Show Notes
Revelation 9:1-12
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] God, let's pray.
[00:00:03] Lord, we ask that you would bless us now as we hear more of your word.
[00:00:08] Lord, we ask that you would do all the things in our hearts that are necessary.
[00:00:15] And we praise you that you know each one of us according to our particular needs, that you know us better than our friends, our family.
[00:00:25] You know us better than we know ourselves.
[00:00:28] There are so many things in our own hearts, Lord, that are mysterious to us.
[00:00:34] Why do we do the things we don't want to do?
[00:00:37] Why do we keep struggling in the ways that we do? What's even going on?
[00:00:42] How do we understand?
[00:00:44] What do we do?
[00:00:46] Lord, these calls from our hearts to you are answered in your love and your care and concern for us. Knowing that we are feeble and frail, knowing that we are creatures, knowing that we struggle.
[00:01:03] Not only do you answer these things according to your perfect will, but you use them.
[00:01:08] Your word tells us for sanctification, for growing and persevering and refining, even as gold and a fire.
[00:01:19] So, Lord, we ask this morning that you would refine us, that you would do your work in our hearts and all the particular ways that it needs to be done.
[00:01:29] We also pray, Lord, that you would do your work in us as a body, as we are shaped together, knit together, each joint and member exactly where you have placed us.
[00:01:44] We ask that you would work in us as a whole, help us as a, as a church, as a. As a presbytery, as a denomination, and as one body of Christ throughout the whole world.
[00:01:57] We ask, Lord, that you would be at work giving us all that we need.
[00:02:02] Do this now for those of us here through the reading and preaching of your Word, and for a our brothers and sisters and those who have yet to be brought in, all throughout the world.
[00:02:15] We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:20] Let's remain standing and turn to Revelation 9.
[00:02:23] I'll read 1 through 12. This morning.
[00:02:42] We are in a section of the Scriptures in which the Lord is bringing judgment on the world.
[00:02:50] But judgment on the world is also salvation for his people.
[00:02:57] And so it's right for us to understand these things rightly, to give our attention to them.
[00:03:04] I'll just remind you that this judgment is coming, coming as a response to the prayers of God's people. As he hears our prayers and the prayers of others in the world.
[00:03:19] He responds as we saw before on the seven trumpets were blown on this morning. We come to the fifth trumpet in verses one through 12.
[00:03:35] And the fifth angel blew his trumpet and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth.
[00:03:42] And he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
[00:03:47] He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace.
[00:03:55] And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
[00:04:00] Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth. And they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.
[00:04:09] They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
[00:04:20] They were allowed to torment for five months, but not to kill them.
[00:04:25] And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
[00:04:29] And in those days people will seek death and will not find it.
[00:04:36] They will long to die.
[00:04:38] Death will flee from them.
[00:04:41] In appearance, the locusts were like horses prepared for battle.
[00:04:45] On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold.
[00:04:48] Their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lion's teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron. And the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
[00:05:06] They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.
[00:05:15] They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit.
[00:05:20] His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
[00:05:26] The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to come.
[00:05:32] You may be seated.
[00:05:56] Excuse me.
[00:06:05] In the first four trumpets, before the woes began, we saw terrifying things even there. But in the first four trumpets, the destruction that occurred in various parts of the earth was partial, it was restrained in some ways.
[00:06:28] There's an increasing intensity that happens here in the group of people on which the Lord's judgment is coming, is not the whole world altogether, but particularly on those those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
[00:06:50] You remember earlier in Revelation, his people were marked, they were sealed as those who were belonging to him. So these are those who do not belong to the Lord, those who do not, who have not been cleansed by the righteousness of Christ.
[00:07:07] Those who have experienced the temporal judgments of God in their life and have refused to turn, have refused to turn to the Lord in repentance, refused to turn to him in faith.
[00:07:25] And so, as there is an intensification of this, as the last day is coming, we have these three woes. And this is the first of one.
