DAWN OF THE DEAD*
Revelation 14:1-20, Ephesians 2:1-10
Big Idea: Life and Death are best understood by one’s proximity to Jesus; Jesus has come to give us life – life to the full.
Supporting Scripture: Ezekiel 33:11 {KJV}, Isaiah 28:21 {KJV}, Psalm 103:8 {KJV}, Psalm 145:8 {KJV}, Luke 15:24 & 32, 24, John 10:10, John 14:6, Ephesians 2:1-10, Galatians 2:20, 2 Peter 3:9 {KJV}
We return today to our journey through The Revelation. After a summer hiatus we now pick up with chapter 14. As a way of reminder, let me briefly explain how I am approaching this wonderful book.
• It was written about a past event – an event pending in John’s day
• It has implications for a future event
• It is always written for the here and now. It is intended by God’s spirit to be useful in living and following the lamb in our day and age.
REVELATION 14:1-19
1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
6 Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
8 A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”
9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
17 Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” 19 The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20 They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
A few months back I was downtown at the summer festival when I was struck by a notion … maybe even a vision. I looked at the many people who were there for the festival underway and instead of seeing neighbors, shop keepers, etc I saw … zombies; people just walking to and fro … dead inside but moving outside. It was as if God was saying to me… “there is your mission field. There are the dead that need the life that my grace can give them. They move, eat, sleep, etc. but they are hopeless. They are spiritual zombies walking through life and destined to an eternity apart from me.”
The imagery has never left me. It effects how I pray for the community. To quote the famous line from the sixth sense … “I see dead people.”
I use the word “dead” on purpose; with intent. The Revelation uses the word with intent and specific meanings too.
If you look closely at chapter 14 (or any other portion of the book) you will discover that “dead” is as much about quality of life as it is taking in oxygen. In fact, from The Revelation’s vantage point no one is “dead” in the sense that they no longer exist. The body’s death is a transport to another realm not an “end all.”
1. THE WALKING DEAD.
I notice, for example, that our passage talks about, what I will call from my imagery this past summer, “the walking dead.”
The walking dead appear to be alive but … but they aren’t. Their choice to reject the God of life means their destiny is predictable and predetermined.
Revelation 20:12-15 reads:
12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
We would be wrong to read chapter 20 (or the judgment scene of chapter 14) as a victory whoop by God. We misunderstand the character of God if we see this as an act of vengeance a “Take that you loser – you finally got yours!” type reaction. This is not done with glee or even vengeance; it is a consequence of the actions of those who have rejected the way of the Cross.
Isaiah 28:21 {KJV} says judgment is called God’s strange and alien work. “The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon— to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task.”
Both the Old and New Testaments teach God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Ezekiel 33:11 {KJV}
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
2 Peter 3:9 {KJV}
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Even in today’s passage ( chapter 14) God gives one last chance to repent before bringing the inevitable consequence of their choices. This is, in fact, the only place in the Revelation where the word “Gospel” is used.
14:6 Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
These zombie-like “walking dead” / spiritually dead are easily identified by God. They have a mark. Some believe this mark is literal -- with ink or an iron brand -- but this mark describes all of humankind that are away from God not just a select few at the end of the age. So even if you do think it’s an actual, physical brand you would also agree that the spiritually dead are identified (“marked”) by their actions. “By their fruit You will know them,” Jesus said (Matthew 7:16 & 20).
May I play with the “walking dead” / zombie imagery a bit more for a moment? There is a reason it is a popular in our day. It works as a metaphor on so many levels. Just yesterday “USA Today” had an article on how effective the Zombie metaphor is. Also, just this week the history channel had a 2 hour special on zombie history and why it has reemerged. Even the CDC has a bulletin out about how to prepare for a Zombie attack. No, the CDC does not think zombies are real but they know you can replace the word Zombie with virtually anything (terrorist, bio-chemical, economic, etc.) and the preparation is the same.
Similarly, there are many things that the “spiritually dead” (far from God) do that is consistent with the popular zombie motif.
• Zombies consume other people.
To feast upon others for their own selfish needs. Is that not what many empires and people who do not know God do? Corporate greed, pedophilia, robbery, … it runs the gamut but every time we sin against each other we are taking a bite out of someone for our own use.
Ed Wright and I were talking last week about the ministry he had at the Dannemora prison. He talked about how you could see “deadness” in the eyes of the inmates. We talked about how many of them were themselves the product of someone “consuming” them. They were themselves abused and taken advantage of. We talked about the Christian Psychologist who once said if people would accept the Gospel and find the peace and life therein that the prisons and sanitariums would be virtually empty.
That’s what sin does; sin, incarnate in the spiritually dead, consumes other people for its own warped purposes.
• Those Zombies don’t consume – they infect.
Not everybody gets eaten by Zombies – some are infected and become Zombies themselves. The Bible teaches that “the sins of the father pass down to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 20:5, 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9). Our sin often infects those around us – making them the walking (spiritually) dead as well. For example, men who abuse their wives often raise young boys who will abuse their wives. You name it and you can see the contagious, infectious nature of sin.
