The Seven Seals- Revelation 6:9-10

left off in this chapter last week and we were beginning to study the opening of

the seals, the seven seals, and we started with the first four which were the

first four horsemen and we saw the effects that they have on the world.

You've got the one riding the white horse, he comes conquering, he's wearing a

crown, he's got a bow, you've got the one on the bright red horse who's going to

take peace and he's going to cause war and all that type of stuff. The one on the

black horse who brings famine and economic troubles and then the one on the

pale green horse, remember he looks like a zombie horse is the color they use to

describe corpses, he brings death to the earth and we said that the opening of

these seals is the birth pains of the end, right? In other words the opening of

these four seals marks the beginning of the end and as we were concluding last

week we were saying that all of these horsemen and their effects that they

bring on the earth they are present now and we see their effects all over the

world now and so when you begin to talk about the end and the end times, one of

everybody's favorite subjects in the church is the end times and when you

start talking about that where do people start looking, all right? They go to

Revelation, fine but then they want to say okay I want to make sense of it so

where do people start looking and trying to you know engage their mind in this

idea of these thoughts about the end time? No one say John Hagee, okay? You're

immediately dismissed if you say John Hagee. Okay Daniel, that's one. Newspaper

article, right? I guess no one reads the newspaper anymore so you turn on what?

You turn on the news and you start seeing all these things that are going on in

the world and you know there are people who will sit in front of TV and they'll

just watch the news for hours and hours and hours and then they've got their

Bible and they're basically looking at the news and their Bible at the same

time they're going well here it is you know these are all the signs that the

end has come and they start looking for these markers but if they can't find

any it's a common question for people to get concerned with timing, right? They

want to know the exact timeline of events, do they not? A lot of people go to

Google and they'll say what's the timeline for the end times and they find all

these nice neat little charts and stuff like that and they want to know when is

it going to happen, what's the mark that it's beginning and when it starts taking

too long people begin to say well how long Lord when is all this going to go

down? We know that you say it's going to go down but when exactly is it going to

go down and here's what prompts that question even more it's when people

start looking at all the pain in the world and they look at the suffering in

the world they look at death they look at injustice that's going on in our

country and all around the world and they go where are you God? When are you

going to get involved? If you are really there why aren't you doing something? When

are you going to do something? They can start getting impatient and these are all

the issues that our passage this evening addresses. Our passage this evening it

reminds us that God is not an unconcerned uninterested bystander but that

he has not forgotten his people or his plans that he is working all things

according to his perfect time. We don't need to be paying attention to the news

wondering okay is this part of the timeline of events is this a marker of

this is this according to this chapter what not none of that should be our

concern. Jesus even told his disciples in Acts chapter 1 when they're like hey

Acts 1 · chapter mention

what's going to be the sign that all this is going to go down are you going to

restore Israel now? Jesus said why don't you not worry about that don't worry

about all the events and how they're going to play out and all that kind of

stuff why don't you go and spread the gospel go and tell everybody about me

and about what I'm doing and that's what Jesus encourages us to do here he says

yeah look here's a bunch of stuff that's going to happen but you don't need to

concern yourself with the timing you need to focus on the fact that God has a

plan and he's working all things according to his plan and his plan is

good. Now when the end does finally come it'll be a time of vindication for God's

people and it will be a time of judgment on the rest of the world. So we're in

this section like I said of the seven seals the first four were the horsemen

but they are part of the seven seals but this isn't the only series of seven in

Revelation is it? Anybody know of any other sevens in Revelation? Seven churches

okay yeah that's one. Anybody else sevens in Revelation? Blessing? I don't know maybe.

Yeah yeah a currency is a word blessing I didn't know if you were following something.

