"Revelation: The Seven Bowls" Pastor Nick Tawa August 16, 2026

Please stand if you are able for the reading of God's Word.

Today's scripture reading is from the book of Revelation, chapter 15, verses 1 through 4.

Revelation 15:1–4

You may close your eyes and listen, follow along in your own Bibles, or use the Pew Bibles.

Today's passage is found on page 1069.

Revelation 15, verses 1 through 4.

Revelation 15:1–4

Then I saw another sign in heaven.

Great and marvelous seven angels having the seven last plagues.

For in them the wrath of God is complete.

And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire.

And over those who have the victory over the beast, over the image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb sang, Great and marvelous are your works.

Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the saints.

Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Please be seated.

Thank you, Nancy.

The late Eugene Peterson, author and pastor, comments that the book of Revelation is a book primarily about worship, proper worship of that which is true and good and beautiful.

And on the flip side, worship that is misdirected, worship that has gone rotten, worship that has resulted in evil and oppression and suffering.

And the way that Eugene Peterson writes about the book of Revelation, he sees it as an invitation for God to shape the prayerful imagination of God's people in all cultures, in all generations.

And everybody in between, it's completely irrelevant.

And I find that really compelling, really interesting, that there's this invitation in these vivid images of judgment and God and heaven and earth that are meant to shape the way that we pray, shape the way that we understand God, the systems of government and economics in our world, and even the dynamics of sin and salvation within our own souls.

There's this invitation to see God differently, to have our prayerful imagination shaped and expanded.

And we see this here in Revelation chapter 15.

Revelation 15 · chapter mention

We're gonna be covering chapter 15 and 16 today.

I'm not gonna read every verse, but rather give us a framework for understanding sort of the whole of this book.

In this theme of worship, we see multiple dynamics throughout the book of Revelation.

On one hand, as I mentioned last week, this is a book written from the perspective of an oppressed, voiceless minority.

And this is a little bit hard for us to understand, I think, as Westerners, as perhaps Americans, where the way that our media feeds and our worldview are shaped, it's from a perspective of dominance.

It's from the perspective of those who have the military might to change the world, those who have the economic means to not just get by, but to live pretty luxurious lives.

And so it's hard for us to picture who are these early Christians with no political power, no voice, whose lives were often threatened without any hope of justice or salvation in their lifetime.

One of the commentators that I read and quoted from last week was that this is primarily a text of liberation from the perspective of an oppressed, insignificant religious minority speaking out in lament.

In Revelation chapter 5, there's this vision of the martyrs, or it's the same word for witnesses, who had been killed because of their faith in Jesus.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And they're under the altar calling out to God, how long?

How long, sovereign Lord, until you bring justice to our suffering, justice to our blood.

And this is part of the song.

This is part of the worship that we see throughout the book of Revelation.

But there are two sides to this song.

On one hand, there is this deep, painful lament.

God, where are you?

How long?

God, where is the justice?

Where are you in my suffering?

And then on the flip side, we read in Revelation chapter 15 this beautiful song.

Revelation 15 · chapter mention

And it's labeled the Song of God's servant Moses and the Lamb.

And this is really fascinating because this begins to draw on the rich history of these Jewish believers.

It goes all the way back to Moses and God's liberation in delivering his people out of slavery in Egypt, giving them a new identity, a new way of life, a new way of worship, and then setting them free on their journey.

If I had a little bit more foresight, I wouldn't call this message the seven bulls or the wrath of God.

This would be called the new exodus.

And the question that I would ask, the question that I would ask us to sit with, invite us into, is what is Jesus doing to liberate you, to give you a life of greater freedom?

And perhaps the question behind the question there is what holds you captive?

What keeps you from living the abundant life that Jesus came to proclaim?

What is your prison?

And what might Jesus have to say about that?

So I want to start at the beginning of the chapter.

We're going to kind of look at the first four verses.

So this is verse one.

And again, this is John in exile, seeing and hearing and experiencing these things from God that speak of another world.

And he's describing what he can.

I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign.

Seven angels with the seven last plagues.

Last, because with them God's wrath is completed.

So we begin to see here this completion.

Remember, on the cross, Jesus hung, he said, it is finished.

There's something about God's wrath that has an end.

It's not something that goes on necessarily forever and ever.

