Heaven's Silence: A Demonstration of God's Steadfast Love - Glorious Hope | Studies in Revelation

I wonder how much you value silence.

For some, the idea of quietness in your homes is bliss,

while for others it is frightening.

There are people who always have to have a TV or radio on, and

then there are those who simply turn everything off and have

no noise whatsoever.

There are those of us who need some sort of noise, be it music or

the radio or some other sound to help us fall asleep, while others

can't sleep if there's any noise whatsoever.

And when it comes to valuing silence, we will each view it in

different ways, with some of us loving it and others fearing it.

And as I've been thinking about what Revelation 8 says about

the silence in heaven, for 30 minutes or for about half an hour,

I couldn't get out of my head a song that I remember it was written

a long time before I was born, but it must have had a bit of a resurgence

in the late 90s, because then I remembered it.

In 1964, Simon and Garfunkel released their song Sound of Silence.

Now, it's a song with a haunting melody and focuses on the

alienation, failed communication and the spiritual emptiness

in modern society.

And that's from 1964.

So think back.

Think back to the 60s and to the 70s and to the cultural, or the

supposed cultural revolution that there was.

Well, what was the anthem of that cultural revolution?

It was the sound of silence, where society thought it was charting

its own path.

It was doing away with what it saw as the shackles of institutionalized

religion and as society embraced its brave new world.

It was a silent world because there was greater alienation.

People simply weren't talking to each other and there was a spiritual

emptiness.

Fast forward 50 years and is it any different?

This song was number one in America, Japan and South Africa,

countries all facing some sort of standing on the brink of a change

and shift in society.

In the UK it only managed to reach number 13.

So I don't know if that says anything about us here, but it was

a sombre look at society then.

And it is a commentary on the digital age that we live now.

Because can't we too be like the culture of the 60s and 70s to

get lost in our own thoughts, to not engage with those around us

and simply get sucked into a six inch screen in our hand that

all we have to do is look at it because it moves on itself for

us.

We don't even quite literally have to lift a finger.

Now, whenever you think of that, and I would encourage you to

look at those words of that song, the sound of Silence, because

it really is very telling of the silence society feels and how

damaging that silence is.

But how different is that from walking into a concert hall that

maybe seats a couple of thousand people and, you know, the

chitter chatter, and maybe you hear the orchestra tuning up, be

it a pantomime or be it a concert or be it something else.

You get that sense of expectation.

But there's an even greater moment, probably only 10 or 20 seconds,

where there is complete silence.

The orchestra falls silent, the lights go dim, and as the audience,

you have anticipation of the curtain being pulled back so that

whatever you have come to see can begin, that you may enjoy it

and you're with others who will enjoy it too.

See, silence can be something that's full of fear, but silence

can be a wonderful anticipation of what's to come.

And as we begin chapter eight of Revelation, we see in heaven once

again as a curtain is pulled back, and that curtain is pulled

back further for us to see a scene of silence as the seventh seal

is opened.

Now, the seven seals were introduced to us in chapter six,

with six of them being opened in that chapter.

And by way of reminder, here's a table that I showed a few weeks

ago that helps us see what these seals are.

Seal one was a white horse that spoke of war and Dominion.

Seal 2 was a red horse talking of strife.

Seal 3 was a black horse of famine.

Seal 4, a pale horse of rampant death.

So that was the catastrophe or the tribulation that was going to

come on the earth.

Seal five was the souls of the martyrs where we hear their cry for

justice and their call for patience.

And that's what we're going to see again in chapter eight in these

verses.

Then seal six was the final earthquake where the present creation

comes to an end.

And so what these seals did as they were opened, they give us an

insight into what these last days are.

Because in these last days since Jesus, we have seen war and

dominion as empires have risen and fallen.

We have seen strife, we've seen conflict, we've seen famine,

and we've seen rampant death.

And is there a cry from the souls of the martyrs?

Well, there's certainly a cry from the persecuted church that is

facing martyrdom because of their faith.

A cry for justice of how long, O Lord.

That is a cry that echoes today in the real voices from the

real lives of God's people who are suffering for their faith and

what will become.

Well, the present creation comes to an end to usher in the new

heaven and the new earth that indeed God's people, as we saw last

week, who are sealed by the name of Christ, will enter in and

know joy.

And chapter seven was that interruption in the opening of these

seals.

We ended with Seal 6 and that earthquake and that judgment of the

Lord.

And then there was a pause so that we could see what did the judgment

usher in.

