Devastation All Around

Please take your Bibles and turn to Revelation 8:1. I want to share a message with you entitled, “Devastation All Around.” 

 

In a timeline of end times events, I believe we are currently living in the church age that began at Pentecost and will end with the rapture of the church.  In the bible, this will happen between Revelation 3 and 4. 

 

The rapture of the church is when the Lord Jesus comes in the clouds unexpectedly and raptures all living individuals who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit.  In other words, the rapture is when the Lord Jesus snatches away all living followers of Christ to heaven.

 

No one knows when that will happen.  It will happen unexpectedly without any warning or advance notice.

 

After the rapture, a seven-year period call the Tribulation will begin.  It will be God’s judgement on those living on earth who have rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The first half of the Tribulation will not seem like judgement.  However, the second half will be the Great Tribulation and the most severe Christian persecution that has ever occurred. 

 

Revelation 6 begins to show us God’s wrath and judgement poured out on the earth.  John speaks of them in the form of seals, trumpets, and bowls.  Today, we will see the seventh seal opened, and this diagram courtesy of Dr. Charles Ryrie of Dallas Theological Seminary may help in your understanding of these judgements going forward.

 

 

 

Notice that the seventh seal actually opens the first four trumpet judgements.  The seventh trumpet judgement opens the seven bowls of God’s wrath, and Ryrie even shows the three woes at the end of today’s text as parallel with the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpet judgments.

 

 

1. The Mercy of God, Revelation 8:1

1 When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

 

Think back for a moment to Revelation 6.  The first six seals of God’s judgement were opened in Revelation 6. 

 

However, chapter seven is an interlude or parenthesis.  Chapter 7 is a suspension of the judgments to see one hundred and forty-four thousand Jews saved and possibly commissioned on the earth to share the good news of the gospel before Jesus returns. 

 

Chapter 7 is also for seeing an innumerable multitude of primarily Gentiles around the throne in heaven worshipping the Lord.  They will come from every nation and every tribe and every tongue. 

 

All of chapter 7 is a testimony to God’s mercy.  Any time He waits to judge, He is being merciful, and even though I agree that these thirty minutes of silence in 8:1 is a silence of anticipation of what is to follow or a pregnant pause, it too is a silence of mercy. 

 

It is a continuation of chapter seven.  These thirty minutes of silence remind us of the mercy of God. 

 

What is mercy?  It is God withholding from us what we deserve. 

 

Unfortunately, followers of Christ often think that we don’t need the mercy of God because we have been born-again or baptized or belong to a local church.  In reality, we are in desperate need of God’s mercy every day. 

 

Are you guilty of any of these?   

Romans 1:29–31

1 Corinthians 6:9–10

Galatians 5:19–21

Ephesians 5:3–5

Colossians 3:8

2 Timothy 3:2–5

1 Peter 2:1

1 Peter 4:3

Revelation 9:21

Revelation 21:8

Revelation 22:15

 

My point is this.  Every person in this room is in desperate need of God’s mercy each and every day.  Heaven help us if we don’t realize it.

 

 

1. Prayers before God, Revelation 8:2-6

2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.  6 So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

 

Do you ever wonder if your prayers matter?  Wonder no more!  Verse two says that John saw seven angels standing before God, and they were holding seven trumpets which will be part of the seventh seal of judgment. 

 

An eighth angel will come forth in verse three holding a golden censer.  That is a bowl or firepan holding live coals and incense. 

 

Incense was given to him to add to the prayers of the saints.  The smoke of the incense went up to the Lord along with the prayers of the saints. 

 

You may be unfamiliar with this practice, but remember the father of John the Baptist in Luke 1:5-10.

 

5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.  8 So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.

 

Who were these saints?  At the very least, they are the saints that will be alive during the tribulation, and they will be begging the Lord to bring the tribulation to an end.  They will be begging the Lord to end His wrath on the earth.  However, they could also be the saints of all time who have been praying for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

 

Do you think that prayer is important to God?  We’ve already seen earlier in Revelation 5 that our prayers are a sweet aroma in the nostrils of God.

 

Do you think that prayer works?  Then why don’t we pray more.  Why do we turn more to the telephone to get results?  Why do we turn to an email or FB to get results?  Why do we turn to protests or riots to get results? 

 

Why have I been announcing and asking and begging for over a year to get 36 individuals or families to commit one hour a week in our prayer room and to no avail?  The bottom line is that we don’t trust the power of prayer.

 

However, it is the prayers of the saints before God here in Revelation 8:5-6 that precipitate the judgements of God in these 7 trumpets of judgement.  Prayer is God’s plan, and it works. 

 

 

• The Judgements of God, Revelation 8:7-12

7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.  8 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.  10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.  12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.  13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”

 

In verse 7, the first trumpet is the destruction of the ground.  With hail and blood and fire, a third of the earth is burned.

 

Imagine the domino effects.  If the grass is burned, what will animals eat?  If animals don’t eat, what will humans eat?  There will be devastation all around.

 

The second trumpet is the destruction of the seas and salt-water bodies.  Some large burning land mass will be thrown into the sea, and the sea will turn to blood or look like blood.  All the sea life will die, and a third of the ships will be destroyed.

 

Maybe this is a volcano or a meteor.  If it is a meteor, imagine the power and might that will be necessary to hurt it to the earth.  Imagine the water displaced when it hits the oceans, and imagine all of the dead marine life.  Where will it go?

 

The third trumpet is the destruction of the rivers.  A great star will fall from heaven into the rivers and springs of water.  Its name is Wormwood which is bitter and disgusting and will turn the waters to the same.  It will cause many men to die.

 

The fourth trumpet is the destruction of light.  A third of the sun and moon and stars will be struck rendering them inoperative.  It seems that twenty-four hour days turn into sixteen hour days.  Judgment will come.

 

Chapter 8 ends with only sounding 4 of the 7 trumpets.  However, a preview of the last 3 are in verse 13.

 

An angel or an eagle or an eagle that is really an angel will speak announce the trilogy of woes to the inhabitants of the earth at the time who have rejected the Lord Jesus.  The final three trumpets of God’s judgement will be worse than the first four.

 

 

Conclusion

Today, I invite you to be so grateful for the mercy of God.  Today, I invite you to begin praying like prayer works.  Today, I invite you to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life and avoid the judgment of God on your life.