God is not primarily about vengeance, but as the Hebrew prophets speak, every judgment has a restoration.

God is not presented as this God who just likes to punish because he enjoys seeing people suffer.

Rather, his wrath is an expression of his love, and it's a means to an end, and that end is restoration.

That's why when we get there and we look at Revelation chapter 21 and 22, there's this elaborate picture of the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, with Jesus reigning, and all of the nations gathered to worship God.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

And so there's beauty in this imagery of an end, a completion to God's wrath.

Verse 2.

And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire, and standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image, and over the number of its name.

So we talked about this a few weeks ago.

That there's a good chance that the imagery of the beast, or the dragon and the land beast and the sea beast, this unholy trinity, and this number of 666, that is not necessarily meant to be this superstitious number that we avoid at all costs, but rather it represents the number of man.

When humanity is at its worst, when there are systems of oppression and manipulation built on greed and lust and self-worship, that is the mark of the beast.

And it's described as a beast because there is something about the horrific, tragic consequences of human empire that we see cycle over and over throughout human history.

One of the luxuries that we have living in the 21st century is that we have centuries upon centuries of history.

Not just in Western history, but Eastern history, African history, Asian history, South American history.

And the sad thing, almost the comical thing, is that these cycles repeat themselves.

Those with power rise to power oftentimes at the expense of those who are weak and voiceless.

And over time these empires implode on themselves.

And I talked about this briefly last week, that this too is a sign of God's judgment, God's justice.

That God allows certain human behaviors to implode in on itself.

And that's an act of judgment.

And we see this over and over again.

And in many ways, this this beasts, this these manifestations of this beast, they're bigger and they're scarier than any monster out of a horror movie.

You can take down a Godzilla, but what do you do with an entire movement or institution?

And I think this is what John is speaking of.

But in the midst of the defeat of this beast, there's this image.

It says they held harps given them by God and sang the song of God's servant Moses and of the Lamb.

I think in Western societies there's this cliche of harps.

Like we don't really play harps anymore.

So there's kind of this, you look at Looney Tunes, cartoons, or portrayals of heaven in the media, and it's people playing harps.

Whether you're playing the guitar or a harp or listen to it to a beautiful voice, there's something from God about music.

And this is me as a non-musical, tone-deaf person.

And I'm going to that meeting today, by the way, because I do want to contribute to the new song that I think God is building here.

It's both figurative and it's literal.

There's a song to be sung here today.

And like I said, this draws on Israel's rich history as a people, as a nation, rescued out of slavery, given the name and the blessing of God, and then set out to be a light to the nations.

At least that was God's original intent.

And so when we look at this song, it draws from Deuteronomy chapter 32, where Moses is about to lead his people across the Jordan River into the promised land after 40 years of wandering around in the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

It also echoes Exodus chapter 15, right when Israel is about to begin their journey in the wilderness, right after God rescues them from slavery.

Exodus 15 · chapter mention

It also draws directly from the Psalms and from the prophet Jeremiah into this beautiful psalm that is speaking to these Jewish believers under the oppression of the Roman Empire.

And so listen to these words.

Just and true are your ways, King of the nations.

So this is subversive language.

In Rome, there was no ultimate God.

Ultimate God was Caesar.

And there were images engraved in buildings and on coins that you were expected to bow down to, to worship, to trade with if you were to buy and sell in that economy.

To say that there is this God who reigns not over just Israel, but over the nations?

Oh, that would get you in trouble.

That is subversive political language.

Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

And again, this is ancient language drawn from the Psalms and the Hebrew prophets, written hundreds of years before John.

And it's coming to fruition here in the first century.

And I think the message is the same for us today in the 21st century.

What are the systems of human oppression?

Where have we misdirected our worship?

What grabs our attention, our energy, our money, our screen time?

What captures our hearts?

And where is perhaps God calling us to not something less than or boring, but rather something transcendent.

As if God is saying, you're missing the point.

There's something so much more beautiful, so much more real, so much more vibrant that you are missing because your worship is misdirected.

And then what John goes on to describe as he sees it is this imagery of seven bowls of God's wrath.

And so obviously, this is symbolic.

Imagine God with seven bowls, and it gets poured out on the land, on the sea, on the rivers, and the water supply, and they represent God's total and complete destruction upon the oppressive systems of human government, human oppression, and ultimately sin and evil.

