Revelation 8 vs 1-13

Oct 5, 2025    Pastor Matt Korniotes

We are at the end of what are called the “seal” judgments. What is ahead

are the seven trumpets and then there will be the seven bowls. All are

successive waves of tribulation upon the earth. It’s a tough and terrible

time period. Someone says, “How can a God of love, how can a God that

is good, how can that be true and this be happening?” It’s a fair question.


Let me also ask a question. A good God lets things just go on until

everything is lost? Until everything is completely given over to corruption?

I can’t get there. God is holy, and He is righteous. His goodness and His

holiness are one… Putting an end to all that is wrong is GOOD.


How would you do it? “I’d show them, I’d show them what is right and I’d

give them everything so that they wouldn’t destroy themselves.” He’s done

that. “Then I’d force them to do what is right.” He won’t do that… I get

the anger and the rejection in the sentiment of the statement, “If God is a

God of love, then why…” And if I sit in my thoughts long enough, I easily

answer my own questions…


Revelation Chapter 8 Verse 1

 The seventh seal is the final seal. After this one, the scroll is open.

The seventh seal open effectively declares the end of any constraining

debt, and the return of all creation to its rightful owner, Jesus being

fully qualified as fully man and fully God. The debt is settled and fate

is sealed. All is finished just like He declared on the cross…and

essentially that means, finality is about to fall upon the earth.

 In that moment, God declares silence. Silence is deafening. The Four

Living Creatures that did not cease to cry out holy, holy, holy…ceased.

The twenty-four elders who praised Him continually…ceased. All of

the angels, the host of heaven standing around the throne worshipping


and saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and

honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Quiet. Something major is going on…something that has not

happened before. All eyes on the Lamb. For just as He had taken all of

the sins upon Himself while on earth, He now is alone, singularly the

only One in all of eternity, heaven, hell and earth that is able to

initiate the return of the purchased possession and the horrifying

reward upon those that have rejected Him.

 Silence. Direction straight from the heart of the Father. You will not cy

out, all you angels. You will not sing out right now all the host of

heaven…I don’t want to hear it… Ezekiel 33:11, “As I live,” says the

Lord God, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”

Silence…many are lost, earth is fallen, and My heart once again, just

as it did as I paid the price upon the cross, My heart again

breaks…so, be quiet. All of the Lord’s intense enmity against all sin

meets head on with all of the Lord’s pure holiness, pure

righteousness…, and the pain is deafening.

Revelation Chapter 8 Verse 2

 The seven angels who stand before God. Who are these angels? Most

agree these are a high order of angels known as the archangels. In

scripture, we are given two of their names, only two. Luke 1:19, “And

the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the

presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these

glad tidings.” Jude 1:9, “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending

with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not

bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke

you!” (By the way, the only words spoken by Michael in all of

scripture.) And these seven angels are given seven trumpets…


 Recall the trumpets significance in times past…the trumpets were

blown to signify the reign of a king. The trumpets were blown to call

the people to gather. The trumpets were blown on the year of jubilee,

to signify freedom from all debts. The trumpets were blown and the

walls of Jericho fell…and now as these trumpets begin to sound, all of

these things are happening.

Revelation Chapter 8 Verses 3 – 6

 Do you ever feel like your prayers hit the ceiling or go unheard?

Certainly unanswered. Let me encourage you today, there has never

been a prayer prayed to the Lord in the power and presence of the

Holy Spirit that has not been answered. God is perfect. He doesn’t

leave anything undone. He never starts something and leaves it

unfinished. He’s never too busy, nothing ever hits the back burner, He

doesn’t have a back burner.

 Isaiah 40:12 says, “He measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,

measured heaven with a span…” God has the capacity to hear and

handle more prayers than all of creation could ever create…and He is

handling yours. Pray in faith. Trust the Lord. Jeremiah 33:3 says,

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty

things, which you do not know.”

 Timing may not be exactly to my liking. But what God is doing today

is preparing you for the answer to every prayer you have prayed thus

far. The difficulty is that we just start tripping while we endure

through the process. But even now, trust that where you are at,

although it may not be good, pleasant or comfortable, is leading you

to a place you could have never gotten to without it. So, honor the

Lord today, right here, because God is handling it…

 That’s the hope here, the encouragement…that the prayers of the

saints…they come before the throne of God, He examines them, mixes


them with fire from the altar and throws them back to the earth. I love

that! The word for “throw” literally means “pour.” The answer isn’t a

spot solution, God works comprehensive solutioning in your life…,

God is in to root cause analysis not just symptom relief…

 And notice, before that pour happens, the angel took that censer and

filled it with fire from the altar. The altar is the place of sacrifice. The

high priest would take the incense, place it into the censer there at the

tabernacle or the temple, and then he would take a burning coal from

the altar and place that coal in the censor thus causing the incense to

rise… What’s the point? The cross is the activator of our prayers.

Our prayers are heard because of it and our prayers are answered in

accordance with it.

 Check this out, 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one

Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” Your

performance is not your mediator. Your goodness is not your

mediator. Your sinlessness is not your mediator. You come to God

and God gives ear to you because of what Jesus has accomplished!

