SERMON MANUSCRIPT
In the early 1900s, it wasn’t uncommon for over a million people each year to lose their lives due to natural disasters like floods and droughts, earthquakes and fires, tornadoes and landslides.
Fast forward a hundred years and, in this past decade, the average annual death toll was less than 10,000. From a million to ten thousand in a century (and that’s not even taking population growth into consideration, something that makes the trend even more dramatic).
Why this positive trend? Is it because there are less disasters today? No! It’s mostly because humanity has become better prepared for the storms, understanding their power and behaviour, anticipating their arrival, and more efficient at seeking adequate shelter when they hit.
Our text today is a storm warning. A big one’s coming—a category 5 tempest of divine wrath, unprecedented in scope and power (see Matt 24:21; Joel 2:20. This storm will be devastating. Denial doesn’t negate it or slow its approach.
At the same time, shelter has been provided; an impenetrable and eternal refuge of grace for all who would climb inside. And that’s what we’re going to find this morning: storm and shelter, wrath and grace, what we deserve but don’t have to endure and what we don’t deserve but get to enjoy.
Revelation 5 reports that “[The Lamb] came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne“ (5:7) and all of heaven “fell down before the [him],” worshipping and singing to him “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals” (5:9).
A STORM OF WRATH
As I suggested last week, this book contains God’s comprehensive plan for the future of creation, its retribution and purification, restoration and perfection. It’s all in there, waiting to be read. And, in Revelation 6, the Lamb starts cracking those seals. And out comes a storm of wrath.
[6:1–8] It’s hard not to notice the chronological progression and increasing severity of this storm. It starts gathering steam in the form of authoritarian subjugation. The initial rider carries a bow, a common OT symbol of warfare. [Isa 13:17–18a] He also has a crown, a victors wreath, and he’s coming “to conquer.”
Not surprisingly, this militant tyranny gives way to unrestrained violence. The second rider takes peace from the earth and, all over the world, wars break-out. He has a great sword but it seems he barely needs it as humanity slaughters each other.
As is often the case, war leads to starvation. According to National Geographic, “Wars are inherently violent and harmful, but destruction of resources can sometimes create more catastrophic harm than bombs and bullets.”
So, it’s little surprise that after subjugation and violence comes global famine. This third rider carries scales used for measuring food. [Ezek 4:16–17] Times will be tough: a quart of wheat, a days sustenance, for a denarius, a days wage. Most people will earn just enough to live. I say “most” because oil and wine, signs of wealth, will remain available. It seems the elites will be able to guard themselves from the famine.
But they can’t hide forever and from everything. No one can. And when the fourth seal is opened and this storm begins reaching maturity, there is widespread death. A fourth of the earth will die. For perspective, one source estimates that coronavirus caused 6.9-million deaths. That’s less than 0.1% of the global population; 25% is shocking.
This storm is savage. And Jesus is sending it. It’s the Lamb who’s breaking the seals, unleashing the books’ contents. While the creatures are summoning the riders, they’re doing so in submission to him. Jesus is sending this storm.
He’s also empowering it. To the first rider, “a crown was given” (6:2), to the second, “a great sword was given” (6:4), and to the fourth, “authority was given” (6:8). The third rider is instructed from “something like a voice in the centre of the four living creatures” (6:6). It seems like that’s the Lamb. He’s sending and empowering this storm.
And this becomes explicit with the terrifying cosmic events of the sixth seal. [6:12–17] If some had been denying divine involvement up to this point, they are not and cannot now, not with creation trembling.
These two things are true: it’s a terrible storm and it’s God’s storm. The tribulation that’s coming is one of divine wrath. And that’s offensive to a church that has downplayed the abomination of sin, muted the standard of holiness, and invented a tolerant God who winks at rebellion and shrugs at idolatry; a Creator who condescends to ensure his creatures aren’t offended by his commands and character.
That God does not exist. Let’s let God describe himself. [Ex 34:6–7] God can’t leave the guilty unpunished or he wouldn’t be just and good and holy. [Nah 1:2] Now this is hard for us to understand because are incapable of wrath and vengeance without sin, without malice, without revenge, envy, and bitterness.
But God has none of those things. His wrath is not in competition with his other attributes. His anger is an expression of who he is, a God that loves peace, righteousness, and relationship and hates what opposes those realities: sin. And he’s going to do something about it.
Now there’s an important question to ask and answer here. Why does God’s wrath take so long here? Couldn’t he do it in a moment like in [20:9]? Why does he seem to drag it out in the seals and in the coming trumpets and bowls? Well, it’s because judging evil isn’t the only purpose of this storm.
In fact, what might be the main purpose of this tribulation is the salvation of Israel. God’s chosen people rejected her Messiah at his first coming but her national repentance is necessary for his second coming. [Acts 3:13, 19–21] Like so many times in the past, Israel must return to the Lord in faith and, like so many times in the past, it takes tragedy to bring them to that point.
