Revelation 10 Witness to the End

You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation. Let's listen in.

Recast Church. Good morning, everybody. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. And I just want to encourage you to make yourself comfortable. Remember, there's coffee and donuts. All that stuff is free, so take advantage of that.

And you can get up at any time during the service and tank up on the coffee there. A special welcome to you if this is your first time here. We're just glad that you've taken time out of your busy schedule.

I know that it takes some semblance of bravery, depending on your personality, but all of us coming to a new place for the first time. And so, just glad that you've taken that opportunity to come and visit with us and give us a chance to worship together this morning.

Revelation as a Book for the Church

This morning, we're back in the book of Revelation. And those of you that have been here for a while, you know that that's kind of how we roll here as we march through books of the Bible, chapter by chapter.

Revelation, man, I don't know what you guys have been getting out of this. I know God's been doing a number on me in just regard to my motivation and my desire to deal with sin as I see it in my life, as well as just seeking out His holiness, recognizing Him for His power, His authority, His justice, His right to rule and reign, and indeed to be the rightful judge.

As well as hope, as well as hope that we have through Jesus Christ. In the backdrop of the sin that we see, in the backdrop of the judgment that we see through the book of Revelation, I hope that your salvation is all the more precious to you in light of what it is that you're being preserved from and saved from.

This is a book that was written for the church. I don't know, I think sometimes we look at the book of Revelation a little bit different than that. But it's important for us to grasp fundamentally at the start that it was written to the church.

And I think sometimes people approach the book of Revelation as though it ought to be locked under a glass in the hallway with a note that says, break glass in case of apocalypse, right? So the only reason you would ever read this is if, whoa, the Antichrist showed up and all these world things were going on and then, oh, I better open up the book of Revelation so that I know how to survive this, right?

Have you ever heard it read that way or heard it taught that way or maybe even the Left Behind series a little bit is like that. Like, oh, a guy who woke up one day and everybody that he loved was gone, picked up the book of Revelation and then we start kind of the Left Behind series, right?

Like it's like, oh, he got the book of Revelation so he's able to figure it out or something like that. But that's not what this book exists for. It was written to the church. It was written so that you and I would read it.

So that it would have an impact on us today here in 2016 in Matawan, Michigan. So that we would live differently. So that something would be transformed in us because we see these things that are coming down the pipeline.

We read it for motivation, for how to live now in light of the future that we see through the pages of scripture. So what we have here in our text this morning in Revelation chapter 10 is an interlude between the sixth and the seventh trumpets of judgment.

So throughout the book, there's these interludes. You see kind of the cycle and the repetition and the waves of judgment coming. It started off with the seven seals that were broken on the scroll of judgment.

And Jesus himself was breaking those seals one by one, opening and reading part of the scroll. And between the sixth and the seventh seal, there was an interlude. That was kind of like, hey, church, wake up for just a second.

I want to explain something to you here in the middle of all of this. That interlude back a couple of chapters ago was all about hope. He wanted us as a church to grasp some sense of hope. And so we saw in that interlude the sealing of 144 ,000 Jews who came to understand Jesus or will come to understand Jesus as the Messiah during the end times.

Hope that God will not leave the world without a witness. But then we also saw the church in heaven worshiping around the throne. They had been raptured. They had been taken up to heaven to be with God.

And we saw protection and safety for the people of God during the great tribulation. So there was hope in that interlude. So these kinds of interludes are not merely connective material, but they actually speak to us as a church to try to convey something to us.

Hey, church, here's what I want you to know about this in the midst of all of these judgments that are happening. And in chapters 10 and 11, John, and really God through John, is going to set for us a vision of the purpose of the church as the end draws ever closer.

What is our purpose? What is our purpose now in light of these things about the end? And that purpose is all wrapped up in our witness of what God has done and is going to do. A day is coming. There is a day coming, a real day coming, in which there will be no more delay.

