genesis 3:15. Because Jesus is a human being He can be the Savior of all people descended from father Adam. Matthew and Luke both show Jesus’ birth in the context of Judaism and the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. But John begins his Gospel in a more universal context. The old philosophers had always been wondering about the Logos or the meaning and logic of the universe. John picks up this language and uses it. There is a Logos behind the world from which everything has been made. But then John says that the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn. 1.14). John also identifies this Logos as God (Jn. 1.1). The central teaching of Christianity is that a member of the Godhead put on a human body and came into the world to be with us.

If this is a struggle to grasp, you must know that it is one of the mysteries of the faith and has always been difficult. The greatest controversies in the early history of the Church were concerned with the Deity and the humanity of Christ. Where the old heretics went wrong was in denying either Christ’s humanity or His deity. Some of the early Gnostics thought it was revolting that God should have a human body, so they taught Jesus only appeared to be human and would have left no footprints there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Modern heretics say that Jesus was certainly a man but not God. But the Scriptures hold out both His humanity and His deity. All true Christians believe that Jesus is both God and man and this is something completely unique in history. There is no other religious leader who has claimed to be God.

Unlike other religions that only teach an ethic or a way of life, Christianity is based on the unique identity of the Founder. This means that it is important what we say we believe about Jesus. Of course, we must believe that He was a real man. But simply believing that Jesus was a real, historical person does not make you a Christian. We must believe that Jesus is the Messiah who came to fulfill all of God’s promises to Israel in the Old Testament. We must believe that Jesus was the Divine Word who became flesh. If we receive Him as the Son of God, then He will make us sons of God.

The prophecy not only required a man from David’s line but a man perfectly righteous in the sight of God Himself. Jeremiah’s message was that the leaders of Israel had failed miserably. The people had broken the covenant and were going to be sent into exile. Of course, Israel’s situation was the situation of the entire human race. All of Adam’s children were sinners who had been alienated from God. God’s revealed solution to this problem, as prophesied by Jeremiah and by other prophets of God, was to send a man who would be righteous in God’s sight and because of his righteousness and approval would be able to save the people and restore them to a right relationship with God. And that is what Jesus came into the world to be and to do.

As a man, the Son of God kept the Law of God perfectly. Jesus was the only perfect man, the only perfect Jew under the Law, who has ever lived. Jesus was born under the Law so He could redeem those who were under Law (Gal 4.4-5). We were under the bondage and the condemnation of the Law, but Jesus never was under the Law’s condemnation. We know very little about the first thirty years of Jesus’ life. He appears in the Temple at age twelve and confounds both His parents and the religious leaders. Even at the tender age of twelve, Jesus knew that He had to be about His Father’s business. For the entire span of His relatively short earthly life, Jesus did nothing but the Father’s business. And this is what makes Jesus unique: He was the only man in history to only, always do the will of God. He never sinned. He never broke a commandment. He kept the Law perfectly.

The idea that God is a law-giver, even though it is basic Bible doctrine, is unpopular in our culture. But if God is our creator, then He has the right to give us commands. And when God gives a command it is never a suggestion that is optional. God’s Law must be kept.

The covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai was based on God’s Law, summarized in the Ten Commandments. God’s Law is God’s Word and is an expression of His nature, which cannot simply be ignored or set aside lightly. God made it clear to Israel that if they broke His Law and were unfaithful to the covenant He made with them, He would curse them. Jeremiah and the other prophets came along to tell Israel that they had indeed broken that Law and were to face the covenant curses God had promised.

Breaking a command of God, even one, brings a curse. Adam and Eve had also experienced this reality when they disobeyed God. It is the story of the whole human race, not just for Israel. The whole story of the Old Testament is about the collective failures of humanity. We just kept doing what our father Adam had done in Eden. Israel received a special revelation of God’s Law, but they did not keep it. Everyone, even God’s chosen people, were failures. Setting aside His Law was not an option. The Law had to be kept, but no son of Adam or daughter of Eve could do that. Sin had mastered the children of Adam.

What did God do? God started over. Jesus is a new start, the second Adam. Adam sinned and was cursed. Israel sinned and was cursed. But Jesus did not sin. He was tempted like us, yet He did not sin. So, God could start over in Jesus with a perfect man who was the Head of a new humanity. This is exactly Paul’s argument in Romans when he says: “as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5.19). Adam’s race was condemned, but Christ’s race is accepted as righteous. Jesus succeeded where Adam failed, so Jesus is now the progenitor of the New Humanity. In Adam we were unrighteous, in Christ we are righteous. “Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface, stamp Thine image in its place: second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love.”

This is a difficult doctrine in our individualistic culture. The idea that one person can stand in or represent many other people seems unfair. But we are very familiar with this concept, which is called a Federal Head, in the legal process. When people have trouble with the law, they hire a representative, a lawyer, to make their legal case. If you have a good lawyer, you get a good deal in court, even if you are guilty. Jesus is our Federal Head, our representative, who can legally represent us before a righteous God. Even though we are guilty, we get a good deal with God because we have a good representative in Christ. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2.1). We are not righteous. But He is righteous. We are accepted by the Father in Him.

There was a man in the Old Testament named Mephibosheth. He was the son of Jonathan, King David’s friend. After Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle and David was made king of Israel, many of Saul’s sons were killed. But David had made a covenant with Jonathan. And so, David found Mephibosheth and invited him to stay with him in Jerusalem and eat at his table every day. There was nothing in this for David personally. Mephibosheth was not a great warrior who could fight in David’s army. Mephibosheth was lame in both his feet. But he got a free ticket to live with the king just because of the covenant David had made with His father, Jonathan. You and I are Mephibosheth. We have been invited to come to God because of the grace of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Even with the lameness in our feet, our sin, we are still able to come and eat at the King’s table. But it is not for anything we have done or anything that we can bring to the table. It is only because of the righteousness of King Jesus.

It is not hard for us to look at ourselves or at each other and find faults. But if you look at Jesus, you will never find any faults. In fact, Jesus just looks better and better! Most people who object to Christianity usually do so because of the imperfections of Christ’s followers, but seldom because of Christ Himself. That is really no surprise. We freely admit our failures. But we see no failure in our Lord. And neither does God the Father. God is perfectly pleased with His Son. And if we are in Christ, God will be pleased with us and will credit righteousness to our account.

