The New Testament lesson is the revelation to St. John, the 8th chapter, and the first five verses. When he opened the 7th seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the 7 angels who stand before God, and to them were given 7 trumpets. And another angel, having a golden censor, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. And the angel took the censor, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to Luke, chapter 18, and the first eight verses. Then he spoke apperable to them, that men always ought to pray, and not lose heart, saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary, and he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge his own elect, who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily, nevertheless when the Son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to the Lord, let us pray. Lord Jesus, you love your people, you have loved them from before the foundation of the world, and you love them now, and you will not stop loving them, and that includes us. And so, Lord, no matter the circumstances of our lives, the discouragements or doubts with which we might wrestle this day, would you seal to our hearts by your Holy Spirit's presence, this truth, that because you love us, we need not be afraid. We ask in your name, men may be seated. I saw a simply fabulous movie a couple of weeks ago. My family has put up with me about this movie for the last couple of weeks, and you're going to have to put up with me probably for the rest of the summer about this movie. The movie is Braveheart. It is not for the squeamish. I said to somebody earlier this week, if hand-to-hand combat can be done tastefully, in Braveheart it's done tastefully, but it is hand-to-hand combat. These armies, when they engage one another, do so full bore. Braveheart is the story of Sir William Wallace, a Scotsman, who at the end of the 13th century in the beginning of the 14th century led his fellow Scotsman in their crusade to separate themselves from England and gain their independence. King Edward II, Long Shanks, was notoriously unscrupulous and wicked and determined to maintain and retain what he believed to be his crown rights. He refers to Scotland and Wales and England as my island, and he sees all of it as being under his control, and he believes that he has a right to it. And England has oppressed the Scots, and that oppression takes on many, many forms. It takes on the violation of newlyweds by English captains. It takes on the pillaging of villages and the slaughtering of innocent Scots. And William Wallace is contempt, as he says, to plant crops, have sons, and live in peace until the tyranny of Edward II touches his life personally, and his wife is slaughtered, executed, in the public square, lashed to a post, and helpless to defend herself. William Wallace and his fellow Scots are outnumbered, and they don't possess the technologies for fighting which the English possess. The English are strong, and well-fed, and well-disciplined, and well-defended, but Sir William Wallace, though outnumbered, is brave heart, and in watching that movie and in thinking about that movie and reflecting upon it over the course of the last couple of weeks there are any number of ways to use that movie to illustrate issues which are real for the Christians at the time of the writing of this lengthy epistle, this lengthy letter, given by Jesus Christ and sent through the Apostle John to those churches. I'm pretty convinced that the letter was written during the time of Nero before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, there are some reasons for that that don't need to concern us now, but whether the letter was written at the time of Nero or later in the time of Demitian, both of those emperors were Edward II long shanks, mean and vindictive, laws unto them cells who did to Christians the kinds of things which Edward did to the Scots. They were sorely oppressed, they were beaten down, they were outnumbered, they lacked the resources with which to respond to this domineering and oppressive tyrant. Did you read the language, did you hear the language of our opening hymn, the Church's one foundation, is Jesus Christ, her Lord, she is his new creation by water and the Word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought her and for her life he died, elect from every nation yet one or all the earth, her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth, though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed by sisms rent a sunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping their cry goes up how long and soon the night of weeping shall be the mourn of song, the Church shall never perish, her dear Lord, her unseen, but dead, buried, resurrected, ascended, glorified and enthroned, Lord, her dear Lord, to defend, to guide, sustain and cherish is with her to the end. That is the message of the revelation. The unseen crown prince of righteousness has his holy bride for whom he has come and died securely held in the palm of his hand, and that beloved is you as we make our way on in this book of the revelation. What I'm anxious for you to see rather than the particulars and the details, there's a wonderful little commentary which I would commend to you by Michael Wilcock it is called I Saw Heaven Opened. If you want to pursue the details of this vision or of these visions that is a helpful resource, a very helpful resource, and there are all kinds of things in this letter which we could occupy our time with and we'll touch upon some of them and I hope it will wet your appetite to study this letter yourself and to pursue these things yourselves. But what I'm more anxious for you to see is the big picture and the flow of this whole book. Don't lose sight of the forest because of individual trees, and what I suggested to you last week is that there is an organization to this book, there is an order to this book, and it is forward moving, it is purposeful, and it draws us to this great climax, this great conclusion with the creation and the adornment of the New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, and that is your end, that is your goal, that is your hope, and that never ends.
