Apocalypse: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
02/13/2005 - The Beginning of the End
It was the worst earthquake in over 40 years, a 9.0 on the Richter scale, the fourth largest quake since 1900. It occurred on the floor of the Indian Ocean and triggered a series of tsunami waves that traveled at speeds up to 500 miles per hour in the open ocean. And when those thirty-five foot waves eventually slammed into the coasts of eleven countries in minutes they caused billions of dollars in damages and to date have claimed almost 300,000 lives. There has never been anything like the Tsunami Disaster of December 26, 2004. The cost and carnage has been unprecedented.
But unfortunately there's coming a day when that disaster will pale in significance with the events that are about to be described in the book of Revelation. If you have your Bible please turn with me to Revelation 6 as we continue our series called Apocalypse: The Revelation of Jesus Christ with a teaching I've called "The Beginning of the End."
In Revelation 4 & 5 we were taken up through the clouds and into the throne room of God himself. We were caught up in the glory of what life is like in heaven, but now we come back down through the clouds and take a look at what life will be like on earth during that period of time known as the Tribulation.
Look at Revelation 6:1-17, I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. 3When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come!" 4Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people slay each other. To him was given a large sword. 5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" 7When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. 9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers and sisters who were to be killed as they had been was completed. 12I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
Last week, we saw that the scroll in God's right hand was his last will and testament. And the only one worthy to open the scroll was the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ himself, the reliable friend. And now as the Lamb opens the scroll one seal at a time, the judgments of God begin. First the seven seal judgments, then the seven trumpet judgments beginning in Revelation 8, and finally the seven bowl judgments beginning in Revelation 16. Seven seals, then seven trumpets, then seven bowls, each pouring out God's wrath on the earth.
These judgments are configured like one of those wooden nesting dolls that each time you open it up it contains another doll inside. And so when you get to the seventh seal you discover the seven trumpets inside that and when you get to the seventh trumpet you discover the seven bowls inside that. Remember the number seven is significant in apocalyptic literature. It's the number of completion and so these three groups of seven judgments signify God's final and complete judgment of the earth.
Chapter six is a hard chapter to look at. But it's an honest chapter that tells us the truth about what is yet to come. Sometimes when tragedy strikes our world, like the recent tsunamis did we wonder, "What is this world coming to?" Well, Revelation answers that question and it's not pretty. It's a lot worse than the tsunamis. Yet right beside the tragedy and the carnage is always the hope and the comfort that God offers us and we'll discover that when we look at Revelation seven, tragedy first and then triumph.
You see when tragedy strikes, we need to remember that God hasn't abandoned us. He's still on the throne and he's still in control of his universe. He has a plan and he's working it right on schedule. There's pain in that plan because of the presence of sin in our world. And there's tragedy in that plan because of the presence of Satan whom Jesus says loves to kill and steal and destroy. But the plan is never out of God's control. Remember this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ and he is supreme over everything.
Revelation 6 begins a time frame in history known as the Tribulation. It's a time unlike the world has ever seen. Thirteen of the twenty-two chapters of Revelation focus on the Tribulation. In the Old Testament it's also called Daniel's 70thweek and the time of Jacob's trouble. It's a period that will last seven years that I believe will occur after the rapture of the church, the event that will take believers out of this world. Not every agrees with that view, but I believe that the rapture of the church is the next event on God's prophetic calendar. It could happen today. Jesus said many times that he was coming back, we just don't know when.
The rapture is the moment best described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 where we read, For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up (raptured) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.
The view that the rapture will occur before this horrible Tribulation period is called the pre-tribulational view, meaning that the rapture of the church will occur "pre" or before the Tribulation. Some, however, hold to a mid-tribulational view, meaning that the rapture of the church will occur midway through the Tribulation. And others hold to a post-tribulational view of the rapture, meaning that the rapture of the church will occur following the Tribulation. And they all have their reasons.