We live in a time, in our era, our entire lives could be defined by the delay of God's judgment. That's a, that's a, that's a rightful and a reasonable explanation for the 70, 80, however many years God chooses to give us on this planet.

It is just his gracious and kind delay on the judgment that the world deserves. And so here in the midst of that delay, how are we to live? What are we supposed to do about that? There's a day coming when the number of those who will believe will be completed.

But until that day arrives, Jesus has left us with a serious task. It's a task that is both bitter and sweet. It is both delight and pain for us. You see, we study the book of Revelation to increase for us a sense of urgency regarding our testimony in two different ways.

We need more urgency in our battle against sin in our lives. Would any of you identify that? That you would, that you would say, I do, I need more urgency in regard to sin. And this book hopefully gives you a dose of that urgency of recognizing the wrath that is coming upon the world as a result of sin.

And did you ever notice that your testimony is wrapped up in your obedience to Christ? There's a sense in which our testimony to others around us has, how many of you know that the things that you say and the things that you do at your workplace impacts people's understanding of what a Christian does?

Does that impact your testimony? Does that impact the way that people view your Lord and Savior? Absolutely. So we need that level of motivation, and hopefully you're getting some of that through this book.

But there's also an urgency in our calling to speak the message of both salvation that is there and available, but certainly also the judgment that is coming. There's a judgment that's coming, but there is a salvation that is provided for us.

So as we dig into what can be a bit confusing of a text at face value, I hope we all walk away with a deeper understanding of God's call to his church to embody the sweet and bitter message of coming judgment.

So open your Bibles, please, to Revelation chapter 10, if you're not already there, Revelation 10. If you don't have a Bible on your lap, I just ask that you please do me a favor. Just raise your hand.

We've got a couple guys with Bibles. They want to give you one. It's free and it's yours to take with you. But we do want everybody to have a copy of God's word on their lap so that you can just kind of follow along and see that the things that I'm saying throughout the morning are coming from God's word.

Revelation chapter 10. Again, as I say often, recast, this is God's word. This is what he desired for you and I to hear from him this morning. And it might sound strange at first read, but hopefully by the end of the message, it makes more sense to you.

Revelation 10. Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head. And his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land and called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring.

When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.

The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay.

But that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he announced to his servants, the prophets. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again saying, 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 it, take and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth, it will be as sweet as honey. And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and I ate it.

It was sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, you must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning.

The Mighty Angel, the Seven Thunders, and the End of Delay

Father, we come before you this morning and there's all different kinds of things going on this week. And I confess that I would not be surprised if there are some here who maybe even feel some twinge of disappointment of the text that we're looking at, just kind of saying, man, couldn't we hit something more practical?

Couldn't we hit something that's a little bit more dealing with the issues of my life or the relationships or how to be a better father or how to be a better mother or how to be a better student? And there's just so many other things that we could talk about.

And yet, God, I pray that through the pages of your scripture, through the words and through the things that you desire to communicate to us, Father, that our hearts would be made alive to you and would be made alive to the calling that you are placing on each one of us to be the bearers of this message, both that is sweet in our mouths but sometimes has the tendency to give us a stomach ache.

Father, all of us have felt those butterflies in our stomach over the opportunities that we've had, that we've lost to share the gospel with somebody. Father, all of us have had that awkward conversation where we knew what we should say and we didn't say it.

But Father, I pray that you would help us to shed that feeling in our stomach and ultimately just take a moment here out of our week where there's so many pressures on us, so many things that press down on us and could even crush us.

But Father, I pray that you would help us to stand up under those in grace and in a recognition that we have a Savior. Father, let all else melt away in the light of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.

And Father, just for even this moment where we have an opportunity together, corporately, as your people, to lift up our voices to you. Father, move us in our spirits to see you as you are, loving, compassionate, and kind towards your children.

