Revelation 15-16

SLIDE 1 Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sings the Song of Moses

SLIDE 2 We ended chapter 14 with the promise of Armageddon. John has told us God is triumphant and now John will give details to these events in the next few chapters.

 Revelation 15: The Seven Angels with Seven Plagues

·        Signs in Heaven (Who What When Where)

·        Seven Bowl Judgment (7 angels and 7 plagues)

God’s judgments are just

Randy Alcorn in his book Heaven wants us to know that God’s paradise prepared for you is beyond description. John has tried to describe it in terms of his day. The first word of chapter 15 John saw a sign, great and amazing and a sea of glass mingled with fire with the martyred saints playing harps and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. We listened to the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sing. If you had closed your eyes and imagined the scene in heaven, what a time of worship that would be.

SLIDE3¹Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

²And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire---and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with (martyred) harps of God in their hands.

The WHO would be the seven angels, the martyred souls with their harps, the four living creature, the 24 elders, and an army of angels before the throne of heaven.

SLIDE 4 The sea of glass was represented by the bronze laver that was outside the Tabernacle. Each time the priest would wash their hands before entering, they would see the imperfection of themselves reflected in the shiny surface meant to humble them before the LORD. The Sea of Glass in heaven showed the reflection of God and all these heavenly beings.

The WHAT is the song they sing. Unlike the song last week that only the 144,000 know. Everyone can sing this song. Imagine after the Israelites came through the Red Sea and realized the great miracle the LORD has done.

SLIDE 5  Exodus 15 begins with Moses and the people of Israel singing a song to the LORD. Twenty-one verses end with Miriam, the sister of Moses, praising God. Now we hear the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Fifty-one words: it just the beginning of the worship of the Lord God Almighty.

v. 13 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. Do you think there will be dancing in heaven? David danced in the street to celebrate the ark of the covenant coming home to Jerusalem.

WHAT ³ And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

"Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!
⁴Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed."

SLIDE 6 WHERE⁵After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened,⁶ and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests.⁷ And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.

Remember the throne room in chapter 4: the four living creatures and the 24 elders around the throne. Now one of the living creatures carried the golden bowls full of wrath.

 SLIDE 7 Hope Parks taught the Tabernacle one summer. It was such a blessing to learn how Christ was represented in every part of the Tabernacle. However the Tabernacle was not built until Ex. 40. While in the desert the Moses pitch a tent outside the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Exodus 33:⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. God told Moses to build the Tabernacle was based on the pattern of heaven, also called the tent of meeting. Behind a thick curtain 4 inches thick was the Ark of the Covenant, sequestered away until the one time each year the chosen priest would go in to offer blood sacrifices for the sins of the people.

SLIDE 8When⁸ and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. Kathy Strieter’s golden bowl prayers of the saints reminds me of the whole sanctuary being filled.

God’s judgments are just

Paul to people of Athens Acts 17:²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

Hebrews 9:24
For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.

SLIDE 9** One day a man walking down Clark Street, in Chicago, and playing with a dollar bill in his hand, had it snatched away from him by a thief who ran rapidly ahead toward the river, not perceiving that the drawbridge was open. Of course, he plunged into the river's slime. One might have thought this were punishment enough for stealing only a dollar. But no; when rescued by the police, and again on firm ground, there stood his victim beside him accusing him to the officer, who put him into jail.
The fall into the water was the result of his folly, but the imprisonment in jail the punishment of his crime. Men suffer on earth as a result of their wrongdoing,(that is called the consequences for their action) The unsaved have yet to meet their Judge, and answer before Him for their sin. Hell may now be in their bosom, but, alas, the day is coming when their bosom will be in hell!—Dr. James M. Gray.  Sermonillustrations.com    God’s judgments are just

SLIDE 10 Revelation 16: The Seven Bowls of God's Wrath

 I was attracted to this powerful angel by artist, Kathy Strieter. Unlike Pat Smith, Kathy did not sell her images but earns her living by selling paintings. I emailed her and we negotiated the sell of the two images of the angels with the golden bowls in the ppt.

These bowls of judgment are the third woe described in Revelation 11:14 we think at the end of the 7 years, immediately before Jesus' return.

¹Then I heard a loud voice (God) from the temple telling the seven angels, "Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God."

