Post by Benjamin on Jan 7, 2017 8:23:47 GMT
It's been a long time since I posted a sermon - and I'm well behind where the series is actually up to!
I apologize for that, and I'll try to get everything in here sooner rather than later.
Here's the next in the series, then: The Angel and the Little Book.
Hope you appreciate it.
We’re continuing once again our series in the book of Revelation; this morning we’ve reached chapter 10. We’re going to examine something a little different today. Having spent the past few sermons looking at the outpouring of the wrath of God in chapters 8 and 9, we’re now at another transition point – and a pretty incredible one, at that.
Before we delve into that, however, let’s come before the Lord in prayer.
Let’s pray.
Father, throughout this series, and our time in this amazing book, I’ve thanked you so many times that you are the author of all of history – and that you yourself are the Beginning and the End, the Aleph and the Tau, the Alpha and the Omega. This morning, Lord, I’m conscious that in many respects, I stand here preaching from your word at the very end of this age. I know it will not be long until we see the King of Kings descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God… that the dead in Christ shall rise, and we who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet with the Lord in the air. Father, that is a glorious truth, and a truly blessed hope… but it also reminds us, Lord, that time is short. And so I pray this morning that you would teach us to live with the immediacy of your return on our lips, and with that knowledge in our hearts, that we would be a people who are both about the business of the King while time remains. Let your Word soak deep into our hearts, and may your name be on our lips, and your character reflected in our lives, until you come.
…and with that said, Lord, let our lives be a witness to those among us who have not called upon your name. May your gospel and your Holy Spirit convict of sin, and point to the great grace that awaits in Jesus Christ, the once for all sacrifice, paid for us, paid for all, paid in full. Lord, that is my prayer this morning. Let my preaching be in keeping with your Word, may your Holy Spirit empower all I say, and above all things, may Jesus Christ be praised.
Amen.
Open your Bibles with me, if you would, to Revelation chapter 10.
Revelation 10, beginning at verse 1.
I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4 Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
5 The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
John Eats the Little Book
8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”
9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.”
And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
Throughout this series, we’ve seen the repetition of several themes. One of these themes has been present in almost every chapter, and in fact, often reiterated multiple times within chapters. The Lord’s judgment, and His great mercy, are ever-present aspects of his character throughout this book, and they are often intermingled so closely together that it takes some work to draw them out and study them. This is perhaps best exemplified in the seal judgments of Revelation 6, followed by the multitude of the believers that came out of the Great Tribulation in chapter 7.
There has, however, been a progression here, too. In each case, and in every instance, the severity of that judgment has increased. In the seals, for example, we saw Death and Hades “given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with hunger, and with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (6:8). In the bowls, that number spread to a third, as we saw that the angels that had been bound at the Euphrates were released to kill a third of all mankind.
What we’re about to see this morning is both a marked departure from this pattern, and its final confirmation. Here, after six bowl judgments, we find a pause – an interlude, much like chapter 7, which took us out of the seal events to view the glorious redemption of Tribulation saints throughout the entire seven year period.
In this pause, however, there is no promise of grace, no reminder of mercy – only a sense of finality, and impending judgment, that we cannot afford to ignore. This passage is all about an Angel, and a Book – and, ultimately, each of those two characters convey the same message. There will be no more delay. The final judgment of the world has come.
Let’s begin, and examine the context of this incredible passage. Verse 1.
“I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven.”
There’s a shift here already; everything that we’ve seen in the past two chapters has been centered around the throne room of heaven; or, more specifically, around the golden altar that we examined last time I preached. Chapter 10, in contrast, marks a departure from John’s heaven-centric view, and shifts to describe events from an earthly perspective. This angel is “coming down”, which suggests that John’s perspective is now earthbound.
What follows, then, is a description of this angel as it descends from heaven to earth. Much of what we’ve just read, and what we’re about to see, should be very familiar to you. In fact, each of the descriptions that follow have their root in passages that we’ve either studied as links to our texts, throughout this series, or as verses that we’ve studied directly here in Revelation. With that in mind, are two aspects to this angel that I’d like to study this morning, and each has direct relevance to the other. So, I’d like to look first, at the Angel’s Description, and second, at the Angel’s Mission.
Before I move on, I need to make a disclaimer. There are students of Scripture that I greatly respect that would disagree with the interpretation that I am about to present to you. While ultimately the conclusion that you would draw from this passage remains the same regardless, I nonetheless urge you to do your own study on these things.
