Revelation 14-16 Justice!

Revelation 14:1 – 16:21

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Salwaltha Wandala, a 55 year old resident of the village Attagara in northern Nigeria arrived for church on the morning of Sunday, the first of June 2014. What he saw was horrific. People were being brutally murdered wherever he looked. 100 militia from Boko Haram attacked the village and its churches with machine guns and machetes. He saw a young boy get stabbed and thrown in a ditch. He jumped into the ditch to get the boy – but found himself surrounded by five men. They took the boy from him, chopped the boys head off in front of his eyes, and then beat him until they thought he was dead.

Attagara was a target because it was known as a Christian village. In two days over 200 people, including many young children, were brutally murdered at church and at children’s church.

How long, O Lord?

That’s the question behind the book of Revelation. The early church experienced terrible persecution. Horrific attacks. In chapter 6:10 those “under the alter”, who were killed for their faith in Jesus, shout “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?”

How long, O Lord? How long will you put up with such evil?

How long will you allow people to sin against each other and hurt each other? How long until justice is done.

Today our Christian brothers and sisters are being persecuted. They lose their job because of following Jesus – like Katarzyna, because she refused to be party to killing babies in their mother’s womb. Christians are arrested and thrown in jail because they are Christian – like Jerusalem’s brother. They are beaten, mocked, rejected from society, even murdered, often by government forces, simply because they follow Christ. Does God not see this? How long will he allow it? Will there ever be justice?

And it's not just Christians who experience injustice. When we look at the news, we ask the same question. How long?

A truck mows down 89 people in Nice. A bomb explodes at a concert in Manchester. In Aleppo, Syria, people have access to electricity for two hours a day, and water only one day a month! Every day we hear of terrible things happening, even here in Norway. There is violence in the streets, violence in our homes, and violence on our lips.

What is wrong with us?

Revelation reminds us that God sees everything that happens. He remembers everything. Nothing escapes his eye. And all these things will be dealt with, paid for in full. Justice will be done. Judgment day, the day of justice, is coming.

And that's a terrifying thought.

Because the eternal gospel is as follows: “Fear God and give him glory”. That's the first point. And the second is Learn from Egypt. Judgment Day is coming.

1. The eternal Gospel is “Fear God and give Him glory"

If I asked you to sum up the gospel - what we believe - what would you say? Probably something like me: “Jesus Christ saves sinners”. I doubt we would say what the angel shouts throughout the world in v6-7: 6 And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7 “Fear God,” he shouted. “Give glory to him. For the time has come when he will sit as judge. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all the springs of water.”

In these chapters there are two groups. First, the 144000 who are “without blame” “pure” and perfect, standing secure with Jesus, redeemed from the earth, with God's name on their foreheads. They stand on the sea of glass singing the song of Moses. Christians. We who have been given Jesus' righteousness by His grace alone and are now called “righteous”. Whatever happens in this life, we are safe.

The second group is not safe at all. In fact, all who are not in Christ will face God's wrath.

Now, it’s not very popular these days to talk about God's judgment! We prefer to think of God as kind and accommodating. And you know what - he is! He is… now. The door in is still open! It is still possible to cry out for mercy and receive Jesus’ righteousness as a gift and repent and follow him.
But that time will soon be past. The judge is beginning to don his judge’s robes. For our God is a God full of mercy. But He is also holy. Powerful. And terrifyingly good. He will not tolerate a sliver of evil. He cannot. He is holy! He is good. Not good like you and me, but GOOD to the nth degree. Like when gold or steel is brought from the mines and then burned in the furnace to remove all the impurities so will God test everything and only what perfectly perfect will survive.

7 “Fear God,” he shouted. “Give glory to him. For the time has come when he will sit as judge.

As we will sing one day, we saints, we holy ones of God, we Christians, we will stand on the sea of glass and sing in 15:3-4: “Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. 4 Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”

We were created and indeed all things were created to give glory to God. It is the our life’s purpose. It is the universe's purpose. To give glory to God. As we breathe in and as we breathe out we are to glorify God. Glory to God. Glory to God.

But do we do that? No! We turned our back on God. We decided that we should glorify ourselves! I'm number one! I'll honour myself.

If you don’t believe me, just watch the adverts on TV. They reveal our true selves. They’re aimed at our selfishness, our wish to be better than everyone else. Happier, prettier, more successful, with a better car and better house. Everything is about me. You know, I’ve never seen an advert saying “this will help you to glorify God!” Not even one saying “this will help you serve others”. No. Serve yourself. Because you’re worth it. That's the way we think.

