Sermon Tone Analysis

Why We Cry Hallelujah—*Ephesians 3:20-21 & Revelation 19:1-9*

 

/20 //Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever.

Amen.

*E 3:20-21*/

 

We Cry Hallelujah (Praise Jehovah) Because:

 

— God *[SAVES]* Us From The Power Evil!

 

/1 //After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying, *“Hallelujah!*

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.

*Verses 1-2*/

 

/39 //The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their refuge in the time of trouble.

40 The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked, and saves them, because they take refuge in him.

*Psalms 37:39-40*/

 

— God *[JUDGES]* Evil With Eternal Vengeance!

/Once more they cried, “*Hallelujah!*

The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”

*Verse 3*/

 

/5 //This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be made worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering/—/6Indeed God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7,8,9 They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.//

*2 Thess 1:5-6, 9-10*/

 

— Jesus *[COMMANDS]* All His Servants To Praise Our God.

 

/4 //And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying, “Amen.

*Hallelujah!*” 5 And from the throne came a voice crying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.

*Verses 4-5*/

 

/11 //For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.

For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”

And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”

*Hebrews 2:11-13*/

 

— God *[REIGNS]* Through Our Marriage To Jesus In Good Deeds.

/6 //Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder peals, crying, *“Hallelujah!*

For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

*Verses 6-8*/

 

YOUR INVITATION TO BE A PART OF THE BRIDE

 

/9 //And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” *Verses 9*/

\\ Good morning to every one.

Before I go to the lesson I want to thank all of our sisters who helped this past Monday at Brother Price’s funeral.

You made me so proud of you and of Vaughn Hill.

Thank you for those good works.

And thank you Doris for taking charge and organizing it all.

The apostle Paul in a prayer of praise to God says, /“//20 //Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.”/

Paul envisions a breath and depth of God’s power in his prayer which is stunning.

Every time I read these verses I come away with a deepening sense of how grand and great is God.

Yet I never seem to fully grasp the total meaning of these words, because God is far more powerful, and he does far more than I can comprehend.

That is why Paul says glory is given to God in the church throughout every generation, and it even goes farther too when eternity is the only reality.

We are forever and ever to glorify God in the church.

The chef work of the church is to praise God, because God is her power and we have received more power and blessingthat we can ever imagine.

The Hebrew language has a word which expresses the sublime glory and praise God richly deserves from his church.

This word does not appear in the English translations of the O.T. because it is simply translated “Praise to the LORD”.

This Hebrew word only appears in the last third of the Book of Psalms, and in no other place in the O.T.

The word is a compound word formed from the Hebrew Hallel which means Praise to, and other word Ja_h which is the personal name of God.

It is the name God revealed to Moses as the I Am.

God personal name appears in some form over 6000 times in the Hebrew Bible.

And in most cases the English Bible translates it simply with the word LORD.

We have no idea how to pronounce it, because the Hebrew scribes never put vowels in it when they wrote it.

Hence the use of the word LORD in most modern translations.

The word I’m speaking of is Hallelujah.

And it is a sublime word meaning to glorify, praise, and exalt the One who is self existent and eternal having no beginning or end.

The only place it is used as a single word in the whole English Bible is in the book of Revelation.

When John wrote Revelation he made the Hebrew word into a Greek word.

And he uses this Hebrew word four times in chapter 19.

Our N.T. book of Revelation is a hymn of praise and glory to God for his power and mighty works.

It is set in heaven’s temple where worship and praise are continually expressed.

It is not as many imagine a fantastic preview of the end of the physical world.

Actually it is a hymn for the present to worship and praise God for what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do forever and ever.

I have counted in the opening words and in its closing words at least ten time statements that the historical events it predicts would take place soon after its writing.

And Revelation teaches that those historical events establish for all time, through out space, matter, and eternity the written truth that God acts and saves his church forever.

Those events are the assurance that God will do for us what he did for them.

The Book of Revelation is the unveiling of the O.T. prophets and their inspired visions from God  how his people are established in his kingdom that lasts forever.

And in this book of eternal praise and glory God shows or reveals to us his final steps of establishing his eternal rule over all of mankind.

God pictures for his people the defeat of evil and the victory of His Son.

And at the core of the book is worship in and at heaven’s throne.

We are transported by John’s visions to see God’s power, not only in the first century over his enemies, but for all time and eternity.

This book continues to encourage us with the realization that Jesus rules our world from his all powerful throne.

God declares in Holy Scripture and in those recorded Divine Acts that we belong to an eternal age and kingdom.

And that all evil, and sin, and disobedience are subject to his Son wrath and judgments forever.

The Book of Revelation in the strongest terms pictures for us God’s eternal grace and salvation.

It tells us why we cry Hallelujah.

And the ten verses we will consider this morning give us the essence of it application to our life in the 21st century.

And that application is to praise and glorify God for his mighty deeds he does in our world, and time, and history.

The first Hallelujah occurs in verses one and two.

*We cry hallelujah because God saves us from the power of evil.*

John writes, /“//1 //After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying, “Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”/

/ /

We tend to have a limited comprehension of salvation.

We see it only as forgiveness of our personal sins like lying or cheating.

We rarely consider that evil has a source from which it draws its power which has a face and physical presence.

Jesus says it comes from Satan the father of lies himself.

We live in a relatively safe comfortable nation and rarely come into contact with Satan’s true face of evil, or experience its physical presence.

God has protected and blessed us greatly in the last fifty years.

But I guarantee you if would have went through a Nazi death camp in 1945 you would have seen Satan’s face of evil in a physical form.

The face of true evil in the 1st century is pictured as a harlot or prostitute.

In the Book of Revelation she is in an immoral relationship with the sea beast to persecute and destroy God’s kingdom.

She is drunk in an immoral frenzy of blood and of the murders of God’s prophets, saints, and Jewish Christians who serve the Lamb faithfully.

This harlot is rich beyond our wildest dreams, because millions of Jews have sent their tithes to Jerusalem for hundreds of years.

She is decked out in purple and scarlet with pearls and gold and fine gems.

Her rich are very rich from defrauding the sweat of poor people.

And in her hand she holds a golden cup filled with the blood of 1st Century Christians, and O.T. saints.

Her high priests the Sadducees and her kings the Herod’s are all Roman clients and patrons.

She commits spiritual fornication with Rome and this sin reaches it most awful in the death of Jesus.