Some of you asked last week about these breakdowns of this book there are eight scenes, and they are snapshots, and they form a mosaic, and within those scenes there are other snapshots, seven in each of them, some of them clearly identifiable, some of them not so clearly identifiable, there are seals and there are trumpets and there are bowls and there are letters, but there are these snapshots which form this mosaic and within the snapshots there are some snapshots and pictures, and all of it together is a picture of great glory, and the movement is like this, it begins where you would expect the lover of the church to begin, the book begins with the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory, standing amidst the lampstands, the seven lampstands symbolic representative of the church, his bride, his beloved, and he speaks, you'll remember to the church about the church before he speaks to the church about the world, the church is at center stage, the church endures forever, the church is the means which God has appointed for the communication of the gospel of his beloved son into all the earth, it is the church, and it isn't the church in some imaginary or theoretical sense, not imaginary, but theoretical sense, it is specific churches, the church at Philadelphia, the church at Sardis, the church at Leidesia, the church at Orlando, particular bodies of believers who publicly declare their allegiance to Jesus Christ, and in that declare that they take their marching orders from him, they are his servants, you are the ones Christ has appointed for the extending of his kingdom into all the earth, and other bodies of believers like you, outside the Presbyterian church in America, where there is a faithfulness and adherence to the core commitments of the gospel of Christ, not the church theoretically, but particular groups of people, Jesus has been speaking to us, about us, and after he has done that, then John has given this next division of Christ in all of his glory, but now Christ glorified, is not simply seen as Lord of the church, but he is Lord over all of the creation, he is Lord over all of the nations of the earth, he is the Lord over everything that his maid is made, he is the Lord of all of history, and so Jesus reminds his people after he has spoken to the church about the church, and before he speaks to the church about the world that he is, the Lord over all things, the great, the small, the general, and the specific, the nation and the individual, the rules and reigns over all of them, and with that vision of Christ, we begin the second scene, it starts at chapter 4, verse 1, it is Christ the Lord of glory and the breaking of the seals, and that gives way then beginning at 8, 2 to the trumpets and the summons and the call,
and after those trumpets, there is depicted beginning at 11, 19, the heavenly conflict, and that is scene 4, cosmic conflict, and then scene 5 begins at 15, 5 with the 7 bowls, and then scene 6 begins at 17, 1 with the judgment of Babylon, and scene 7 begins at 19, 11, and depicts Christ the conqueror and vindicator of his bride, the church, and those 7 scenes give way then to the 8th scene, beginning at 21, 9, the new Jerusalem, and I suggested to you last week that just as the work of Christ was completed on the 7th day, and he rested from his labor on the 7th day, the 8th day begins the extension and application of the benefits of that work, it is the day of resurrection and the day of glory, so by the end of the 7th scene, Christ the conqueror and vindicator of his church has completed his work in history, and history gives way now to glory and the abandonment of the bride. History is not a cycle,
history is not circular, history is not meaningless, random occurrences, events, names, dates, and places, history is his story, it is unfolding, it is purposeful, and its end is that his people be gathered from every nation and tribe and tunnel on the face of the earth and ushered in to this glory depicted at the end of this book, it moves in that direction, that's the general picture, that's the general flow of the whole book, but then there is this section which we looked at beginning at chapter 4, verse 1, and through the end of chapter 5, and then on into chapter 6 and 7, and the first part of chapter 8, this second scene, and the opening of the seals, and again the flow there is from Christ speaking to his church about his church to now Christ speaking to his church about the world, and what the church can expect in history as she lives in the world, and these seals, the first five of them describe what it is that we may expect as we live in the world. See, this is the way it is with God, this is the way it is with the Lord Jesus, when he comes, and he proclaims his glory and comforts his people and declares to them that they are safe and secure, he wants to remind them after he has reminded them of that ultimate thing, that they must not be surprised by pain and difficulty and hardship and conflict as they live in the midst of this still fallen and broken world, and that is what Jesus tells his church through these first five seals,