The coming of Christ brought in a new order. We must come to God in Christ. Christ has fulfilled the Law, so we no longer come to God through Law, we come through faith in Christ. The covenant God made with Abraham was based on a promise of blessing through His Seed, not through law, and now that Seed has come. And so, we can all agree with Paul’s desire to “gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3.9).

The fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy also required a king to reign. Jesus was born to be a king and that fact was announced before His birth. His royal credentials were presented and confirmed. He was the heir to David’s eternal throne that God had promised to David himself.

David was a shadow of the Christ who would come from his own body. David was the king that God had chosen, not the one that the people had recognized. Saul was the kind of king the people had wanted. The same thing was true of Jesus. He was God’s King, but not the kind of king who could be recognized or accepted by the world. The Romans would see him as an upstart and as a rebel. The Jews wanted a man of war who would kick out the Romans and reestablish their earthly power.

The fact that there was no room for Him in the inn in Bethlehem was a precursor to Jesus’ earthly life. He came to His own, prepared people, but they did not recognize or receive Him. Jesus was going to be made King by God, not by the praise and adoration of men. He came to do the will of God, not the will of men. He came to establish the Kingdom of God, not an earthly kingdom. The world did not and still does not want Him as their King, which was also prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures (See Psalm 2; 110). The world has always been in rebellion against God’s authority and will not accept His choice of Jesus as King. Jesus is a threat to the world and to everyone who wants to live his own life. Of course, you don’t get to vote for who is king. The only vote that counts in this case is God’s choice. God has exalted Him and given Him a name above every other name.

There can be no grey area here. No middle ground is possible. We either accept Him as the king or we are against Him. This kind of absolute truth is what continues to be a stumbling block to our relativistic culture. But the Scriptures make no apologies for calling Jesus the Lord of all. The fact that He is God’s chosen king means that He is everyone’s king. He is not just the King of the Jews. He is the King of Africa, China, England, Pakistan, Russia, and even the United States!

The will of God is absolute, but it is always good. Satan has tempted humanity to believe that God is an evil ogre who is keeping us from really being free and enjoying ourselves. It is the oldest of lies. We have believed that it was better to go out on our own in the world rather than submit to God’s authority. The source of all our trouble and all our insecurity stems from the fact that we have left the Father’s house, like the Prodigal Son, and are trying to make it on our own. When we seek His Kingdom first, then everything else comes with it, and we can rest in His love, like a son in the arms of his father. There is a direct connection between Christ’s authority and our security in God’s love. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ because Christ is at the right hand of God.

In the musical, The Fiddler on the Roof, when all the Jews are being forcibly evicted from their homes, one of the young men asks: “wouldn’t this be a good time for the Messiah to come?” In all their troubles it had been a question that the Jews had been asking for centuries. But not the Jews only. It is deep in the heart of humanity to want a savior who can bring us out of our troubles and into a place of peace and security. All people continue to look for saviors: political, economic, personal, philosophical and religious. We want someone to save us from our sorrows, insignificance, loneliness, and anxiety. We want to feel that we are secure and that our lives matter and that everything might turn out to be okay in the end. We want hope. We want peace. And we want joy. This is what the world talks about at Christmastime. But every year at Christmastime people look around at the world and wonder why things are still such a mess. What are we doing wrong? Wouldn’t this be a good time for the Messiah to come? But He has come. One of our favorite Christmas songs declares “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Why has He come? “He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.” But how do we get His blessings? “Let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare Him room.”

Vision of the Ages: The Seven Bowls Part 1

The Final Judgement of the World

Revelation 15.1-19.5

We now come to the final cycle of visions in the book of Revelation. This cycle is structured by the image of seven bowls full of the wrath of God that is poured out on the world. After these bowls of wrath are poured out we are then given a more detailed view of the World Order, which is called Babylon, and why God’s wrath is being directed against it.

In the last cycle, we were introduced to the enemies of Christ and His Church. There is the ultimate enemy, which is the Dragon, or Satan, and two beasts that Satan uses to wage war on the Saints in the earth. Another adversary, Babylon, is mentioned in the last cycle but becomes the focus of the final cycle of visions. The final section of Revelation can be divided into two parts: the first part is the judgment of Babylon in 15.1-19.5. The second part is 19.6-22.5, which depicts several different perspectives of the end of the world.

In the previous section, when the enemies of Christ and His people are revealed, the cosmic enemies are shown first because these are the ultimate source of the opposition. The earthly or human part of the opposition is shown last. But when the enemies are judged the order is reversed and the human opposition from the World Order, or Babylon, is shown first. There is a practical reason for this reversed order in the final cycle: Babylon, or the wicked World Order, is the enemy by which the saints in the earth have been directly attacked. Opposition from the World is opposition from other people around us, which is quite close and personal. So, it is a point of encouragement to the people of God to see the judgment of the World Order first, since this has been the most direct, though not the ultimate, source of opposition. In the middle of the conflict, it is often difficult for us to see that the outcome of the war has already been decided. Sometimes it looks like the World has the upper hand and that the saints are losers. But God has not forgotten how the World has treated His people.

The vision that is depicted by the seven bowls of wrath helps us understand something about the nature of the World Order, or Babylon, and why God’s wrath is going to destroy it completely. If we understand the meaning of this vision we will also see the condition of our own hearts in relation to the World.

The Nature of the World

In this vision, the World is called Babylon:

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead, was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations” (Rev. 17.1-5)

Babylon was a very real kingdom or empire that once dominated the ancient world, including the people of Israel. It was Babylon that carried the kingdom of Judah into captivity, as announced by God’s prophets, especially the prophet Jeremiah:

Flee from the midst of Babylon; let everyone save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance, the repayment he is rendering her. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine therefore the nations went mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies. (Jer. 51.6-9).

God promised that Babylon would fall and that the people of Judah would return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city of God.

