Worship and Judgment: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation (Rev. 8:1-5)

Worship and Judgment:

An Introduction to the Book of Revelation

A Sermon by the Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph.D.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Baton Rouge, LA

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:1-5)

Not long after I had started preaching at the age of 14, I couldn’t wait to get to the Baptist Book Store in Shreveport, LA, so I could begin buying commentaries on the Bible to help me in my preaching.   There are 66 books in the Bible, so I wondered which books to start studying.  Well, I went to the bookstore, bought two books, came back home, and ran down the street to show my pastor the two books I had chosen.   I had picked a commentary on the book of Daniel and the other on the book of Revelation.    When I showed them to my pastor, he shook his head and said, “Why did you choose the two most difficult books of the Bible to start with?” 

Though Daniel and Revelation are difficult to understand, people typically have a great deal of curiosity about them.   The books are filled with figures of beasts and descriptions of cataclysmic events.   We also assume that these books have a great deal to say about the end of the world, and who doesn’t want to know about the end of the world, when it’s going to happen, what are going to be the signs of the end, and is it just around the corner?  When I was called to be the pastor of my first church, I wanted to start a Wednesday night Bible study, and I made the mistake of asking my congregation which book they would like to study.  I should have known without asking that they would want to study the book of Revelation.   That was in the 1970s, and because of books like Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth, there was a real excitement in the air about the end times, so naturally, people wanted to learn more about the book of Revelation.

If you want to draw a large crowd to your church, have prophecy conferences.  I remember years ago, when I was serving as an assistant pastor at a church, the senior pastor invited some dispensational, premillennial Bible prophecy teachers to hold a conference at our church.   It was a small church with average attendance, but when we announced we were having a prophecy conference, it seemed like people were coming from all across the state.  Hold a prophecy conference, and you will attract visitors from across the denominational landscape.

This interest in the book of Revelation has been increased in recent years by moviemakers who can’t resist the sensational aspects of some interpretations of Biblical prophecy.  The popularity of the Left Behind series is a testament to the fascination people have with this subject, with even Nicholas Cage getting left behind after the rapture.    As far back as 1976, the movie “The Omen,” starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, drew on aspects of the more popular interpretations of Biblical prophecy about the Antichrist to launch a barrage of movies dealing with the rise of the man of sin.

I suppose most Christians down through the centuries have looked upon the book of Revelation as primarily about the end of the world.   In our time, we have a tendency to study the book of Revelation with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, wondering whether we can fit the headlines into the book of Revelation.  Since the book of Revelation is at once the most popular book in the Bible and the most difficult to understand, it is not surprising that there are probably more diverse interpretations of the book of Revelation than of any other book.

          A few years ago, I watched a film called “Pawn Sacrifice” about the life of the famous chess master Bobby Fischer.   In the movie, Bobby Fischer’s coach, Father Bill Lombardy, a Roman Catholic priest, says that after just four moves in a game of chess, there are more than 300 billion options to consider.  He also said that there are more 40-moves than there are stars in the galaxy.  Not being a chess player myself, I don’t know if those statistics are actually accurate, but when it comes to the book of Revelation, I think the statistics would be something similar.   Sometimes I feel like saying, “There are more than 300 billion interpretations of the book of Revelation, more than there are prophetic charts, than there are stars in the galaxy.”   Well, of course, I am exaggerating, perhaps a little.   But if you study the book of Revelation long enough, investigating what all the scholars and commentators have said down through the centuries on this book, it does take you down a rabbit hole,  and you feel that you are in a chaotic world that really leads nowhere.  If you read all the books and listen to all the lectures and sermons on this topic, you can come away thoroughly confused.  Yet, despite the bewildering array of theories on the subject of eschatology, it is still, far and away, the most popular subject for Bible studies.   Although there are many interpretations of the book of Revelation, many people are thoroughly convinced they know exactly what it means. They are so sure about their interpretation that if your interpretation differs from theirs, they are ready to label you a heretic. 

So, I enter this series of sermons on the book of Revelation with a great deal of trepidation.  But is there a way of looking at the book of Revelation that perhaps does not require as many charts and diagrams, something that might be profitable for the church across all ages, not just for those who will be around just before Christ ushers in the eternal state.  Is there a way of looking at the book of Revelation in a way that it will inspire our worship, give incentive to our evangelism, and cause Christian people to have a greater desire for holiness of life?   I believe there is.  I think we get so caught up in our desire to see future events in the book of Revelation that we forget what it is primarily about, or, I should say, who it is about.   The book of Revelation, just like all the books in the Bible, is about Jesus Christ.   All of Scripture is about him.   As Jesus told his disciples after his resurrection, the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets are all about him.   And since Jesus is so marvelously portrayed in the book of Revelation, as we study, we must never forget that it is primarily about him—what he has done in the world, what he is doing now in the world, and what he will continue to do until he ushers in the eternal state.           