Gene help us out here. Okay well giving the two that you're thinking of right

now. Okay Gene deferring the answer I know he knows this but we also have seven

trumpets yeah sound familiar? Seven bowls of judgment or God's wrath and

actually all of these happen one right after the other right you get the seven

seals then you get the seven trumpets and there's a little interlude there and

then you get the seven bowls of God's wrath and one common thing when people

are reading Revelation how do you read a book? This one's really easy easiest

question I'll ask all night how do you read a book? Usually front the back right

and as you read it what happens the story progresses and that's how people

read Revelation they start at the beginning they go okay I'm gonna read it

all the way through to the end and this is just a nice neat little story that's

just progressing all the way through. My question is is that how Revelation works

though? Maybe I'm trying to trick you Tina. Okay but that's how people often view

these series of sevens right they are in their minds they think and it could be

I'm not saying it's not yet but just give me some time Tina let me work up to it

alright some people will say well these are chronological events I have to

happen in a certain sequence first you get all seven seals and then you get all

seven trumpets and then you get all seven bowls of God's wrath now I am asking

the question but what do we think about that? Is that right? Is it wrong? Is it a

yes? Is it a no? And if you're gonna answer I'm gonna make you defend it

because I don't want you to be like well you asked the question so you must

think it's this one. What's the thing the answer okay? Does it happen

chronologically? Is it sequential or is it something else?

That's a good point Doug. It's true.

God's timing is something completely different right? Yeah what do y'all

think? Seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls is it sequential? Do all the seals

have to happen in order for the trumpets to start? Do all the trumpets have to

blow in order for the bowls to be poured out?

Okay yes that's right.

That's right. Good answer. Anybody else want to contribute? Do we think

chronological or something else?

Man we don't have anyone just wanting to put their foot down tonight.

All right see here's a man who's willing to put his foot down. Doesn't matter if

he thinks he's right or wrong he says this is what I think all right. Anybody

else want to agree or disagree with our resident theologian and end times expert

Gene McKinney? Doctor Gene McKinney?

Okay.

Okay all right gentlemen time to defend your position what makes you think it's

not chronological if we're reading it one thing after the other after the other.

You turn the page it's like oh it's missing again. Okay Joseph do you want to help him out? What makes

you think it's not chronological?

Okay.

Okay all right so yes.

