Sermon preached at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church,
11.00, 12 May 2019
Revelation 5-7
Listen to this sermon here:
As we have seen over the last couple of weeks,
John
carefully constructed Chapters 1—4 of the book of Revelation
to draw those who first heard his book read,
those in
the seven churches of Asia Minor
up and into
his visionary world.
In the following three chapters, which we come to today,
he
continues his task
of leading
them into his critique of their world,
continually wanting them to learn to see things from
heaven’s perspective.
John has already shown them the heavenly alternative
to the
idolatrous power claims of the Roman Empire ,
by giving
them a glimpse of the one seated on the throne in heaven,
as the
divine antidote to the emperor enthroned in Rome.
And in the images surrounding the opening of the seven seals
which we
meet in our readings today,
he deconstructs still further the images of empire with
which his
audience are surrounded.
At the beginning of Chapter 5, John says that he can see a
scroll in the right hand of the one seated on the throne. It is described as
having writing on both sides, and as being sealed with seven seals (5.1).
Drawing on imagery from Ezekiel and Jeremiah,
it becomes
clear that the scroll has an important message
that
somehow needs to be read and heard.
And the Old Testament background gives us a clue
as to the
content of the scroll.
In Jeremiah, there are two scrolls,
one of
which calls the people of God to repentance (Jer. 36.2-3),
and the
other which proclaims judgment against evil (51.60-64).
John combines these two to draw his image of a scroll which
fulfils both these functions:
it is both
a call to repentance,
and the
proclamation of judgment against the satanic forces of empire
that cannot
be allowed to continue unchecked forever.
In this, John is seeking to help his audience
distance
themselves from the dominant culture in which they live,
and to begin to share his prophetic perspective
of the
inevitability of judgement
on all who
persist in allying themselves with the satanic empire.
But it’s not only Jeremiah who has a scroll or two in the
Hebrew Bible,
and Ezekiel’s
experience with a scroll closely parallels that of John:
he receives his scroll from the divine hand (Ezek. 2.9),
and sees
writing on both sides of it
proclaiming
‘words of lamentation and mourning and woe’ (Ezek. 2.10).
Ezekiel is then instructed to eat the scroll, and to
proclaim the contents to Israel
finding the
scroll as sweet as honey in his mouth (Ezek. 3.1–4).
Unlike John of Patmos, Ezekiel is not described as finding
the scroll bitter in his stomach.
However,
the difficulty that he faces in communicating his message (Ezek. 3.7–9),
may
indicate something of what John is seeking to convey
about
the message of the scroll being unpalatable.
Those hearing the message of the scroll,
revealed
through the text of the Apocalypse,
are being warned that the glory of gospel
is inextricably
coupled with suffering and persecution.
Those whom John is leading into heaven
will face
bitterness on the earth
as the inevitable counterpart to partaking of the sweetness
of his vision.
The worship of the Lamb
When John first encounters the scroll (5.1), he is
immediately curious as to its contents,
and when it
appears that no one can be found who is worthy to break open its seals,
he begins
to weep bitterly (5.2–4).
However, it soon becomes clear that Jesus is able to open
the seals,
his
qualification being his sacrificial death and resurrection (5.5–10).
There are then three hymns of praise offered to the Lamb
after he
takes the scroll
from the
right hand of the one seated on the throne,
and each hymn is offered by an increasing number of singers.
The singing is originates with the people of God before the
throne,
before
expanding through the heavenly realm
ultimately
to encompass every creature
in
the heavens, on the earth, and in the underworld.
And there’s some important theology going on here:
From an
earthly perspective, the worship of Jesus
by
the faithful saints in the churches
may
appear a futile exercise;
to direct
worship anywhere other than the gods of empire
may
appear akin to whistling into the wind.
However, from heaven’s perspective,
the worship
offered by the saints resounds throughout creation,
drawing
all beings, even those already in the underworld,
into
worship of the risen Christ.
In this way, not only is the worship offered by those in the
seven churches
seen as an
act of resistance to the idolatrous ideology of empire,
but it is also presented as being instrumental
in the
drawing of every created being into a united hymn of praise.
These hymns of worship that John records
are
therefore not about making Jesus feel good about himself,
but are rather about reversing the human tendency
to direct
worship elsewhere.
As Christ is proclaimed worthy,
so power is
drawn away from the earthly throne
at
the centre of the satanic empire,
and the
very act of worship itself
once
again becomes a politically subversive act.
introduces
a theme that is recurrent throughout the Apocalypse.
The Lamb is praised for ransoming people
from ‘every
tribe and language and people and nation’ (5.9),
and for
making them ‘a kingdom and priests serving our God’ (5.10).
