A while back Lara and I stumbled across the Ben Franklin store located in downtown Belleville. The Ben Franklin store is one of those obscure places where Lara persuaded me to go in her insatiable quest for Beanie Babies and schnauzer figurines. But as I tromped into the store with her, I noticed they had this gallery of paintings by the artist Thomas Kincaid. Mind you, the paintings were touched-up reprints and not originals! But it didn’t matter.
The gallery was nothing short of spectacular. I had heard of Thomas Kincaid, but had not seen his work up close. Each painting was a masterpiece. The colors carefully chosen. Each brush stroke was delivered with precision. And if you know anything about Thomas Kincaid’s work, he is a master of capturing light. No one captures light on a canvas with such awe-inspiring perfection. I spent twenty minutes just looking at one painting. It was the perfect way to punish Lara for making me go into that store in the first place. I'm only kidding! Really, it was hard to move on to the next portrait when there was so much more left to unpack while looking at just one portrait.
This series of messages through Revelation is kind of like visiting that gallery of paintings.
As we read through each chapter of Revelation we are presented with one masterpiece after another. Like Thomas Kincaid, the apostle John is a master of capturing light. Yet instead of using a canvas and brush John uses parchment and ink. One artist uses paint, the other uses words to capture light. Each portrait that John paints is stunning and each stroke is delivered with perfection. One could spend a lifetime absorbing just one portrait and yet there is this endless parade of images, signs, and wonders being paraded in front of our eyes through this book.
It is so frustrating for us to read the book of Revelation. It is even more frustrating to try to preach or teach this masterpiece. When you read Revelation you become aware that it's like eternity is packed into every single syllable. When you preach and teach Revelation it’s virtually futile! It’s like lecturing on art. Wouldn’t you rather just go to an art gallery and see the art than hear someone talk about it for thirty minutes? Lara says sometimes it's fourty minutes.
I couldn’t begin to describe a Thomas Kincaid painting in a way that would inspire you to drive down to Belleville. You just need to go look for yourself. And that is how it is with Revelation. You just need to walk through this gallery of images yourself. What is it that God wants to show you about your life and about your future? This morning will be another frustrating attempt to capture the eternal! But I’ll try, especially for those of you who may never set foot in the book of Revelation and see Christ yourself!
When you visit a gallery you will find yourself drawn to particular images. As I have preached through Revelation, some images are pleasing, some are inspiring, some are alarming, and some are disturbing. Which images have you found yourself drawn toward? In your outline, I’ve referenced a series of portraits found in Revelation 15 through Revelation 18. The images escalate further and further, becoming increasingly violent. One wonders what it will take to get the reader’s attention!
The point of all these images is to evoke deep faith in Christ. We're being invited to entrust our future and our very souls into the hands of Jesus Christ. Trusting Christ isn’t just a quality of life issue. All eternity is at stake here. It’s about life and death.
Affirmation of the character and nature of God.
One particularly striking image is found in Revelation 15. In Revelation 15:1 (NIV) John sees seven angels coming, each carrying a plague. "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." The plagues represent the completion of God’s wrath.
In the next verse, there before John is a sea of glass mixed with fire. Imagine being tossed into a sea of glass and fire with the shards of glass piecing your body and the fire melting your flesh. Revelation 15:2 (NIV) says, "And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God..."
But then standing beside, and not in this sea, John notices those who had been victorious over the beast and over his image and over the number of his name. They had harps given them by God and they sang the song of Moses and the song of the lamb. Revelation 15:3 (NIV) tells us, "...and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb 'Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.' "
The contrast between the destinies of the redeemed and the wicked.
There is no clearer portrait differentiating the destiny of the wicked versus the destiny of the righteous. Where do you want to find yourself at the end of the age? In the sea of glass and fire or standing next to it, singing songs of deliverance? In your outline I have described this first portrait simply as an affirmation of God’s character and nature.
In Revelation 15:3-4 (NIV) God’s redeemed sing to the Lamb, "Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O 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."
I hope and pray that seeing this portrait will be enough for you. I hope the place that you’ll want to be for all eternity is standing alongside the sea of glass and fire, and not in it! Now this isn’t one of those fire and brimstone sermons you hear about. Fire and shards of glass maybe, but not brimstone! I mean, God forbid that you should feel the weight of eternity staked on whether you repent of your sins and come clean before the living, resurrected Christ, pleading for your salvation.
We have this opportunity right now to be among those singing the song of the lamb. We can make a decision to celebrate God’s great and marvelous deeds in Christ. We can celebrate the Lord God Almighty, the King of the ages. We can affirm that his ways are just and true. We can fear him, glorify him, revere his holiness, worship him, and gaze upon his righteous acts revealed. We can decide our standing for eternity by whether or not we trust Christ now. Where do you stand? Who do you worship? What is your future?
Armageddon: the final conflict.
This first portrait is positive. It is redemptive. It is optimistic. It is a portrait of hope! But as we continue on towardRevelation 16the portraits grow darker and darker. In Revelation 16 you can see for yourself. God releases the seven angels with the seven plagues to go out into all the earth. Each angel is pouring out his bowl of judgment. This second set of images can be called the final conflict, or Armageddon.
John writes in Revelation 16:1-21 (NIV), "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, 'Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.' The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: 'You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged; for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.' And I heard the altar respond: 'Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.' "
"The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they 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 spirits of demons performing miraculous 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."
" 'Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.' Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. 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!' Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible."
These images need little explanation. They represent an escalation of God’s wrath against the sin and wickedness of mankind. That God refused to leave our sins unpunished. My friends, we really have two choices. We can either pay for our sins ourselves, or we can let Jesus Christ pay the penalty for our sins. We can have our bodies broken and our blood shed in the sea of fire and glass, or we can accept that Christ broke his body and shed his blood on the cross for our sins. We can have the bowls of God’s wrath poured out on our heads, or we can celebrate the one who poured out his life so that we might have eternal life.
It’s a matter of choice. Where do you want to be standing at the end of the age? With Christ? Or alone in your sins, conquered, defeated, judged, and condemned? In Romans 8:1 (NIV) Paul says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus....."
Annihilation: the end of all things.
If you think the second set of images sound severe, the third set of images is even more so. This third set of images speaks to something total. They speak to the end of all things and the complete and utter annihilation of everything sinful and evil. I am not going to read Revelation 17 and Revelation 18 to you, but only because of time. These chapters speak symbolically of Rome, the capital of the known world.
Rome was the center of power and influence in the known world. Rome boasted of her power and strength. Yet in God’s eyes, Rome was utterly corrupt and full of evil. Imagine a city where the education system, belief systems, politicians, judges, governors, kings, laws, and economy were aligned against the kingdom of God. You may notice some interesting parallels to our country today.
Listen to the voice of warning sent to this city in Revelation 18:4-13 (NIV) "Then I heard another voice from heaven say: 'Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, 'I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.' Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: 'Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!' The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more— cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men."
And listen to more warnings in Revelation 18:21-24 (NIV). "Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: 'With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again. The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world’s great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."
The end time timeline- like a thief.
Is there any hope for those who stand against the King of kings, and the Lord of lords? You may wonder how urgent it is to get your life right with Christ. Sprinkled in the midst of all the fire and shards of glass is found this warning. Revelation 16:15 (NIV) warns, "Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."
The only right time to prepare for Christ’s return is right now. What do you say?