Okay so yeah I would say that they are non chronological that they are

cyclical in other words these are things that are going to continue to happen

until the end and as Tina pointed out God is a God of order and so there is an

order there's a pattern to things and you can recognize this pattern with the

seals the trumpets and the bowls for instance the first five of whatever it

is the first five seals first five trumpets or bowls they are always things

that are going to happen within human history all right these are all things

that happen throughout human history but then interestingly enough when you get

to the sixth one the sixth thing whatever it is one of these it always marks

the end of human history that is when everything comes crashing down and the

earth starts melting away and things are falling from heaven and all this kind

of stuff very apocalyptic type stuff it's the signal this is the end we're

wrapping this thing up and then the seventh thing always starts the final

judgment every single time and here's something else that's very interesting if

you want to just be a Bible nerd like me and look for patterns right when you

begin to go from six to seven you can see that it'll start talking about the

hundred and forty four thousand who are redeemed it starts talking about the

God's people who are redeemed the people who were saved by the lamp every

single time there's like always that mention of God's people before the

final judgment and so we need to recognize this pattern because we're in

this section and believe it or not even though it still feels like we're pretty

early on in revelation this is going to take us all the way to the end I mean

this is going to take us all the way to the end of revelation with the end of

the bowls and the coming judgment all that kind of stuff but let's dive in a

little bit and try to at least show so we can get an idea that things are not

sequential or chronological as many believe that they are it's fairly easy

to prove for instance when the angel blows the third trumpet was on if you

could put revelation 810 on the screen so if you want to write down the

reference revelation 810 when the third when the angel blows the third trumpet a

star falls from heaven and it poisons all rivers okay trumpet blows star falls

from heaven do what yeah poisons the rivers right so then when you look at

revelation 613 mizan if you put that reference on there the sixth seal is

open which we're gonna maybe covered in probably not covered tonight next week

but when the sixth seal is open all the stars fall from the Scott now why would

that matter if the seals are open first and they come before the trumpets and

the sixth seal says all stars fall from the sky and then you come over here and

the third trumpet is blown what happened do you remember something fell from the

sky and poisoned rivers a star right well if all the stars have already fallen

and how is there a star still left to fall and poison the rivers doesn't make a

lot of sense not only that another reference mizan 8 7 when the first

trumpet is blown the Bible says that the green grass all the green grass is

burned up but then when the fifth trumpet is blown in revelation 9 4 the Bible

specifically says that the locus do not harm the grass well why would you say

that if there's no grass to harm in the first place if all the grass is already

gone you could just say locus came the fact that you have to mention that the

locus are not going to harm the grass implies what that there is grass to be

hard and so therefore you can see that as we study revelation and remember it's

going to take us from here chapter 6 all the way to chapter 19 and 20 these

things that people think happen chronologically and they're looking in

the news and the newspapers and everything for say okay that's a sign of

the times that's this that's this that means we're must be pretty close to the

end of revelation when in reality these things happen all the time they are

cyclical you see these patterns going on and on and on and these events and

things happening all throughout human history now you might be thinking well

pastor I don't remember a star falling from the sky and poison a third of the

rivers how about you explain that and to that I say we'll get there in a couple

weeks probably I'd be a month or so I don't know our timing is real weird it

took us two years to get through Genesis so but the point is we can't explain

that we will explain that when we get there but I just want you to understand

that when we are studying these and we're going through these these are there's a

pattern here it's cyclical in the way that you can understand these best is

not that these are necessarily separate things that are happening and they're

all sorts of just not related at all but a better way to understand these is

that they are all describing the same events from a different perspective

right that's how the gospel writers right to right people will look at Matthew

Mark Luke and John and they'll say you know Matthew said this but Mark said

this what's going on here like we just talked about Jesus freeing the men of

demons right and Matthew says there were two and Mark says there's one and

people go well there's a contradiction right there well no it's not a

contradiction Mark just focuses on one Matthew focuses on two not a big deal

at all you know there's not a contradiction there it's just that

their their focus is different you look at the same thing all throughout Matthew

he orders his gospel thematically he always has hey here's this big idea that

Jesus was teaching on and oh by the way here are some things that he did that

demonstrated that big idea Luke was a medical doctor and a historian that man

is as black and white as it gets everything is chronological and

sequential and this is the order that it definitely happened in because I'm

Luke and I recorded it and I'm a historian there you go but are they

recording different events no you're just recording the same events from

different perspectives or another way to think about it let's say that I was

leaving here tonight and I pull out in the road and I get a terrible car accident

and all of you are on the stairs and you witness it happen cops arrive on scene

and they say what happened you're gonna tell them what you saw Alex pulled out

of here something went down he hit a car a car hit him big explain it roll blah

blah blah blah blah blah but if he asked me to explain it I'm gonna have a

different perspective or am I not you're gonna have a general one outside

looking in you can maybe take in more of the scene maybe I never even saw the

car coming I was saying I don't know I was driving one second next second I'm

upside down and you guys are asking me what happened I have no idea you know

it was a bloody mess in here and outside you might say well I didn't see any blood

but it looked pretty bad so all of these things are describing the same event but