One thing I would like to make clear at the outset of this series of sermons is that I am not going to give you a detailed analysis of every aspect of the book of Revelation.  As the head of the Department of New Testament Studies at Cranmer Theological House Seminary, I teach a detailed study of the book of Revelation. I also teach a course called Introduction to the New Testament, where I go into a great deal of analysis of authorship, setting, the date of composition, genre, and so on.   In this series, I will only mention those issues in passing.   My intention in this series is not to conduct a glorified seminary class, but rather to preach the gospel to you as it is outlined in the book of Revelation.  While all preaching contains teaching, not all teaching is preaching, and I intend to preach to you from the book of Revelation in this series of sermons.  The gospel message is portrayed with great clarity in this book, and I will be preaching the gospel to you just as I would preach it from the Gospel according to St. Matthew.   I believe that preaching from the book of Revelation need not be consumed by endless speculation about the future. Still, it can be preached in such a way that it arrests attention and results in reverence for the majesty and holiness of God.  

The first verse I ever remember reading from the Bible when I was around seven or eight years old was Revelation 21:8:  “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”  From the moment I read that verse, my heart was set to know that I was in the right relationship with God so that I might not go to that place of torment.  Because the various symbols and time frames in the book of Revelation can be so confusing, some of us tend to throw up our hands and say, “What is the use?”  But surely we must preach from this book as we do any other, especially since this book begins with a promise of blessing.  In Revelation 1:3, we read,  “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”    So, where shall we start?

When people come to the book of Revelation, many think that the key to understanding the book is Revelation 20:4-5:  “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”  Most of the attention in commentaries and books is given to this thousand-year reign of Christ and his saints, that many call “the millennium.”  You would think, from reading many of the commentaries, that the whole book of Revelation is about the millennium, because the way we interpret the entire book depends on what we believe about the millennium, so we divide into camps depending on whether we consider ourselves premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial.    For many, the whole book is interpreted in the light of these two verses in Revelation 20.   

I would suggest another passage that should determine how we view the book of Revelation.  I would point to Revelation 8: 1-5 which I read earlier:  “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”  Though the book of Revelation contains many images of judgment of God being poured out on the earth, the image that should command most of our attention is the throne room of God from whence these judgments originate.   David Chilton points out in his commentary on the book of Revelation, Days of Vengeance, that the throne room of God is the place of worship and the place of judgment.   Worship is directed toward the throne, and judgment proceeds from the throne.  

Of all the symbols we find in the book of Revelation, the key symbol for me is the tabernacle.   You know how I like bookends.  The book of Revelation begins in the tabernacle and ends in the tabernacle, and in the middle are the goings-on within the tabernacle in heaven. The tabernacle is the place of worship, and the tabernacle is also the place of judgment.   Revelation 8 demonstrates that God pours out his judgments on the earth in response to the prayers of the church during public worship.

With our zeal to learn how the world will end, using the book of Revelation as the key, we forget that it is meant to be a word of encouragement to the persecuted church.   We forget that this entire book is written to the seven churches addressed in chapter 1.  Our Lord told the apostle John to send this prophecy to “the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.”  The whole book is to be sent to those seven churches, not just the first three chapters. Then, in Revelation 21:16, our Lord says, “ I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.”  Notice again the reference to the churches.   Which churches?  Those churches that he addressed when he opened the letter.   These seven churches needed encouragement.   Some of them were experiencing persecution, others were about to, and they needed encouragement.   Some of the churches were riddled with false teaching and immorality, and they needed correction and repentance.   

But most of all, they needed to be shown that God was absolutely sovereign and was in control of the future of the entire world. They needed to know that, though kings of the earth are constantly committing acts of atrocity, Jesus Christ is still King of kings and Lord of lords, and that he is arranging all events in the world to display, with incredible glory, his triumph over them all.    Like these seven churches, we need to be shown the same thing in our own time.   We are a persecuted church, and we need encouragement.   Our churches are filled with heresy and immorality, and we need to be called to repentance.   We need to be shown that no matter how much it may seem that evil is prevailing, no matter how much it may seem that the church is going down in defeat, Christ will triumph through his victorious bride.  So, this prophecy was not just relevant for the church of the first century, but also for the church that will be here when Christ establishes his eternal kingdom. Still, it is appropriate for the church in all ages because we are constantly fighting the same enemy and are always made victorious through the same spiritual weapons. 

Christ will triumph through his Church, and the means by which the Church will win is the public worship of the gathered Church.  The entire book of Revelation is given to the Apostle John on the Lord’s Day, the day of worship, in the context of a worship service, specifically, as we shall see, a eucharistic service.   Though it may appear that the wicked will triumph, God reveals to his people, in worship, that the wicked will be judged and the righteous will be victorious.

