The Four Horsemen

what it means when they come.

And to start off, I thought it was good

to just try to get at this idea of,

let's see how I could put this.

When couples come to me for premarital counseling,

which I enjoy doing,

one of the first things that we always discuss

is expectations.

Specifically, unvoiced expectations

or ungrounded expectations.

Because if you are in a relationship,

you know that expectations have the potential

to cause disruption in the relationship.

When you expect your spouse to do something,

but you didn't tell them that you expected them

to do that thing,

and then they didn't do the thing

that you didn't tell them you expected them to do,

and then you get angry at them for that,

that's a problem, is it not?

Now I know that...

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

So there was one time,

and I think I've told you all this before,

but before we had kids,

and I was still working at Lowe's,

I had a Saturday off, which was rare,

and so I spent the entire day outside,

the entire day outside in summer doing yard work,

because Anna had been talking about

how our grass looked terrible,

the garden was terrible,

the book, everything was terrible.

And I was like, you know what, I'm a good husband.

I've got the day off, here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm just gonna go and work outside all day in the hot sun,

and she's gonna greet me with this warm,

well, I love you so much, you're the best,

I'm gonna buy you some hot wings,

you know, all the good stuff, right?

So I walk in the door at the end of the day,

here comes my hero's welcome, we're in a fight apparently.

I didn't know this, but walk in the door

and realize immediately, uh-oh,

Anna's upset with me, don't know what I did.

So I asked her, well, I expected she would be happy

that I had just taken care of all the things

that she wanted me to take care of.

She expected that if I had the day off work,

I would spend the entire day with her.

Neither one of us voiced those expectations,

and so both of us were disappointed

and the whole evening was ruined

because we both were disappointed with each other.

I thought she'd be happy,

she thought I'd spend the day with her.

Unvoiced, unrealistic, ungrounded expectations

can do that kind of thing, right?

And here's what I know about us as Christians.

Every Christian has certain expectations

about what they think is gonna happen in the end times, right?

We all expect certain things to happen.

We all have assumptions about what may or may not happen,

but the problem is if those expectations aren't grounded

in what Scripture actually says is going to happen,

then we're gonna be confused.

And we could be disappointed, some of us,

and we could be frustrated.

And so what we need to do is we need to look

at what the Bible actually says we can expect

when the end comes so that there is no confusion,

there is no frustration, and there is no disappointment.

And that's what leads us to Revelation 6

and these seven seals where we begin

with the four horsemen and they tell us what to expect.

And the four horsemen, although they do bring disaster,

the comfort for us as God's people

is that God is sovereign over all the events of history

that take place, past, present, and future.

And so here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna dive in.

If you have your Bibles there, Revelation 6

verses one through two, this is what the Bible says.

Now I watched when the lamb opened one of the seven seals

and I heard one of the four living creatures say

with a voice like thunder, come.

And I looked and behold, a white horse

and its rider had a bow and a crown was given to him

and he came out conquering and to conquer.

Now, before we dive into all the specifics here,

we should just make a little bullet point.

For almost everything in the book of Revelation,

there is an Old Testament background, right?

This book references the Old Testament

more than any other New Testament book.

It's full of references and allusions

and all sorts of callbacks to the Old Testament.

And this too has an Old Testament reference,

an Old Testament background.

So you'll find this in the book of Zechariah,

chapter one verses eight through 10.

This is what the Bible says there.

I saw in the night and behold,

a man riding on a red horse.

He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen

and behind him were red, sorrel and white horses.

Then I said, what are these, my Lord?

The angel talked with me and said to me,

I will show you what they are.

So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered,

these are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.

And then just a little bit later

in Zechariah, chapter six verses one through seven,

this is what we read again.

Again, I lifted my eyes and soul

and behold, four chariots came out

from between two mountains.

And the mountains were mountains of bronze.

The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses,

the third white horses

and the fourth chariot dappled horses, all of them strong.

Then I answered and said to the angel who talked to me,

what are these, my Lord?

And the angel answered and said to me,

these are going out to the four winds of heaven

after presenting themselves before the Lord

of all the earth.