This directly parallels the promise God made through Moses
after he
led the people of Israel out
from slavery in Egypt
‘[Y]ou
shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.’ (Ex. 19.6)
John takes this Old Testament narrative of the Exodus,
and reworks
it to depict a new exodus of God’s people in his time,
breaking
free from their enslavement to the forces of the Roman empire.
This image of new exodus helps those in John’s churches
to gain a
theological understanding of their role
within the
overall scheme of salvation history.
Just as the people of Israel
so the
people of the Lamb are depicted
as undertaking
their own journey from slavery to a new land.
However, this image doesn’t simply function
to show the
saints escaping the current evil age
and fleeing
to a place where they can live happily ever after.
Rather, just as the purpose of the gift of the promised land
to Israel
was to
bring the blessing of God to all nations,[i]
so the promise of the new creation in Revelation
is given
with the intent of drawing all nations into the blessing.[ii]
In a sense, the whole theological scheme of Revelation
is completed
by the end of Chapter 5,
with the
worship of every creature being offered to the Lamb.
But John then rewinds as he goes into chapter 6 to revisit
the process
hereby the
Church’s faithful witness to, and worship of, their risen Lord
results
in this universal declaration of praise (cf. 5.13).
This he begins to do in the sequence of seal-openings which
follow,
as the
scroll is slowly opened
and he explores the theme of the spiritual battle
between the
followers of the Lamb and the forces of evil.
The seven seals
The sequence of the seven seal-openings rehearses once again
the overall
theological scheme of the Apocalypse.
If you found it a bit difficult to follow I’ve created a
little table
that you
may find a helpful summary of what happens
as each
seal is opened by the Lamb that is Jesus.
In the midst of all the stuff that follows,
it is
important to remember that, according to John,
everything
which happens on the earth is ultimately within the control
of the one
seated on the throne in heaven.
It begins with Jesus, sent into the world to conquer evil
and death.
And it may
surprise you here to see that I’m suggesting
that
the first rider of the famous ‘four horsemen of the apocalypse’
is
actually Jesus!
but there
we go - that’s the difference
between
what we think we know about Revelation,
and
what’s actually there in the text.
The second, third and fourth riders then present
the state
of the earth under the satanic empire,
with war and injustice paving the way
for the
progression of death and despair through the world.
In this context then John hears the forlorn cries of the
martyrs,
who
articulate the cry of the suffering Church in any age,
‘how long O
Lord? How long will it be
before you
judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?"’ (6.10).
The answer, as it turns out, is ‘not very long at all’…
Because the judgement of the Lamb on the evil in the world
starts to
become apparent in the scenes of cosmic catastrophe
that
follow the opening of the sixth seal,
with the
sky being rolled back to expose the earth to the heavenly gaze (6.14–16).
The message to those in John’s churches here is clear:
the reign
of war, injustice and death is not eternal,
and when viewed from heaven’s perspective,
the
pretentions of the satanic empire are seen to be fragile and vulnerable.
Assurance is therefore given
that the
prayers of the martyrs will not remain unanswered,
and that
evil will not be allowed to endure into eternity.
There is then an interlude during which
the
faithful people of God are sealed on the forehead and numbered.
You may remember that I said last week,
that the
basic four actors of Revelation
come on and
off the set wearing different costumes?
Well, here we encounter the church, as seen from heaven’s
perspective,
as 144,000 people,
secure before the throne of God.
For those in John’s churches facing famine, war and death
(6.4–8),
the
assurance that from heaven’s viewpoint
they
are safe before the throne (7.15–17)
provides a
strong message of comfort.
The seventh seal, when it is opened,
takes the
reader back to the praise of 5.13–14,
except that rather than every creature crying out in praise,
every
creature is instead silenced (8.1).
This half-hour of silence in heaven prepares the way
for the
noise of the seven trumpet blasts that follow,
as they once again rehearse the sequences of judgement on
evil.
However, before we leave our journey through these chapters,
I’d like us
to spend a few minutes more
with the
image of the church that John uses here
That is, the 144,000
who have the seal of God on their foreheads
There are occasional images in Revelation
that have
attracted disproportionate attention
within the
interpretative tradition
(e.g.
the number of the beast in 13.17–18,
the
millennium in 20.1–7),
and the
image of the 144,000 easily falls into this category.
This group first come into view in Chapter 7,
before the
opening of the seventh seal (8.1).
The series of judgements
that have
followed the opening of the first six seals are paused,
and an angel proclaims:
‘Do not
damage the earth or the sea or the trees,
until we
have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads’ (7.3).