Now, don’t misunderstand me: I have done my research, and I will be presenting my convictions based on the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit – but the responsibility for what you do with this book is yours, and yours alone; and no one can take that from you. So… Be Bereans. Study the Word of God, and show yourself approved before Him.
What I’m going to suggest, then, is that the representation of this angel in Revelation 10 is a description of none other than Jesus Christ Himself. While I absolutely believe that to be true, I am conscious that the approach taken in describing Him here is extremely unusual in New Testament terms. There is a reason for that, however, and I’ll outline that for you in a moment.
First, however, let’s just take Scripture as it is written, and examine the description of this Mighty Angel.
The Angel’s Description: A picture of Christ
To begin with, I’d like to examine five of the descriptions provided for us here in chapter 10. I’d suggest to you that these five characteristics are the most compelling pieces of evidence for the idea that this is Jesus Himself, because the representations here are consistent with many that we’ve seen already, both here in Revelation, and elsewhere in Scripture. Now, because we’ve seen many of them before, I won’t delve too deeply into them, but I do want to address them each in turn.
First, we notice that this mighty angel is “coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud”. We’ve seen clouds associated with the Lord before: Psalm 104 verse 3 states that God “makes the clouds his chariot, [and] walks on the wings of the wind”, while during the Transfiguration in Matthew 17, Scripture describes “a bright cloud overshadowing them”, and “a voice [that] came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Even in Revelation itself, we have several examples of this: Revelation 1:7, “behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him”. Revelation 14:14, “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man”, and so on. These clouds, then, represent the glory of God.
Second, we see that this angel has “a rainbow on his head”. We know what that means, of course, and although we haven’t yet reached that point in the series on Genesis, we are nonetheless familiar with that image. Psalm 89, in describing the rainbow, says “mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.” This is, at least in part, what the rainbow represents: the faithfulness of God. We saw in our study of Revelation 4, however, that the image goes deeper than this. You might recall that the rainbow that appeared around the throne in that chapter beamed with emerald light. The emerald, you might also recall, is a symbol of the tribe of Levi, as worn on the breastplate of the High Priest. Levi’s name means “my husband will become attached to me” – an indication and foreshadowing of the fact that the Lord Himself will be united with His people – both Israel, and the Church. We see this in Revelation 21, wherein “a loud voice from heaven” cries out, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them, and be their God.” In this sense, the rainbow represents both the unwavering faithfulness of God as it pertains to His covenants, and in a more specific sense, His faithfulness to Israel, and to His people, the Church, and the Tribulation Saints.
The third characteristic of this angel is that “his face was like the sun”.
This is again an image we’ve seen associated with Jesus Christ, again, at the Transfiguration. Matthew 17 says “He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” Revelation 1 presents the same idea, stating that the Lord’s “countenance was like the sun, shining in its strength.” This is also the same image we see in Ezekiel’s vision of the Lord, where Ezekiel states that “from the appearance of his waist and upward I saw, as it were, the colour of amber, with the appearance of fire all around within it.”
Fourth, this angel’s feet are like fire.
This is somewhat reminiscent of Revelation 1 also, where the Lord had “feet like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace”. Daniel, in his vision, described a man “whose… body was like Beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.” Those things, obviously, are consistent with several of the characteristics we’ve seen already.
Fifth, this angel sounds like a lion roaring when he speaks.
This is consistent with Job 4, where Eliphaz states that “by the blast of God [the wicked] perish, and by the breath of His anger they are consumed. The roaring of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion.” Isaiah 31 presents the same image: “As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey… so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion”. And we know, of course, Revelation 5 verse 5: “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
So you can see the consistency of the imagery here. Each of these points is a compelling piece of evidence that this mighty angel is none other than Jesus Christ, the King of Kings Himself – particularly given that the majority of these characteristics are exclusively attributed to the Lord throughout Scripture.
The secondary viewpoint on this passage is that this is just a particularly mighty angel, who dwells in the presence of God. These descriptions, however, simply don’t match any other angel in the Word of God – but they do match the descriptions of Jesus Christ. So why, then, would the Lord be portrayed here as an angel?
I could take you into Scripture at this point and demonstrate to you all the times at which the Lord Jesus took the form of an angel. We could look at Genesis 18, as the Angel of the Lord spoke with Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or at Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestles with him until the morning breaks; we could look at His appearance to Joshua, in Joshua 5, or His visit to Samson’s parents; to Daniel, with the fourth man in the furnace, or indeed any of the visions in the Old Testament prophets that mirror this one. But the question still remains, why here, and why now?