And that's the opposite of how we were created, and the opposite of how the world is set up to work. For God’s pattern is selfless love - putting the needs of others before your own. That's how the world is designed to work. Just imagine if we all lived like that!

Unfortunately we don’t, as we all know too well.

Injustice is everywhere. For example, we’re involved in a case with the Barnevern (Norwegian social services) where they have removed a child from her home and placed her with strangers because they’ve suddenly decided that the mother is unfit to be a mother. Their treatment of the child has been heavy-handed, they have ignored her protests, and have even ignored the requirements of the law in order to do what they wanted to do. Those who should have protected her and looked after her have instead abused her. And some of you have experienced the similar things. Abuse of power. Injustice.

But you know what. The Holy God sees. The Holy God will bring justice.

All evil, even corrupt governments, misuses of power, miscarriages of justice, however small or large, all evil will fall.

8 Then another angel followed him through the sky, shouting, “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen—because she made all the nations of the world drink the wine of her passionate immorality.”

We will meet the woman Babylon properly next week. She represents the world united against God, especially government powers. Her “passionate immorality” is unfaithfulness to God. We were made for him, but we choose everything except him! So he warns us with these words: Fallen, fallen is Babylon. Justice is coming. And it will fall on all who do not honour God.

The third angel confirms this: 9 Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand 10 must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. 11 The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”

Ugh. These are terrible words. This refers to the previous chapter where everyone is marked with the number 666 representing the devil. All who are not in Christ and marked with his name belong to the beast. And those who belong to the beast will drink of the cup of God's wrath. This is the cup Jesus prayed about in the garden of Gethsemane. Mark 14:36 ​​[Jesus] said, "Abba, Father! Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me! Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
And then on the Cross Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath for us so that we do not have to. We who belong to Jesus will never taste his wrath because Jesus drank it for us. Hallelujah.
But if you are not in Christ Jesus, then the cup remains. Still full. Full of right judgment for everything you've done and all that you should have done.

This is scary. Horrible! We’re not playing around here. We are not gathered here at church to have a tea party! This is serious business. And I've experienced enough of God and seen enough historical evidence to know that this is true. This is solid, true, truth. And it scares me to death. And it should scare you too.

The eternal gospel is to fear God and give him glory. So, do I fear God? Because if we don’t fear him now and seek refuge in Him, we certainly will fear him on the day of judgment. On that Day he will gather all who oppose him, all who do not glorify him, all who destroy, all who do evil, all that is not holy and perfect, whether big or small: Boko Haram, Breivik, the two beasts of false religion and state powers, the dragon Satan, terrorism, abuses of power, violence, lying, gossiping, selfishness ... everything. The wickedness of the earth will be harvested, and Jesus is ready with his sickle.

19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20 The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles [290 kms] long and as high as a horse’s bridle.

The grapes are we who refuse to accept the grace of God. We who have not received Jesus' righteousness. And if that is you now, please accept God's mercy today. You do not have to be pressed in the winepress of wrath. Please. Swap out your old unrighteous, filthy life for Jesus' new life, his righteousness, his holiness. It costs nothing! It’s free! But it also costs everything. It costs nothing because there is no effort, no rituals, nothing that you can do to earn it. It's a gift. A gift of mercy for those who ask.
But it costs everything. Because you have to give up your life. Instead of honouring yourself, you must now glorify God. You are 'under new management'. You have a new owner. You now belong to Jesus instead of the beast. Amen.

Fear God and give him the glory, for the day of justice is coming, just as it did over Egypt.

2. Learn from Egypt. Judgment Day is coming.

Some background first. In the book of Exodus, we read the story of the Jews who became slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh king of Egypt hated the Jews. He made them his slaves to do obey his every command. They were trapped with no way out. But they cried out to God, and God heard them. He sent Moses.

Moses rescued the Jews – but brought great plagues came upon Egypt. He was the saviour of the God’s people, the Jews, but the judge of their enemies, Pharaoh and the Egyptians. With Moses came righteousness and freedom for those slaves who cried out to God. But with Moses came judgement, suffering, and finally death to those who opposed him and who hated God and did not want to listen to him.

All of this was a big picture for us so that we could understand what Jesus did for us. He saved us from slavery to sin, from our "Pharaoh" Satan. We were trapped in sin – slaves to sin. O, we try to improve ourselves - and the world just gets worse! We know the right thing to do - but we do the opposite. We shall not lie - but as soon as we're under a bit of pressure, lies come flooding out as easy as that. And we gossip and take revenge and tear people down with our words. And the list goes on. We are slaves to sin.

But Jesus can save us. He says come with me. And he leads us safely to the promised land. Not Israel, but Heaven.