 The sacrifice of Jesus was a horrific circumstance, situation and event.

And yet it brought about the greatest victory that could ever be known

and that victory would go out as a free gift simply to be received by all

people. So, it was greatest in value, greatest in purpose and greatest

in reach. But it all went through the cross. So, take heart. Pray. Pray in

hope…and know that even today God is working that victory even if

you can’t sense it or perceive it over the intense suffering of whatever

cross you have to take up. Take it up anyway. You don’t even know

it, but the pouring out of your answered prayer has already begun…

(Total faith statement even for me as I write this…, not sure all of me

believes it but I have faith in it…, if that makes sense)


 Habakkuk 1:5 says, “Look among the nations and watch, be utterly

astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not

believe, though it were told to you!” Nothing worthwhile is easy…

We don’t like difficult, but everything with great worth comes with a

measure of difficulty!

Revelation Chapter 8 Verses 7 – 13

 A third of all trees on the earth destroyed. All of the grass upon the

earth destroyed. All of it. Imagine the second order affects of that like

air quality and what about all of the herbivore animals? All gone!

(Imagine the heartbreak of every dad with a zero turn mower,

HA!) A third of all of the living creatures in the sea destroyed. Many

people losing their lives just trying to quench their thirst as a third of

the waters become poison. And finally, darkness is multiplied upon

the earth…

 Let me ask you, what did the trees do, the animals do, the earth itself,

to deserve this? Nothing. Nothing at all…but this is the exceedingly

sinfulness of sin. All it can do is deliver evil. That’s the only thing

you don’t already have as you seek, walk and grow in the Lord!

 Sin seems so innocent. Maybe even no one will ever know…I can get

away with it or I can stop before it causes any real damage…but

beware, sin will always cost you more than you can pay…and

others, uninvolved and innocent, others will have to pay a portion of

the price too. If we could just stop and consider, maybe even God

would grant us the ability to see, truly really what our sin is doing and

going to do to us and others…we’d walk right with the Lord, right

now.

 Now, righteousness is the exact same and the exact opposite.

Righteousness and wisdom will always take you farther than you ever

thought possible and it will profit you more than you can spend


yourself. Righteousness and God’s grace flowing through you will

always give you more good than your one life can absorb…and so,

others around you get paid too…they profit too…when you walk in

God’s grace, and when you walk in righteousness!

 The effects of receiving and perceiving and growing in the grace God

has given to you, the effects of righteousness are more valuable than

any earthly wealth! Grace flowing through you results in you giving

someone far more and without limit what they do not deserve! It

causes you to act, think and plan in accordance with seeing the best in

someone. And it teaches you to never quit! Never stay discouraged but

on the flip shows you the joy of diligence in doing what is wise and

right in the eyes of God. Grace teaches you incredible work ethic!

Righteousness and wisdom will always deliver to you more than you

need to be fully content, fully satisfied and fully joyful!

 The angel declares at the end of Chapter 8, “Woe, woe, woe,” a deep

groaning, an angel struck with grief and with terror at what is

happening upon the earth…, because it’s just starting… Men are

suffering, women are suffering, children are starving, all because of

unrepentant, unchecked, unstopped…sin.

 Just when you think it’s as bad as its going to get, sin delivers its

second round of consequence. You get through the grief and then the

anger sets in. The anger lingers and regret comes to join the party.

Then depression and now you’re trying to just hold on, one day at a

time trying to figure out who you are and if you even want to keep

going. Hopelessness is the character of sin. Remember that when you

are toying with the flesh!

 Now, hopefulness is the character of grace! Second round

consequence to that is outstanding! You think the work is just going to

be difficult, denying your flesh and putting God first and others before


yourself and then a little self respect dawns. Peace arrives. Peace gives

birth to joy. Joy starts to shine and glitters out freedom…a spark of

freedom in your heart of hearts…and that freedom brings forth

contentment! And let me tell you, contentment is true strength. Grace

is the same and exact opposite of the flesh! Don’t sound bite that but

never forget that in context!!

 Next week the trumpet blasts will bring even more destruction because

it moves from the natural to the supernatural…demonic

activity…which is indeed the course of unaddressed sin even today

in our lives!

 And so too this star, interestingly called “wormwood,” ‘apsinthion” in

the Greek…in Russian, “cherynobyl” and it affects the waters, turns

them bitter and kills many.

 We’ve seen “wormwood” in other places of the Bible too. Amos said

in Amos 5:7 that the wicked turn justice into wormwood and Solomon

warned that immorality in Proverbs 5:4, might seem pleasant, but in

the end, she is bitter as wormwood.

 You may recall that after the Israelites traveled through the wilderness

for three days without water, they dove right into the first pool of

water they encountered. You find this in Exodus Chapter 15. But they

soon discovered that the water was “bitter.” They called Moses and to

fix the situation, God told Moses to cast a nearby tree into the water

and when he did, the water became sweet.

 It’s interesting that it is a tree that makes the water sweet. The tree is

always a picture of the cross in the Bible. God’s perfect and

wonderful grace on display! God’s righteousness and love on

display! When you add the cross, commit to, seek and walk in God’s

grace, add that to the bitter of what has happened…, the result will

always be a healing of the waters…