Last year the New Orleans Saints football won the Super Bowl for the first time in team history after the ravages of hurricane Katrina. They were led by a MVP quarterback who is clearly a Christian both in word and in action.
The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup after a 49 year drought led by their captain and Christian from here in Manitoba, Jonathan Toews. And last week we saw the San Francisco Giants win the World Series for the first time since they moved from New York over 50 years ago.
Something is happening in professional sport, teams that have not tasted victory for a long time are winning championships. Then there’s Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer ever toppled from the top of the world rankings for the first time in years after getting caught in adultery, getting a divorce, and glorifying Buddha. His game went down the tank with his life.
In essence this reflects what is also happening in our study of the book of Revelation. Though down for centuries, facing persecution and loss, always the underdog, we are witnessing that the church, the people of God are going to finally win. Today we are going to hear some of the Voices of Victory at last.
In chapter 14 we begin with:
I. The Voices of the Saved (14:1-5)
The first thing we see is that there are 144000 people sealed by God and:
A. They are Standing (v. 1)
Not only are they standing, they are standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Look at Psalm 2, “He who sits in the heavens laughs when the nations set themselves against the Lord. Then he will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in his fury saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Mt. Zion, my holy hill”.
The redeemed are standing with the redeemer on the heavenly Zion mentioned in Hebrews 12. How do we know this is the heavenly Zion? Because it says later that they have been redeemed from the earth and from mankind as firstfruits, or sacrifices.
Jesus is also standing, indicating that he is no longer sitting at the right hand of the Father but is taking action to establish his Kingdom.
And what are these redeemed people doing? The same thing we have seen over and over in Revelation:
B. They are Singing (vv 2-3)
And it is a new song. A new song because no other people have been through what they have, no one else has been redeemed out of the Great Tribulation. Another clue that this is heaven is that they are singing this song before the throne, the living creatures, and the elders.
We also see that:
C. They are Separate (vv 4-5)
These people do not belong to the world, they have been redeemed from it. Look how it describes them. They have not defiled themselves with women, they follow the Lamb wherever he goes, in their mouth are no lies (really meaning they have nothing to hide, their sin is completely confessed), and they are blameless. Does that sound like earth dwellers to you?
That they are virgins means that they have not committed adultery with other gods, they are pure and blameless because of the Lamb, not their own works. They are loyal to Jesus, they follow Him no matter what, they were not unfaithful even unto death. These are converted Jewish martyrs from the Great Tribulation. But I think they also represent all of the redeemed.
They are called first fruits, which means they are those who offered themselves as living sacrifices. Why is the sexual metaphor used here to describe their faithfulness? Well, like the rest of the Bible sexual fidelity is a mirror of our fidelity to God. There is a direct relationship between sexual purity and faithfulness to God, so we must never think that sexual immorality isn’t important to God. But more important is our faithfulness as the bride of Christ worshipping only Him.
D. They are a Sacrifice (v. 4c)
Looking at the language used here, “they are first fruits” who is the first fruit - Jesus. James in the context of remaining steadfast under trial says that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
No matter where we look in scripture there is always this uncomfortable reminder that we are to sacrifice our lives for Christ, not necessarily literally through death, but as we get closer to the end, it becomes clear that that will be more common as Satan gets more control of the world. Even in life we are to be living sacrifices.
Not only do we hear the voices of the victorious martyrs, we also hear:
II. The Voices of the Angels (14:6-20)
And what do they have to say? First of all that:
A. Judgment is Come (vv 6-7)
This angel flies around with an eternal gospel that is proclaimed to every one on earth. There will be a time when their will not be a living soul who does not know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I want you to notice how this Gospel is proclaimed (read verse 7).
That is not a real fluffy love Gospel is it? Don’t fear the beast, sure he can kill your body, fear God, he’s the creator, give him glory, worship him, why? Because judgment has come. There is no Gospel without judgment. We don’t need the good news if there is nothing to be saved from.
Another angel then proclaims that:
B. Babylon is Fallen (v. 8)
We’ll see more detail on this in chapter 18. Babylon = civilization without God trying to glorify ourselves. It originates with the tower of Babel where mankind wanted to be God and show what we could do without Him.
Babylon is the political and economic organization of the beast. When we hear of the Harlot, that is the religious system that the beast uses to help build his world system.
This is a huge proclamation because it is talking about the destruction of the entire world system and we will see the effects of that a few chapters from now, remembering that there will be a new heaven and earth because the old will be done away with.
The third angel’s message is directed toward those who follow the beast, and he is giving them one final warning to:
C. Escape God’s Wrath (vv 9-13)
This is basically a heavier handed way of saying what James did that friendship with the world is enmity with God, that whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Remembering here that world means worldly passions, attachment to the beast’s system of self-centeredness, greed, and immorality.
Wine was often diluted with water in these days, but God is about to pour out his cup full strength. If you worship the beast, have more love for this world system than for God, you will experience His wrath full strength not diluted with mercy any longer. Remember this is after the angel takes the Gospel to every person on earth.
We may not like to use the words wrath and torment when talking about our loving God. But we must remember that his love is Holy and he must justly deal with sin and evil.