A SHELTER OF GRACE
There’s a storm coming. And, just like with any storm, people need to seek cover. And, as we move on in our text we find that’s exactly what God will provide: a shelter of grace, undeserved, supernatural refuge. And, when God’s people step inside they find it fully stocked.
First, there’s the very presence of God. We see this right in the midst of the seals. [6:9] During the tribulation, some will come to faith and some will be killed for that faith. But here we see that God will collected these martyrs, bringing them into his presence, “underneath the altar” as though they themselves were offerings of worship, having “present[ed their] bodies … living and holy sacrifices, acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1).
Along with God’s presence is his peace. [6:10] They’re crying for justice and, in response, [6:11]. God’s in total control. Vindication is coming so, for now they can rest, enjoying the presence of the one for whom they died in a peace that only he can offer.
This shelter of grace also carries God’s preservation. [7:1–3] The tribulations’ severity is muted for the safety of God’s bond-servants, those here stamped on their foreheads with the seal of the living God, a symbol of protection and ownership. [7:4–8] In the midst of the storm that he has sent, God is declaring, “These belong to me. Hands off! I know where Israel is and they will endure!” During this “time of Jacob’s trouble,” God preserves Jacob. What grace!
God also provides purity. He did for the martyrs in 6:11, giving each of them a white robe, and he will for many others also. [7:9–12] John turns from those sealed from a single nation, Israel, to those saved from all nations; from a specific number, 144,000, to a countless throng. And they join the heavenly, triumphant worship, clothed in white robes.
That their pure attire is the focus is made clear as we keep reading. [7:13–15] God is so pure only purity can be before him. And there is only one detergent strong enough to get out all the stains of sin, and that’s the “blood of the Lamb.” This great multitude is made up of people who come to faith during the tribulation, washed themselves with this divine soap, and were brought into his presence, pure.
Finally, inside this shelter of grace, will be provision, everything that’s truly needed. [7:16–17] For those washed pure and standing before the throne, there will be the eradication of need and discomfort, insecurity and fear, death and pain. All of it gone. Instead, God’s people will be provided with satiation, rest, protection, guidance, consolation, and life everlasting. What a shelter!
TAKE COVER!
A storm is coming. It’s going to be a category 5 tempest of devastating divine wrath, unprecedented in scope and power. So, take cover! That’s the obvious thing to do, isn’t it, when you’re told a disaster is on its way? Take cover! The question posed from this passage is, when it comes, to what cover will people run?
Some, as we saw in 6:15, will attempt to hide themselves. [6:15–17] They know they need shelter. They know they can’t stand on their own. What’s their solution? Bury themselves in the earth. It’s better than the deserved wrath of the Lamb.
But there is an alternative covering. [7:15] Don’t hide yourself from God, be hidden by God. Don’t look for the rocks to give you cover, look to the One who created the rocks. He will spread his tabernacle over them. To tabernacle is to dwell, like how “the Word became flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) among us” (John 1:14). So, here, God is promising to spread his dwelling over top of his people.
There’s no doubt that the great day of tribulation, that which must take place before the consummation of all things, is going to be terrible. But those who are alive during those days are not without divine shelter, that which includes God’s presence and peace, preservation, purity, and provision. They will have the opportunity to take cover.
And so do you and I. Elsewhere, John records Jesus promising his disciples that, “In the world you have tribulation” (John 16:33). It may not be the tribulation, praise the Lord, but it’s still hard, isn’t it?
Rebellious children, godless government, public scorn, spousal indifference, and familial tension. There’s loneliness, illness, and neediness. There are doubts and sins and frustrations and confusions. I could go on and on. We, as the church, will not see the Great Tribulation, but we do endure tribulation. And we need to take cover.
The question is, to what cover will we run? Do we try and hide ourselves, figure out own solutions, endure with white knuckles, and suffer in silence, burying ourselves in the rocks of our own cleverness and resources? Or, do we take cover under God?
Do we experience the presence of the one who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us and to walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death? Do we experience the peace of God that surpasses understanding, knowing that we don’t have to seek vindication because, as God said, “vengeance is mine.”
Do we trust in his preservation, that he has sealed us for the day of redemption and that no one can snatch us out of his hand, that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Do we celebrate and pursue purity, knowing that we have been declared righteous and are being made righteous. That he who began a good work in you will see it to completion.
Do we walk in gratitude for the provision of having every spiritual blessing in the heavenliness. That we have all we need in Christ and that we can ask him to give us this day our daily bread. And do we anticipate a time when all our greatest needs will be totally and finally met and satiated?
I mean, the two shelters could not be more opposite. It’s like a tornado is coming and I have to choose between a state-of-the-art storm bunker and a treehouse my ten-year-old built out of popsicle sticks.
Take cover, friends. God will provided a shelter of grace for his people during that future time of trouble, and he has provided a shelter of grace for his people today in their troubles. Run to him in your needs this week.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