And what's going on is that these seven plagues mirror the ten plagues of Egypt.

And this is the last of three series of seven judgments.

So first there were the seals, and then the trumpets, and then the bowls.

And what's unique about the bowls is that there is a finality to these judgments.

If you remember, there was something really horrific about the trumpets, because the imagery is a third of the earth is going to be destroyed, a third of the forests will be burned, a third of the water supply is going to be tainted, a third of the population killed.

And I think we read that, we think, wow, how terrible, how horrific.

But this is in the same vein as the plagues of Egypt, where each plague was meant to represent an opportunity for repentance, an opportunity for people to change their minds, to see the one true God, and then to follow and worship him.

So there is mercy built into these progressive images of God's wrath and God's judgment.

And so the terrifying thing here, when it comes to these bowls of wrath, is that's it.

It's complete, it's total.

Repentance has come and gone.

This is where God finally deals with evil.

And ultimately, this is God's answer to this human question over the generations, over the centuries.

How long, O Lord?

How long will you allow us to suffer?

How long will you allow evil to triumph?

How long will you allow arrogant, selfish, evil men to gloat over those that they are oppressing?

How long, O Lord?

This is God's answer.

In his divine sovereignty, as he brings together in this cosmic complexity his justice.

And we don't know what that looks like.

We don't know how that will work.

There's an intricacy to the way that God works in the world.

God is perfect judge.

What does that look like?

And this is what we are invited to consider in this imagery of the seven plagues.

And so I won't cover every plague.

If we can go to the next slide.

So this is uh chapter 16, verse 2.

It says, the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land.

So this is the first of the seven bulls.

An ugly festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped its image.

Um I think I put this on a slide because it resonates with me.

When I was a kid, I had um really bad eczema.

And actually they didn't know it was eczema because it um it didn't manifest itself like it normally does, but it it impacted my hands, my arms, my my feet.

It made it really hard to walk because I have these continuous open sores.

I remember being in high school when I was playing water polo, and it was really embarrassing because every time I had to change and take off my socks, my socks were uh soaked in in blood and and pus, and it was painful to kind of get into the chlorine.

Um and so, and that was kind of one of my childlike prayers of like, God, would you heal my skin?

Like this is this is this just sucks.

Um so when I read about sores in the Bible, I know it's not about me, and I know it's not talking about um forms of eczema.

Um but in the ancient world, this represented not just pain, but it represented isolation from society, because it often meant that you were contagious, that you were unclean, um, and that in many ways the suffering was a result of your sin.

You were at fault.

God's judgment was upon you.

Um so this is the first image.

Um I think I think about that too in my own personal devotions.

I'm reading through the book of Job, uh, just because it's on my reading plan, and it's it's just going through that part where Job is struck by these debilitating sores all over his body, picking his scabs and wounds and lamenting.

Um, anyways, um I digress.

Uh, we can go to the next slide.

So this sums up the seven plagues, and the idea is the same.

It draws from a particular plague uh in Egypt, but sort of adapted with artistic license for John's context.

And one of the ones that I find really interesting, um let me fly this again.

So the sixth plague.

I'm gonna read the imagery, just uh I won't unpack all of it.

This is uh chapter 16, verse 12.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates.

So this is uh in many ways a center of civilization.

Uh, this has this long history of.

Babylon and exile and the powers of oppressive human systems.

And its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east.

Then I saw three impure spirits that look like frogs that came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

They are demonic spirits that perform signs.

And they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

So it's like, what the heck is going on here?

But commentators point out that in the ancient world, imagery of frogs represented all that was vile and evil and detestable.

And I thought that was really interesting because that's something that kind of permeates into Western culture as well.

It's frogs are one of those animals that are relatively benign, they're pretty neutral, they're kind of interesting, amphibious creatures.

At the same time, there's this cultural association with frogs as being like, ew, it's a sign of the curse.

They're ugly, they contain diseases, they're demonic.

And this is what John is speaking into: that there's something demonic, there's something behind the scenes that evil does in people, in government, in rulers, that infects humanity.

And this is what God is judging.

Verse 17, so this is the last plague.

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, It is done.

It is done.

I love this again.

There's this completion of God's wrath.