[00:07:40] As the verse 12 read, the first woe has passed behold, two woes are still to come. It's very ominous, isn't it?
[00:07:50] Especially after everything that happens in this woe, in this, this.
[00:07:57] This announcement and this vision of what happens when the fifth angel blows his trumpet.
[00:08:04] We'll spend some time this morning thinking about what John sees here and its implications for our lives.
[00:08:13] What do we see?
[00:08:16] Well, the first thing we see is a star falling from heaven to the earth.
[00:08:23] A star.
[00:08:24] This appears to represent a personal individual and an angel, an angelic being.
[00:08:32] There's two reasons to think that. One, we see his actions, right? It's not just a power. He's called. He says he opens the shaft, then smoke rises.
[00:08:46] We are also told that this one, he is.
[00:08:52] In verse 11, they have all these locusts have a king over them. The angel of the bottomless pit. In Hebrew, his name is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. Both words meaning destroyer in the Bible.
[00:09:08] This bottomless pit, this place of death and destruction, or the destroyer, are often paired together in. In various ways.
[00:09:22] And he seems to be the same one that is given the key at the beginning.
[00:09:28] There's also a possible connection with Luke 10, when in Jesus's ministry and his activity we read in Luke 10:18, I saw Satan fall from lightning or fall like lightning from heaven.
[00:09:46] If this is Satan, then it seems to be this fall from heaven is reflecting Christ's victory over him. It's reflecting his power over the kingdom of darkness.
[00:10:00] But what we see here is that Satan is not giving up without a fight.
[00:10:06] He is attacking, he is destroying, he is bringing death.
[00:10:16] But he's also a tool.
[00:10:19] He's also the tool of God.
[00:10:24] That might be a hard thing to understand.
[00:10:26] A lot of times I think we have in our minds that Satan and God are kind of like these two equal forces battling it out and that God is maybe a little bit stronger, and so he's going to win.
[00:10:39] I think that's probably what's in a lot of our minds, but that's not right.
[00:10:45] One thing to remember is that the angels, including unclean spirits, fallen angels, are creatures.
[00:10:52] They're not gods.
[00:10:54] Powerful creatures indeed, but they're creatures just like us.
[00:11:00] We are creatures in the sense that we are not gods. We are creatures in the sense that we are limited. We are bound by our natures, which are not infinite, which are created, and which are ultimately under the authority of God, who is supreme above all beings in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. I'm quoting from language in Colossians that talks about the Lord Jesus who is over all things. And it appears in other places in scripture too.
[00:11:32] So Satan and all other creatures are under the authority of God. And we see that happening here. And as the Lord, as the, let me say as the king over these, this great Locust army, this, we could say a Lord of hosts, a Lord bringing judgment, a King with great power. There's a lot of language that sounds similar to what we say about Jesus, the Lord of hosts, the King who brings judgment.
[00:12:06] But it's not equal.
[00:12:09] It's not equal. And we know that from the very beginning because one, it's the angel. It's one of these angels of the Lord that blows the trumpet.
[00:12:19] It's God's work in the world that brings these things about. This Locust army, this fallen star, the key that opens the bottomless pit, all that all happens because of the Lamb who is risen and now one of his servants who blows the trumpet.
[00:12:38] Also at the beginning of Revelation, remember how Jesus is described with regard to keys?
[00:12:45] He holds the keys to death and Hades.
[00:12:50] He holds the keys.
[00:12:53] Satan doesn't have the keys.
[00:12:57] He is here given a key, but only at the command and the will of God. It's much like Satan we see in, in the book of Job.
[00:13:10] Terrible things happen to Job. Great struggling, great suffering. But it only happens because God allows it.
[00:13:18] And God allows it not because he's not holy or unrighteous or evil, but he allows it for very good purposes that have been not only in Job's life, but in the history of the world as the. God's work with Job, with Satan as his tool, he accomplishes great things.
[00:13:45] The best example of this is, is the crucifixion of Jesus, right?