The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country,

the white ones go after them

and the dappled ones go toward the south country.

When the strong horses came out,

they were impatient to go and patrol the earth.

And he said, go patrol the earth, so they patrol the earth.

What are they doing?

Patrolling the earth, right?

Yeah, so there is an Old Testament background

to these four horses that we read about

in the book of Revelation here.

And it's important to notice that

who is the one opening the scrolls here in Revelation?

Jesus, who is pictured as the what?

The lamb, okay?

So the lamb's opening the scrolls

and each time he opens one of the seals,

one of the four living creatures is going to say,

come, he's gonna summon one of the riders

and he calls to this first one in the first horseman.

What color horse is he riding?

A white horse.

And what is the purpose of this horseman?

To conquer.

He comes out conquering

and ready to conquer.

I don't know if I spelled that correctly,

but yeah, it's right.

So yeah, that's his mission.

He's here to conquer and he comes out conquering.

He's on a conquest, he has a white horse

which was the symbol of victory.

It was a symbol of your winning something, right?

And there's a lot of debate about who this rider is.

Okay?

I know you don't believe me

because everything in the book of Revelation

everybody agrees on, right?

Everybody loves this book

and we all agree on it all the time.

No, there's a bunch of debate

about who the first horseman is.

Now some people have suggested that the first rider

is a metaphor for the proclamation of the gospel.

That the proclamation of the gospel goes forward

to out all the earth

and the gospel will be victorious.

It will overcome and conquer the unbelieving hearts

of people who have previously rejected Jesus.

And so the gospel goes forward

and is victorious, white horse, victory.

That's one option.

Another option people have suggested

that the rider is Jesus himself.

A lot of people believe this, that the rider is Jesus.

Why would they think that?

Anybody know?

There are a couple reasons.

Okay, a crown was given on to him.

Yeah, that's one reason.

So Jesus in Revelation chapter 19

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

is pictured riding a what?

A white horse and he's wearing what?

A crown.

And so people have said,

well, this is a reference to Jesus.

Jesus is the first horseman

and he goes forward into all the earth

conquering the unbelieving hearts of people

and he wins the victory, bringing many to salvation.

And then one other popular suggestion.

So there are three primary ones.

Some have suggested that the rider is the Antichrist

or some sort of satanic figure.

Because it makes sense if you think about

what the Antichrist does.

I mean, think about Revelation chapter 13

Revelation 13 · chapter mention

when it talks about the beast and the Antichrist.

One of his main purposes is to copy Jesus, right?

He tries to convince people that he actually is Jesus.

By the way, he acts and talks and the miracles that he does

even though he is a cheap counterfeit and we all know it.

And so the beast comes out, they say,

to conquer humans into following him,

to deceive people into thinking that he actually is

the real true Christ and conquer them

and leading them astray.

Okay, so we see that all of these, they have merit,

there's reasons for believing.

That's again, but I always tell you,

everybody has a reason for believing

the things they believe.

We need to acknowledge that and just interact with it.

So my question to you, who's the rider?

Which one do you think is correct?

That's a good point, yeah.

What do you need to carry a sword?

All right, Bobby, look, that's what I like.

Bobby says, I'll tell you what I think

and I don't care if anybody disagrees.

Bobby says it's the Antichrist, there you go, Bobby.

Anybody else?

Anybody else?

Somebody said the Antichrist.

It's a good point, it's a good point.

Gene, you have something?

So plain devil's advocate here.

The people who think that this is,

well, you didn't say who you think it is,

but the reference to the bow,

there is a Messianic Psalm, I believe it's Psalm eight,

that talks about the Messiah having a bow.

And Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter two,

tells us that Psalm is about Jesus.

And so they would say there is biblical warrant

to believe that Jesus has a bow.

And again, devil's advocate,

they would say that the following three horsemen

are the arrows to this bow,

that they are the metaphorical arrows

that are gonna cause the destruction

and bring him the conquest that he's on.