But all of that was ancient history by the time the Apostle John was on the Isle of Patmos writing the book of Revelation. The churches John wrote letters to were under the thumb of the Roman Empire. Now, Rome is ancient history for us. So, what does Babylon have to do with the Church today? Whatever the symbol of Babylon is referring to, it must be something relevant to the church in every place and every Age.

This section of Revelation is especially concerned with those things that will happen at the end of the world. Therefore, the symbolic Babylon must be something still with us today and will be with us until Jesus comes. Some interpreters of the book of Revelation believe that Babylon is a reference to Rome and the judgment of that evil empire that so violently persecuted the early Church. But this interpretation fails to do justice to the universal scope of this vision. Rome may have been the Babylon in John’s time, but there would be a Babylon that the people of God would have to continually face before the end comes.

What is seen in the visions here in Revelation is an image of the World, or worldliness. The World in this sense is not the created world of nature. This term refers to the world of humanity in a state of alienation and rebellion against God. Satan is the god of this World, and those who are a part of this evil system unwittingly serve the will of Satan rather than the will of God. Christians have been delivered from the evil system and brought into the Kingdom of God. The World system is marked by “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2.15-17). In Revelation, the World system is called “Babylon” as a kind of theological shorthand. And in these visions, we see a glimpse of its nature so that the people of God know the challenges they are facing. Babylon is an enemy just like the Dragon and the Beasts.

Babylon is pictured in two ways in the vision: as a city and as a prostitute.

 

Babylon: The City of Man

Ancient Babylon was a city that was pagan and idolatrous. It was in every way a contrast to the city of Jerusalem, which was the only city on earth associated with the living God. God’s presence was represented in Jerusalem by the Temple, but there was no temple to Jehovah in Babylon. The city of Jerusalem came to represent the presence of God with His chosen people. Jerusalem was the City of God. In contrast, Babylon represents the City of Man. The City of Man could have other names as well: Babel, Sodom, and Egypt could also represent the idolatrous, pagan world that is the enemy of God and His people. We could say that the whole story of the Bible is a tale of two cities: The City of Man versus the City of God. This contrast between these two cities, or societies of people, is made very clear in the visions of Revelation. In this cycle, we have the vision of the wickedness and the judgment of Babylon, the City of Man, in stark contrast to the glory of the City of God, which is the New Jerusalem. These cities represent people, not places. These are groups of people who together form two different kinds of societies.

At the present, these two cities co-exist in the world. But this will not always be the case. One of these cities is destined for destruction and at the end of time, these two groups will be eternally separated from each other. Each person belongs to one city or the other. We want to make sure we are in the right city because the outcome of this struggle has already been determined.

The people of God had to spend some time in exile and captivity in Babylon. This is the very same situation for God’s people today: we are also in a kind of exile in the world. We are surrounded by paganism and idolatry. We are IN Babylon, but we are not OF Babylon. Babylon represents a major challenge to the faith of God’s people. We must be faithful while in Babylon, trusting that God will care for us and eventually deliver us. The prophets gave hope to the people of Judah that they would eventually come out of captivity in Babylon and return to the Promised Land. In the same way, the people of God in the world have the hope of salvation and of entering the New Creation. But during our time in Babylon, we must resist the paganism that is all around us, much like Daniel and his friends had to do. Babylon is hostile to the people of God and we are not promised an easy time. We do not fit in with the World’s godless agenda and they will not appreciate the presence of people with another allegiance. Jesus warned His disciples that the World would hate them because it hated Him and His Father. Becoming a Christian is kind of like joining a resistance movement. Christians are resisting and often protesting the ways of Babylon all the while calling people to join us and find something better than what this present, evil World offers us. God has given us an alternative to Babylon.

 

Babylon: The Great Prostitute

There is another image for the World here in Revelation, and it is somewhat shocking and difficult: The World is a great prostitute. She is pictured as a woman richly and seductively dressed, enticing potential lovers. The Prostitute promises intoxicating pleasure to her lovers and her appeal has been very successful. The Prostitute represents yet another strategy Satan has for recruiting the world to join his movement and oppose the people of God. The allure of worldly pleasures is a seductive offer than many people are not able to resist. The Devil was even bold enough to tempt Jesus by showing Him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” Jesus was not fooled by this offer, but many men take the bait and are snared by the Prostitute. The woman is a PROSTITUTE and that means her pleasures only come at a price. The price for her affection is your soul. You cannot serve God and jump in bed with the Prostitute. Jesus warned us that we cannot serve two masters: we must choose between God and the unrighteous mammon of this world. There are those people who hear the good news about the Kingdom of God, but they are too distracted by “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.” It is a serious warning for those of us who live in the affluent West. Here in America, the seduction of the Prostitute has been one of Satan’s most effective strategies for recruiting servants. The elusive “American Dream” is nothing more than the siren call of the Prostitute dressed up in modern clothes.

These images are in Scripture to teach us even deeper, spiritual truths about our relationship to God. The World has no covenant relationship with God, which is why she is called a Prostitute. A Prostitute is not in a covenant relationship with a single spouse but will give her affection to any and every lover who comes along. Such is the idolatry of the world and its many spiritual lovers.

In stark contrast to the Prostitute is the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. There is another group of people in the world who are in covenant with God and are promised in marriage to Christ at the end of the Age. The Prostitute is promiscuous and defiled. The Bride is faithful and pure, which is why her garments are white. Until the Bridegroom comes, and the Marriage Feast begins, the Bride is to remain faithful to her Beloved and keep herself pure for Him alone. Just like a bride wants to make herself as beautiful as she can for her bridegroom on their wedding day, the Church is preparing to meet Christ and live with Him forever when He comes again. This is the whole goal of the Christian life. The Apostle Paul said to one of his churches: “I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” This means total devotion is required or there can be no relationship at all. There must be marriage faithfulness; there can be no spiritual promiscuity. God is jealous for the love of His people. The prophets had warned Israel about the dangers of spiritual adultery. Behind this image in Revelation is the explicit parable in Ezekiel about Oholah and Oholibah. These two girls represented the people of Israel and Judah who were in covenant with God yet lusted after other lovers and become defiled, unfaithful whores (See Ezek. 23). “They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth.” This is how God views the unfaithfulness of His people!