[00:13:52] Satan putting it, putting things in the heart of Judas, working with him, the Son of perdition.
[00:14:01] All of the.
[00:14:02] Using all of the unrighteous power of false courts and false accusations, of betrayal and traitory is not a word.
[00:14:16] Treachery. How about that? Treachery.
[00:14:20] Got a thumbs up good Treachery, right? These, these are the things that are of sin, of evil. And they are brought to force, all brought to bear to kill the Son of God, right? This is the work of the evil one.
[00:14:41] This is the work of the evil one.
[00:14:44] But huge, huge thing to keep in mind.
[00:14:48] The Lord uses it all and he overcomes Satan. And not only does he overcome Satan on the cross, but the Scriptures say that Jesus put all these rulers and powers and authorities, which I think includes also these spiritual realms. He puts them to open shame in his death, not just in his resurrection in the crucifixion, so as they're mocking him, King of the Jews, crown of thorns. All of that, as all of this satanic activity is brought to bear in the destruction not just of Job and his family, but of Jesus, the anointed son of God.
[00:15:29] The Lord is using it to save us and save the world and yeah, hallelujah. And to embarrass and put to open shame the evil one.
[00:15:45] This is a mark. Not of God's recklessness or God's forgetfulness or God's lack of power or trying to control Satan, but he can only kind of do it. None of that. If that's in your head, you got to get that out.
[00:16:01] This is Satan doing what Satan wants to do and the Lord superseding everything he wants to do for his own glory.
[00:16:13] It's an amazing display of the power of God.
[00:16:21] And so he. He, this John sees the star falling from heaven and he's given a key. Given a key? He doesn't have one. He gives in the key to. The key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. What happens next? Verse 2. He opens the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft arose smoke like the smoke of furnace.
[00:16:43] The sun and air are darkened with smoke from the shaft and then from this smoke come locusts.
[00:16:54] Perhaps you've. We've talked before and about armies rolling across the earth and this kind of the way that they look and sound when they're all together, you know, creating earth creatures, quakes and shaking and things like this.
[00:17:11] Now imagine this picture of, you know, you look out and you're like, what's that out there? Seems like smoke.
[00:17:20] And then you realize all that this cloud of smoke is also this army of all of these individual soldiers.
[00:17:34] A lord of an army. A great army of hosts, we can say.
[00:17:42] Still we all remind ourselves, not even beginning to compare with the army of the Lord.
[00:17:47] But here, this, these. The smoke. From this smoke come locusts of the earth. And they are given powers to sting, but not to kill.
[00:18:00] My guess is there are some of you in this room who have been bitten by scorpions. And you can tell us later how that feels.
[00:18:09] Not good.
[00:18:11] We have them around here in these desert places.
[00:18:16] Every now and then we find one in our house and we have a little freak out and we get rid of it.
[00:18:23] Maybe we call the exterminator. We don't want them around, right?
[00:18:27] They hurt. They hurt really bad.
[00:18:30] As do these locusts. Now these locusts, they. They sting like scorpions. What else do they do. In verse four, we are told that they are not to harm the grass of the earth or the green plant or any tree. Why?
[00:18:46] Because there's a contrast being made here.
[00:18:49] It's not because the grass is being protected in a way it wasn't under the first four trumpets.
[00:18:55] It's a contrast with the plagues and the locusts in, in Exodus, when the locusts were sent out and that's what they harmed, and they ate all, everything in Egypt. Right. So in the past, this is what the locusts are often pictured doing as destroying the food supplies, which then affects the people. These locusts are different, though, and John wants us to understand that. How are they different? Well, they're told not to harm the grass or trees or any green plant. But people, it's different.
[00:19:31] And only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
[00:19:40] Judgment, this judgment that is coming, is not coming for God's elect.
[00:19:47] It's not coming for those who have been sealed by the Lord as those who have been marked by Him.
[00:19:55] Now, there is a great irony in this.
[00:20:01] Dennis Johnson points this out in his commentary.