Again, I'm not saying whether I agree or disagree,

that's devil's advocate to explain the bow and the arrows.

So we've got two who are saying Antichrist.

Anybody wanna agree or disagree?

So the thing is we can't be dogmatic here

because the Bible doesn't identify as our resident theologian

pointed out, just as like,

we have to say who it is at all.

All right, you don't.

You focus on the effects of what's gonna happen,

but just to kind of pick some of this apart,

I don't think that it makes sense for it to be Jesus.

So one reason Ms. Vicki very wisely pointed out,

Jesus is the one opening the seals.

And one of the four living creatures coals

and a rider comes out.

So Jesus would have had to open

and then go and get on a horse and then come back,

but he's gonna continue opening seals

and the horses and the riders are gonna stay.

So it wouldn't make sense for Jesus to go back and forth.

I mean, that's just a logical thing, but you know,

it's worth noting.

The other thing worth noting as Gene pointed out,

is that this rider is holding a bow

and nowhere in scripture besides Psalm eight,

is so nowhere in Revelation.

Does Jesus ever have a bow all throughout Revelation?

He only has one weapon, which is a sword.

And you see the beginning of Revelation,

you see the end of Revelation.

And another thing worth mentioning,

I know this is just for nerds like me,

but it's really interesting when you look in the Greek,

it says that this rider is wearing a crown, right?

Okay, again, this is for nerds like me.

I don't think you care about this,

but I'm already gonna do it.

So the word crown used here in this verse,

if you're gonna write this down, verse two,

the Greek word for crown here is Stephanos, okay?

Now you're like, why is that important?

Why does it matter?

Well, because the other time in Revelation

where Jesus is depicted wearing a crown,

it's a different Greek word,

one that you already know,

that you didn't know that you knew that is a Greek word.

And it's the word diadem, which actually is a Greek word

for crown.

Here's the difference.

A Stephanos crown was a crown that you would typically win

if you were the victor of something.

So like if you're participating in games,

Olympic type sports, stuff like that,

if you had conquered another kingdom,

you would take their crown for yourself,

and it would be called a Stephanos because you have won it.

You were the victor in that, and so it is yours now.

A diadem is different.

It was a crown specifically for you

that you had the right to wear

because you are worthy to wear that crown.

And so is there something going on there?

I don't know, but I think it's worth noting

that the word used here for crown is different

than the one used for when Jesus is wearing a crown later

in the book of Revelation.

So all that to say, I really don't think

that it makes sense for Jesus to be this writer,

the first one.

I think it makes more sense

if it is some sort of anti-Christ figure

or some sort of satanic figure here.

And I think that it makes sense for that

because he comes out conquering,

and he's going to conquest.

He wants to overtake the nations.

And so I think it makes sense to say

that the first writer, the one on the white horse,

is some sort of satanic figure, some sort of anti-Christ

who is seeking to deceive the world

into believing that he is Jesus.

He's on a white horse.

He's wearing a crown like Jesus.

He's got a bow like the Messiah would have

according to Psalm 8.

All of these things are deceptive techniques

that are going to lead people to him.

And so he can conquer either by force or by manipulation.

I mean, there's a lot of ways to do it, but that's his goal.

And then you see the consequences

of that conquering in the next writer.

So look at verses three through four.

The Bible says,

and when he opened the second seal,

I heard the sound, or the second living creature say,

come, an out came another horse, bright red.

Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth

so that people would slay one another,

and he was given a great sword.

All right, so we have writer number two.

What color is the horse?

Bright red, you all failed miserably.

Bright red, what's the purpose of this writer?

Like, yeah, like Tommy Scher, that's right.

That's right, he comes to take peace.

And specifically, how does he do it?

With a sword, but what does he do?

Did you notice the effects there? Yeah,

he's putting man against man, right?

So, yeah, that's right, man versus man.

You can simplify it and call it war.

That's the purpose of this writer.

And obviously, I mean, you see that even in his horse, right?

Why is it bright red?

Bloodshed, yeah, that's the effect.

That's what's gonna happen.

The first writer comes out conquering,

and what's the effect that the second writer

is gonna take advantage of?