And it ushered us into the throne room of God with 144,000 there

from all nations, tribes and tongues, bringing together the church

of the Old Testament and the church in the New Testament, while

presenting a number of infinite value of 10 by 10, 10 by

10.

And verse nine of chapter seven confirmed that this indeed

was a great multitude, not 144,000 literally, because we're

then told that it was a multitude that no one could count,

so there's no number on it.

And after this, says John, I looked and behold a great multitude

that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and

peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before

the Lamb, clothed in white robes with with palm branches in

their hands.

And so from our perspective, it appears that heaven is filled

with the redeemed, those who have the mark of Christ on them.

And as chapter seven concluded, we heard the praise of

heaven and the joy of being in the presence of God.

But John looks now and he sees the seventh seal opened by the Lamb.

And he describes it like this in verse one of chapter eight.

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in

heaven for about half an hour.

As the Lamb opens the last seal, there is immediate silence

in heaven.

And our human minds perhaps can't comprehend how this praise

that we've seen in chapter seven of all nations, tribes and

tongues could instantly becomes silent.

Yet it does.

And so we have to ask ourselves, what is this silence for?

Well, in the Old Testament, we see silence before God acts in judgment.

For example, In Habakkuk chapter 2, in verse 20, the minor

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

prophet as the people are being judged for their worship of

false idols, the Lord says through his prophet, but the Lord

in his holy temple.

But the Lord is in his holy temple.

Let all the earth keep silent before him as they await his judgment

on them for their false worship.

And in Zephaniah, another Minor Prophet, chapter 1, verse 7,

Zephaniah warns the people that the day of the Lord is near,

and that is a day of judgment.

As he says, be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the

Lord is near.

The Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.

The only way that a sacrifice and consecration of guests can happen

is by judgment.

And so in the Old Testament, again, nothing new in revelation,

we look back in scripture for what God has already told us.

So how we understand the importance of this silence is there

is judgment about to happen.

And American commentators have described this silence to the kind

of eerie silence that is felt in the natural world before a tornado

suddenly strikes.

And I was trying to think of something that's similar to us, and

I haven't really got a good one for you.

So that's why I use the idea of a tornado.

But it might be for us.

And I've experienced this here in Anna Long.

And it was once or twice during COVID and it's been once or

twice since, where we just have an unusual moment where, as

the evening falls, there is silence as we stand outside, no wind,

no sound of traffic, no bird song, no noise.

We might think that that's a nice feeling, but that's not how

the natural world should work.

And so it becomes a moment that we don't know what's about to

happen next.

And we do wonder what is going to happen.

And we wonder if it's for our good or for our ill, just as our

American brothers and sisters would wait for a tornado to come,

not knowing what disaster it will bring.

And this silence, John tells us, goes on for about half an hour.

Now, whether this is a literal half hour, as some believe, or a

symbolic period of time, the meaning is the same.

Think back to Revelation, chapter 6 and verses 9 to 11, where

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

the martyrs were crying out when the fifth seal was opened.

They cried out with a loud voice, o sovereign Lord, holy and

true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those

who dwell on the earth?

Their prayer was opened or was answered in the opening of the sixth

seal, as judgment was brought upon the earth.

Now, with the seven sealed open, the silence in heaven and the

seven trumpets that we're about to hear, this is all a pause

that allows for the character of God to be seen.

So in this silence, all attention is on God and who he is.

Because we know throughout Scripture that the Lord is gracious

and merciful.

Passages such as Psalm 103.

8 Tell us the Lord is merciful and gracious.

What is he?

He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

And so as the cry, as we'll see in a moment, as the cry of the

martyrs continues to go up before the Lord, well, he's slow

to anger.

He's slow to bring that judgment.

So that indeed the prayers of the martyrs will be Heard and answered.

And so this half hour is to focus us on who the nature of what

the nature of God is.

The Lord is merciful and he's gracious.

He's slow to anger.

And why is he slow to anger?

So that he may demonstrate his abundance of steadfast love.

And we see this demonstrated as the Lord waits for about half

an hour, as he waits to hear and to answer the prayers of the

saints.

But this is also a liturgical moment.

And a liturgical moment is where the people come together in

worship and of God, because we now see this as unfolding as the

silence comes to an end.

So this silence is about preparation of the gathered multitude

in heaven.

In verse two, John sees seven angels standing in God's presence.

Now, seven angels are mentioned quite often in Revelation.

And as God's servants, they execute his will.

So what God says they, they will do.

And we've already seen that.

Remember last week we saw the four angels holding back the winds

of judgment on the earth, again, buying time that God is slow

to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

So now these angels are given seven trumpets.