The Psalmist saw this great truth in the 73rd Psalm when he questioned the justice of God amid the prosperity of the wicked.   Where was it revealed to him that God would be just in his treatment of the righteous and the evil?  Where was the Psalmist when the Lord revealed to him that there would come a day when he would put everything to right?   The psalmist writes that he had all these questions and doubts, “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.   Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors” (Psalms 73:17-19).   Those three verses are almost a summary of the book of Revelation.   It is in the sanctuary where God is worshiped that we see that the righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished.

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John, imprisoned on the isle of Patmos because of his testimony for Jesus Christ, is taken into the sanctuary, the tabernacle, on the Lord’s day, and he is shown the ultimate destruction of the wicked and the triumph of the saints.  This revelation is given to St. John so that the church can see the unfolding of historical events from a heavenly perspective.   But the only way human beings can see how historical events are part of God’s plan is through worship.   In worship, through the prayers, preaching, and the sacraments, we are transported to heaven, or better yet, heaven comes down to earth, and we can see historical events the way God sees them.   In worship, we can see that everything is going according to God’s plan.  

 The key to understanding the book of Revelation is that it is a worship service in which Jesus Christ is worshiped and glorified as the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world, and the King of kings and Lord of lords.    If you read the book carefully, you will see that the pattern is worship followed by judgment, worship then judgment, worship then judgment.  In Revelation 4 and 5, we have scenes of worship, followed by judgment.   In Revelation 7, we have worship, followed by more judgment.   In Revelation 14, we have worship and then judgment.   In Revelation 15, worship is followed by judgment.   In Revelation 19, we have worship, then judgment, and finally eternal worship. 

The book of Revelation is filled with scenes of worship employing the imagery of the Old Testament tabernacle.   Remember that when Moses built the tabernacle, he was following the pattern given to him on the mountain.   The worship Israel performed in the tabernacle followed the pattern of heaven's worship.   The people of Israel were to imitate the worship of heaven.   Things are no different in the New Testament.   We are to worship God on earth the way that he is worshiped in heaven.   As a matter of fact, when we worship him on earth, we are at the same time worshiping him in heaven.   In the book of Revelation, we are shown the worship of heaven, which should be duplicated in the church.   The worship of the church is heaven on earth. 

In the book of Revelation, we are given a detailed description of what worship is and what happens as a result of true Biblical worship.  The book of Revelation shows us that the church is the new tabernacle and that Christians are priests in that tabernacle, and we find out what our duties and privileges are as we serve as priests in the tabernacle—we are priests and kings ruling now with Christ in the heavenly places until all his enemies are made his footstool.

  In Revelation 8, we see the altar of incense, where God responds to the prayers of the saints, resulting in judgment being poured out upon the earth.    The book of Revelation demonstrates how the public worship of the church ushers in the people of God's victory over the world.  In this way, the Lord would comfort, encourage, and strengthen his church through the Revelation of Jesus Christ.   Worship and victory are connected and intertwined. 

These are great truths we need to confront today.   As a member of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, are you sad, discouraged, depressed because of the wickedness of the world and how it seems that the wicked are winning the battle?   The book of Revelation is for you.   But you may object that the world is so evil now.  It is no more evil than it was in the first century when Christians were a small minority surrounded by pagan religions and living under the oppression of a totalitarian state.   But though the Jews and the Romans persecuted the church horribly in the first century, it wasn’t long before Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. The Roman Empire went the way of all the kingdoms of the earth, perishing, but the church of our Lord Jesus Christ survived because our Lord promised that the gates of hell could not prevail against it.   This is the message of the book of Revelation to the churches.   No matter how much defeat may seem imminent, the church rejoices in the promised victory of our Lord Jesus Christ and his bride.

Perhaps I am speaking to someone who is not a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ.   You have never become a member of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, his glorious bride.   The message of the book of Revelation is for you, as well.   This book portrays the judgment that falls upon all those who refuse to accept the sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ.   Listen to the message of this book.   Run to Christ now and receive him as your Lord and master, trusting in his death to wash away all your sins.   There are many people today who look at the church and say, “You are on the wrong side of history”  But if you read the book of Revelation, you will see clearly that it is the church alone that is on the right side of history. Indeed, when this persecuted minority began proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, it appeared that they were on the wrong side of history.   It was 120 people in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, against the mighty Roman Empire.   It certainly seemed that the church was on the wrong side of history.   But no, Rome was on the wrong side of history.   No matter how many empires may arise, and no matter how they will try to crush the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, other empires will destroy those empires or else destroy themselves by their own sinfulness. Still, Christ’s kingdom will remain and be established.   Don’t be fooled by what you see.   Look at what God’s word says.  Come to Christ.   Be a part of his kingdom, his bride, and you will rule and reign with him throughout all the eternal ages.  Amen.