This vision in Revelation serves as a warning both to churches and individual Christians who are being tempted by the spirit of worldliness. It seems that one of the seven churches of Asia had been seduced by worldliness. The Church at Laodicea was lukewarm about its relationship to Christ but said to itself “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” Such is the complacent attitude of those under the spell of Babylon’s seduction. Unfortunately, the Church has often been seduced by worldliness. This is primarily how Satan has assaulted the Church in the Western World. We have not felt the hard hands of bloody persecution. Instead, we have felt the soft flesh of the Prostitute. When Martin Luther looked at the Church in his time, he wrote against its worldliness and corruption and called it Babylon. But the Church in every Age must identify the infiltration of Babylon. No Church is immune to the seduction of worldliness. And that is why the Scriptures contain such exhortations as: “love not the world, neither anything in the world.” The World is to the Church what Potiphar’s wife was to Joseph. In our hearts, we must run away from her deadly embrace.

The Wrath of God against the World

There are many similarities between this cycle of the seven bowls and the previous cycle of the seven trumpets. Both cycles depict God’s wrath against the World. Like the previous cycle, the judgments echo the story of the Exodus and the plagues that God sent on Egypt. But the previous cycle depicted only partial judgments. The seven bowls depict the fullness of God’s wrath. Here we are seeing the final judgment of the World Order and its ultimate collapse. Everything culminates with the pouring out of the seventh bowl of wrath:

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, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and 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 (Rev. 16.17-19)

God’s wrath is currently being revealed from heaven against the wickedness of the World Order. But the World endures. One of the most important aspects of the book of Revelation is the “now and the not yet” of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God has broken into human history. The Christ has been exalted into Heaven. And yet, the Old Order is still here. Satan and his Kingdom of Darkness is still powerful in the world. There would be a period when the two kingdoms are in the world together, just like the field in Jesus’ parable that had wheat and tares growing up at the same time. The Jews expected the coming of the Kingdom of God would mean the immediate removal of evil. They expected that the evil Age would abruptly end and the Kingdom would begin. This is reflected even in the preaching of John the Baptist who told the Jews: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” But Jesus did not do that. Not yet. What really has happened is an overlapping of two Ages. The final Day of Wrath has been delayed. But the book of Revelation shows us that it is coming.

God sent prophets to Israel who proclaimed that a Day of Wrath was going to come on the world. This “Day of the Lord” would be a cataclysmic event for all the nations and would even impact the created order. God is going to bring all the nations of the world together and confront them and punish them for their wickedness and rebellion. At times it seems like the wicked World is having its own way, ignoring God and His law, and persecuting His people. But God is going to have His Day and will call the world to account for its deeds. There are several prophetic oracles about the coming Day of the Lord:

“Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it (Isa 13.9)”.

“That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes” (Jer. 46.10).

“Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’ For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations” (Ezek. 30.2-3).

“Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth” (Zeph. 1.14-18).

The book of Revelation is simply showing what the prophets already foretold. So, we should not think that wrath is just an Old Testament idea. In the book of Romans, which is the most extensive exposition of the Gospel in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote: “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2.5). The people who persist in wickedness and rebellion against God are storing up wrath for themselves on the Day of the Lord. The wrath of God is like water rising behind a dam that will eventually burst through and flood the world. The Gospel warns us about this wrath that is coming and urges repentance. God is being patient with mankind. But God’s patience should not be confused with tolerance.

God is always opposed to what is evil. Those who object to God’s wrath need to understand that God is opposed to evil because He is good! If God is good then He must be opposed to everything and everyone that is evil. The book of Revelation is making it clear that the wrath of God against the world order is right. The World deserves wrath because it is corrupt and evil to the core. God’s judgment of it is good, righteous and deserved.

The World has gathered together to oppose God and His Christ. Humanity declared war on God! God is not going to let the challenge to His glory and sovereignty go unanswered. The World’s rebellion is going to be crushed. Obviously, this is not something difficult for the Lord to do. God spoke the world into existence and another command from Him can easily unmake it. It is always wrong for us to fear men. God is the one we should fear. The wrath of Almighty God is the most terrifying force in the universe. The fact that the World does not fear the Lord and is willing to rebel against Him is a testimony to the power of sin in the human heart. The World is so set against God, even the plagues described in this vision do not bring about any change or repentance.

The Dragon launched the original rebellion against God and the World has joined in this cosmic rebellion. The World Order deserves the same treatment as the Devil because it has become his ally. Rather than worshiping God, the World has chosen to worship the Dragon and the Beast. If the Dragon and the Beast deserve the wrath of God, then so does the World. God is going to crush Satan’s kingdom and every other kingdom that aligns itself with him. There is no neutral ground in this cosmic conflict.

The strategy of the Dragon was to pursue and persecute the people of God. Satan used the people of the World to do his dirty work of opposing the Saints. Without any just cause, the World has persecuted and even slaughtered the people of God. The blood of God’s saints, prophets, and martyrs cries out for justice, just as the blood of Abel did at the beginning. God has not forgotten the blood of his people who have been killed by the wicked World. There will be a Day of Vengeance when God will repay the World for how it treated His people. At the present, we pray for those who persecute us. But when the Day of the Lord comes, the time for pity and compassion for the ungodly will be over.

There is an emphasis on love and tolerance in this culture of ours. People want to hear about love and acceptance, not judgment and destruction. But warnings about wrath abound in Scripture and we cannot ignore this reality. The Gospel is good news because we understand the reality of God’s wrath and that there is a way of salvation from its destruction.

The end of the world will be a cosmic reenactment of the Exodus: like ancient Egypt, the World Order will fall apart under the wrath of Almighty God. But there will be a group of people protected from the judgments who will sing a song of deliverance on that Day of Wrath just like Israel did at the Red Sea! The people of God have no reason to fear the end of the world or the wrath of God because they are kept safe by the blood of the Lamb, just as Israel was saved from death by the Passover blood of the lamb upon their doorposts. While there is still time before the final judgment, we are to make the necessary preparations for that Day.