Bloodshed, there's gonna be mass bloodshed all over.

He takes peace from the earth,

and he sets man against man.

You have nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

Everybody is killing each other with deadly weapons.

This is what you expect when the horsemen come.

And then there's the third one.

Look at verses five through six.

When he opened the third seal,

I heard the third living creature say, come.

And I looked, and behold, a black horse.

And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.

And I heard what seemed to be a voice

in the midst of the four living creatures say,

a quart of wheat for a denarius,

and three quarts of barley for a denarius,

and do not harm the oil and the wine.

So this one's super easy, right?

What color is this horse?

Black, what's the purpose of this rider?

Okay, famine, anything else?

Man, Joseph, stop looking at my notes before.

Economic troubles, hardships, economic problems,

whatever you wanna call it.

That's part of what's going on here.

I mean, notice what he says,

these are gonna be famine, economic hardships.

So the conquest of the first horsemen

and the second horsemen, the bloodshed,

result in widespread economic hardship,

famine, and a scarcity of sustenance for people to eat.

So, I mean, think about it like this, right?

People in the first century,

we're talking about people in the first century here,

they would usually eat about one quart of wheat per day.

All right, everybody tracking?

One quart of wheat per day.

And the price of that wheat was one denarius, all right?

So one denarius, that was one day's wage.

You work for one day, you get one denarius.

And notice that is the price that is set here.

He says the price of the wheat is gonna be one denarius.

So notice what's happening here,

take a step back and think about this.

He's talking about people who are barely making it.

This is gonna be the reality of what's happening here.

You work one day, you make your day's wage,

and guess what, all the food that you need for that day,

you have to use all the money you made that day

to supply all the food that you need for that day.

But it goes even further, doesn't it?

Because that's how much one person ate.

Who was doing the main working during these times?

Who was going out working a job?

The man, thank you, Brian, and who was staying at home?

The women and children.

So if one man eats one quart of wheat a day,

and he can only afford one quart of wheat,

what's he gonna give his wife and kids?

I don't think they had corn back then over there.

The barley, yeah.

Oh, a quarter, a quarter, yeah.

So you would either have to try to divide up

all the quarter that you had into even more divisions

so that you're barely eating anything,

or you buy the cheaper grain, which was barley,

which you see he even addresses here.

They could buy barley for a different price,

and it would be cheaper.

So it wasn't as useful as wheat,

but it was more affordable

so you could actually, everybody could eat, you know,

which is great when everybody can eat.

Do what?

He can get three quarts of barley, that's right.

It's not as good, it's not as useful,

but at least everybody's eating.

But notice this picture here.

These people are living paycheck to paycheck,

and if they don't wanna use their entire paycheck

just to serve themselves and feed themselves,

they have to go and spend money on lesser goods

that's just barely gonna get anybody by.

And it's times of trouble, it's times of hardship.

It's people who are barely making it,

and they're struggling to survive

and provide for their most basic needs.

And so when you have conquest, when you have bloodshed,

when you have famine, when you have economic hardship,

what is all that resulting?

It starts with a D, death.

And that's where you get the last horseman.

Notice what it says in verses seven through eight.

And when you open the fourth seal,

I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say,

come, and I looked, and behold, a pale horse,

and its rider's name was death, and Hades followed him.

And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth

to kill with sword and with famine,

and with pestilence and with wild beasts of the earth.

So this is the fourth horseman, put him over here.

What color's the horse?

What color's the horse?

He's riding the green horse.

In the Greek, the word that's used here for pale

actually refers to a very pale green,

which fun fact was the exact same color they used

to describe a corpse.

That's what they said the color of a corpse was.

So it's no surprise that death comes riding in

on the color of death.

Yeah, not a ghost horse, a zombie horse, thank you, Nick.

All right, and what's the purpose of this rider?

It's very simple, it goes with his name, death.

To make sure I feel better, I'll put pale above green.

It's a pale green.

It looks like a corpse, right?

Zombie horse, as Nick said.

So death comes and death is followed by Hades.