Well, I believe the answer is in the text, and it’s wrapped up in the nature of His mission.
The Angel’s Mission: A declaration of Kingship.
Look at verse 1 again.
“I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud.”
There is a peculiarity in this verse that seems to have been lost on most who read it, and I think it’s key to the interpretation of this passage.
We’ve seen, and I demonstrated to you a moment ago, that there are indeed many instances in which the Lord is associated in some measure with clouds. They represent His presence, His judgment, and His glory, all at various times and in different contexts. The peculiarity here, however, is that this is the only time in Scripture – anywhere in Scripture – where we see a representation of Jesus Christ clothed in clouds, as opposed to being on clouds, or coming with clouds.
So why is this significant? I believe this has much to do with the purpose of the Lord’s mission at this time. Clouds, we understand, obscure sight. What I would suggest to you is that this vision of a mighty angel, clothed with a cloud, is a veiled visitation of the King of Kings, for the specific purpose of declaring the message of His coming. It is not, however, the Second coming, for at this point, the Lord has no intention of revealing Himself to those upon the earth, save through the bowl judgments that are about to occur – and that, without delay. What this likewise implies is that the message to be conveyed here is of such vital, earth-shattering importance that no mere angel can be entrusted with its delivery.
…but I think there’s more than that here, too. I’d suggest to you that the shift in perspective from a heavenly to an earthly viewpoint also has an impact on the manner in which John views these events. John is being shown this vision as the people on earth would perceive it; and we know from Scripture that no man may see God and live. In fact, I’d suggest to you that the vision of the Lord Jesus that the apostle himself endured in Revelation 1 would have cost him his life had it not been for the fact that he was “in the spirit”, and not in the flesh. So the vision John sees here, he perceives as all the world will see Him at this time: veiled… and hidden from the fullness of his sight, because the for the Lord’s return, the time for His reclamation of planet earth, has not yet come.
So what of the message, then? What could be so important that the Son of God Himself should descend, veiled in cloud, to declare it unto man?
Look at verse 3.
“When He [that is, Jesus Christ] cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. Now, when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
There have been… literally volumes written on this verse. The honest truth is that we simply don’t know what the thunders said. There are some things we do know, however.
First, we know that John understood the words that were spoken. In fact, he was about to write them down, before a voice from heaven prevented him.
Second, we know that thunder represents the voice of God Himself. We saw this in Revelation 8 verse 5, and will see it again in chapters 11 and 16. Psalm 29 also has a series of seven statements about the voice of the Lord that highlight His power and glory:
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the God of glory thunders; the Lord is over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars…
The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire;
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness…
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and everyone in His temple says “glory!”
So, we have a real difficulty here.
We have Jesus Christ, veiled as an angel… and we have the voice of God, ringing throughout the world as the Lord cries out in verse 3… but both are obscured. Both are hidden from us. Why?
There’s a parallel to this entire passage in the Psalms, actually, and it’s worth us reading it. Turn with me to Psalm 18 – Psalm 18, and we’ll begin at verse 6.
In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled;
The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken,
Because He was angry.
8 Smoke went up from His nostrils,
And devouring fire from His mouth;
Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With darkness under His feet.
10 And He rode upon a cherub, and flew;
He flew upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His secret place;
His canopy around Him was dark waters
And thick clouds of the skies.
12 From the brightness before Him,
His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire.
The Lord thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe,
Lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
The foundations of the world were uncovered
At Your rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
I don’t know about you, but I can imagine Israel reading this Psalm during the Tribuation. You can see, though, can’t you, the similarity in the descriptions. We have the Lord descending upon the earth, making darkness His secret place, and surrounding Himself with a canopy of clouds. What this demonstrates to us is a precedent. We can see it in the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, and the representation of God here in Psalm 18. It is not always God’s will that He should be revealed through sight; but that through a demonstration of His power and might, men might see, and believe.
…and that is the message here:
Not that, through this visitation, Jesus Christ should be made known, but that by the declaration of His final judgment, He should be demonstrated before all to be both King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. You see, this isn’t just a warning of impending judgment – it’s also an emphatic assertion of God’s right to come in judgment in the first place.
Look at verse 2.
“He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.”
We saw in an earlier sermon that the sea and the land represent the Gentile world and the land of Israel, respectively – and it’s this that is in view here; though the conclusion is the same both literally and figuratively – and I can put it no better than Psalm 24:
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory.