The purpose of this series is not to get caught up in the details of each view. You can study that on your own if you'd like and come to your own conviction. But I'll be approaching Revelation from a pre-tribulational position, which means we're out of here when all hell breaks loose on this earth. If we're not, then I'll change to a mid-trib view. And if we go past the mid-point of the Tribulation, then I'll adjust it back to a post-trib view!
Seriously, I do believe that we will be spared the wrath of the Tribulation because of passages like 1 Thessalonians 1:9 where Paul says Jesus is the one who rescues us from the coming wrath.
What's the coming wrath from which we'll be rescued? It seems to be the wrath of the Tribulation in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3,9, For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape ... But God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We read a similar thing in Romans 5:9, Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
And even Revelation 3:10, which was originally written to the church in Philadelphia, but which I believe can be applied to the church worldwide when Jesus says, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
The return of Christ is always referred to as a surprise, as something unexpected, like a thief in the night. It would be hard for the rapture to be a surprise if it came mid-way through the tribulation or even at the end of that time. The return of Christ at any moment has always been meant to be a motivator for believers in every generation. It is imminent, meaning that it could be today.
And at some point after the rapture of the church, the Tribulation will begin. Now apparently these seven seal judgments happen in succession, one right after the other, during the entire course of the seven-year Tribulation period. The first four appear as horses. Some have called these the four horsemen of the apocalypse, which picks up on a similar image of four horses in Zechariah 6.
Look at Revelation 6:1-2,I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
Now at first glance, this appears to be a description of Jesus. After all, we have a white horse, a rider with a bow and a crown who's bent on conquest. But it can't be Jesus. He's the Lamb in this picture. And besides we never see Jesus being ordered to "come" like this figure. So if it's not Jesus, then who is it?
Apparently, it's someone who looks like Jesus. It's an impostor. It's the figure that will later be called the beast, the ruler who will pretend to offer peace to the world after the worldwide confusion created by the rapture of the church. Think of it, hundreds of millions of people, perhaps even more, taken out of this world in a heartbeat, utter global chaos. And into that chaos gallops this figure who offers the world peace. And for a time he does. But don't be fooled by the white horse. He's really a devil from hell bent on worldwide conquest. That's his real agenda.
Next comes the red horse. Look at verse 3, When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come!" 4Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
The red horse is a picture of war. Before long the peace that the anti-Christ offers disintegrates into global conflict. Now we're going to discover that as we look at each of these horses we already see glimpses of these things in our world. John said in one of his epistles that there are many anti-Christ's already among us, but there will be a final great anti-Christ. There are already wars in our world now, of course, but there will be even greater wars to come.
Look at verse 5, When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
The black horse is a picture of famine. In John's day a day's wages would buy about eight quarts of wheat. One quart was equal to one meal. So if you worked a full day you could buy enough food to feed a family of eight. If you didn't have a large family, then you would have some money left over.
But notice here, food is scarce. Instead of eight quarts for a day's wage, you only get one quart. That's only enough food to feed yourself, not your family. Which means people are starving to death. People are starving to death today in the world for sure, but during the Tribulation it will be even worse.
Do not damage the oil and the wine. What does that mean? Oil and wine were possessions of the rich, not the poor. They couldn't afford them. This appears to be a picture of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. During the Tribulation the gap between rich and poor will continue to widen even more than it is today.
The white horse is the beast. The red horse is war. The black horse is famine. And the pale horse is death. Look at verse 7, When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
The Greek word for pale is literally "chloros." It's the word from which we get our English word "chlorine." It's actually a pale green color, the color of masks often worn at Halloween, the color of gangrene, the color death. This is death and destruction beyond anything this world has ever seen, beyond the 300,000 victims of the tsunami, beyond the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, beyond the 64 million people who died during World War II. This is mind numbing. A fourth of the world killed by war and famine and plagues and wild beasts. By today's statistics that would be 1.6 billion people, one quarter of the 6.4 billion that call earth their home. Unbelievable carnage like the world has never seen!