the first seal at the first part of chapter 6, depicts a rider upon a horse with a crown who rides out to conquer and who conquers throughout the course of history, this horse will ride,
sometimes he will run roughshod over the scots at the end of the 13th century, sometimes he will ride roughshod over the people of Bosnia and leave countless thousands, homeless, and scores and hundreds dead, but this horse will ride forth and he will brandish his rider will, his saber, and he will carry his crown of authority and he will use both of those as weapons against people. History will be characterized by conflict, by conquering the second seal, depicts yet another horse fiery red, and what is granted to that rider of that horse is to take peace from the earth, and so this conquering is enlarged and further depicted as there is killing and then the third seal depicts yet another horse a black horse with a pair of scales in his hands, and as this horse rides forth perhaps because of the conflict which has occurred and all we seems to occur there is a scarcity, an economic deprivation and people go either without food or acquire food and clothing and the basic stuff of their existence at great cost, but there is an injustice in it, and most of the commentators understand the oil and the wine of verse six, which are not harmed to be those things which the rich enjoy and in which they indulge themselves, symbols of wealth, so there is scarcity for some and there is indulgence for others there is inequity, and then the fourth seal depicts yet another, and we are told that in this seal there is death in the extreme. This is a picture of the conflict of the world throughout the course of history, this is the Lord Jesus Christ saying to those Christians in that day, don't be surprised, and furthermore, pay attention to the fifth seal, it isn't just that there will be conflict, that there will be these conquerors, and there will be death and deprivation associated with this conquering and this conflict, it will touch you particularly to the fifth seal, the symbolic of those who are slain for the word of God and for the testimony they held, and they are the ones who cry out how long O Lord holy and true until you avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth, there are those whose blood is shed and it is shed by those who dwell upon the earth, and so now the conflict is not just the general conflict which exists among nations, but it is conflict which exists between these two principle and peoples, the people of the earth who persecute the people of Christ, don't be surprised that this happens, folks what is behind this, something to which you've heard me refer in the past and something which I feel constrained to remind you of again and again and again, what is behind this is the reality of the fall and the seriousness of the fall, the longing of our hearts, the desire of our hearts is to be in heaven, to be free from conflict and pain and turmoil, to be free of all of the symptoms of the rot which characterizes this broken down world in which we live, that's where we want to be and we continually seek to bring heaven down, but heaven does not come down, it cannot dwell here because this place is too broken down to sustain and hold its glory, heaven must remain in heaven and those who are to enjoy heaven must be transformed in order to enjoy it and until that day while we have tastes of it and experience enjoyment of it as we do at worship when we sing and we listen to one another pray and we gather in one another's homes to pray for one another in the midst of difficulty, we get those tastes of heaven but they don't last do they, they're fleeting aren't they and the reason is that this is a broken down place where there are moments of glory but where history really and truly is characterized by this brokenness that's what Jesus says, that's what you can expect my precious and beloved people,
they've done stop there, it doesn't end with the fifth seal, the fifth seal gives way to the sixth beginning at verse 12, I looked when he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops, it's late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind, that symbol, that image of the fig tree is to convey to us that we are now at the end of the season, we are at the end of history and this conflict gives way at the sixth seal to the consuming of the old heavens and the old earth and the giving way to the new, the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place, the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, kid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and the rocks, you fall on us, fall on us on mountains and rocks and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the land, for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand. History would be a sad thing if we ended with the fifth seal, we would be despairing, we would be overcome and events like that depicted in Braveheart when William Wallace is finally arrested and is taken to Edinburgh and in the city square is hung, drawn and quartered,