Remember, Hades is not hell.

Hell is the final place of torment.

Hades is the place that the dead go to await

the final judgment.

Is there torment going on there?

You can ask the rich man in the story of rich man

and Lazarus because that's where Hades is mentioned

in the gospels, but I digress.

So Hades is basically following death.

What is death doing?

Death is going and conquering people, killing people,

and ushering them into the place where they will wait

the final judgment of God and be banished to hell forever.

And notice what's happening here.

You've got conquest, bloodshed, economic hardship, famine,

and death and Hades are given authority over a quarter

of the earth.

And I want you to notice the four ways

that this horseman brings death upon the earth.

I want you to notice them.

There's sword, famine, disease, and wild beasts.

Why is that significant?

If anybody gets this, I'll give you a Bible.

But why are these four things specific?

Like, why are they, what's important about these four?

Persecution of the early church, that's a big swing and a miss,

but good try, Joseph.

You're doing good.

All right, there's a reference.

Anybody know the reference?

Gene, you're about to say something.

Is there another prophet you want to reference?

I respect it.

All right, Ezekiel 1421.

This is what the Bible says.

For thus says the Lord God, how much more when I send upon

Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine,

wild beasts, pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast.

And so notice what this is saying,

that the four acts of judgment that God promised

upon his rebellious, disobedient people

are the same four acts of judgment

that the rider on the fourth horse brings when he comes

to the earth.

So here's my question.

I don't know how much time we have left.

Not a lot.

I'll watch those three minutes, but we'll see.

Most important question we'll ask tonight,

when did these four horsemen come?

When are they coming to the earth?

When does Jesus open the seals?

When does he break open the seals?

Because, yeah, you got it right.

When the seals are broken open, when he does that,

these horsemen are coming.

So when does that happen?

When are they coming?

All right, before we get there, this

was the same question the disciples asked Jesus

when he was at the Mount of Olives.

In Matthew 24 and verse 3, the disciples

say, tell us when these things will be

and what will be the sign of your coming

and of the end of the age.

And Jesus said this, and you will hear of wars

and rumors of wars.

See that you're not alarmed for this must take place,

but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation and kingdom

against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes

in various places.

All of these things are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Does it bring any clarity?

What do y'all think about that?

Those things that Jesus just listed,

they sound an awful lot like the things that

happened when the four horsemen come, right?

Nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom,

famines, earthquakes.

But the end is not yet.

It's the beginning of the birth pains of the end.

So it's the beginning, as you just said.

And Jesus said that these things mark the beginning of the end.

And revelation signifies that the coming of the horsemen

is the beginning of the end, since it's

the opening of the seals.

And once all the seals are opened and everything

takes place, that's when the end will come.

So with all that in mind, when do the horsemen come?

We do, don't we?

That's interesting.

So Ms. Vicki, if I understand you right,

your saying is, I don't know if it's definitive,

but I'm going to go with it and say it is.

Ms. Vicki is saying when Jesus resurrected and ascended

back into heaven, he then went and began to open the seals

and the four horsemen came then and have been active on the earth

ever since Jesus' ascension.

What do we think about that?

Joseph says yes.

It's high praise.

OK, yep.

Yeah?

Yeah, OK.

So actually, I believe that's the right answer, Ms. Vicki.

Yeah?

In various degrees, yes.

Yes.

Yes, you do see these things throughout ancient history,

but there's an intensification after Jesus' ascension,

because a lot of it is coming down on Christians

specifically.

The amount of Christian persecution and martyrdom

since his ascension and since the inception of the church,

we have been the recipients of this more so than any other group.

The Christians are the most persecuted group

throughout all of history since we've existed.

And so, yeah, Ms. Vicki had it right.

Since Jesus' ascension, these four horsemen

have been active on earth.

Because for instance, do we see the effects of these horsemen

today?

I mean, for instance, do you see wars and nations seeking

to conquer other nations?

All the time.

The latest one was Russia and Ukraine.

Next one will probably be China and Taiwan.

Who knows what North Korea is doing these days?

