The Book of Revelation: Lesson 35 – Ch. 15:1 – 16:21

Seven churches—seven seals—seven trumpets—seven thunders—what’s next? Seven swans a-swimming?

Would you believe chapter 15, verse 6, reads, “Out of the temple came seven angels with seven plagues”? And what were they given? The answer is “seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God.” That’s found in verse seven!

To get our bearings in the midst of all these sevens, let’s do a quick review.

Opening the seven seals on the edge of the scroll brought us to the threshold of the end-times.

Between the seven seals and the seven trumpets there was an interlude, or insertion, or interruption that broke the flow of what was happening. It focused first on the Jewish martyrs and then on the much-larger multitude of Gentile ones.

When the final or seventh seal was broken, there was absolute silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then the wrath of God began to be displayed against the evil of the world.

Between the seven trumpets and the seven bowls there was once again an insertion. This interruption informed us first about the two Jewish witnesses. Then we learned about the two beasts that will also temporarily rule over the Gentile world.

The seven golden bowls of God’s wrath are a continuation of the seven trumpets. So we can expect both overlap and also some new material. The bowls, therefore, are an intensification of the trumpet plagues, plus the revealing of additional information regarding the future.

In many ways the trumpets and bowls remind us of the plagues of Egypt during the time of Moses.

The purpose of God showing His power like this is to bring men and women to their knees in a last opportunity for repentance. For the most part, however, they stubbornly refuse to do so (16:9, 11, 21).

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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The Book of Revelation: Lesson 34 – Chapter 14:1-20

Angels come up more in Revelation than in any other book of the Bible. They are mentioned repeatedly in this chapter. So for me to not write about them would be a major oversight.

The word angel means “messenger,” and this is the primary role they fill. Angels appear to exist in a dimension other than our own, yet they influence what goes on in our world. At certain critical times they have been known to make themselves visible to select human beings.

Even though I have never encountered an angel, I do believe in them. Mainly that’s because in the Gospels Jesus not only repeatedly affirms their existence, but they play a significant role in His life. They appear often in the events surrounding His birth. Angels also minister to Jesus following His temptation in the wilderness, and strengthen Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the accounts of His Resurrection they are present once again.

Angels are created beings who rank higher than humans, with superior strength and intellect. They don’t die. Neither do they marry, and in Scripture they are always presented as male. Their earthly role is to serve those men and women who will inherit salvation. These references verify what I have written and provide additional insights:

  • Luke 20:34-36
  • Hebrews 13:2
  • 2 Peter 2:11
  • 2 Samuel 14:20
  • Psalm 8:5
  • 1 Corinthians 6:3

From a passage like Revelation 19:10 we know that angels are not to be worshiped. Scripture also makes it clear in numerous places (e.g., Hebrews 1:1-14) that Jesus is far greater than the angels.

There are multiplied millions of angels both good and bad. Satan (formerly called Lucifer) is an example of an angel of highest rank who rebelled against his creator.

There are any number of famous Bible passages involving angels. Let me encourage you to read three of my favorites:

  • Daniel 6:1-24
  • Acts 12:1-19
  • 2 Kings 18:17 – 19:37.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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The Book of Revelation: Lesson 33 – Chapter 14:1-20

When basketball teams shoot 50% or more, they almost always win.

Revelation chapter 14 consists of a series of seven loosely connected visions. Five of the seven are easily understood. The sixth will be discussed in detail when we get to chapters 15-17. Only one of the seven is a bit confusing.

Scoring on six of seven shots is performing at an incredibly high percentage (over 85%). And the one section that’s hard to understand really has no bearing on the main thrust of the book.

  • Verses 6-7: Even this late in God’s timetable, the opportunity remains for people to respond to the Gospel.
  • Verse 8: The fall of Babylon the Great will be discussed at length starting with Revelation 17.
  • Verses 9-11: The angel makes it almost impossible to miss what he has to say. “Receive the mark of the beast, and you’re also going to experience the wrath of the Almighty.”
  • Verses 12-13: Will life be hard if you don’t get the beast’s mark? Yes. But martyrdom is not as bad as being“tormented with burning sulfur.” Right?
  • Verses 14-16: The concluding verses in the overall vision of chapters 12-14 are about a double harvest. The first is a positive collection of grain as Jesus gathers His own.
  • Verses 17-20: This is a frightening picture of an angel swinging his sickle and gathering grapes (representing judgment, not salvation). These are thrown into the great wine press of God’s wrath. Then they are trampled and from the press flows not wine but blood, at a depth of four feet and for a distance of 188 miles.
  • Verses 1-5 are more difficult: The Lamb is pictured as standing on Mt. Zion with the 144,000 (see Revelation 7). A great sound comes from heaven of a new song, which only the 144,000 can learn. Why that’s the case is explained, but the answer is a bit confusing.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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The Book of Revelation: Lesson 32 – Chapter 13:11-18

Do you like riddles?

According to the dictionary, a riddle is a mystifying, misleading or puzzling question to be solved or guessed.

Revelation 13:18 has to be one of the greatest mysteries of all time. It reads:

 “This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.”

By way of background, neither the Greek nor the Hebrew tongue used a system of numbers. Actually, the letters of the alphabet had numerical values. For example, A was 1, B=2, C=3, and so on. A name could therefore be converted into its corresponding numbers. In the ancient world this was called gematria.

Today, a guy could be clever and say, “The number of the girl I like is 11325.” Who’s going to know that A=1, M=13 and Y=25 and Amy is his heartthrob?

Some scholars believe this 666 number stands for Nero. If the name of Neron Kaiser (“Nero Caesar” in Greek) is put into Hebrew, the numbers work. Be that as it may, few of the early interpreters of Revelation saw this as the right solution.

The truth is, all kinds of people have worked on this puzzle. During the time of World War II, someone came up with a system where A=100, B=101, C=102, etc. Guess what?

H 107
I 108
T 119
L 111
E 104
R 117
Total: 666

But John didn’t write Revelation in English. What we have in our Bibles is a translation of the original Greek, which used an alphabet that differs from ours. All of this discourages me from working that much on this given problem.

I assume that when the time is right, someone far wiser than I am will come up with the solution to this mystery.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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