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Past Ponderings

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Who Can Stand? (Revelation 6:12-17, 7:9-10)

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 Who Can Stand? (Revelation 6:12-17, 7:9-10)

GIST: There will be both mass destruction and mass rejection, but the rescued will stand. Will you?


Today, we’re finishing our journey through chapter 6 of Revelation. I chose to divide this into three chunks so we could really take time to digest different aspects of, essentially, this one truth: life is going to be hard, but God is in control. The first week, we saw there will be desires for selfish gain (conquest) that will lead to war, scarcity, and death. These types of calamities will continue and grow from the time Jesus ascended into Heaven until He returns. Last week, we then saw that people will also continue to lose their lives for Jesus, and we talked about how vengeance belongs to the just God of compassion… not to us. In both passages, we really needed to step back and ask if we’re willing to trust God in times like these. 

Today, we’re looking at seal six, and the question will be similar. But before I get into it, let’s just look at the passage together→ 


“12 When He opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?””

Here we see a picture of mass destruction culminating in this question: “Who Can Stand?” That happens to also be the title of this message ☺️.  So, let’s spend some time unpacking that. Here’s our gist: There will be both mass destruction and mass rejection, but the rescued will stand. Will you?



I. There Will Be Mass Destruction

“12 When He opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” 

Ok, so there is an obvious question here→ 

Is this the end of the world? We have to remember, Revelation isn’t meant to be taken chronologically, but is describing the kinds of events that will happen until Jesus returns. In part, then, this does point to mass destruction happening as we near His return. Since Jesus ascended into Heaven, we have seen mass destruction happening.  That’s why this won’t even be the last time we see this kind of language in Revelation. For example, here are the other times we see the word “earthquake” in the book. 


(Revelation 8:5) "5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake."


(Revelation 11:13, 19) "13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. ... 19 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail."


(Revelation 16:18) "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."


Just this perspective gives us a look at the progressive parallelism being used in this text. We see the same kinds of things from different perspectives, but the intensity level does seem to get turned up. 

Secondly though, let’s not miss the message. Forgetting this is imagery will really mess with you because all the mountains disappear in verse 14 and people call for them to fall and hide them in verse 16. Instead, this is pointing to a bigger picture. Namely→ 

Sin Is Destroying The World, but the Creator Is About To Do Something. I’m indebted to Brett Davis (See The Strange: The Gospel According to Revelation) for pointing out John is, yet again, pulling from his Old Testament store houses. All throughout the prophets, we read language like this. The context, which is really the context of our lives, is “sin ruins God’s perfect creation, but God isn’t just standing by idly. He’s moving in big ways. He’s moving to redeem and restore.” Here are just a couple examples I think really parallel well to this passage in particular.


(Isaiah 34:4) “4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.”


(Joel 2:10, 30-31) “10 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. ... 30 "And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”


(Joel 3:15-16) “15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 16 The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.”


(Habakkuk 3:6) “6 He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways…”

So, there will be mass destruction until Jesus returns. However, that’s not the most devastating part of this passage→ 


II. There Will Also Be Mass Rejection

Look at the last verses in this chapter. “15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Heartbreaking. Let me make a few observations.

First→ 

This Rejection Is Coming From All “Kinds”. Everyone. Rich and poor. Slave and free. The powerful. The needy. The influential. The forgotten. Sin is not “someone else’s problem”. It affects us all. 

And these people see massive movements of God and allow sin to rule in their hearts anyway. They see judgment and flee instead of seeing a Savior and running to Him. In fact→ 

They blame God for the destruction of sin. Why? Because it’s always easier to cast blame rather than face responsibility. This Brett Davis quote sums it up well→ 

“This symbolic language of the sixth seal points us toward the baffling reality that we, as humanity, would often rather cling to the death-filled world of Horses instead of receiving the life offered by the Lamb. God casting evil out of the world will inevitably also involve God casting evil out of us. And we continue to cling to our favorite scraps of sin and death. We consider the death we know preferable to the life that we don’t...We often would rather hide than be healed.”(See the Strange)

Mass destruction and rejection will happen→ 


III. But The Rescued Will Stand

Chapter 6 ends with a vital and legitimate question: “who can stand?”. When the world is falling apart and masses are blaming the God who can rescue them, who will stand?

Chapter 7 gives us the answer. I thought about diving a bit more into that this morning, but it’s a lot, and I’m not fully prepared to bite that much off this morning (and still honor your time), so I’m just going to give you this sneak peek of sorts. Look ahead to 7:9-10. It’s so beautiful→  

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" 

I know this is the last point, so I don’t want to lose you, but, guys, this is so good. As we’ll discuss next week, chapter seven introduces a “pause” or “interlude” in the opening of the seals. We’ll see this a couple times in the book. It’s as if Jesus doesn’t want us to miss the driving message in the midst of the controlled chaos: He’s saving souls because of His love. Let me just make these quick observations. 

There will be those standing before the throne of God.

It will be a multicultural multitude. An innumerable group of people from all over the world. This isn’t just a salvation for America. This isn’t a religion of people of European descent. Jesus came to rescue all who will come! This is why missions are so vital→ For God So Loved The WORLD! And these standing are→ 

Purified By Jesus. They have been covered in His righteousness. They are standing because of what He’s done for them, and they know this because they are→ 

Declaring Him King. I know we’re more than a month out, but do you see the palm Sunday allusions here. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, they laid down palm branches treating Him like a conquering king and calling for His salvation, even if they didn't fully understand what they were doing. This group, though, gets it. He is their king, and they→ 

Worship Him As Savior. Amen!

So, that leaves us two questions for our→ 


TAKEAWAYS

  1. Will you stand in His grace?

  2. Will you run from His face?




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