It's not I will punish you forever and ever because I am a God of vengeance, but rather I am a God of love and holiness.

And I will bring together all of the loose ends of injustice in ways that you can't even imagine.

But there is a point when God will say, it is done.

I think about Jesus on the cross saying, it is Finnish.

In Greek, it's tetelestime.

It's a financial term meaning paid in full.

And it speaks to this image of God redeeming or ransoming his people, pulling them out of slavery and setting them free.

And so we're invited as we make this connection between Moses, the song of the slain lamb, so that's Jesus as a centerpiece of this worship, of this meditation, and this imagery of the Exodus.

It's really fascinating when we look at the life of Jesus.

In many ways, it mirrors the ministry of Moses and the progression of God's people from slavery to the promised land, or we call it the new creation.

When Jesus was born, he spent time in Egypt as a refugee.

His parents fled there because God said, You need to flee because Herod wants your head.

And so out of Egypt comes God's son, comes Israel.

Before Jesus starts his ministry, he spends 40 days in the wilderness, fasting, praying, and doing battle with Satan.

Very similar to the 40 years in the wilderness that Israel spent.

And then Jesus begins his ministry by being baptized by his cousin John the Baptizer in the Jordan River, where before he does anything, before he performs a miracle, before he teaches a sermon, God's blessing is poured out on him.

He hears his voice from heaven, this is my beloved son, whom I love.

Listen to him.

Jesus has given this grace, given this authority.

And as he's baptized, he opens up this new journey of ministry, of new life, of identity.

I think it's really fascinating that when the people of Israel cross through the waters of the Jordan, Moses as the old leader is left behind.

Joshua is tasked with leading them into the promised land.

In the Hebrew, Joshua and Jesus are the same name.

So the Hebrew believers of the first century would instantly recognize Jesus as the new Joshua.

The people of Israel receive the law of God, the Torah of God, the holy instruction of God.

This is what it means to live as free people.

It was a gift.

On Mount Sinai.

In the same way, Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God on the Sermon on the Mount.

He stands up and speaks with an authority that the people had never seen before.

And he begins to dig deeper into Torah.

And says, You have heard that it was said, but I tell you something deeper, something richer, something more beautiful, more subversive.

There's something to the way of Jesus that continues to speak to us today.

And Jesus eventually lives a life representative of this new humanity.

And he invites people.

He says, follow me.

Follow me.

Let me show you a new way to be human.

And then when he is finally confronted by the powers of his day, those with the money, the military might, the political power, come to confront him, he doesn't raise up an army, doesn't raise funds and create this political party to battle them.

Doesn't start training in the wilderness with weapons.

He willingly gives his life out of love for those that are seeking to kill him.

And in that, he conquers death, is raised to new life, and then invites his followers into the same path.

Through the path of suffering and death and resurrection.

And this is the path that the followers of Jesus continue to model into the first century and the second century and the third century.

This is what Pastor John of Patmos is speaking into.

There is a way of witnessing, a way of martyrdom.

It's the same word in the Greek.

That begs this question.

The whole drama of the book of Revelation is this: Will the people of God remain faithful?

Can they follow the slain lamb even into death, into the new creation?

Will they be faithful?

And this is the thread that we see throughout the book of Revelation.

Will the holy people of God remain holy?

Will they continue to be faithful?

And this is something that resonates deeply with us today in the same way that it resonated deeply with the first century believers.

It's a question.

And it cuts to the very core of the gospel of Jesus.

What does it mean to be faithful?

That your lives would speak of this slain lamb?

That our lives would speak of the goodness and the gospel of God's kingdom here with us.

I contemplated kind of thinking about what this means for our context.

And I think about this one particular story that is kind of in and out of the news headlines that quite frankly creeps me out.

And so there's something in her that, like, I don't want to, I don't want to talk about that.

But I'm gonna do it anyways.

Um I think about Jeffrey Epstein and that whole saga of this uh offended uh convicted sex criminal.

And on one hand, it's really easy to just be like, that is so disgusting.

And I hope he rots in hell forever.

Whether or not I like what is hell, or like what does that mean?

But I think there's this meditation in the whole saga, in everything that is ugly and disturbing.

Some would say, or ask, is death enough?

The fact that he died in jail, never faced trial, is that justice?