And so we sing the song of Moses in 3 And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. 4 Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”

And we sing because He, the Righteous One, is coming out of His temple. And when he comes nobody can stand against him.

5 Then I looked and saw that the Temple in heaven, God’s Tabernacle, was thrown wide open. 6 The seven angels who were holding the seven plagues came out of the Temple.

Just like in Egypt, those who oppose God will experience the consequences of it. It is no small thing to rebel against the Living God! We have been warned.

Lord in your mercy, open our ears!

The plagues in chapter 16 are terrible. Disgusting. This is horrible stuff we read. And it’s meant to scare us. We are meant to be afraid, and so turn to God.

16:1 Then I heard a mighty voice from the Temple say to the seven angels, “Go your ways and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.” 2 So the first angel left the Temple and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue.

If we do not worship Jesus, then we in the end, belong to the beast and all we do glorifies him. And this will not be tolerated forever!
God is no grandfather in the clouds. He is the everlasting holy almighty God. We must not take his patience for granted. Just because he has not judged yet does not mean that he never will.

Because how do you know that you won’t suddenly be face to face with him. A little accident, a disease, and whoops! There we are in front of him. Big. Powerful. Holy. And we totally unprepared. Completely naked. Filthy. A fool. With nothing to say in your defence.

I once experienced such a meeting with God. And I was struck dumb. Everything I placed my trust in - good person, moral, upright, Christian family, read the Bible every day – it was all shown to be worthless, rubbish, before his terrifying majesty. I am a sinner!

I am so grateful that he met me that day with mercy, to forgive and not to judge. Because I was undone!

I sometimes think what if that had not happened. What if I had never received the grace to say YES to Jesus Christ. What if I had died and then stood in front of the throne. Naked. Alone. With nothing to offer.
Out! OUT! Out with those who worship the beast, out with those who kill the saints, out with those who are burned by the fierce heat yet still blaspheme the name of God. It is too late! When justice comes it is too late. Did you see that? 11 and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. Also in v9 and v20.
When the day of judgment comes - or the day you die for then we go straight to judgment day - then it's too late. Because then we will be allowed to choose what we have chosen: I do not want anything to do with God and Jesus. And that is literally to choose hell. Fire and pain and earthquake and blood. Terrible pictures that are trying to tell us: repent! Receive Jesus’ grace while there is time.
And if you have received his grace – stand firm! For He is coming soon. The day of justice is coming.

Let's learn from Egypt. Judgment Day is coming.

To sum up then: For those who have suffered injustice, judgement day is a good day. Those who were killed for their faith, like those brutally murdered in Nigeria, get justice. We see that in v5-7 5 And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying, “You are just, O Holy One, who is and who always was, because you have sent these judgments. 6 Since they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is their just reward.” 7 And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”

The day is coming, perhaps today, where those who have spilt innocent blood will get what they deserve. Nobody will escape their wrongdoing. Any pain you have experienced in your life will be addressed. Everyone who has hurt you will pay. We do not need to take revenge. The day of justice will come. And that is good news!

But the day of justice will come. And that is frightening! For we too have hurt others. We have done evil. We have not feared God and honoured him with everything.

Are we ready for Judgement Day? For we are all of us guilty.
The only escape from judgement is to be among those standing on the sea of glass with God, the 144,000 that are blameless. And that is only through believing in Jesus.

As we close, I want to just remind us of what Jesus has done for us so that we do not have to meet him as judge. For on the cross he wiped away my sins. He died in great suffering and pain. He went through death and even Hell so that I do not have to. I deserve this in chapters 14, 15 and 16. I deserve hell because I denied God and sinned against him. But instead, I'm treated like Jesus. Blameless. Perfect! And one day I will stand on the sea of glass and sing Moses’ song! Hallelujah! That’s the gospel.

My prayer today is that each of us here tonight will be standing there with me. If you have not yet accepted Jesus as Lord – then do so now! If you follow Jesus, then rejoice! And live with thanksgiving and with great joy because of what he’s done for us. Jesus is coming soon. Justice will soon be done. Amen.

If you want to accept Jesus and do not know how, I will help you pray a prayer. A prayer is simply talking to God. You don’t need to pray out loud - he knows what you're thinking. So pray this in your mind to him.
I will read through the prayer, and if you want to make it your own, I will repeat it slowly so that you can pray it to God

Almighty God, I am a sinner because I have lived without you. I have not feared you. I have not given you glory. Judgment Day is coming and I am afraid. In your mercy, please forgive me, Lord, because of Jesus’ death on the cross. Take my life and give me your righteousness. I surrender to you. Be my Saviour, my Lord, and my God. In the name of Jesus, Amen.