[00:20:05] Satan, who desires to harm the Lord's anointed, to destroy the anointed One, the Messiah and his people, the Satan who is controlling this great destroyer with this great army, he can't touch the people of God.
[00:20:27] Every single one who has the seal of God is untouchable.
[00:20:36] These scorpions, these locusts, this great army, this great power, they are not able to touch the people of God.
[00:20:48] The irony, of course, as Johnson describes it, let me get this quote exactly.
[00:20:57] He says.
[00:21:01] He says Satan's demonic forces torment not God's servants, but those who belong to his own kingdom. Satan's kingdom, the devil, brings misery on his own followers.
[00:21:12] And of course, this is an ironic, tragic irony for those who follow Satan, for those who refuse to trust the Lord, who are who give themselves over to the evil One, they are not protected by him, they are not helped by Him. Instead, he unleashes this army of destruction on them.
[00:21:37] It's such an important reminder of our protection that God has on us and the great danger there is in not belonging to Him.
[00:21:47] Now, this judgment is a temporary one. Five months, it is called.
[00:21:52] They are allowed, determined for five months, but not to kill them. People will beg for death, but it will. They will not die.
[00:22:03] Some, in fact, most commentators that I was looking at see this as likely internal things rather than external ones.
[00:22:14] Things that we see with demonic activity.
[00:22:18] Various things in the Scriptures and elsewhere.
[00:22:21] A terrible thing.
[00:22:23] Verse 6. They will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die and death will flee from them.
[00:22:31] The power of this army is described in verses 7. As we get their appearance, they're like horses prepared for battle. Right you. This is an army. They are on the move. They've got breastplates of iron, crowns of gold on their head, their human like faces and their hair indicates these, these, these creatures which have agency and power as they are on their move and on the move. And as we read in verse 10, they have the power to hurt people.
[00:23:08] Is he is the destroyer.
[00:23:14] These demonic forces that afflict, they afflict unbelievers. They afflict those who refuse to turn to the Lord. It is a reminder that Jesus says my yoke is easy. My. My burden is light.
[00:23:36] The opposite is true for those who do not belong to Jesus but to those who are dwelling and living in a kingdom in a dominion of darkness.
[00:23:46] It's described in scripture as slavery.
[00:23:52] Slavery to be in the dominion of darkness. To belong, to have this king over you. This king who is called Destroyer.
[00:24:02] Hebrews tells us he wields this instrument that he terrorizes his people with in his kingdom.
[00:24:11] It's called the fear of death.
[00:24:14] The fear of death. And through the fear of death, he holds them in lifelong submission and slavery.
[00:24:25] We think sometimes sinful.
[00:24:30] The sinful flesh thinks that to do what we want apart from God is freedom. It's not freedom.
[00:24:40] Its slavery, its destruction, its death, its fear, its torment.
[00:24:52] The one, the evil powers, the dark powers, the spiritual powers that are behind and behind these things are not our friends.
[00:25:08] When Satan comes into the garden and talks to Adam and Eve, he is not our friend.
[00:25:17] He wants to destroy.
[00:25:20] He is called the destroyer.
[00:25:28] The implications of this, we'll finish with this are important.
[00:25:33] One is that evil is powerful.
[00:25:38] Truly powerful, effective, can do things, but it's not sovereign.
[00:25:45] There is something, someone more powerful than even this king with this army.
[00:25:55] Now, he doesn't want you to think that.
[00:25:57] He'll want you to think that he is the ultimate Lord of hosts and that you should serve him. And on and on and on. He's a counterfeiter. And we're gonna see that theme increasing. It's one of the main things that God wants us to be aware of through the book of Revelation is that there is the kingdom of God and the king of that kingdom. And then there are satanic counterfeit versions of it. And you need to know the difference.
[00:26:26] Satan's not going to tell you.
[00:26:29] Hey, by the way, I'm a counterfeit. You probably shouldn't follow me. But he's a deceiver.