And there's something in the human heart that would say, I don't think so.

Think about the harm that he caused, the lives that he ruined.

Where is the justice, O God?

How long, O Lord?

But what gets even more troubling is that when you look at the circle around Jeffrey Epstein, the men with power, the women who are complicit, it gets even more disturbing because it makes us wonder so much of what we look to for leadership, for power, perhaps even what is good, is in many ways wrapped up with this.

And that's, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but that's kind of where a lot of the conversations go of like, what are people hiding?

How many people will this expose?

And yes, there is a part of me that looks at this and thinks, like, expose it all! Like, why not?

Clean house.

But as I sit with this and as I listen to these stories, watch the documentaries, there's just this little bit of, well, what if I had unlimited money, no moral accountability, and I could do whatever I wanted to.

There's no God, there's no moral code.

It's all about me.

What I want, what makes me feel good, what I can get away with.

In many ways, that is the mantra of American culture.

That's the messages that we're told since we are young.

You do you.

You find your path.

Does it serve your needs?

You are the God of your story.

And I just wonder, and thank God I don't have unlimited money, and that I don't have an unlimited sort of non-accountability.

But there is this admission in the depths of my soul that, wow, what would my life look like if no one was watching?

If in my world God didn't exist and I could do whatever I want.

And there is this deeper meditation of when you look at the concentric circles, I would say, of evil surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, eventually it gets to me.

I stand before God, and there's this admission of I am an unholy person, unclean lips, unclean hands, as the prophet Isaiah says.

I think about Jesus' words where it says, if anyone, every man looks lustfully at a woman, he has committed adultery with her in his heart.

And I think that's like every day.

That's like everything on the media, on my phone, on the billboards, in our souls.

There's this question, like, well then who is blameless?

That God, if you cleaned house, who can stand?

It's the same imagery of Noah.

And it's scary and it's it's terrifying.

But God knows all of this.

And as I walk through this meditation, I am led down the same path where I am invited to confess, to repent, to ask Jesus for forgiveness, to follow him to the cross, and to trust that his sacrifice on the cross is more than enough.

That he has paid my ransom, that he knows my name, and that he is leading me home.

And that is the beauty of the gospel, that is the beauty of the book of Revelation, that we are invited to follow the Lamb home.

I want to end with this.

In chapter 16 of Revelation, verse 15, we hear this.

It says, Look, I come like a thief.

Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed so as to not go naked and be shamefully exposed.

Here's another example of symbolism.

Jesus is not a thief.

He comes like a thief.

He's not coming to steal something, he's not sneaky, he's not the trickster of ancient literature.

It's this one comparison.

Like a thief who comes when you don't expect him, so Jesus will return.

And so the invitation is be ready.

Simply be ready, be alert.

As if God is with you today.

As if Jesus could come back tomorrow.

And so there is this urgency for every generation, every human life, to live life expectantly.

I find this imagery really interesting.

One commentator I read is that in the ancient world, in the summer, it was so hot and there was no AC, much like here, many people slept naked.

It was just normal.

It's what made sense.

It's not, you can just turn on the air conditioning.

It was like, well, if you're hot, then you shed clothing.

But for first century Jews, nakedness was considered extremely shameful.

In part, it was why the Olympic Games, which were run, where athletes competed naked, were considered idolatrous.

Like, why would we go to these games?

It's filled with literal shame.

And so for a first century Jew, the idea of being caught naked, a thief coming in the night while you're sleeping naked because it's hot outside and I don't have AC, is shameful.

And so the warning here is live your life as if Jesus can come back tonight.

Is there anything that is embarrassing or shameful?

Bring it before God.

Confess that.

Receive the free gift of forgiveness.

Be reconciled to God now.

There is this beautiful invitation and this constant urgency to our existence.

So be ready.

Be ready.

Alright, I'm going to call Kevin back up as we close in prayer.

I want to close going back to the Psalms.

We think about the song of Moses and of the slain lamb.

There's this joyful, hopeful, yet longing lament that God would reign, that justice would flow over us, flow over the Lamb.

So would you close your eyes as I read from Psalm 98?

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.

His right hand and his only arm have worked salvation for him.

The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Shout for joy to the Lord.

All the earth burst into jubilant song with music.

Make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn.

Shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy.

Let them sing before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.