So this is the Lord’s mission in this passage; this is His declaration.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
…and
“There will be no more delay”.
Judgment is coming… and the patience of the King will wait no longer. With one foot on the land, and one on the sea, Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the King of Glory, declares, after all the judgment we’ve seen, after all the seals and trumpets, the blood and fire and earthquakes and lightning…
This… is… MINE.
…look at verse 5 again.
[…and] the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
What we’re witnessing here is the Lord Jesus Christ declaring the finality of His judgment, and the totality of His Kingship… and when He lifts up His hand to heaven, and swears by Himself (for there is no other name), He is declaring in all His resurrection power that the end of this age is at hand; that when judgment is complete – and there will be no more delay – He will come, He will rule, He will reign, and He will be declared as the King of Glory, forevermore.
Throughout this series, I’ve shown you images of God’s glory, and demonstrated both the gravity of His judgment and the great depth of His compassion, as it is written here in this book. This chapter is… something else entirely. It is utterly unique; first, for its representation of Jesus Christ, and second, because it represents the point at which the mercy of God as it relates to those who remain upon the earth, come to an end.
All that is left here… is judgment.
All that is left is the outpouring of God’s wrath upon unbelievers.
…and why?
Go back with me to Revelation 9, and verse 20.
“But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
This is why there is no more delay.
Because, as in the days of Noah, “God saw” – even despite His great judgment, even despite His mercy, even despite the unveiling of the heavens and the revelation of Jesus Christ enthroned on High – even despite all this, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and saw that every inclination of man’s heart was only evil, continually.”
…and this brings us my final point: the little book.
The Little Book
Turn back to Revelation 10, and look at verse 8.
8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”
9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.”
And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
I’d like to tell you that this half of the passage is less contentious than the half we’ve already studied, but I’d be lying to you. Scholarship is just as divided over the nature of this little book as it is over the Mighty Angel. I’d suggest to you, however, that the reason for this is because people try to read too much into the detail that we’re given – and that everything we need to understand what John is going through is in the pages of this book already.
The little book… is the prophecy that remains.
You can see that here in verse 11. “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues and kings.” What the Lord is doing here – and again, this is compelling evidence that this is Jesus Christ – is giving John the words that he must speak; and they, like so much of what we’ve studied, are sweet as honey in the mouth (for God’s Word always is), but the impact of it, the cost of the digestion of God’s Word is bitterness… for what John is called to testify to is the final, impending judgment of a rightly furious King.
I want to break this down, just in closing, and I’d like to do that by referring again back to Revelation 9 – and we’ll see, in the process, just why this news was so bitter for the apostle John.
You know, it’s easy for us, living here, in a world that is rapidly decaying and falling apart at the seams, to be desensitized to what is going on all around us. …but the reality is, these verses from Revelation 9 are being fulfilled before us on a daily basis.
I sat… when I wrote this sermon, and I’d planned to end with a roundup of a series of news headlines that fell into each of the categories that we’ve just read in Revelation 9. Idolatry. Murder. Drug Abuse. Sexual Immorality. Theft.
I thought perhaps these things might… awaken us to the reality of the need for judgment – of the absolute righteousness of the impending wrath of God in response to these things.
…but the reality is, what I found in ten minutes of googling was too disturbing to mention from this pulpit... and I don’t wish to give any more attention to these things than they already receive. But the truth of it all is this – and I’m quoting here from Billy Graham’s wife, who said:
“If God doesn’t judge this world, He’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
This is why our King is veiled here. This is why these words are sealed and not written down in the pages of this book… and it’s why the Word of Prophecy, so sweet in the apostle’s mouth, turned bitter. …because there is no hope for those left on the earth at this time. There is no more mercy. There is no more patience. There is no more grace. Only judgment. The end has come, and the people of this earth refuse to repent. All that remains… is judgment.
The Blessed Hope
…but God.
That same Jesus – veiled in Revelation 10, hidden from man and revealed in judgment, has been revealed to us through God’s Word. We know – we see, and experience a world soaked in sin, and we know that the wages of sin is death, because there is death all around us. We know that there is no life in the law; that our own desperate, feeble attempts at pleasing God are nothing but foolishness, because there can be no fellowship between light and darkness, and our God is a Holy God…
…but God.
“While we were still sinners… Christ died for us.”
That verse is both all and everything that separates the Christian from the promised judgment of Revelation 10.
“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
We’ve seen both great beauty and terrible judgment through this passage today. Some of you may go away from this service with those words of judgment ringing in your ears – but know this. Jesus Christ may be a terrible judge… but He is a beautiful savior. Let’s pray.