And when these trumpets are blown, the trumpets of judgment will

be inflicted on the earth.

And we'll come to look at that.

But that's not where we are this evening.

And the blowing of trumpets is often a call to war and judgment

in the Old Testament.

And here the trumpets signify God's judgment, just as the trumpets

blown at Jericho herald the fall of that great city in Joshua

6.

And so there's expectation building, there's silence in anticipation.

The people, the multitude knowing what trumpets signify, see

them being given to these seven angels.

And now the scene is set.

But there's one more act of worship to be undertaken by the great

multitude in heaven.

And so in verses three and four, we read of that moment as heaven

gets ready for the worship of God.

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden

censer.

And he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all

the saints on the golden altar before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose

before God from the hand of the angel.

What we see in these two verses is rich imagery of the tabernacle

and of the temple.

What we're seeing here are the instruments and the practice of how

God told his people to worship.

And they are now before him.

And so this image of tabernacle and temple in Jerusalem

tells us that the people would gather there to be led in worship

by the high Priest.

And who now is their true high priest?

Well, it is the risen Lord Jesus.

And so the angel that now appears before John plays a role

in bringing the prayers of the saints before God.

As part of this act of worship, the altar of incense was

in the holy place.

In the Old Testament tabernacle and temple, on the day

of atonement, a censer of incense was brought inside the veil,

and the incense cloud covered the mercy seat so that judgment would

be avoided.

And from what he sees, John tells us that the incense here is

offered with the prayers of the saints on the altar before God's

throne.

I don't know if you've ever smelt incense.

We don't use it that much, but our noses are pretty good.

For most of us, we can smell things and pick up things that are

unusual to us.

And so maybe it's a perfume that you smell.

And sometimes, hopefully, most of the time, a perfume that we smell

will be pleasing.

And whenever we look at incense in the Old Testament, that's

what incense was to be before the Lord, just as the smell of the

sacrifices were to be pleasing before the Lord.

A sweet aroma that would be received by God and would be a blessing

to him as a demonstration of the hearts of his people.

And so here we have incense going up in this liturgical moment

of worship in heaven.

And this smell, this incense, are the prayers of the saints.

And verse five tells us what the angel does.

Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the

altar and threw it on the earth.

And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning,

and an earthquake.

And so, in response to the prayers of believers, the angel takes

the censer from the altar of incense, fills it with fire from

the altar, and he throws those coals on the earth.

And the imagery given to us here is.

It's apocalyptic.

It's end times.

And so the fire that the angel flings represents God's judgment

of the wicked.

And we see similar judgment scenes in Ezekiel, where the man

in linen is instructed in Ezekiel 10:2, go in among the whirling

Ezekiel 10:2

wheels underneath the cherubim.

Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim and

scatter them up over the city.

See here too, in Revelation, the judgments poured out in the trumpets

represent answers to the prayers of the saints.

Their prayer for how long is now being answered.

Their prayers for God's kingdom to come.

They've been urgently praying that they would be taken from whatever

persecution they were facing.

Their prayers that indeed his kingdom would come and his will be

done.

And so the coming judgments as a result of the prayers of the saints

are previewed with a massive thunderstorm and earthquake.

And in Revelation again, a thunderstorm or earthquake regularly

signals that the final judgment is coming and shows that

the judgment comes from God's throne.

So, five verses only.

Yet they are setting what is an apocalyptic scene for the seven

trumpets to be sounded and judgments coming on the earth.

And what we're seeing here, though seeing not just the anticipation,

but what it means for us today, is that in the anticipations

of the silence, we see the steadfast grace and mercy of God

as we see that the prayers of the saints are heard and answered.

And so it must beg of us the question, as the saints today, how

do we pray before God?

If this is the image that's given to us in heaven of the prayers

of the saints, well then how do we pray?

The commentator Richard D. Phillips says this about our prayer.

Christians are encouraged in the Bible to pray for our own needs

and for those of friends and neighbors.

And of course that's rightly so, but the priority of our prayer

lives should be given to the spread of the Gospel, the preservation

and strength of the church, the ministry of God's Word, and the

thwarting of godless and wicked powers in the world.

So according to Revelation, these are the prayers that matter

the most, the prayers that God will answer with power from heaven

at the time of his choosing, and the prayers that we should be

most privileged to offer in in Christ's name.

You see, I think we get the praying for ourselves and the praying

for others.

I think we're very good at that.

And there's certainly nothing to say that we should stop doing

that because we bring our cares and our concerns onto the Lord.

But the question is, what are we leaving out from our prayer lives?

