Revelation Chapter 6 Verse 11

·    There’s a pattern here that I just want to take a minute and talk about. What we see here for those that have been killed unfairly, killed for their words, killed for their hearts, killed because others simply disagree with them…, today we have free speech, or do we. We are free to speak out against what is wrong, what is error, harmful and destructive… But it is precisely as Jesus said in John 3:19, “This is the condemnation that the world has upon itself, from itself…, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

·    And so even today, there is great conflict, incredible devastating consequences not because someone is physically threatening or harming another but because one has a different idea than another! And that issue, this revelation of condemnation, that this world loves darkness, (wholly incomprehensible to the righteous), has only rapidly accelerated just in our generation. It will peak during the time of the Antichrist. The rider of the white horse who one after the other brings with him war, suffering and death, the four horsemen of the end, comes into ultimate power. And the ultimate result we see in the fifth seal, when many are slaughtered simply for their ideas and nothing more. Their loyalties and nothing more.

·    It is all out war on anyone that does not embrace darkness during the reign of the Antichrist at the time of the Great Tribulation. “For the mystery of lawlessness,” Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, “is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed.” The war against the saints in the Great Tribulation is already raging today, and there are even times we get to see it. But during the Great Tribulation it will be fully revealed…

·    And so, the pattern we see here of how God handles those that are His…, comfort, rest and completion. A white robe was given to each of them which speaks of covering and comfort. Rest, and then a promise of completion. This is a good picture pattern to perceive. Whatever has happened, whatever is going on, whatever the worry, take it to the Lord…, and know that nothing will go unanswered by Him. Even if right now, you are filled with rage and anger and you call for vengeance. Remember, God says in Deuteronomy 32:35, “Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.”

·    So even if the call is out of pain, fear, anger, this is the pattern and promise of God’s protective response. He will comfort you. He will give you rest for your soul. And honestly there’s a large part of me that doesn’t want rest…, that wants to be entirely aggressively outraged! But the rest He gives is the assurance that He will set the bone. Correct what has been made so incorrect. We watch the world march, destroy, steal, loot and burn down cities when they are enraged. When the church fills with rage, we meet with our Commander, we mourn and we pray. And we rest in hope.

·    And then He brings it to completion with His purposes, not the enemy’s. Not what the flesh wants to do to you…, but the trial turns into a refining fire, a preparatory strengthening…, and you grow.

Revelation Chapter 6 Verses 12 – 14

·    Jesus talked about these things during His earthly ministry. It says in Matthew 24:1-2, “Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’”

·    When you go to Israel, standing on the southwest corner of the temple mount, they have dug all the way down to the original stone road on the outside of the temple from the time of Jesus. And there cascaded about on the ground, in random order as they had fallen, are the remains of the original Herodian stones that made up the walls of the temple mount.

·    When the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 70AD, the soldiers were directed by Titus Caesar Vespasianus to not destroy the temple, but to leave it as a symbol of Jewish subjugation to Rome. The Jewish elite had barricaded themselves in the temple during the siege. Locked themselves in…, and they lasted for a few days held up there on the Temple Mount, in the Temple…

·    The Roman soldiers, in the celebration of their victory, were drinking wine and just waiting it out and in so doing some got fairly drunk. And they launched pitch covered fire lit arrows towards the temple. And as they burned there on the side of the temple, they notice the gold overlay of the temple begin to melt and drip down. And so, they continued lighting the temple on fire to harvest the gold for themselves… And in so doing, they ended up burning the temple in its entirety and effectively killing everyone inside…

·    The problem was that some of the gold was seeping and staying, getting lodged, between these huge stones that made up the temple. And so, one by one they dismantled the temple, stone by stone, scraping away and melting away the gold, and thus tossing the stones aside. Just as Jesus had predicted in Matthew 24, that not one stone would be left here upon another… And even today, you can stand upon fulfilled prophecy and see those stones…

·    Just as Jesus predicted the dismantling of the temple, the prophets such as Joel, Zephaniah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all predicted the dismantling, the coming apart of the earth. Zephaniah 1:14-18 reads, “The great day of the Lord is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like refuse. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, for He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land.”