It's in Jesus' name that I pray, amen. We can go ahead and be seated. And I just want to start out by thanking Dave and the band for leading us this morning. Obviously, despite all the technical difficulties, just really appreciate Dave's personality, the gifts that God has given to him to be able to just kind of roll with that kind of thing.

So I really appreciate that. And hopefully you were able to, despite some of those technical difficulties, worship God. And I think sometimes that's kind of the spice of worship is the reality of real life, right?

There's a reality in which it doesn't always go according to plan, but we worship him anyways. I would encourage you to get comfortable during the next half an hour or so as we're going to dig into God's word and really dig into Revelation chapter 10.

Keep your Bibles open to Revelation 10 so you can reference that. And I love it when I see people with their Bibles open looking down and just kind of seeing the things that I'm saying are going there.

Of course, I assume that you're not just kind of lounging and just taking a nap or whatever. But if that's the case, then there's more coffee and there's more juice and there's more donuts if you find yourself kind of drifting off or if the seat you're sitting in gets uncomfortable, feel free to get up in the back and stretch out.

But whatever it takes to keep our focus on God's word over the next 30 minutes or so. Last week we saw, if you were with us, we saw some intense judgments on the earth through the releasing of demonic hordes to accomplish first painful plagues among humanity and then a second demonic horde to bring death to one third of the earth's population.

We talked about 2 .3 billion people. What an amazing picture of carnage on the face of the planet. But remember that those 144 ,000 witnesses that we had seen previously in the book of Revelation that had received the seal of God on their forehead were protected during this time.

And the rest of the church was already seen to be in heaven while these tribulations and these things are happening here on the earth. So the only witnesses on the earth during the great tribulation are those who have come to understand Jesus Christ as the Messiah subsequent to or after the rapture of the church.

But now here in our text in chapter 10, John is given the vision of the seventh and final trumpet being blown. No, he's not, there's an interlude. And so we kind of expect that to happen. What do you expect to happen after the sixth trumpet is blown?

The seventh trumpet. But there's this interlude, there's this space here where we ought to take note something's different here, different than what we might expect. And so there's something that wants to grab our attention.

Now, angels have played a huge role in the book so far. I don't know if you've noticed that, but there's a lot of angels mentioned in the book of Revelation, and they're not all the same. There's a whole host, a whole array of beings that are there.

There's the four living creatures with eyes all over themselves and with the different forms and different shapes and things like that. And we see angels performing a bunch of different functions from offering incense on an altar that are the prayers of the saints to casting judgment upon the earth and a whole variety of things.

So when we realize we're gonna see another angel in this text, and we kind of expect that. We've seen angels playing a huge role, but in this text, we see a huge angel playing a huge role. Now, the description of this angel is more regal than any description that's given to any beings aside from God in scripture.

He is clothed in a cloud. He has a rainbow over his head like a crown. His face is bright as the sun, and his legs are like pillars of fire. This is an austere picture, a picture of power that was using imagery from their time and their era.

Now, maybe he really looks like this, and this isn't just figures of speech or symbolic, but maybe there is actual, this is something of the appearance if you could spiritually, with your spiritual eyes, take in this being, this is what he looks like.

But I find it interesting, and I don't know if you've noticed this, when a human encounters an angel, when a human's spiritual eyes are open to be able to see into the angelic realm or they're visited by an angel, what's usually their first response?

Somebody said it, fear. Fear is generally their first response. It's generally, like a very common thing that you hear angels say to humans is this phrase, fear not. It requires some level of comforting a human right away, and this is, by the way, this is the good angels.

This is not the fallen angels that we're talking about. When a human encounters a good angel, there's still a fear factor that's involved there. There's still a sense of awe and wonder. And we even occasionally see in the pages of scripture where someone is motivated or moved, they encounter an angel and they actually bow and they're tempted to worship.

And we're gonna see John, who's seeing images of all kinds of angels throughout this book, later in chapter 19, he's gonna encounter an angel. He's gonna fall at the feet of that angel and worship him.