You see, the prayers of the saints were not for what we would

pray, as we know in our day to day lives.

And for others, they were praying with boldness.

They were praying for the word of God to go forth.

But they were also praying for the thwarting of godless and wicked

powers in the world.

It may often seem though, as we pray, that our prayers are not

being answered, that they're offered in some way in vain.

But these verses that we read here in Revelation assure us that

God hears the prayers of the saints.

And all through history, God's people have prayed for his kingdom

to come and his will be done.

Every prayer for the coming kingdom will certainly be answered.

The prayers for justice voiced by martyrs are not ignored.

Justice will be released.

The new creation will arrive, and the wicked will be judged.

Our prayers make a difference.

They are one of the means that God has ordained to accomplish his

purposes.

And so we must not lose heart or ever think our prayers for goodness

to prevail are ignored.

They are not.

Instead, we must continue to pray to our wise and our sovereign

God.

Our prayers will be answered at just the right time.

Time.

And John, in presenting these five verses to us, already knew this.

Because before his vision in Revelation, he says to us in First

John 5, 14, 15, this is the confidence that we have toward him,

that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that

we have the requests that we have asked Him.

John is simply seeing what he already knows and what he has already

written in his letters.

And this is our reminder.

In fact, it's more than a reminder.

It's a call to prayer.

It's a call to pray, yes, for the situations we face in life and

praying for and on behalf of others who need the Lord.

And that demonstrates our utter need of him, that there are

things in our lives that we cannot answer or fix ourselves.

But we must also pray as Richard Phillips guides us, but as

Scripture guides us, as we see in Revelation the prayers of the

saints and the martyrs of the spread of the Gospel for the preservation

and strength of the Church, the ministry of God's Word, and the

thwarting of Godless and wicked powers in the world.

Let me remind you what I said this morning about the burden on

my heart.

Because these words that Richard Phillips has said is the

burden of my heart.

That indeed the Church would be kept, that we would not slip and

fall away into sin or have dullness of heart towards the Lord.

Because when that happens, then Satan makes shipwreck of our

faith.

This is truly a battle of forces of a spiritual nature.

And we need to realize that, for the devil is at work, but he

will not succeed.

And so we must trust.

And even if it does not seem that our prayers are being answered,

we continue to trust.

For this passage assures us that the Lord hears.

So Revelation 8 is about the silence in heaven.

The silence in heaven is much like silence on earth.

We will either enjoy it or we will fear it.

To enjoy it means that we understand that God is slow to anger

and abounding in steadfast love so that we can come to him in

prayer with all that we need.

And so I invite you this week to pray for these things.

I invite you to join us in prayer whenever we gather, be it

on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening upstairs in the Cunningham

Room, or at midweek, on a Wednesday evening when midweek meets,

or on those two Tuesday mornings in the month when we do

pray for the advancement of God's word, where we do pray for

gospel work.

I invite you to make the time to come and pray, because those prayers

will be heard and they will be answered.

That's what it means to enjoy the silence as we wait with eager

expectation of the day when God will answer the prayers fully

of the saints in bringing about his judgment on the wicked

and redeeming his own who are sealed with the mark of Christ.

But to fear the silence means that we receive the judgment that

we deserve.

It's not eager anticipation or expectation.

It's dreaded fear in those moments of silence.

Because it means that if we do not know Christ when those seven

trumpets will sound, we will receive the judgment we deserve.

Our only opportunity, our only hope for salvation is to lean into

the steadfast love of God and know our salvation in the Lamb, the

risen Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was slain for us, who was

and who is and who is to come.

You see, when we look at the great throne room of heaven and we

see God on His throne, we look to the Lamb and we are assured of

that great hope, that great hope of salvation, that great hope

of knowing him as Savior and Lord of all.

And so there is a way to drive out that fear that the silence may

bring.

And it is, look to Christ and to him alone.

So look onto Jesus.

Take joy in him as the One whose name we confidently come in

prayer, knowing that our prayers will be heard and they will

be answered, and the redeemed of God will be forever with him.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, thank you for what we learn in your word.

Thank you for what it shows us of what you have for us.

Thank you that you're the God who is slow to chide and swift to

bless.

Thank you that you're the God of steadfast love, who is slow to

anger.

And so may we have confidence in this tonight, not to prolong any

sense of waiting to come to you, but rather, Father, tonight

to be assured of that salvation, knowing that that salvation

keeps us for all eternity so we will not fear the blast of the

trumpets of judgment.

We will stand firm in Christ, knowing that we are his.

So may we respond well in glorious hope this night of who we

are in Christ.

Forever his.

And we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.