I apologize for that, and I'll try to get everything in here sooner rather than later.
Here's the next in the series, then: The Angel and the Little Book.
Hope you appreciate it.
We’re continuing once again our series in the book of Revelation; this morning we’ve reached chapter 10. We’re going to examine something a little different today. Having spent the past few sermons looking at the outpouring of the wrath of God in chapters 8 and 9, we’re now at another transition point – and a pretty incredible one, at that.
Before we delve into that, however, let’s come before the Lord in prayer.
Let’s pray.
Father, throughout this series, and our time in this amazing book, I’ve thanked you so many times that you are the author of all of history – and that you yourself are the Beginning and the End, the Aleph and the Tau, the Alpha and the Omega. This morning, Lord, I’m conscious that in many respects, I stand here preaching from your word at the very end of this age. I know it will not be long until we see the King of Kings descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God… that the dead in Christ shall rise, and we who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet with the Lord in the air. Father, that is a glorious truth, and a truly blessed hope… but it also reminds us, Lord, that time is short. And so I pray this morning that you would teach us to live with the immediacy of your return on our lips, and with that knowledge in our hearts, that we would be a people who are both about the business of the King while time remains. Let your Word soak deep into our hearts, and may your name be on our lips, and your character reflected in our lives, until you come.
…and with that said, Lord, let our lives be a witness to those among us who have not called upon your name. May your gospel and your Holy Spirit convict of sin, and point to the great grace that awaits in Jesus Christ, the once for all sacrifice, paid for us, paid for all, paid in full. Lord, that is my prayer this morning. Let my preaching be in keeping with your Word, may your Holy Spirit empower all I say, and above all things, may Jesus Christ be praised.
Amen.
Open your Bibles with me, if you would, to Revelation chapter 10.
Revelation 10, beginning at verse 1.
I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4 Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
5 The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
John Eats the Little Book
8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”
9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.”
And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
Throughout this series, we’ve seen the repetition of several themes. One of these themes has been present in almost every chapter, and in fact, often reiterated multiple times within chapters. The Lord’s judgment, and His great mercy, are ever-present aspects of his character throughout this book, and they are often intermingled so closely together that it takes some work to draw them out and study them. This is perhaps best exemplified in the seal judgments of Revelation 6, followed by the multitude of the believers that came out of the Great Tribulation in chapter 7.
There has, however, been a progression here, too. In each case, and in every instance, the severity of that judgment has increased. In the seals, for example, we saw Death and Hades “given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with hunger, and with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (6:8). In the bowls, that number spread to a third, as we saw that the angels that had been bound at the Euphrates were released to kill a third of all mankind.
What we’re about to see this morning is both a marked departure from this pattern, and its final confirmation. Here, after six bowl judgments, we find a pause – an interlude, much like chapter 7, which took us out of the seal events to view the glorious redemption of Tribulation saints throughout the entire seven year period.
In this pause, however, there is no promise of grace, no reminder of mercy – only a sense of finality, and impending judgment, that we cannot afford to ignore. This passage is all about an Angel, and a Book – and, ultimately, each of those two characters convey the same message. There will be no more delay. The final judgment of the world has come.
Let’s begin, and examine the context of this incredible passage. Verse 1.
“I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven.”
There’s a shift here already; everything that we’ve seen in the past two chapters has been centered around the throne room of heaven; or, more specifically, around the golden altar that we examined last time I preached. Chapter 10, in contrast, marks a departure from John’s heaven-centric view, and shifts to describe events from an earthly perspective. This angel is “coming down”, which suggests that John’s perspective is now earthbound.
What follows, then, is a description of this angel as it descends from heaven to earth. Much of what we’ve just read, and what we’re about to see, should be very familiar to you. In fact, each of the descriptions that follow have their root in passages that we’ve either studied as links to our texts, throughout this series, or as verses that we’ve studied directly here in Revelation. With that in mind, are two aspects to this angel that I’d like to study this morning, and each has direct relevance to the other. So, I’d like to look first, at the Angel’s Description, and second, at the Angel’s Mission.
Before I move on, I need to make a disclaimer. There are students of Scripture that I greatly respect that would disagree with the interpretation that I am about to present to you. While ultimately the conclusion that you would draw from this passage remains the same regardless, I nonetheless urge you to do your own study on these things.