The Destruction of the World

The language in this vision is in the present tense: Babylon IS fallen! It is as if these things have already happened. God is sovereign and He has decreed that these things will happen. The future is not in doubt.

The World will not change. Jesus did not come to change the World and the Church is not going to change the World. Not even these plagues can bring about a change in the World. Salvation is about coming OUT of Babylon “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.” The Gospel calls us to leave the World Order and join the Kingdom of God, which is the only kingdom that will be left standing at the End. Babylon itself is destined for destruction.

Reasons for the Destruction of the World

In this vision, there are several reasons given for Babylon’s destruction and then we get to hear the reactions of two different groups of people to the destruction of the World Order. We are not left to wonder why God is judging the World. There can be no doubt about the World’s corruption and the righteousness of God in judging the great Prostitute. We are being assured here in this vision that God has not forgotten the evil of the World Order, though it sometimes appears to us that Evil is winning the fight. God will have the last word and justice will be done on the wicked World.

This vision serves as a source of comfort and encouragement for the people of God who often suffer in the world. The People of God do not suffer in vain. We must also remember in the light of these revelations that we must not take vengeance for ourselves when the world mistreats us. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom. 12.19). God’s people are known as peacemakers in the world.

People who continue to sin against the Lord will pay a terrible price for their disobedience. Let us be clear about this. People will suffer the wrath of God for the wicked things that they did. The World will be judged according to its works. “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.” If we want to be a part of the Kingdom of God our works must change. Everyone is sowing something by their works and eventually, we will have to reap what we have sown in this life. There is nothing in Scripture that gives the hope of salvation and eternal life to people who persist in willful disobedience.

The World Order has always lifted itself up against the knowledge of God and sought to assert its own agenda over the will of the Lord. We can trace this all the way back to the ancient Tower of Babel when men gathered together to build the prototype of the City of Man to make a name for themselves. The World Order has no interest in the glory of God but always seek their own glory. “As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning.” Furthermore, the World Order has always sought to be independent of God, as if they are in control of their own destiny. There is a kind of arrogant self-assurance that undergirds the World Order as if they themselves are gods rather than mortal men. Eventually, God is going to permanently bring down the lofty pride of life and humble those who think they can live without God and in defiance of His will.

It is one thing to be corrupt. But it is quite another thing in the eyes of God to actively try to corrupt others and pull them down into ruin. The Prostitute ruins men’s lives and damns their souls. For this reason alone, she deserves to be destroyed. “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.” There is an image of the corrupting influence of the World in the book of Proverbs:

The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol (Prov. 9.13-18).

Folly, the opposite of Divine Wisdom, is like a prostitute who lures fools into her bed. She promises pleasure but only brings death. Like the Prostitute that she is, the wicked World Order has actively sought her lovers and lured them to their destruction. The World appears to offer men every advantage and pleasure but it is really causing harm to humanity and taking them away from what is truly good. Because of her corrupting influence, God will destroy her, along with all her corrupted lovers.

 

Reactions to the World’s Destruction

These sections in Revelation are patterned closely after passages from the Old Testament prophets responding to the judgment of God on pagan cities of the ancient world that harassed Israel and were especially wicked. The ancient city of Tyre was going to be overthrown and the prophet Ezekiel depicts the lamentations of the mariners who had grown wealthy from her trade:

At the sound of the cry of your pilots the countryside shakes, and down from their ships come all who handle the oar. The mariners and all the pilots of the sea stand on the land and shout aloud over you and cry out bitterly. They cast dust on their heads and wallow in ashes; they make themselves bald for you and put sackcloth on their waist, and they weep over you in bitterness of soul, with bitter mourning. In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you and lament over you: ‘Who is like Tyre, like one destroyed in the midst of the sea?’ (Ezek. 27.28-32)

There are those who mourn the fall of Babylon because they had benefitted personally from her. The merchants and rulers of the earth grew wealthy and indulgent on her luxuries, despite her wickedness: “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.” “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore.” The love of money and all the pleasures that it buys was the besetting sin of the World Order. It is no wonder Jesus warned His disciples about the dangers of materialism: “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things”. If you want to test how much of a hold Babylon has on your heart, you can ask yourself how devastated you would be if you lost all your wealth and material possessions. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

But those who have suffered under Babylon’s rule will rejoice when they see it fall. The saints have no sentimental feelings for the World and will be glad to see it gone. We are looking forward to the new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Because we have already made our exit from Babylon in our hearts, we will be able to merge with the Eternal Order and acknowledge that God’s judgments are just and true.

Vision of the Ages: The Seven Trumpets (Part 2)

The Church and the World

Revelation 8.2-14.20

 

The seven trumpets announce the beginning of a series of judgments on the wicked world for its rebellion against God, rejection of Christ, and persecution of the Saints. It helps to look at the trumpets in reverse order, beginning with the seventh trumpet, which announces the exaltation of Christ and then unveils the cosmic enemies who oppose Christ. When we look back at the first six trumpets, we discover the reason for God’s wrath: the world has joined Satan in his rebellion and opposition to Christ. God responds to this evil in the world with a series of judgments. The trumpets announce these judgments as they fall upon the earth.

Satan has been cast down to the earth and cannot directly assault God or Christ in heaven. So, Satan’s strategy is to pursue the people of God in the world. The enemies of God and Christ are also opponents of the people of God. A great, cosmic conflict that began in heaven has spilled over into the earthly regions. Satan has failed and has been defeated by Christ, but that only makes him a more dangerous enemy for the saints who are still in the world. The people of God can defeat Satan, but not because of their own power or wisdom. The saints are being made aware, not only of their Enemy’s existence, but also of his schemes, or how he intends to carry out his war.

The Dragon calls up two allies to help him in his war against the saints. These allies are beasts, which identifies them as enemies with hostile and violent intentions. The first beast probably represents Satan’s use of corrupt government to recruit the people of the world and to violently persecute the saints.

The second beast probably represents the use of false religion to delude the inhabitants of the world and cause them to oppose the saints. Satan’s cosmic war has come to earth and he is now working through people to oppose the people of God.