And the angel is gonna say to John, my own paraphrase, dude, cut it out. Cut it out. Save your worship for the almighty. I'm just a servant just like you. I'm a servant of the most high God. Save your worship for him.

Don't worship me. Don't worship the angels. Now, how many of you were kicking it around in the 90s when the touch by an angel thing was going on and everybody had an angel pendant that was, do you know what I'm talking about?

People got a little carried away and a little crazy. And I have to confess that honestly, as Christians, we can tend to get a little bit, well, off kilter pretty quick by a television show or something like that.

Like it could just send us into a high speed wobble. And the funny thing is, we're not to worship angels. I mean, the angels are indeed beings. They are indeed created things that are real. But we save our worship for the almighty.

And what is your hope for protection? Is it angels? It should be God, right? It should be God. Now, God could send an angel to protect you. And I know all of that. But ultimately our hope is in God. So I say all of this just to point out how awesome God truly is.

When you look at this being, are you like, wow, that's an awesome angel. Or do you reflect on the one who commands that angel? The one who created that angel? The one who is in charge of that angel? This angel is pictured to be huge, by the way.

He places one foot on the sea and one foot on land. Now you might be like, I could do that. Watch me over at Lake Michigan. One foot in the water, one foot on the sand. But the terminology and the word that's used here is not an angel playing in the surf like you and I would.

He has his right foot out to sea and his left foot is inland. Okay, this is a picture of a massive being according to the Greek that is used here. He's not just frolicking at the beach, okay? This is a picture, an image of a massive being.

And when I encounter this, when we encounter this, I hope that you're just as mystified and impressed as I am to consider the whole array of created beings that God has made and that serve him. It is far beyond our understanding, far beyond our knowledge.

And there are things out there that we encounter through the book of Revelation that we're just like, mind blown. Like, I don't believe we have a real significant grasp on the reality of what God has created yet.

We're limited, right? What limits us? Our five senses, right? Only what we can see, only what we can hear, only what we can taste, only what we can touch. But there is more than that. And I think often we do ourselves a disservice to be blinded and to ignore the reality that there is so much more going on behind the scenes that we don't take in with our five senses.

God is awesome. He's getting stuff done in the spiritual realm that you and I do not behold. And we're only scratching the surface of the reality of God's creation. One commentary rightly identified that I was reading for my preparation this week, that this description of this angel not only rivals but surpasses all of the descriptions that the Greeks and Romans used for their gods.

When they would describe Zeus, when they would describe Hermes, when they would really give them an extremely earthy flavor, but this image, this picture that we're given of just this angel, this one servant, rivals or even surpasses that which the Greeks would use for their gods that they would worship.

And it reminds me of my place in this cosmos. I hope it reminds you of your place in the created order. Who are we? Who am I that God would be mindful of me? We sang that earlier, right? And how cool are you, O God, that you have at your beck and call massive, powerful, and awe-inspiring beings like this angel?

Well, this huge and powerful servant of God has in his hand a tiny scroll. And I picture him kind of like, boom, and he's just kind of reaching down to show John this tiny scroll that he has in his hands.

And note, where did this angel come from? It says in the text, it tells us, he came down from heaven. And this is very significant because last week we saw another angel, but the angel didn't come down from heaven.

The word was different and it matters. The angel we saw last week fell from heaven. This angel comes down from heaven. There's a difference. And his placement of his feet on the land, one foot on the land and one on the sea shows that he's been granted authority over all the realms of this planet.

He comes from the sky. He has control over the sea and the dry land. When this angel speaks, he speaks like a lion roaring. You can imagine that this is just a bellow that comes out of the voice and the mouth of this angel that is just immense and the impact is that all can hear it.

And it basically sends off aftershocks, seven thunders that roar and roll after this angel speaks. Now remember that we've seen the opening of seven seals that resulted in seven judgments. We've seen six of the seven trumpets blown that resulted in judgments.