1 Corinthians 15:33 says “Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals.”
• Zombies’ tactics are without discretion.
Zombies are no respecter of persons. They seem to mindlessly, without discrimination, seek to ruin the lives of anyone and everyone. They have no borders or barriers and no one is immune or excluded from their dastardly plans.
Doesn’t that describe evil too? Sin is no respecter of persons. It desires to get each of us in its grip.
• Zombies evangelize.
They roam the streets of cities to make them their own. Their goal is to possess the globe. They do not “recruit” by offering life … their evangelization takes life and brings only death. They are a growing army and will not be content until everyone on the planet is a Zombie as well.
Sin also loves company.
Yes, the walking dead – the spiritually dead – are distinctly identified and it will be those marks that bring them to judgment.
2. THE LIVING DEAD
I see another “quality” of death in the passage too. I am going to use another “Zombie” term to describe this group but I am using it in an opposite way that Zombie books and movies too. The other group I see here are very un-zombie-like and I will call them “The Living Dead.”
The living dead are those who seem to be dead but they actually have a guarantee of life. They are not dead at all! They are anything but dead! In fact, they are more fully alive because they follow Christ.
7:14I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
In chapter 20 these dead are described in more vivid detail. We discover some were beheaded (can’t get more dead than that) but … but … there is then a “Dawn of the Dead.” They come to life – FULL LIFE through the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
That’s the key – the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the game changer. Even Revelation’s apocalyptic language does not have the words to describe the fullness of life that Jesus’ resurrection brings to humankind.
You know what I am about to say don’t you? THE RESURRECTION CHANGES … EVERYTHING!!!!
Here’s the deal; we think the term “living” is a term reserved for us here on earth but to God … to God … life is defined by close proximity to Him not by being a carbon-based life form.
By God’s definition … you can still be walking the earth and be … dead. To be separated from God is … dead. Or … this body can be in a coffin and you be fully alive because you follow Jesus.
Let me say it again. God counts those who are close to Him … those who are born again followers of Jesus as living. Closeness to God determines life or death.
Jesus certainly thought of life and death in this way. For example, we are told twice in the story of the prodigal son that he was dead but now lives. Why? Because he’s back home with his father (Luke 15:24 & 32).
Paul understood life and death like this too. In Galatians 2:20 he says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
As with the walking dead – the living dead too are identified very clearly. They also have a mark (14:1). In fact, the mark on the forehead of the followers of Jesus is mentioned more times in The Revelation than the mark of the beast on the spiritually dead. Neither is “literal” in the sense of a tattoo or brand but both are real in the sense that their lives show who they follow (1:1-4, 13). You see, as with the spiritually dead so with the living … you will know them by their fruit.
14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
I see three things in this chapter that the followers of the Lamb do that show who they are identified with:
1. They Worship the Lamb (v. 1-3) – not the competing idolatries of their day.
2. They live holy lives (v.4-5)
3. They proclaim Good News to the lost (v. 7-8) – the word “angel” means messenger and can certainly apply to God’s people as they introduce people to the Lamb, warn them to flee the wrath to come, and turn to a loving God.
The Bible says that the followers of Jesus have passed from death into life. That is what the Gospel offers … a new life … an eternal life.
Have you noticed how many times the New Testament uses the imagery of “life” to define the followers of Jesus?
• You must be “born again”, Jesus says (John 3)
• Our baptism is a rising to “newness of life” (Romans 6:4)
• Or, again, the responsive reading this morning from Ephesians 2. Part of it reads: “1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Sadly, Ephesians 2 teaches us that we need not do anything to be counted among the walking (spiritually) dead. It is our natural state of being (v. 3). But it takes an act of God and God alone for us to be counted among the living.
John insists that no one can remain uncommitted in the conflict between God and evil. Either one bears the mark and the name of the beast (13:16-18) or one bears the seal and name of God the Lamb (14:1).
WRAP-UP
There is a simple sentence I almost always use when I preach a believer’s funeral. I also often use it when consoling the family of one of God’s saints. It is very simple, probably often forgotten but for me … for me it is the core of my faith. I simply say, “Death is not the end for the believer; it is a gift” If, in fact, you are a follower of Jesus you will be resurrected to newness of life. You will be in the land of the living and your name will be in the “book of the living” (20:2).
So, in closing – may I ask you a question?
Are you dead inside? You may be walking and kicking outside but deep within you know you’re simply dead inside. The living and loving God is eager to give you life. In fact, Jesus said, “You must be born again.” (John 3:7).
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
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* Much of the description I provide here about the dead and the living indeed Zombie motif itself comes from Dr. Brian Blount’s (President of Union Theological Seminary) presentation on Resurrection and Apocalyptic Literature at Yale Divinity School in October 2011.
This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
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Responsive Reading: Alive in Christ
Ephesians 2:1-10
Leader: And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
People: Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Leader: But God, being rich in mercy…
People: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
Leader: By grace you have been saved.
People: By grace we have been saved. And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Leader: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
People: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