This is not a sentimental love, it is a Holy parental love. There has been plenty of time to repent and turn to Jesus as saviour, and people have only themselves to blame if they get caught in this wrath. It is completely avoidable, and always has been.
I think here the call for the endurance of the saints is really a call to bear with God as he unleashes His wrath, because none of us want to see our God putting humanity through this. There seems to be an implied promise that even though you must witness this, and it looks terrible, my plan is perfect and good and you will see that in the end.
There is no rest for the wicked as we say, and there is eternal rest for the saints. It’s better to reign with Christ forever even if it means some persecution, than to reign with Antichrist for a short time and end up with him forever.
The next thing we see is one who looks like Christ on a cloud with a sickle, and the next angel shouts that:
D. The Harvest is Ripe (vv 14-20)
Here we see the Great White Throne Judgment. This is the final separation of the saved and the damned, and it appears that the first reaping that Christ does is the grain which are the saved, and the second reaping done by an angel that takes orders from the one who has authority over the fire, these are the grapes, or the damned who are to be trodden in the winepress.
The Lord is waiting for these harvests to be ripe even now. This vine of grapes is the worldly vine, the Babylon that intoxicates people and controls them with passion, and this one must be cut down and destroyed for God’s plan to go forward.
This is also the first reference to the physical second coming of Jesus. In Acts 1 we see Jesus ascend to heaven on a cloud and the angel says he will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven. He comes on a cloud to perform the Great White Throne judgment, which we will see described again somewhat differently in chapter 19 on the horse, and in Chapter 21 with the New Jerusalem.
A voice from heaven then says, blessed are the dead who die in Christ from now on, during the great tribulation. Those who come to believe and are killed are blessed. If they die without the Lord from then on they will be going to hell. There will be no rest, ever.
Today God is speaking to the world in grace, and people will not listen. One day he will have no choice but to speak in wrath. This blood that flows is obviously a hyperbole John uses, but interestingly 1600 stadia is about the length of the nation of Israel from top to bottom.
Christ gathers his people and the other angel harvests the lost. The saved have eaten the bread of life, the unsaved have drunk the wine of the prostitute and are not part of the blood covenant with Jesus. In the city is the wheat, outside the city is the bloodshed.
Look at Joel 3, starting at verse 13, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, their evil is great. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.” God knows there will be no more repentance at this point.
The nations are all gathered in the valley of decision, one last chance, but they decide against Christ.
Look at how God describes this day in Isaiah 63. “Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
"I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel.
For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come.
I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me.
I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."
Later we will see that Jesus garments are spattered with blood. But I ask you, does that sound like a God who is enjoying this? He sounds greatly distressed to me.
Chapter 14 ends and with it the second set of seven chapters culminating in a description of the end. We have now seen two complete versions of the end times from different perspectives, and now we begin the third section from chapter 15 to 21 where there are more details about the very end.
Moving into chapter 15 now we hear finally:
III. The Voices of the Victors (15:1-4)
Here is the third sign John sees, in ch 12 we see the woman - Israel, the dragon - Satan, and now the third sign, seven angels with seven plagues, the completion of God’s wrath.
The angels are lining up with the final seven plagues that will end God’s wrath. We witness the image of the sea of glass again this time mingled with fire, representing God’s holiness and His judgment, these are inseperable, and all the saved are standing beside it worshipping, again singing a song. John calls this the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
The song of Moses was sung when God delivered them from the Egyptians in the Exodus, and now this deliverance is paralleled with that. This is the Lamb delivering all God’s people from the wrath to come upon the world.
These conquerors were probably martyred like Jesus. They didn’t conquer on earth through the tribulation, but for eternity. They conquered by not bowing to the beast. He can’t take our eternal life away unless we worship him over God. Remember Jesus tells us in Mt 10:28 to not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
He talks about these conquerors in the letters to the churches. What are the characteristics of conquering? Repentance flows through all of them, but specifically to Ephesus, conquering is coming back to our first love, doing what we did when we first fell in love with Jesus.
To Pergamum, be faithful unto death in tribulation. To Thyatira, two things, do not give in to false teaching and commit adultery with other gods and the worldly desires. Also, to hold fast to true teaching and commandments until Jesus comes.
To Sardis, wake up and realize your true state, and strengthen the foundation you do have.
To Philadelphia, who he had nothing against, keep my word and don’t let anyone interfere with your patient endurance.
And finally to Laodicea, especially relevant to us, though all the others are as well, don’t be lukewarm, get passionate, zealous, and get our pleasure from the Lord rather than from the world, Babylon.
The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb praise:
1. The greatness of His deeds
2. The truth of His ways, everything about him is fair and right, and holy.
We are victorious in Christ, if indeed we are in Christ. If we come out of this Babylon and patiently endure tribulation which will surely come.
Being in Christ is not just professing belief. Jesus and the apostles make it very clear that it involves repentance, loving Christ as your first love. Not allowing false teaching to deceive you, keeping His commandments, acknowledging our true state as falling short of what God desires on our own efforts, obeying His word, and not being lukewarm, but passionate and zealous about sharing the testimony about the blood of the Lamb.
There is a harvest coming, which harvest are you going to be a part of?