Many think that those who die will only be unbelievers, because Hades follows close behind. And Hades is the destination of those who reject Christ. There's no evidence in Scripture that Christ followers ever go to Hades. Instead, the New Testament says that for the believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's another reason to believe that the rapture of the church has occurred before these horrific events.
But why is all this happening? Why would a loving God allow this kind of destruction to come to earth and to the people that he created and that he loves and that he wants to reach? Certainly, it's an expression of his wrath against sin. That's for sure. And perhaps that's enough of a reason. But I also think it's his invitation for everyone who reads these words to come to him right now, because the more God pulls himself out of the world, as he does when he removes the church at the rapture, the more he wants us to see what life will be like for eternity without him. It will be hell to pay. And that is a sobering thought!
There's a fifth seal that's opened in verse 9, When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers and sisters who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
Things begin to change with the opening of the fifth seal. The scene now shifts from earth to heaven. Once again, we get to poke our head up through the clouds and see what's going on in the throne room of God. The four horsemen have come and gone and now we see the huddled souls of believers under the altar, the place of safety and security. These are believers who have been slain throughout the ages because of their commitment to the Lamb. The opening of the fifth seal reveals martyrs from all of history asking, "How long? How long, oh Lord, until our blood will be avenged?"
Notice their question. It's not, "God how much more wrath are you going to pour out on the earth?" No, it's, "How long are you going to wait to avenge our blood?" In other words, in the midst of all that's going on God is still giving his enemies time to repent and come to him. He's being patient and longsuffering not wanting anybody to perish. And these martyrs are given a white robe and told to wait just a little longer. Right up to the end God is still inviting people to come to him, even though they continue to kill his followers.
These martyrs are huddled under an altar. In the Old Testament tabernacle there were actually two altars. There was the altar of incense, that we talked about last week, and the altar of sacrifice. We're not told which altar this is. If this is the altar of sacrifice then the picture is of believers protected by the blood of Christ that was shed for them on the cross. If it's the altar of incense, the place where prayers were offered, then it's a picture of these martyrs covered with and protected by the prayers of God's people.
These are tough passages, I know. But hang in there. It's going to get better soon, but before it does, it gets even worse. Look at the opening of the sixth seal in verse 12, I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
During the Tribulation there's going to be an earthquake that shatters the Richter scale, greater than the 9.0 quake that triggered the tsunami. This one will be off the charts. And when it hits the sun will turn black and the moon will turn blood red, stars will fall from the sky. This could be a description of volcanoes triggered by the earthquake that blacken the sky with their soot and ash. Or it could all be caused supernaturally. We don't know.
Either way, this is an image that's also spoken about in the Old Testament by Joel and other Hebrew prophets. These astrological signs are an indication that the end is near. In Joel 2:28, 30-32 we read, "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people ... 30I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 31The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 32And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.
Isaiah refers to it this way in Isaiah 34:4, All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.
Jesus describes these same signs in Matthew 24:4-8 when he says, Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many (The White Horse.) 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come (The Red Horse). 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines (The Black Horse) and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.
It will get so bad at the end of the Tribulation that people will want to die. Powerful people, kings and generals, the rich and mighty would rather be buried alive than face the wrath of the Lamb. And when we read that we wonder, "Why? Why won't people turn to the Lamb of God who loves them and was slain for them? Why do they run from him, even to the very end and prefer suicide to faith?" It sounds inconceivable to us, but it's true. And it shows the hardness of the human heart.
This is what the future holds during the period known as the Tribulation that has yet to come to this earth. Is it soon? Could it happen in our lifetime? It certainly could or it could be a thousand years away. Billy Graham once said, "We may not see the four horsemen of the apocalypse yet, but we can certainly hear their hoof beats approaching." The stage is set for all these events to begin, but first the rapture of the church, which saves us from the wrath to come.
The chapter ends with the question, "who can stand?" And the answer to that question is only believers in Jesus Christ. Are you a believer today? Do you know Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain for you? If you do, there's no need to worry. Revelation was written to give believers hope. And if you don't know him, why not believe in him today?