Can't trust them.

I mean, you don't know, right?

Nations are always conquering other nations.

What about do you see bloodshed in our world today?

Do we have peace in our world?

I mean, didn't the second rider come to take peace from us?

Do we have peace at all?

No, this whole country is going crazy.

Is it not?

You look at the riots and the looting and everything else,

there's no peace.

It's just bloodshed everywhere.

How about this?

Do you see economic hardships?

Do you see people working paycheck to paycheck just

to barely provide for themselves and have something to eat?

Oh, yeah, all the time.

Do you see death by weaponry, by starvation, by disease,

by people being killed by wild beasts?

Yeah, all the time.

I mean, you see these effects clearly.

And you don't need to necessarily think about this

as something that happens chronologically.

Like first, all of these things will happen.

Then all of these are simultaneously happening

at all times throughout human history.

So Jesus ascends, opens the seals,

the four horsemen are coming, and they are reeking havoc

on the earth.

So look, we can say more about this, probably, well, next week.

But here's what I want you to understand

is we just do a couple takeaways very quickly.

All of that's concerning, right?

It's not fun to come to church and find out

that these horsemen are here on earth now, right?

It's not what you wanted to hear.

Here's the good news.

God is sovereign over all that takes place.

That's what we need to understand.

Because did you notice it says to each one was given.

They don't just take authority.

They don't just have authority.

They were given authority by the one who has ultimate authority.

And when God says it's all done, stop what you're doing,

they're going to listen to him.

When one of the living creatures, that's right,

every knee will bow.

When the living creatures say, come forward, what do they do?

They come forward.

I mean, these are merely servants

who are enacting what they are supposed to do,

which is another concerning thing.

But I want you to understand this.

God's judgments often involve allowing sin to run its course.

That's hard for us to hear.

But it's true, is it not?

I mean, you read about this in Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

God says that after so much time where people are just

pleading with people and they just keep denying

and they want their sinful ways and their sinful desires,

what does God do?

The Bible says God eventually just gives them over

to their sinful desires.

And they suffer the consequences

of their own sinful choices.

Well, when human hearts affected by sin

choose to live according to the way of the beast

and the antichrist and the kingdom of Satan,

you expect to see all these things in our world, don't you?

That's not saying that God doesn't care.

It's not saying he's not involved.

But God often uses sin to allow it to run its course

as an act of his own judgment.

Another thing that I want you to understand,

another comfort for you is that God's mercy is always present.

Because did you notice the fourth creature,

the fourth rider on the horse, he only has authority

over a quarter of the earth, right?

And then even with the famine, God says, all right,

here's the price of wheat, here's the price of barley,

but don't touch the oil and the wine.

What are those?

Those are acts of God's mercy even in the midst of hardship.

So no matter how bad things get, you can understand and know

in your heart that God is still good and he is still merciful.

And the final thing I want you to just take away from this

is that this passage, it shakes our attachment

to false sources of security.

Does it not?

I mean, just think about it.

Right, I mean, look at how people put their trust

in things today.

People put their trust in a nation, right?

I love my country.

I trust in this nation.

No one can ever do anything to us because we're America.

And one day, that's going to bite us, isn't it?

Someone's going to come and overtake this nation just

like they have every other nation before us.

There is no hope in trust in this nation.

People put their trust in their jobs all the time, don't they?

And their financial status, and their money,

and their material good, and their health.

And this passage reminds us that all of those things

are not true securities at all.

You can't trust in them because each and every one

of those things is susceptible to the four horsemen.

Is it not?

The horsemen have the authority to take those things away.

So why would you put your trust in something so fleeting?

It's a way that this passage reminds us

that there is only one source of hope.

There's only one source of security.

There's only one thing that these horsemen can't touch,

and that is Jesus.

He is our one true hope and our only source of security.

And so listen, no matter what happens,

we must keep trusting in Jesus because He is good

and He will have the victory.

Even though they're scary and their effects are scary,

Jesus will have the victory.

And so we can trust in Him.

All right, Michael, you give us a word of wisdom.