SLIDE 11²So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

This is an enlarged section from the previous image of the seven judgments by Pat Malvenko Smith allows you to see the number on their foreheads. This relates to the sixth plague of boils on Egypt. Ex. 9:8

SLIDE 12³The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. This photo shows the bloom of red algae on a beach in Sydney.

Similar to the first plague Moses carried out God’s judgment to turn the Nile river into blood.

Revelation 8:8-9 described a partial contamination of the sea. Here the contamination is made complete (every living creature in the sea died).

 SLIDE 13⁴      The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. This photo shows the pollution in the Yangtze River.      ⁵ And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,

            "Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. ⁶For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!" ⁷And I heard the altar (probably saints under the altar) saying, "Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!"

Justice requires that the guilty be punished, and those who refused to accept Christ’s payment for their sins will pay with their own lives. They refused the gift of Living Water, and now will be given death to drink.

SLIDE 14⁸The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire.⁹ They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

Earth is just the right distance from the sun. God provided the sun to warm us and make our crops grow. He provided is SON for our redemption of sin. In this plague God uses the sun to inflict His judgments. The creation that supports life will now scorch and torture those who did not repent.

Not only is God's justice fair, it is also pure and appropriate.

SLIDE 15¹⁰The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish¹¹ and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

This judgment only affects the kingdom of the beast. He is the prince of darkness, there is no light in him. Ephesians 6: 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The darkness of the fifth bowl is a preview of Hell itself, which is described by Jesus (Matthew 25:30“into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'). God judgments are just

SLIDE 16¹²The 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.¹³ And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.

You can imagine not many artists want to tackle this scene. But as I previewed some Medieval literature it seems merge the beasts with their images of dragons.

 SLIDE 17As we look at this map notice how the Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. In May of 2014 the Turkish government recently cut off the flow of the Euphrates River, threatening primarily Syria but also Iraq with a major water crisis. Al-Akhbar (News)found out that the water level in Lake Assad(a man-made reservoir) has dropped by about six meters, leaving millions of Syrians without drinking water.

SLIDE 18 ¹⁴ For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.¹⁵ ("Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!")¹⁶ And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

Once the Euphrates has dried up, the mountains flattened there will be a perfect place for the battle of Armageddon.  The word "Har-magedon" comes from the Hebrew. The word "Har" means "mountain" refers to an ancient site of many battles in Judges and Kings called "Megiddo." Megiddo a hill town above the fertile Jezreel Valley, its strategic position overlooking the one of the main routes used for travel between Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia. It was of strategic importance because it occupies a valley through which armies could march on their various campaigns. Because of the many history-changing battles fought there, Megiddo became a symbol, sort of like our own Alamo or Pearl Harbor.

SLIDE 19⁷The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!"¹⁸ And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.²⁰ And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.²¹ And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

SLIDE 20This reminds me of the images from the cross. But from noon, for three hours until the death of Jesus, there was darkness (Matthew 27:45). John 19:30 "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Matthew 27:51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

"Evil communications corrupt good manners" (I Cor.15:33).

Roaming in the woods, some boys found a nest containing two linnet fledglings, which they managed to capture and take home. Securing some plain, wooden birdcages, they put one of the linnets in each and hung them on either side of a canary. They explained to their mother that they hoped the linnets, being so young, would learn to imitate the canary, instead of cheeping as linnets ordinarily do. The mother smilingly questioned the likelihood of the plan succeeding.

The next day the boys entered the room, and exclaimed, "Mother, come here, our canary is cheeping like a linnet!"

And so it was. The canary had to be separated from the wild birds of the wood and kept under cover for a time before he regained his song. Surely there is a lesson here for all Christians. Fellowship with the world does not lead the godless to take the way of the Lord, but generally results in the believer losing his joyous song and taking on the speech and manners of the world.

Will you choose to accept God’s gift of salvation before it is too late?

Plagues in Exodus	Bowls in Revelation 16
6-boils, 9:8	1-earth, sores 16:2
1- blood 7:14	2- sea, blood, 16:3
1- bloody river, 7:14	3- rivers & fountains, blood 16: 4
	4- heat from sun,16: 8
9-darkness, 10:21	5- painful darkness,     16:10
2-frogs, 8:1	6- Unclean spirits, 16:12
7-hail, 9:13	7- air, earthquake and hail, 16:17