We do not ultimately fight flesh and blood, but Satan does use people to do his will in the world. Satan has successfully enlisted the world’s help in his war on the saints. The book of Revelation is showing us two of the main strategies Satan has used for recruiting the people of this world to serve his agenda. Working either through brute force or through delusion, these two beasts have been very effective in the world. We have already seen the cosmic actors in this great struggle. Now we get to see some revelations of the human actors in the struggle.

Satan is a spiritual being and the only way he can attack the saints in the world is to seek a physical way of manifesting his will and agenda. Satan has his people in the world just like God has people who belong to Him. There are two groups of people in the world: one group follows the Lamb and the other groups serves the Dragon. These two groups of people are very different from each other and can never be in fellowship, just as the Lamb and the Dragon are also opposed one to the other. We will see in these visions that the main purpose of the people who follow the Lamb is to give a witness to the world. The main activity of those who serve the Dragon is to oppose and persecute those who follow the Lamb. Collectively, and for brevity or clarity, we can call the people following the Lamb “the Church” and those serving the Dragon “the World”. These perspectives show us how very different the Church is from the World and the perpetual, spiritual conflict that these two societies of people represent. This difference is not traced back to the people themselves but is due to their spiritual origins.

Obviously, the book of Revelation was given to the people of God and not to the people of the world. The message of this book is to prepare the saints for hardship in the world, even for suffering and persecution. God’s people should not be surprised or even alarmed when they feel the opposition of the unbelieving world. Our situation is being revealed so that we will understand and know what to expect. Anyone who becomes a Christian and expects everything after that to be smooth sailing has been deceived and will probably fall away during the times of trial. Additionally, the people of God need to be able to identify the sources of the opposition. We need to know where the attacks are going to come from so we will not be caught by surprise or confused. The most important reason for these visions, as far as the Saints are concerned, is so that we will endure whatever hardships we face in the world, remain completely faithful to Christ, and refuse to compromise our witness.

Before we continue, we must go back and consider one more revelation about the nature of the World that comes from the trumpet judgments. A very important summary statement in this section comes at the end of the sixth trumpet judgment:

“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Rev. 9.20-21).

Here we see not only that the World deserves God judgment, but that the nature of the World cannot be changed or redeemed. Even God’s plagues do not bring about the repentance of the wicked. “The sun melts wax, but hardens clay.” The World Order is destined for destruction and anyone who does not want to go with it must leave it as Lot had to get out of Sodom, Israel had to exit Egypt, and the captives of Judah had to be brought home from exile in Babylon.

A Personal Perspective of the Church and the World (10.1-11)

The first perspective of the Church and the World is personal and concerns John himself and his ministry. John sees a powerful angel come down from heaven with a little book in his hand. The book reminds us of the sealed scroll in the earlier chapters of Revelation, but this little book is open in the angel’s hand and is not sealed. Some commentators have made the case that the sealed scroll that the and this little scroll is one and the same, but this is probably not the best way to understand this passage. John hears something that he is not allowed to write down and reveal, but he is then told to give his attention to the contents of this little book and is given a rather surprising command:

“Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. So, I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth, it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter (Rev. 10.8-10).

The prophet Ezekiel was given the command to eat a scroll at the beginning of his prophetic ministry (Ezek. 2.8). John is also a prophet who was sent to the people of God and has much in common with Ezekiel and his situation. John is exiled to Patmos as Ezekiel was an exile in Babylon. The people of God in the world are much like the exiles of Judah in Babylon. God promised Israel through the prophet Ezekiel that Babylon would be judged and the people would be restored to the Promised Land. In the same way, John prophesies about the judgment of the world order and the entrance of the people of God into the promised land of the New Creation. God’s people are still exiles in the World, which is our Babylon. As exiles in the world, there are certain realities we must face about our present situation.

The scroll that Ezekiel was commanded to eat and the little book that John had to eat represents the Word of God that each prophet was supposed to ingest and then deliver to the people of God. But John’s experience after eating this little book was both sweetness and bitterness. (There is no doubt that the prophet Ezekiel also experienced the bitterness in his ministry since Israel mostly ignored his message.) This sweetness and bitterness is not just John’s personal experience but is in some way the experience of every child of God in the world.

            When we first begin to ingest the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ, there is an immediate sweetness. We learn that our sins have been forgiven and that we are children of God with access to His Throne of Grace. We find that we are part of the Family of God. We have a new purpose and meaning in life as we walk with Jesus each day and learn to pray to our Heavenly Father for all our earthly needs. We also have the hope of heaven and eternal life with the Lord when this life is done. The Christian life is wonderful and new converts are often filled with joy at the sweetness of this new experience.

But this is not all there is to the Christian life. Very soon we come to experience something else that is not so pleasant. There is also a bitterness that comes from being a Christian in a world that is opposed to God and to Christ. We find that there are people who hate us and shun our presence. Some of these people may have once been our friends or even members of our family. We want to share our joy with others and tell them about our experience with Christ, but we find that most people are not willing to listen to us and they may even mock and make fun. The reaction of the World is sometimes even more severe and Christians often face violent persecution and deprivation.

It is sweet to know that our sins have been forgiven, but it is bitterness for us to see many people around us continuing in their sin, refusing the offer of God’s forgiveness in Christ, and heading toward destruction. We begin to see why Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. Jesus Himself experienced this bitterness when He saw people refusing to listen to God and heading toward destruction and judgment. The Saints experience the bitterness of seeing the entire World around them heading toward judgment and rejecting the only thing that could save them.

It is tempting at this point for us to try to mitigate this bitterness or to avoid it somehow. We have a responsibility to share the Word of God with people in the World, but since we know they will probably reject it and then reject us, it is tempting for us to simply shut down and stop witnessing altogether. Or, we only focus on speaking those aspects of the Word of God that will not offend the people of the World and so avoid some of the bitterness and rejection.

Many people who experience the sweetness of the Word of God at first, later fall away when they begin to experience some of the bitterness of the World’s rejection and disapproval. But if we are going to follow the Lamb, we must accept both the sweet and the bitter. We cannot avoid the World’s rejection by hiding our witness or by softening the message about sin and judgment to win the World’s favor. We must continue speaking the Word even when the World refuses to listen.