Now, don’t misunderstand me: I have done my research, and I will be presenting my convictions based on the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit – but the responsibility for what you do with this book is yours, and yours alone; and no one can take that from you. So… Be Bereans. Study the Word of God, and show yourself approved before Him.
What I’m going to suggest, then, is that the representation of this angel in Revelation 10 is a description of none other than Jesus Christ Himself. While I absolutely believe that to be true, I am conscious that the approach taken in describing Him here is extremely unusual in New Testament terms. There is a reason for that, however, and I’ll outline that for you in a moment.
First, however, let’s just take Scripture as it is written, and examine the description of this Mighty Angel.
The Angel’s Description: A picture of Christ
To begin with, I’d like to examine five of the descriptions provided for us here in chapter 10. I’d suggest to you that these five characteristics are the most compelling pieces of evidence for the idea that this is Jesus Himself, because the representations here are consistent with many that we’ve seen already, both here in Revelation, and elsewhere in Scripture. Now, because we’ve seen many of them before, I won’t delve too deeply into them, but I do want to address them each in turn.
First, we notice that this mighty angel is “coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud”. We’ve seen clouds associated with the Lord before: Psalm 104 verse 3 states that God “makes the clouds his chariot, [and] walks on the wings of the wind”, while during the Transfiguration in Matthew 17, Scripture describes “a bright cloud overshadowing them”, and “a voice [that] came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Even in Revelation itself, we have several examples of this: Revelation 1:7, “behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him”. Revelation 14:14, “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man”, and so on. These clouds, then, represent the glory of God.
Second, we see that this angel has “a rainbow on his head”. We know what that means, of course, and although we haven’t yet reached that point in the series on Genesis, we are nonetheless familiar with that image. Psalm 89, in describing the rainbow, says “mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.” This is, at least in part, what the rainbow represents: the faithfulness of God. We saw in our study of Revelation 4, however, that the image goes deeper than this. You might recall that the rainbow that appeared around the throne in that chapter beamed with emerald light. The emerald, you might also recall, is a symbol of the tribe of Levi, as worn on the breastplate of the High Priest. Levi’s name means “my husband will become attached to me” – an indication and foreshadowing of the fact that the Lord Himself will be united with His people – both Israel, and the Church. We see this in Revelation 21, wherein “a loud voice from heaven” cries out, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them, and be their God.” In this sense, the rainbow represents both the unwavering faithfulness of God as it pertains to His covenants, and in a more specific sense, His faithfulness to Israel, and to His people, the Church, and the Tribulation Saints.
The third characteristic of this angel is that “his face was like the sun”.
This is again an image we’ve seen associated with Jesus Christ, again, at the Transfiguration. Matthew 17 says “He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” Revelation 1 presents the same idea, stating that the Lord’s “countenance was like the sun, shining in its strength.” This is also the same image we see in Ezekiel’s vision of the Lord, where Ezekiel states that “from the appearance of his waist and upward I saw, as it were, the colour of amber, with the appearance of fire all around within it.”
Fourth, this angel’s feet are like fire.
This is somewhat reminiscent of Revelation 1 also, where the Lord had “feet like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace”. Daniel, in his vision, described a man “whose… body was like Beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.” Those things, obviously, are consistent with several of the characteristics we’ve seen already.
Fifth, this angel sounds like a lion roaring when he speaks.
This is consistent with Job 4, where Eliphaz states that “by the blast of God [the wicked] perish, and by the breath of His anger they are consumed. The roaring of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion.” Isaiah 31 presents the same image: “As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey… so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion”. And we know, of course, Revelation 5 verse 5: “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
So you can see the consistency of the imagery here. Each of these points is a compelling piece of evidence that this mighty angel is none other than Jesus Christ, the King of Kings Himself – particularly given that the majority of these characteristics are exclusively attributed to the Lord throughout Scripture.
The secondary viewpoint on this passage is that this is just a particularly mighty angel, who dwells in the presence of God. These descriptions, however, simply don’t match any other angel in the Word of God – but they do match the descriptions of Jesus Christ. So why, then, would the Lord be portrayed here as an angel?
I could take you into Scripture at this point and demonstrate to you all the times at which the Lord Jesus took the form of an angel. We could look at Genesis 18, as the Angel of the Lord spoke with Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or at Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestles with him until the morning breaks; we could look at His appearance to Joshua, in Joshua 5, or His visit to Samson’s parents; to Daniel, with the fourth man in the furnace, or indeed any of the visions in the Old Testament prophets that mirror this one. But the question still remains, why here, and why now?