you know what quartering is? I'm not going to tell you here, look it up in a dictionary or an encyclopedia in the public square, he was martyred for his cause, hung, drawn and quartered and his limbs sent to the farthest reaches of the English Empire as Edwards warning that if anybody should act treasonously against the crown, you could expect this to happen to him, his William Wallace is impaled on the block in the city square, he cries one last word, freedom, freedom, symbolic in innumerable ways his life gave way to freedom for his people, the lives of martyrs and the life of Jesus, the the martyr gives way to life for his people, the martyrdom is not the end of the story but the coming of the lamb and the lamb judging the kings and the princes, the commanders, the mighty men in indeed every man on the face of the earth, his judging them is the vindication of his church and in chapter seven as a separate sort of snapshot you have depicted the ceiling of the whole of the church of God, the whole of the people of God represented by the 144,000 12 times 12,000, 12,000 for each name, for each tribe, it's the whole of the people, the whole of the nation, John hears what the number is but then he sees in the following verses that that number is a vast and numberless multitude of people whom God has gathered from every nation and tribe and people and tongue and that vast multitude stands before the throne and sings with the four living creatures and the 24 elders crying out salvation belongs to our God, deliverance belongs to our God and to us and they worship worship because God has heard the cries of his people and so this sealed people this people set apart for the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Lord Jesus defends and protects as the hymn said earlier this people now witnesses as the seventh and final seal is broken and judgments which had been earthly which had resulted in the vindication of this people those judgments now give way to final and consummate judgment and the sounding of the seven trumpets and the pouring forth of the seven bowls of wrath but here is what I would have you here and see that twice in this second scene twice in this snapshot at verse 8 of chapter 5 and at verse 3 of chapter 8 and then verse 4 the prayers of the people of God are mentioned chapter 5 verse 8 now when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense incense which are the prayers of the saints and they sang a new song saying and then verses 3 and 4 at chapter 8 and another angel having a golden sensor came and stood at the altar he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand it is a wondrous it is an overwhelming it is an unbelievable thing that it should be the ascending prayers of the people of God which are the impetus for Christ the conqueror to come in final deliverance of his people there is always this dance between heaven and earth there is always the unseen the quiet silent unseen prayers of the saints pleading with God in behalf of his people the unseen but not so silent always response of God to those please where he comes and sometimes temporarily to be sure but where he comes ultimately at the end in response to those pleas to deliver his people into the enjoyment the full enjoyment of their salvation and out of the conflict and the pressure and hurt and disappointment characteristic of this life folks I have to tell you I love this book I'm afraid though that my reading in this book may make me so worth heavenly mind it I'll be no earthly good I can it moves me in that direction it moves me in the direction of my hope and glory and it steals me even if just a little bit this Irish coward who can't imagine how those scots fought in the way they did it steals me if just a little bit to persevere in my day and my time for the cause of the great king fret not fret not eternity is forever this life is but for a moment and I pray God that for all of us more of heaven would get into us and inoculate us against any preoccupation with the world the Lord Jesus when he responded in his parable to the response of the judge and encouraged his disciples that God would indeed come quickly to vindicate and deliver his people into glory may that hope be a great encouragement and a stealing force for us all let us pray together or Jesus thank you that you are cognizant aware mindful of the prayers of your people that you hear and that you respond and I believe O Lord Jesus that the sufferings of your people pain you and I would not have been surprised Lord Jesus if you had returned in the 12th or the 14th or the 16th or the 18th or the 19th or the first half of the 20th century so great is your love for your people and concern that they be delivered that I thank you Lord Jesus Christ that you did not come back before April 17 1971 when you won me to yourself and I pray you that you would give us all the grace of perseverance and patience that we might endure and persevere and do what you call us to until you have gathered every one of those who have been sealed in you and to you from before the foundation of the world that we all together might be gathered to your throne to worship to delight to enjoy you forever oh encourage us Lord we ask in your name amen