If we are not willing to accept the bitterness then we are not worthy of being Christ’s disciples. Remember that Jesus had to swallow the bitterness of the Cross when He came into the World and He told us to take up our cross and follow Him. Following Jesus in this wicked World will be both sweet and bitter. That was John’s personal experience and this will also be the personal experience of every Christian until our bitter tears are wiped away forever by the Lord.

A Corporate Perspective of the Church and the World (11.1-14)

The next perspective moves us from personal experience to a corporate experience. The vision that John saw is about two mysterious witnesses: “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (11.3-4). It is a mistake to try to identify these two witnesses as if they are specific persons. These two witnesses probably represent the witness of the entire Church in the World, from the beginning of the Church at Pentecost to the end of the Age. The Church will be in the World as a witness, constantly warning the World about God’s judgment and calling for repentance. God will always maintain a witness in the World. There are two witnesses to establish a legitimate testimony. According to the Law of Moses, testimony must be established by two witnesses. Some expositors have posited that these two witnesses might represent the Law and the Gospel, which together constitute a complete witness to the World.

The imagery for these two witnesses comes from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah:

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left” (Zech. 4.1-3).

The dual images of a lampstand with an olive tree is a picture of sources of light with a constant supply of oil so that it never will go out. The witness of the Church in the World is like a lamp that cannot be extinguished because it has a constant supply from Heaven. This is a God-ordained and supported witness in the world that cannot fail. When the Church is faithfully witnessing, it is given Divine power and resources and is unstoppable! The witness of the Church cannot be stopped by the World until God deems that it is done.

            But the World is always trying to silence the witness of the Church. And there have been times and places where it looks like the World is successful and the witness of the Church has been snuffed out, just like it looked like the life of Jesus had been ended at the Cross:

“And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11.7-8).

Sodom, Egypt, and later Babylon, are all Biblical symbols for the wicked World order, the rebellious City of Man, that is opposed to God and to His people. And the City of Man has always been especially opposed to God’s message of sin and the need for repentance. The witnesses of God torment the City of Man with a message they do not want to hear. So, the World simply kills the messengers.

            But there is a promise in this vision that the World will never be able to completely eradicate the Church and Her witness:

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months” (Rev. 11.1-2).

There is a subtle reference here to another of Ezekiel’s visions. At the end of his book, Ezekiel is taken on a journey by an angel who measures the size of a new temple (Ezek. 40-48). The holy city of Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed by Babylon. But this vision was a way of giving hope to the people of Judah in their captivity that they would not be destroyed but had the hope of restoration. In the same way, as the Church is exiled in the Babylon of this present, evil World, there is the promise from God that it will never be destroyed. God will always have His remnant of faithful witnesses.

            Just when it looks like the Church’s witness is snuffed out, God brings it back to life! There is something like this that happened during the Protestant Reformation. Before the end of the world, it may be that the witness of the Church will appear to be all but silenced. “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” This vision is communicating to the Church the hostility of the World and the need for faithfulness. The Church must remain a faithful witness in a hostile World that does not want to hear the Word of God. Be faithful even unto death!

A Heavenly Perspective of the Church and the World (14.1-5)

The next perspective is a heavenly contrast between the people of God and the World. We see a group of people who are completely different from those of the World. These images of the Redeemed contrast with the followers of the Dragon and his two beasts. The World worships the beast and serves the Dragon (13.4, 8). The Redeemed sing a new song (14.3) and they follow the Lamb wherever He goes (14.4). (Learning a singing a new son is a picture of conversion from the World to the Kingdom of God. We used to sing the World’s song, but now we sing a new song we learn from the Lamb!) The World bears the mark of the beast upon them (13.16). The Redeemed have their Father’s name on their foreheads (14.1). The Redeemed are pure and undefiled, in contrast to the World (14.4-5).

            The Redeemed are not going to be a secret society in the world, but are meant to be a visible counter-culture and witness to the World Order. Jesus said the Church would be the light of the World, like a city set on a hill it would be visible and visibly different. The witness of the Church in the world would not be only in preaching the message of the Gospel but by simply being visibly different from the World Order. If the Church ever becomes like the world around it then it has lost its usefulness, just as salt that is not salty must be thrown away. This vision in Revelation is a lasting challenge to the Church in every Age to maintain its distinction from the World. Not only is it possible for the Church to remain pure in a defiled world, this purity and separation are vital to the Church’s identity as the people of God. If there is no difference and no distinction between the people of God and the people of the World, then the whole purpose of redemption becomes thwarted and any claim the Church makes to belonging to God is void. The Church is a visible sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. God’s people are to be a holy society that brings a little breath of heaven to earth and points the world toward the future fullness of Christ’s reign. If God’s will does not reign supreme in the Church, then it is exactly like the World Order, which is also in rebellion against the will of God. Obviously, the World Order is going to pressure the Church to compromise its position and God’s people must constantly refuse to give in to the pressure to conform to the ways of the World.

            This is a heavenly view of the Redeemed, not as they appear to the earth. The people of God have a kind of double identity and they occupy two different realms at the same time. The people of God have been redeemed from out of the earth, yet they are standing on the heavenly Mt. Zion. The redeemed are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2.6). This vision is not of the future of the saints in Heaven. This is what the Saints are now from a heavenly point of view.

            Redemption is effective even in the middle of Satan’s war on the earth. This is due to the victory of Christ and His exaltation into Heaven. Satan’s war will fail to interrupt God’s purpose of redemption. In fact, redemption would be worked out in the context of evil and conflict. So, Satan is still serving the higher purpose of God even as he goes about his evil business in the world. All the glory for extracting the Redeemed from Satan’s kingdom must go to God.

            Here we are seeing that there are two communities of people in the earth. There is now a choice presented concerning which community to belong to and if we will worship the beast or follow the Lamb. The vision shows that there is an alternative to being part of Satan’s kingdom. The only way to escape the evil of the World is to follow the Lamb. There is salvation in no one else.