Well, I believe the answer is in the text, and it’s wrapped up in the nature of His mission.
The Angel’s Mission: A declaration of Kingship.
Look at verse 1 again.
“I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud.”
There is a peculiarity in this verse that seems to have been lost on most who read it, and I think it’s key to the interpretation of this passage.
We’ve seen, and I demonstrated to you a moment ago, that there are indeed many instances in which the Lord is associated in some measure with clouds. They represent His presence, His judgment, and His glory, all at various times and in different contexts. The peculiarity here, however, is that this is the only time in Scripture – anywhere in Scripture – where we see a representation of Jesus Christ clothed in clouds, as opposed to being on clouds, or coming with clouds.
So why is this significant? I believe this has much to do with the purpose of the Lord’s mission at this time. Clouds, we understand, obscure sight. What I would suggest to you is that this vision of a mighty angel, clothed with a cloud, is a veiled visitation of the King of Kings, for the specific purpose of declaring the message of His coming. It is not, however, the Second coming, for at this point, the Lord has no intention of revealing Himself to those upon the earth, save through the bowl judgments that are about to occur – and that, without delay. What this likewise implies is that the message to be conveyed here is of such vital, earth-shattering importance that no mere angel can be entrusted with its delivery.
…but I think there’s more than that here, too. I’d suggest to you that the shift in perspective from a heavenly to an earthly viewpoint also has an impact on the manner in which John views these events. John is being shown this vision as the people on earth would perceive it; and we know from Scripture that no man may see God and live. In fact, I’d suggest to you that the vision of the Lord Jesus that the apostle himself endured in Revelation 1 would have cost him his life had it not been for the fact that he was “in the spirit”, and not in the flesh. So the vision John sees here, he perceives as all the world will see Him at this time: veiled… and hidden from the fullness of his sight, because the for the Lord’s return, the time for His reclamation of planet earth, has not yet come.
So what of the message, then? What could be so important that the Son of God Himself should descend, veiled in cloud, to declare it unto man?
Look at verse 3.
“When He [that is, Jesus Christ] cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. Now, when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
There have been… literally volumes written on this verse. The honest truth is that we simply don’t know what the thunders said. There are some things we do know, however.
First, we know that John understood the words that were spoken. In fact, he was about to write them down, before a voice from heaven prevented him.
Second, we know that thunder represents the voice of God Himself. We saw this in Revelation 8 verse 5, and will see it again in chapters 11 and 16. Psalm 29 also has a series of seven statements about the voice of the Lord that highlight His power and glory:
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the God of glory thunders; the Lord is over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars…
The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire;
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness…
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and everyone in His temple says “glory!”
So, we have a real difficulty here.
We have Jesus Christ, veiled as an angel… and we have the voice of God, ringing throughout the world as the Lord cries out in verse 3… but both are obscured. Both are hidden from us. Why?
There’s a parallel to this entire passage in the Psalms, actually, and it’s worth us reading it. Turn with me to Psalm 18 – Psalm 18, and we’ll begin at verse 6.
In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled;
The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken,
Because He was angry.
8 Smoke went up from His nostrils,
And devouring fire from His mouth;
Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With darkness under His feet.
10 And He rode upon a cherub, and flew;
He flew upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His secret place;
His canopy around Him was dark waters
And thick clouds of the skies.
12 From the brightness before Him,
His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire.
The Lord thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe,
Lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
The foundations of the world were uncovered
At Your rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
I don’t know about you, but I can imagine Israel reading this Psalm during the Tribuation. You can see, though, can’t you, the similarity in the descriptions. We have the Lord descending upon the earth, making darkness His secret place, and surrounding Himself with a canopy of clouds. What this demonstrates to us is a precedent. We can see it in the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, and the representation of God here in Psalm 18. It is not always God’s will that He should be revealed through sight; but that through a demonstration of His power and might, men might see, and believe.
…and that is the message here:
Not that, through this visitation, Jesus Christ should be made known, but that by the declaration of His final judgment, He should be demonstrated before all to be both King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. You see, this isn’t just a warning of impending judgment – it’s also an emphatic assertion of God’s right to come in judgment in the first place.
Look at verse 2.
“He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.”
We saw in an earlier sermon that the sea and the land represent the Gentile world and the land of Israel, respectively – and it’s this that is in view here; though the conclusion is the same both literally and figuratively – and I can put it no better than Psalm 24:
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory.
So this is the Lord’s mission in this passage; this is His declaration.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
…and
“There will be no more delay”.