from different perspectives and that's what we need to understand so all of

these the seals the trumpets and the bowls they go together and they are

describing similar events or same events but with different perspectives I

like the way that that one theologian was describing this when he was talking

about the seals and the trumpets and the bowls how he worked together he said

the theme of the seven seals is God's restraint of judgment for the sake of the

church the seven trumpets they announced the victory of God's judgment over the

world and the seven bowls depict the wrath of God's judgment upon the

unbelieving world and so we need to keep that in mind as we go through this

passage and as we continue our study of revelation so that we don't get confused

and think that something hasn't happened yet or this or that they work

together all right so we're only going to get to the fifth seal tonight look

with me verses 9 through 10 with all that in mind understanding that there's a

pattern here and things one through five happen in human history this is what we

read when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who

had been slain for the word of God and for the witness that they had born they

cried out with a loud voice oh sovereign Lord holy and true how long before you

will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth now something

interesting for you to know all throughout the Bible there are two

alters anybody know what those two alters are Bible quiz of the night the

altar of burnt offerings very good yeah and the altar of

yeah yeah very good miss Vicki all right you can get that that was okay the

altar of burnt offering and the altar of incense but throughout revelation

there's only one altar and it's interesting because they kind of combined

the the themes of sacrifice and prayer together and so you see that here at

this altar and you see that there's some people who are under the altar and

they're crying out to God is there anything weird about this anything

strange anything that sticks out to you when you see these people in whatever

kind of situation they're in they're under the altar okay the whole thing is

strange welcome to the book of Revelation

okay unexpected all right let's start with the first thing under the altar

what do we make of that I probably wouldn't use those exact I don't know

that if that's the reference but that was a good try I like it could be it

doesn't say yeah things so probably same idea so when we're picturing this we

don't need to be picturing like a giant altar with I've seen statues of this

actually in paintings of this a giant altar and there's a whole bunch of

people who are like trying to crawl out of the altar and they're getting their

head out and they're screaming and asking God how long ago Lord and they're

just kind of being crushed by the way to this altar actually the way that it's

written in the Greek basically just means that they are at the foot of the

altar or kind of beneath the altar you can imagine they're in the shadow of

the altar so yeah yeah so like you have this giant altar and they're at the very

bottom and they are said to be underneath the altar in that way they're

beneath it or at the foot of it basically see idea that they are resting in

the shadow of God's altar and they are resting in his protection and so here's

my question who are these people

we said you said Stephen martyrs martyrs

on agreement martyrs

very interesting question are they part of the hundred forty four thousand all

right jean that's strike one two more and we're out in ten minutes yeah yeah

so Tina you'll have to wait until revelation seven whenever we get there

for the hundred forty four thousand but that is an interesting question are

they part of them very interesting we'll address that later but martyrs are we

all on agreement we think martyrs that's the answer okay why use that word

what's a martyr because of their faith Justin Justin martyr church history

reference very good Joseph um anybody know what the Greek word martyr means

and put it right here has nothing to do with any of this but it's the only

right I have on the board

Greek word martyr just means witness so this is what we have here interesting

sometimes the Bible does this where you have a word either in Hebrew or in Greek

or Aramaic and the translators are like I'm not gonna translate it I'm gonna

transliterate it which is basically you take something from the letters in one

language and you basically try to find equivalence in your own so you read the

Greek word martyr and guess what it is in English martyr that's that's a

transliteration that's how that works okay so they decided not to translate it

and so then the word witness became associated with people who were dying

for their faith because they were witnessing to others they were sharing

their faith and so what do you call them if you're Greek speaking people hey

what happened to that witness he died oh he's a martyr and so that's actually

who is here under the shadow of God's altar it's a group of people they're

called martyrs in the Greeks just witnesses they are witnesses for Jesus

but should we believe that there are many people here who actually were killed

for their faith yeah absolutely I mean they're gonna go on and actually say

that some of them did in fact die for their faith they were killed for their

faith but I think it's more appropriate to understand this group under the altar

as being representative of all Christians who are persecuted for their

faith they are all witnesses for Jesus they have born witness to Jesus and to

his gospel I mean Jesus and Matthew 24 said that all believers would be

persecuted for their commitment to the church we talked about this last week

that there the Christians are the single most persecuted group throughout all of

human history or at least for the past 2,000 years we have been the single most

persecuted group on earth there have been more Christian martyrs in the 20th

century than in the previous 19 centuries combined and so Jesus's words of

course ring true that all Christians are persecuted to some degree for their

faith they will bear persecution for their faith it will suffer persecution in

other words what Jesus is saying here you have a picture of the church and he

says it is a persecuted church the church always has been and always will be

there are people who like to imagine this golden age where Christians in the

church will never be persecuted and that's just not gonna happen

Christians are never gonna reach this this state where there's no longer

persecution there's no longer suffering they are always going to be a

persecuted people and so like Tina said it's interesting notice what what

they're saying they say oh sovereign Lord holy and true how long before you

will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth now the

reference those who dwell on the earth in Revelation is just referring to who

evil doers the wicked on the earth so this isn't referring to all humanity

without discrimination this is the evil doers who are on earth the wicked those

who are unbelievers who have rejected Jesus and his gospel and these Christians

are wondering how long and that's interesting is it not I mean because when

we think about a Christian in heaven we don't think about this kind of thing do

we we always think about this blissful state that they're in we always think

about them just you know running down streets of gold and crystal seas and

all this kind of stuff and you never think about the the multiple times in

the Bible where we read about people like this who were crying out saying oh

Lord how long until you avenge us or you never think about people in heaven

wanting anything right but then the Bible say that we will be longing with

anticipation for the resurrection and our resurrection bodies and so there is

some sort of longing still in heaven you see these human characteristics coming

out and Jesus they're asking him how long because they've given their lives

for him whether they were killed literally for their faith whether it's a

figurative Lord I was your witness and yet I still suffered death on the earth

and it's full of wickedness so why are the wicked prospering and the righteous

are suffering how long until you do something about it and don't we

encounter people who ask that same question today I mean I've encountered

people who have claimed to be Christians and something terrible happens in

their life I mean horrible and they say well if God was so good where was he in

that situation if your God is all all loving and all powerful and he can do

something then why doesn't he do something why did he allow that thing to

happen to me why didn't he give me what I was asking for I tried I prayed I

begged him I was doing everything that I thought I was supposed to do and where

was God in all of it because he was nowhere to be seen we not still see

people asking this question today where are you God how long when are you going

to show up and do something and what do you think people want in that moment yeah

