Sermon Tone Analysis

Revelation Series #11

 

*Four Angels*

*144,000 Evangelists*

*Innumerable Converts *

*Rev 7*

 

Well Let's Review the Seals thus Far

 

#1 - White Horse Rider - the AntiChrist bringing a peaceful overthrow of the World

#2 A Red Horse bringing a sword of war, and a atmosphere of murder and terror

#3 A Black Horse with scales showing famine and huge inflation of prices for grain in short supply

#4 A Pale Horse ridden by death followed by Hades ¼ die (Grave or Place of Dead) - people die by sword, famine, disease, and animals

#5 Martyrs under the Altar crying "how long" and answered in a little while

#6 Earthquake, sun turned black, moon red, stars fall, sky rolled back, mountains and islands moved from their place

 

Well the scene has gotten progressively more frightening.

Is there any hope?

I don't think I want to see anymore

Will this be a time of wholesale slaughter and judgment?

God already has taken out the ones he wanted, his Church, right?

No … even in the most dreadful age of history, there is always on this earth an opportunity.

Salvation is still available all long as we are here

 

Is God going to destroy everyone?

Does that sound like God?

 

What About Israel?

Is God done with Israel?

No, Remember there were a total of 70 weeks by which God was going to use Israel as a light to the Gentiles.

69 of those weeks led up to the revelation and rejection of the Anointed One, the Messiah, but then Israel was cut off.

God moved from using them to using the Church

 

God doesn't break his promises.

He is a KEEPER of his promises

 

*READ Ezk 9:1-8*

 

*READ Rev 7*

 

Viewpoints vv1-3

 

*Historicists* - see this fulfilled through Barbarians being unleashed against Rome and the winds being the pause before the winds of war start.

Also is a double meaning to the winds of error coming into the church under Constantine

They would see the "sealing" as God's knowledge of the true ones among those of error

 

*Preterists* - would see this as an answer to the question of Chapter 6 "who can stand" in this judgment, so God identifies his true ones before he brings judgment.

Just as God marked Israel before destruction in 586 BC he does here in AD 70

 

*Futurists* - a distinctive of many dispensationalist futurist is being unashamedly literal in interpretation of 4 winds, 4 angels, and 4 corners ~/ quarters of the earth.

Would see a literal 4 angels in control over the elements to "pause" from destruction before the terrible 2nd ½ of the Tribulation, the Great Tribulation, begins

But it is also a pause between the increasingly worsened sections

 

*Spiritualist*~/*Idealist* - this is NOT a sequence of events but the order in which John saw them.

The four winds would be in line with the 4 horsemen compared with Zech 6:5 but in the midst of Judgment God knows and has sealed those who are his

 

*1.

I Saw Four Angels*

* *

Remember 4 is the number of the earth so 4 angels, to for corners and 4 winds.

i.e. this angels are over the whole earth hence the four corners or 4 quarters of the earth and have been given control over the 4 or total winds.

Taking a literal approach as the text reads similar to me as the rest.

Also recognizing that in Chapter 8 and following between each #6 and #7 in Greek, there is a pause, I think this is a Pause.

It is for dramatic effect on earth as it is in our story.

What is the pause, is it a pause in the judgment?

Is it a pause in the war, and famine, and earthquakes et al?  Is it a pause it a literal ceasing of the winds on the earth?

For me …

 

Yes.

Yes.

And Yes.

In the midst of the storm of the "beginning of sorrows" the Tribulation before the "Great tribulation" the Night before the "Great Day of the Lord" … this pause will be Frightening to the World and almost hopeful at the same time.

But if the world as in the 6th Seal knows that God is at the heart of this they will wonder what comes next.

I definitely have room to be wrong, but it is not hard for me to believe that as the angels literally "stop the earth's engine" as John MacArthur says so that the winds cease to blow, things on earth will settle for just a breath, just a moment.

That pause and that breath, the remission of the cancer inflicted on the earth though has a purpose

 

It will be like the eerie calm that comes right before a Tornado hits.

I don't like it when I'm in a torrential storm with green clouds and suddenly it stops raining and the winds seem to stop, while above they are still moving.

I would much rather it continue to rain.

But when the atmospheric pressure bottoms out it seems everything ceases … Then comes the REAL storm and the sound of an airborne Freight Train is heard overhead …

 

But here we are in the calm …

 

*2.

The Sealing of 144,000 Evangelists*

 

It is not pause without purpose.

I'm sure the world will wonder what is going on … But God is pausing to seal some servants … to Mark his possessions, to mark them for protection, to mark his promise, to mark or secure their position.

4 Viewpoints

 

*Historicist* - 144,000 is the entire church during the roman empire and then Christ's elected graced true church gathered from among it.

They were preserved from the barbarian invasion to follow

Matthew Henry sees the omission of Dan as being perhaps because they were first and greatest with propensity toward idolatry

 

*Preterist* - God has always had a remnant in Israel who are faithful in the midst of apostasy.

So the Only faithful Jews at this stage were those who had received Jesus as their Messiah.

This 144,000 is representative of all the Jewish Christians that escaped Jerusalem before its destruction.

Rev 14:4 calls them "firstfruits" so they couldn't be endtimes because they would be "lastfruits"

 

*Futurist* - During the Great Tribulation, a godly remnant of 144,000 Jewish people will be "sealed" for protection from the later plagues.

Gaebelein explains:

How much confusion could have been avoided if expositors and Christians in searching for the meaning of this vision, had not lost sight of two great facts.

1.

This chapter can have no application to the Church on earth, nor to the Church in glory, for the simple reason that the Church is already complete and translated to glory.

2. The vision states clearly that the sealed company is "of all the tribes of the children of Israel."

There are today perhaps a score or more of little sects who all claim to be the 144,000.

… If the true interpretation of Revelation is seen, that this company is called after the rapture of the Church, these confusing theories will at once be rejected.

That these are actually Israelites and not part of the church is emphasized by them being divided and identified with the 12 tribes of Israel.

Otherwise why divide them this way.

This calling and sealing fulfills prophesy in Zech 12:10-13, and Rom.

11:26-32.

Of Dan being eliminated … some have suggested that the Antichrist will come from this tribe.

(Gen 49:17; Jer 8:16).

Or perhaps Dan and Ephraim are eliminated because of Idolatry

Many believe these will be highly and zealously evangelistic.

Hal Lindsey calls them "144,00 Jewir sh Billy Grahams".

A small minority of futurists see this 144,000 as the last generation church before the tribulation.

*Spiritualist* - represents the church as true spiritual Israel.

And thus do not believe there is any difference to be seen between these tribulation jewish saints and others.

Thus see all as sealed by God for protection.

*144,000 Sealed - *

 

  A.

The 144,000

God was holding off the judgment, on the rest of the earth, until these were marked.

1.

Who are they?

7th Day Adventist believe that those of their faith who are observing the 7th faithfully when the rapture comes and will be raptured to Heaven … not them unless they are all Jewish, and even then, these aren't in Heaven but on earth

the Cult Jehovah's Witnesses used to teach that they would ALL become part of the 144,000; that is UNTIL they GOT 144,000 converts, NOW they teach that there are a set apart number of elect faithful among them who will be the 144,000 and they don't know whom it will be … but that is not true, for they don't even believe in the Deity and thus worthiness of the Lamb so how can they be his chosen

Is this just the TRUE CHURCH?