Judgment is coming… and the patience of the King will wait no longer. With one foot on the land, and one on the sea, Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the King of Glory, declares, after all the judgment we’ve seen, after all the seals and trumpets, the blood and fire and earthquakes and lightning…
This… is… MINE.
…look at verse 5 again.
[…and] the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
What we’re witnessing here is the Lord Jesus Christ declaring the finality of His judgment, and the totality of His Kingship… and when He lifts up His hand to heaven, and swears by Himself (for there is no other name), He is declaring in all His resurrection power that the end of this age is at hand; that when judgment is complete – and there will be no more delay – He will come, He will rule, He will reign, and He will be declared as the King of Glory, forevermore.
Throughout this series, I’ve shown you images of God’s glory, and demonstrated both the gravity of His judgment and the great depth of His compassion, as it is written here in this book. This chapter is… something else entirely. It is utterly unique; first, for its representation of Jesus Christ, and second, because it represents the point at which the mercy of God as it relates to those who remain upon the earth, come to an end.
All that is left here… is judgment.
All that is left is the outpouring of God’s wrath upon unbelievers.
…and why?
Go back with me to Revelation 9, and verse 20.
“But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
This is why there is no more delay.
Because, as in the days of Noah, “God saw” – even despite His great judgment, even despite His mercy, even despite the unveiling of the heavens and the revelation of Jesus Christ enthroned on High – even despite all this, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and saw that every inclination of man’s heart was only evil, continually.”
…and this brings us my final point: the little book.
The Little Book
Turn back to Revelation 10, and look at verse 8.
8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”
9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.”
And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
I’d like to tell you that this half of the passage is less contentious than the half we’ve already studied, but I’d be lying to you. Scholarship is just as divided over the nature of this little book as it is over the Mighty Angel. I’d suggest to you, however, that the reason for this is because people try to read too much into the detail that we’re given – and that everything we need to understand what John is going through is in the pages of this book already.
The little book… is the prophecy that remains.
You can see that here in verse 11. “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues and kings.” What the Lord is doing here – and again, this is compelling evidence that this is Jesus Christ – is giving John the words that he must speak; and they, like so much of what we’ve studied, are sweet as honey in the mouth (for God’s Word always is), but the impact of it, the cost of the digestion of God’s Word is bitterness… for what John is called to testify to is the final, impending judgment of a rightly furious King.
I want to break this down, just in closing, and I’d like to do that by referring again back to Revelation 9 – and we’ll see, in the process, just why this news was so bitter for the apostle John.
You know, it’s easy for us, living here, in a world that is rapidly decaying and falling apart at the seams, to be desensitized to what is going on all around us. …but the reality is, these verses from Revelation 9 are being fulfilled before us on a daily basis.
I sat… when I wrote this sermon, and I’d planned to end with a roundup of a series of news headlines that fell into each of the categories that we’ve just read in Revelation 9. Idolatry. Murder. Drug Abuse. Sexual Immorality. Theft.
I thought perhaps these things might… awaken us to the reality of the need for judgment – of the absolute righteousness of the impending wrath of God in response to these things.
…but the reality is, what I found in ten minutes of googling was too disturbing to mention from this pulpit... and I don’t wish to give any more attention to these things than they already receive. But the truth of it all is this – and I’m quoting here from Billy Graham’s wife, who said:
“If God doesn’t judge this world, He’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
This is why our King is veiled here. This is why these words are sealed and not written down in the pages of this book… and it’s why the Word of Prophecy, so sweet in the apostle’s mouth, turned bitter. …because there is no hope for those left on the earth at this time. There is no more mercy. There is no more patience. There is no more grace. Only judgment. The end has come, and the people of this earth refuse to repent. All that remains… is judgment.
The Blessed Hope
…but God.
That same Jesus – veiled in Revelation 10, hidden from man and revealed in judgment, has been revealed to us through God’s Word. We know – we see, and experience a world soaked in sin, and we know that the wages of sin is death, because there is death all around us. We know that there is no life in the law; that our own desperate, feeble attempts at pleasing God are nothing but foolishness, because there can be no fellowship between light and darkness, and our God is a Holy God…
…but God.
“While we were still sinners… Christ died for us.”
That verse is both all and everything that separates the Christian from the promised judgment of Revelation 10.
“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
We’ve seen both great beauty and terrible judgment through this passage today. Some of you may go away from this service with those words of judgment ringing in your ears – but know this. Jesus Christ may be a terrible judge… but He is a beautiful savior. Let’s pray.