that's right they want an answer when they are begging God where were you how

long when is this all gonna come to an end when you're gonna do something they

want an answer have you ever noticed something about God's answers they're

usually not the thing we were hoping to hear right you see that all throughout

the Bible you see it especially in the Gospels with Jesus when they're asking

Jesus about something I mean just think about his time with Pilate and

everything and Pilate's like all right look I can let you off the hook okay you

just got to come clean are you the king of the Jews and he what does Jesus say

you say I am Pilate's like pleaded with him he's like I can get you off you

don't have to go to the cross just tell me are you the king of the Jews what's

true Jesus just silent God's answers usually and very often are not the

answers that we are actually wanting to hear in the moment that's the same here

we'll get to verse 11 and then we'll end for the night but notice what his

response is then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little

longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be

complete who were to be killed as they themselves had so what is the white

robe symbolize okay purity purity of their faith what else you wash your

robes white as snow what does that typically mean yeah forgiveness of sins

is it's also the white we talked about last week with the the first writer

whites the color of victory and so it's a reference also to the victory that

they have secured to the perseverance in the faith and God tells them to rest a

little longer until what time when is the time yeah that's right until the

number the full number he says the complete number until that number has

been reached I'm not doing I'm not going I'm not coming back I'm not

vindicating I'm not pouring out wrath I'm not judging none of that until that

full number is complete so that tells us a few things doesn't it it tells us God

knows exactly how many people are going to be killed for their faith when you

hear about a Christian who dies at the hands of someone because of their faith

you hear about Christian martyrs in person that is not a time to say well

why didn't God step in and do anything that's a time for you to remember God

knows the complete number of those who will ultimately give their lives for

their faith that he knew it was going to happen before they were ever even born

it also tells us he knows how many Christians are going to die before

Jesus returns is that number of mystery to him is God just waiting around I mean

people have this idea God's just waiting and then one day he's just going to make

the decision okay now I'll send Jesus back now he's waiting for certain things

to happen and until the full number of Christians have come to faith until the

full number who are going to be killed for their faith actually reaches

completion until the full number who are going to be saved will be saved God's

not going to send Jesus back that means God also knows how many people are

ultimately going to come to salvation and he has a plan he has a good plan

that's going to unfold in his perfect timing and so he's encouraging people

here to wait and rest in his protection and under his sovereign care what we'll

get to this some next week but I just want to let you know what his plan is

here is that when he does ultimately send Jesus back it's going to be a

vindication of his people it's going to be a justification of their faith not in

the sense that he's going to declare them to be righteous but their faith is

going to be justified in the sense that he is going to show the entire world

their faith was not in vain they weren't believing a myth or a fairy tale or

anything like that they knew me I knew them and they were my people I am

coming back to show you that I am real and you should have listened because

when that time comes not only is it a time of vindication for God's people it

is a time of judgment upon the world and there is no escaping that we get into

that next week some about there is no escape but the hope for us as Christians

when we are growing weary in our faith when we are asking those questions about

where are you God how long God when will you get involved God when are you going

to do something God the encouragement for us is to remember that God always has

a plan that he is always working that plan that his plan is perfect and good

and it will come to pass and there is not a thing that you or anyone else or

this entire world can do to stop the plan of God from unfolding he is coming

back and he will vindicate his people and all of our despair all of our

struggles all of our suffering all of the mocking and persecution that we have

endured they are going to be shown to be justified for the sake of Christ

because he comes back and he says these are my people and I am here for them the

rest of the world they suffer the wrath and the judgment of God and that's a

scary thing to suffer so we'll get into that next week but about our youngest

person here rather than our oldest give our word of wisdom for the night