In the vision of the 144,000 that follows,
the Church
is seen by John as twelve thousand
from each
of the twelve tribes of Israel
We have already seen how John appropriates imagery from the
Old Testament,
particularly
in relation to the Israelites as the people of God,
and
reapplies it to the Christian churches.
Here in Chapter 7, the Church is pictured as a large but
finite number,
contrasting
with the small and fragile size
of the
seven congregations of Asia Minor .
The number 144,000 should not be understood literally;
in common
with other numbers in Revelation it carries symbolic significance.
The number twelve typically indicates completeness,
and in this
case (12 x 12,000) it represents the complete number
of those
who comprise the renewed Israel
who are at
war in the world with their master against the forces of evil.
We will return to the 144,000 again, as they reappear in the
narrative
in chapters
9, 14, and 19.
But for now, we just need to note
that this
is a symbolic number
indicating
that the followers of Jesus
are heard
by John to be a large, but finite, number.
Which becomes very interesting when what John hears
is compared
with what John sees…
In Chapter 7, John hears
the number of the redeemed as 144,000 (7.4–8),
which should
be understood as a figurative representation of the whole Church,
the army of
the Lamb (14.1).
This image, whilst not a literal number, portrays the Church
as a subset,
albeit a
vast subset, of the totality of humanity.
It is therefore significant that within John’s scheme,
the number
he hears is contrasted with what he
then sees:
‘After this I looked, and there
was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands’ (7.9).
John hears a vast
but finite number from Israel
but sees an uncountable number from every
nation.
What is going on here is highly significant:
The 144,000 are the Church, a finite number of those who
choose to follow Jesus,
whilst the
great multitude signifies the a far greater number
than
those who have enlisted in the army of the Lamb.
In this way, the vision of the great multitude
represents
the ultimate fulfilment
of the task
undertaken by the 144,000.
We’ll come back to this same point
when we
look in a few weeks
at the
imagery of the first fruits and the great harvest.
It seems that, according to John,
God’s plan
for the salvation of the world
extends far
beyond just those who sign up to follow Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
The victory that the Lamb has won for the multitude
is further
symbolized by the ‘white robes’ (7.9, 13–14; cf. 3.5; 19.8) they wear
as they cry
out in worship to God and the Lamb (7.10, 15).
The victory garments of the martyrs from chapter 6 (6.11)
have become
the clothing of the great multitude,
as the faithful witness of the first fruits under
persecution
is seen to
have resulted in the ingathering of the great harvest of all the nations.
The robes of the multitude are said to have been washed
clean
by the
blood of the Lamb (7.14);
a complex and stark image indicating that forgiveness and
purity
are
available to humanity only through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross.
This image of the great multitude is located in the future,
after the
time of tribulation has ended,
with John giving a tantalising glimpse of the end result
of the faithful
endurance of the saints in the present.
The image of universal praise implicit in the image of the
great multitude
is made explicit
in the song of praise offered to the Lamb
by ‘every
creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea,
and
all that is in them’ (5.13).
To those living in the churches John was writing to,
this all
encompassing image of worship
offers a
glimpse of the end result of their faithful endurance.
In the new creation towards which the vision is heading,
not only
does every human acknowledge the Lamb,
but also every living creature, every angelic being,
and even
every thing that exists in the underworld.[iii]
I have long held that Revelation is a universalist text
because it
shows the love of God expressed in Jesus
as being
universal in its reach and scope.
So often churches spend so much of their time
defining
who is in, and who is out.
But what if the good news of the gospel
is that
everyone is in.
What if all thing, all people, all creatures under heaven,
fall within
the universal, redeeming, and forgiving love of God
There is an inherent tension present within the book of
Revelation,
between
images such as that under consideration here,
which
seem to indicate a universal acceptance of the lordship of Christ
as
the end result of the faithful witness of the Church,
and other
images which indicate judgement
on
those forces that remain in opposition to the kingdom of Christ
As we conclude today, it is worth contemplating this
tension:
Does God judge evil?
Yes,
absolutely.
Does God’s love encompass all?
Yes,
absolutely.
How can these both be true?
Because of the faithful witness of those who follow the
Lamb,
to the
truth that the empire is not ultimate
and that the kingdom of God is breaking into human history,
to bring
all things, all lives, and all peoples,
to their
good conclusion within the love of God.
[i] cf. Gen.
26.4.
[ii] cf.
Rev. 15.4; 21.24, 26; 22.2.
[iii] cf.
Phil. 2.10–11; Col. 1.20.
No comments:
Post a Comment