·    Joel 2:10 says, “The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness.” Some go to great measures to describe what we are reading naturally and some go to great measures to describe what we are reading as man-made, man caused. Nuclear fallout and the like. It is possible that God uses natural means to bring about what we are reading here in this passage…

·    Right now, although you don’t feel it or sense it, the earth is traveling. We are rotating on the axis of the planet at a speed of 1,038 MPH, while orbiting the sun at 67,000 MPH, and along for the ride in our solar system as we move around the Milky Way galaxy at 514,000 MPH! Have you ever been on a motorcycle going about 50 MPH and a bug hit your forehead? Hurts, right!? Well, there is a ton of stuff around us, all the time… And it could be that something impacts the earth, or one of the other planets and disrupts the delicate equilibrium we are in today…

·    NASA has a program, one of many, called Near-Earth Object Surveyor, or NEOS. The Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor) is designed to help advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. These are collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs. You may not know this, but just as one example, each year, the earth passes through the debris of Halley’s Comet twice! We call them meteor showers… That’s not quite accurate! It's us passing through/by them!

·    It’s been estimated that if one meteor about 10 miles in diameter were to enter our atmosphere and impact the earth, it would be enough to slow the rotation of the earth and disrupt the speed at which the earth is traveling at currently. What could that cause? Perhaps Revelation 6…

·    There’s also something known as the polar axis shift which is mind boggling! Do you know that the earth’s magnetic poles reverse? That’s proven science and it happens unpredictably! Crazing stuff! Many use scientific phenomena like this to explain why we for example find things like perfectly preserved mammoths in the ice of Siberia. Why’s that so interesting? Well first of all, Siberia is a barren, blizzard-scourged wilderness. Why would we find mammoth, bison, rhinoceros and horses there which have all been found. And these mammoths were found with fresh vegetation in their digestive track suggesting that when they died, the terrain was much different…

·    But here’s what’s even more alarming. The sled dogs involved in the discovery actually were seen eating some of the remains! All of this suggests that these animals didn’t die and freeze, which would happen today, but that they flash froze in some sort of cataclysmic immediate event, such as a polar axis pivot! Ok, I think I’m just about done being THIS nerdy!

·    Revelation 6…, something catastrophic is happening on the earth. Every mountain and island moved out of its place…stars falling like figs…the sun blackened…the sky receding… Some commentators ascribe this to some sort of nuclear holocaust but this is much more than that…this is something else entirely. What? Really no way to know…

·    And notice, in the end, no earthly thing makes you any different than anyone else…, kings, great, rich, commanders, mighty, slave and free… Everyone is the same.  Why are we so attached to and pursuing things that in a time of trouble does nothing for us…? This is one of the reasons why I’m in ministry! The medicines of the world, a new relationship and a new man, a new man, and another new man, (or woman), retail therapy, drugs, alcohol, sex, these are all like offering aspirin to a person with aids.

·    You get a moment or a night of relief but in the morning you’re still sick. You’re still suffering. Truly, what good is it if you gain all that this world can gain you and, in the end, you STILL lose everything! Listen to this! Isaiah 55:1-2, “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you!”

·    Everything we ingest…, physically, emotionally, spiritually, is aspirin to our aids if it is not us walking right up to the One who is the Creator of all life and the King of all eternal and non-eternal reality. It’s like having a tool box full of ineffective tools that we have bought on Temu and we just sit there admiring them…until the check engine light comes on. And all the money is spent and all the room is taken (no more tools fit) and we have nothing that actually will help us.

·    So, what actually helps? The ways of the One who designed it all…, simple as that. And you can know them through me, through research, through learning and reading, but you can’t actually understand them, apprehend them and apply the ways of God until you know Him for yourself!

Revelation Chapter 6 Verses 16 – 17

·    This is one of the most pathetic scenes in all of scripture but this is where idolatry and rejection of the Holy Spirit will lead… Instead of running to God, the answer to all of this calamity…, they run away. It is like a fish running to a desert when the ocean is available… Stop choosing to deny the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Soften your heart…and if it’s not happening…get in the Word…, lift your hands in worship, ask for prayer…the list goes on and on as to what you could do… but you lust for the desert…why? Men love darkness, even this man… I have to engage in the war or I’m losing the war…

·    Instead of running to God, they run away…and instead of calling out to God, they call out to creation…to the mountains and rocks. Some say time heals all wounds…those some are idiots. (Time is a part of creation!) Some believe a better job, a better house, a better pastor (psh, like you could find that), a better whatever…and things would be so much better… Time and all of creation…it’s all subservient to its Creator. The answer is to turn your life over to the Father.

·    This is perhaps the most interesting tidbit… They know that it is God. They know… Just like today. You’ve heard the Word of God. You’ve been taught the Word of God just like me. You’ve sensed the love and call of God on your heart of hearts, just like me. Just like us…, they know this is God and still they choose to hide. Let that not be said of us!