            The salvation that God offers is from out of a community that is destined for judgment and a World Order that is destined for destruction. The Redeemed will endure but the Dragon and his kingdom will eventually be destroyed completely. The Redeemed can look forward to an eternal home in the New Creation, but the people of this world will eventually be left eternally homeless and bereaved.

A Future Perspective of the Church and the World (14.14-20)

The next perspective of the Church and the World projects out into the future, all the way to the end. There are two harvests in this vision: one harvest is for the righteous and the other harvest is of the wicked.

These two different societies in the world have very different destinies: one is destined for wrath and the other for salvation. One community will be gathered in, while the other will be cast out. One group of people is useful to God, while the other is wasted. A harvest is an image in Scripture for both salvation and for judgment, and both kinds of harvest are pictured here in Revelation.

            Jesus taught in His parables about the Kingdom of God that there will be two harvests at the end of the Age. One such parable that is helpful here to explain this vision in Revelation is Jesus’ parable of the Wheat and the Tares. In the parable, there was a man who planted a field with wheat. While it was night, an enemy came in and sowed tares, a type of weed, in among the wheat to ruin the field. When the two plants began to grow, the wheat and the tares were all mixed together in the same field. The servants of the owner of the field wanted to immediately take the tares out, but the owner would not allow this because the wheat would also be uprooted. The two plants would be allowed to grow in the same field together until the time of harvest when they would be separated. The wheat would be gathered into the owner’s barn, but the tares would be burned. Here is Jesus’ interpretation of the parable:

“The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (Matt. 13.38-43).

The world is like a field where something has been planted and is growing in view of a harvest. The whole point of this world is to grow the people of God. The children of the Devil are imposters. The righteous are sons of God that He planted in the world. The wicked are the sons of the Evil One that he planted in his attempt to ruin God’s plans. The point of this parable is that good and evil must exist together in the world until the time of the end. Jesus probably told this parable because the Jews thought that when the Kingdom of God came, all evil would be completely uprooted from the world. But this would not happen immediately. God’s people would have to continue growing in the world in the presence of evil. Until the time for the harvest is here, it is not wise to do any uprooting because this will disturb God’s purpose for His children while they are still in the world. In some way, the presence of evil is necessary for the growth and maturity of God’s people.

From the standpoint of the end, the identity of the righteous and the wicked appear to be certain and fixed. But on this side of eternity, in the confines of time, the harvest is still in a process of developing and we do not always know which harvest a person belongs to. So, we judge nothing until the time comes for the harvest. In the meantime, there is a harvest going on as the fields of the earth are white unto harvest for the Gospel. This is the harvest the Church is currently to be focused on gathering. Executing the final harvests is not our concern.

            The harvest of the vine of the earth and its destruction is certainly an image of judgment in this vision (14.17-20). This vine of the earth is a useless vine that does not produce the kind of fruit that God is looking for. In contrast to this vine of the earth is Jesus, who is the true vine. We must be connected to Jesus rather than to the World if we want to be pleasing to God. The vine of the earth is destined for the winepress of God’s wrath.

A Motivating Perspective of the Church and the World (14.6-13)

The final perspective of the Church and the World is a brief series of summary statements that are designed to motivate us to respond to what we have seen in these visions. There is a warning here to the wicked World Order and a message of encouragement to the people of God. The wicked must repent if they are to escape being judged. The Saints must endure the opposition from the World until death when they can then enter eternal rest. Death removes the Saints from danger permanently. But those who remain connected to the World are in danger of God’s wrath. There are three summary statements delivered by angels, an editorial comment by John, and then a final word given by an unidentified voice from Heaven. All these statements are meant to afflict the comfortable who are still a part of the World Order and to comfort the afflicted saints who suffer under the World’s opposition.

            During this period, when the trumpet judgments are coming upon the World Order, the message of the Gospel is also being proclaimed throughout the earth. While the Gospel is ultimately good news to those who believe it, there is an aspect of the Gospel that is a warning. The World Order is like a house that has been condemned and is in the process of falling apart. The Gospel warns people to get out of that house before it collapses and is destroyed. The Trumpets are a time of partial judgments on the world. The sounds of the World’s collapse can already be seen and heard, but the end has not yet come and God’s mercy can also be experienced. But the time of mercy will not last forever.

The Gospel is a word of liberation from the World’s bondage and corruption. There is a way out if people will take it. Evil will eventually fall but no one must be destroyed by it.

The World Order, as ruled by the Dragon, is the enemy of mankind and detrimental to his eternal well-being. Satan brings only death and destruction, not life. God desires that all men be saved, but the World ruins men’s lives and damns their souls. The World Order is not friendly to man, it is a kind of spiritual bully that seeks to press its will on every person and bring them into subjection.

            Eventually, the World Order, referred to here as Babylon for the first time in Revelation, will be judged and all those connected to Satan’s kingdom will experience the wrath of God, which will last for eternity. Here we have a clear statement about the eternal fate of the wicked. Those who are connected to the World Order may be comfortable and enjoying themselves now, but they will eventually be tormented and will never find rest again. The exact opposite is true of the Saints, who often are tormented by the World but will eventually enter eternal rest. The Saint’s suffering at the hands of the World will not be forgotten by Heaven and their sacrifices will not have been wasted. Worldly people are experiencing the best times they will ever have. The Saints who are in the world are experiencing the worst times they will ever have. The eternal state of each group will be eternally reserved, just as the rich man woke up and found himself in hell while Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s bosom. The last will be first and the first will end up being last!

            The contrast between these two societies could not be made more explicit. One society is blessed while the other is under a curse. One group of people must repent while the other must endure. One kingdom is in the state of passing away while the other Kingdom is coming into its fullness. One Order is temporal and the other is eternal.

            These summary statements not only wrap up this cycle, they also anticipate the final cycle of visions which reveal more about the coming demise and judgment of Babylon, the wicked City of Man, otherwise known as the World. Likewise, there will also be more revealed in the final section concerning the eternal rest and the reward that is in store for the people of God in the New Creation. One must be impressed by the absolute certainty of these visions. These are not vague guesses about what might happen. The future has already been determined by Heaven and is certain to come to pass. This means we can build our lives on these Divine absolutes and base our hope for the future on what has been revealed in these visions!