And now we see something else mentioned in sevens. We see seven thunders. So what might you expect next? Well, now we're gonna launch into the seven thunders. We're gonna take those one by one and walk through and talk about the judgment that's incurred with the rolling of each of these seven thunders.

That's what we might expect. So in verse six, John picks up his pen and gets ready to write and he's ready to record these thunders for us when he is stopped by a voice from heaven. It doesn't tell us it's God's voice.

It's not descriptive. He's not sure where it comes from, but a voice from heaven tells him, stop writing. Skip recording the seven thunders, what they told you, what you heard. And I picture, by the way, where the thunder's voice is.

I kind of think it's kind of a mix, but remember he's getting imagery throughout this book and so I would imagine just like the seals showed him an image of something falling from the sky or this or this happening, that these thunders were very similar.

But he doesn't record them for us. And now ask yourself, why in the world would God include this in your Bible? Why would he include something basically saying, hey, I just want to let you know I told John something and I didn't let you, I didn't let him write it for you.

It's not even in there for you. Why would you even, would you write, writing from a different, you're traveling on a trip and you want to write something to your spouse or your spouse wants to write something to you and she says, well, you're never gonna believe what our son said to me the other day, but I'm not gonna write it for you.

I'm not gonna let you know. That doesn't even seem, would you really do that? So why would he tell us clearly that there are things about the end that we do not know? And I believe that God wants us to realize that we do not have it all.

He wants you and I to know that we don't have it all figured out intentionally. Why even let us know that there's something that we don't know? Because it's ever so vital that we know that we don't know everything.

God records for us in scripture that the truth is that there is indeed mystery. Mystery about the end, mystery about the nature of God, mystery about the trinity, mystery about his sovereign will, all of these kinds of things, there is mystery involved in it.

There are things coming in the end that we do not know. And he wants us to rest in his just dealings with humanity. He tells us a lot of history, doesn't he? Have any of you ever noticed that two thirds, that the majority of the Bible is an actual historical account of God's dealings with humanity?

Why? Because he wants to demonstrate his faithfulness to you and I, that we might trust him with the future. I think he gives us enough here about the future to motivate us, to move us to recognize the severity of his justice and judgment towards sin, a severity towards and a motivation towards the recognition that, man, we better get busy about this opportunity that we have to bring others into the kingdom because we don't want them to face that wrath, right?

He tells us enough about that, but he does not give us the detail that you and I might crave. I can tell you, I mean, there's a lot of commentaries out there. There's a lot of books written. There's the Left Behind series, as I mentioned.

There's a lot of books that want more detail and want to see more detail than he's given to us. And there's a craving. How many of you are kind of like that? I mean, just being honest, you kind of want more detail.

I kind of do at times. I kind of am a charts guy. Anybody raise your hand and say, I like charts. Like if you give me a page of text and you give me a chart, what am I going to read first? The chart. I'm going to check it out and then I'm going to be like, I don't get this.

And then I'm going to read the text and I'm going to get it, right? But I mean, you get what I'm saying. I mean, some of you are designed that way. You're like the graphic and the image and all of that stuff.

And so why wouldn't he just give us a chart? Why wouldn't he just write this stuff down in plain prose? Why not a timeline? A lot of people want to imply that revelation is given to you as a timeline and it isn't.

Here in our text, we see things in chapter 10 that are out of chronology. They are not given to us. This text, chapter 10 is not in order intentionally. He's going to point out, hey, there's a time coming when there's going to be a delay.

So here's your commission. You better do it. Well, the way that he tells you about there being no more delay sounds like, okay, there's no more delay. By the way, John, I've got a mission for you. Those two, chronologically, those don't go in that order.

You know, there's no more time. So here, here's a mission for you. Oh, he's doing something different here. Many of us hunger and long for that detail. And what he wants from us, hear me carefully. What God desires for us is trust me.

Trust me that I've got this. Look at the past. Look at the history. Look at my faithfulness to love you. Look at my faithfulness to send my son to die for you. I've got this. I've got it well in hand.