[00:26:35] He's a deceiver. He wants to trick you.
[00:26:40] But God wants us to know the truth. And part one of the truths is also Satan is powerful and he prowls around like a roaring lion. He's not sovereign, and we've covered that. He's not sovereign.
[00:26:52] You don't need to listen to him. You don't need to be afraid of him.
[00:26:57] You don't need to run from him.
[00:27:00] You can trust the Lord, and you could trust the one who says. As I mentioned earlier in Revelation 1, Jesus says, I died and behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades.
[00:27:21] When the Lord Jesus, your savior, has the keys of death and Hades, you don't need to fear death.
[00:27:27] When the Lord has taken the stinger out of death, has triumphed, and put to shame all the rulers and powers and authorities, you don't need to be afraid, even of one as powerful and terrifying as this. You don't need to be afraid, no matter how threatening the evil becomes.
[00:27:50] When you are sealed by the blood of Christ, you have absolutely nothing to be afraid of, because God is your God and he is the Sovereign one. The Lamb who was slain is now alive, and he rules from his throne and over his people.
[00:28:12] The second thing, second implication of this is that God's judgment, of course, is a warning to repent. This fifth trumpet is terrible.
[00:28:25] To be in a position of being tormented and longing for death and not receiving it.
[00:28:33] It's hard to imagine in some ways how it can get worse than that in this life.
[00:28:40] And yet it's limited to this life. It's five months, but there's more to come. Two more woes.
[00:28:50] These judgments of the Lord, even the visions of judgments that are given to you here today are to call you and me to repentance.
[00:29:06] Do not refuse God's patience.
[00:29:08] Do not refuse God's warnings. Do not stand arrogantly on your own good works or pride or your culture or whatever.
[00:29:18] The only thing that we can stand on for comfort in this life and the life to come is the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:29:28] That's it. And that's all we need.
[00:29:31] Totally, totally sufficient.
[00:29:34] We must not confuse God's patience with his approval, with his agreeing that our sins are okay. Remember, Jesus died not only to conquer over Satan, but to conquer our sin, to bring us forgiveness. Let's trust him for that, rather than doubling down and storing up wrath.
[00:29:58] And finally, we remember that we are secure because of the Lamb.
[00:30:06] Jesus has conquered death.
[00:30:08] Jesus has brought about resurrection.
[00:30:11] He's taken the sting out of out of these things. That security does not mean that Christians will never suffer. And we'll think about that more as we continue through revelation.
[00:30:23] In this particular judgment, it is for those who are not sealed with the seal of God on their forehead, but Christians will and do suffer in this life.
[00:30:34] But that suffering, we must remember, is not God's judgment.
[00:30:39] It's his sanctification.
[00:30:41] It's his perfection. And it will lead us, because we're in Christ, to glory.
[00:30:47] So let's stay in prayer.
[00:30:50] Let's keep our hearts focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:55] And let us learn to be courageous, courageous, brothers and sisters. And not to be afraid.
[00:31:02] Let's pray.
[00:31:04] Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would bless us as we come to you in prayer, that you would strengthen our faith in your promise, in your seal.
[00:31:17] And Lord, let us remember who we are in Christ.
[00:31:22] Let us remember the gifts that you have given, the ways that you have acted, the work that you are doing.
[00:31:29] Even as you bring judgments upon the earth, you bring them for.
[00:31:36] For good and for all. And ultimately that the kingdom of God might come in its glory and power.
[00:31:43] We ask, O Lord, that you would help us to look forward to that day and not to fear it or to the things that happen around us before then, but instead to trust you, to trust your love, to trust your promises, to trust your seal, and to trust that you hold us in the palm of your hand, that we are the apple of your eye, and that you will never leave or forsake us.
[00:32:08] For those who do not yet know you, Lord, we ask that you would put the fear of God in them, that they would no longer play coy and loose with their sins, but that they would turn with repentance, recognizing that there is no strength in man, but everything we need in God. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