Gives us enough to be motivated to deal with sin and to testify of salvation in him. He does not give us enough to depend on ourselves to figure it all out and protect ourselves. And if we're honest, some of us are honest, that's kind of like, well, that's why we look at Revelation.

Why would you even study Revelation if it wasn't for figuring out how to protect yourself? It's to know God, to know where he's going, to know what he wants us to know, and just that. Well, this gigantic enormous angel who roars like a lion when he speaks, raises his right hand toward heaven in an oath.

You ever wonder where that comes from, right? You know, you put your hand on the Bible and raise your, is your right hand on the Bible, left hand? This guy does it the other way around. He's got his right hand towards heaven in an oath and he swears an oath to the God who created the heavens, created the earth, created the sea, and everything that is in them.

Basically, comprehensive creator of all things. And what this angel will one day bellow, what this angel will one day declare with a lion's roar to the world over the entire earth is meant to be known by you and I here and now.

This is, God, God says, don't plug your ears for this spoiler alert. I want you to know what this angel is one day in the future going to say. He wants everybody in this room to be aware of this thing that is coming.

This thing is going to happen. God let John see the future and record for us intentionally that a day is coming when a mighty angel will step out of heaven and over the whole earth proclaim, it's over.

There is no more delay. There is no more time. One day, one real day, that will be uttered by this majestic angel who will declare to the world, it's wrapping up. It's getting sewn up and it will be done.

There is no more delay. At the sound of the seventh trumpet, it's over. Now, remember that these are cycles and you go, well, what about the bowls? Aren't the bowls coming? What about the thunders? What about all that?

This is a cyclical movement covering the same duration, the same seven years of tribulation. And each one of those cycles, the seals, the trumpets, the bowls, at the end of each one is the end because they're kind of overlaid over the top of each other.

Is that making sense? Are you getting that? So at the seventh trumpet, it's all going to be wrapped up. The fact that a day is coming when there will be no more delay should be bittersweet to you and I, should be bittersweet.

Consider what the word delay implies for your everyday life. I mentioned at the introduction that we live in delay. From the time I was born till the time that I die is the delaying, unless God returns in that time, which would be super awesome and the delay is over.

Unless he, I mean, if that's the way that it goes and that I pass on just like my father and just like his father and just like his father, if I pass on, it's all been delay. It's all been a pause in the justice of God.

What does that mean for us? Consider what the word delay implies. Our unsaved friends, our unsaved family still have a chance as long as there's delay. As long as there's delay, they have a chance. You can still testify and tell others about Jesus Christ as long as there's delay.

You can repent, turn from your sin and grow towards Christlikeness as long as there's delay. But the day is coming when this shout ushers in the great and awesome day of the Lord, the day of final reckoning.

The Mystery of God and the Fulfillment of the Prophets

And in verse seven, we see here in this interlude that we're getting a sneak peek at the implications of the seventh trumpet. Look at verse, look at what verse seven says. But that in that day of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he announced to his servants, the prophets.

When the seventh trumpet sounds, the mystery of God will be fulfilled. The gospel will be completely realized. Those who are in Christ will be saved to eternal life. The judgment and justice of God in its completion will come at the great white throne judgment.

And the kingdoms of our world will become the kingdom singular of our God and his son, Jesus Christ. Well, it mentions that the prophets knew about these things. Many of the prophets, I'll just give you a smattering.

Isaiah, the prophet Amos, the prophet Joel, many others all predicted a great and awesome day of the Lord that would come at the end of time. A great and final kingdom will be set up for eternity and all sins and all the ravages of sins, all the effects of sin will be eradicated and the world will be restored back to the way that it was meant to be in the beginning.

Anybody looking forward to that day? I mean, some of us, if we're honest, there's a little bit of like kind of, whoa, how's that gonna go down? I mean, it's gonna be kind of shaky and it's gonna be, but it's gonna be a glorious thing.