Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.41 – November 2000

 

Eating the Scroll

 

Sermon by Rev L Douma

on Revelation 10

Scripture Reading: Revelation 10

 

Beloved in the Lord.

Recent biblical scholarship has put far greater emphasis on the Bible as literature and the story it tells.  So instead of seeing the Bible as proof texts with “propositional truths” to be discovered, there is now a more * careful look at things like the plot and the characters of the story, and the techniques the Bible writer uses to develop “tension” in the story highlighting the main theme of the book.

Well, we have to say that John is a master writer, drawing us in to hear what God is saying to us through the visions in Revelation.  Here in Chapter 10 he has us all tense again – like kids stretching on “tippy toes”, anxious to see what’s coming next.  Again he has us in an interlude – a break in the drama – just as we are looking anxiously at the seventh trumpet.

The six trumpets, remember, brought the dreadful warnings to the unbelieving world – the first four showing the awesome catastrophes on the environment – the land, the sea, the rivers and lakes, and the skies, where a third of everything was effected.  Then there was the release of the dreadful looking locusts from the abyss, the evil spirits that made the unbelieving world go even further in its sin – but with the tail of the scorpion, having the world crying for death in its despair.  The sixth seal showed the two hundred million horsemen, coming from over the Euphrates river, killing a third of mankind by war and plague.

All this devastation was not the final judgment – but a warning to the world, a taste of hell, God crying out to them in their pain, “repent and turn to me”.  But John saw that (9:20) “the rest of mankind that were not killed by the plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands.”  So now the awesome seventh trumpet is about to be sounded.  What will it bring to this stubborn, unrepentant lot?

To find out we are going to have to wait.  This is not just for creating suspense.  Again, as in Chapter 7, after the opening of the six seals, John is being very pastoral for the seven churches he first wrote to — and to us.  He brings deep comfort, and a strong challenge to the church.

After the sixth seal and the collapse of the creation came the awesome question: “Who can stand?”  And John showed the church that it was “sealed” – every single believer was guaranteed he would be in paradise with the Lamb.

Now again, after the sixth trumpet Jesus, through John, provides a wonderfully reassuring vision.  And it’s needed.  Because the dreadful events described in Chapters 8 and 9, while being an awesome warning to unbelievers, does not leave Christians unaffected.  They have to live through all this as well.

They have not been previously taken away in “the rapture” as some theologies teach.  What the seals and trumpets reveal has been going throughout all history.  What is a dire warning to the unbeliever to repent is a trial to the believer to draw them closer to God.  But it’s the same sufferings and tragedy and death.

And of course, what is also deeply concerning is that the church never lives outside of the culture it is in.  We are greatly affected by the world we live in.  We in Australia are greatly influenced by materialism, reliance on technology, humanism in sports.  All these can be ways of striving to live without God.  And we Christians so often end in a dualism where we live lots of life without God till we get home or to church.

In the west many are leaving the church.  Or we are wanting big changes in the church, so much of which is a reflection of the postmodern culture.  So many in the church have the attitudes of the world including – the sting in the tail – the sense of despair, hopelessness, suicide.  The church, too, is plagued with abuse, sexual immorality, struggles for power, lack of care for the poor and down trodden.

So the church needs reassurance that it will not also sink in the face of these trumpets – the masses of locusts and hordes of horsemen.  And Jesus, through John, gives His people that reassurance that they will be given the strength to go through the trials and temptations.

The reassurance is given in this interlude, this break, in the form of the vision of a mighty angel.  Verse 1: “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven.”  Now this angel is huge; he towers over the creation.  Try and visualise him.  “He was robed in a cloud” – he is so big that the clouds are his clothes.  “His face was like the sun… with a rainbow above his head” – I guess like a crown.  “His legs are like fiery pillars.”  “He planted his right foot on the sea and his left on the land.”

The land and sea is symbolic of the whole creation.  By standing on the land and sea it is symbolising that the angel has dominion over everything.  In the Old Testament the king who had won a war would stand with his foot on the neck of the defeated king.  It symbolised, “I have won.  I now rule over you.”  What a powerful symbol – so strong.

Some commentators say this is not just an angel – it is Christ.  Compare the vision of Jesus in Chapter 1 with the “eyes of fire, the white robe and the feet of burnished bronze.”  But, however this is, the point is that this angel of the Lord stands huge, firm and strong in the world.  He may descend out of heaven and without any fear of being opposed he places his feet upon all things.  The locusts can but buzz at his feet and the horsemen are nothing in comparison to his power.

That is what the church must see.  The tragedies and catastrophes in this world can make us go cold with horror.  The temptations and pull of the “spirits of the age” are so powerful and so deceptive (especially on the young).  And when we look at history, when we look at life today, when we look at our own sinful life, it seems that evil is much stronger than good.  The locusts seem to be such all powerful figures from where we stand.  If we compare honesty and deceit, meekness and violence, gentleness and cruelty, kindness and greed, which looks the stronger?

But despite all that, nothing can take us out of the hand of our awesome God.  The power of His Word and Spirit cannot be broken.  We see that this huge angel “was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand.”  This is the Word of God revealed to us.  It’s not the same scroll that Jesus has in his hand with the seven seals.  That is the complete will of God for all the kingdom and its coming.  As it opens, it actually brings the kingdom.

This scroll in the angel’s hand is different.  This is called “the little scroll.”  So it shows the will of God that is given in His Word.  It is by this Word that the church is kept strong and secure.  If we as a church are going to survive in our day and culture we must be continually in the Word of God – in worship, Bible study, devotions, Christian thought and literature – that helps us to discern our world.

We see (vss.3-4) that this “mighty angel… gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion.  When he shouted the voices of the seven thunders spoke.  And when the seven thunders spoke, I (says John) was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.’”  These seven thunders are very intriguing.  What are we to make of them?

Well they are thunders – and thunder is a symbol of God’s presence and his judgment (cf.8:5).  And there are seven, like the seven seals, the seven trumpets and seven bowls (still to come).  So we can say they are further judgments of God.

But why is John told not to write down what he heard?  Why tell us about them and then not tell what was said?  Is it a case of God showing John some more warnings He was going to give to the world (like the trumpets) – but seeing their stubborn refusal to repent is now going to go straight to the final judgment – because that’s what the angel declares next?  Or was John given information that was so clear that he (and others) could discern the dates of the judgments so that even those without faith could see it all coming?  But that is not the purpose of this book – even though (too) many people use it to say they can fix the time of Jesus’ coming again.

The book of Revelation is a book of symbolism deliberately.  It is a book to be received in faith – not just by observation and knowledge.  Like the parables of Jesus which were to keep the unbelievers blind, so Revelation is a book for the church – for faith, for developing her reliance on God, trusting Him.  Not for assisting enquiry into the future.

It is not just about the end time.  Revelation is about all of history – about life at any time.  It is stuff we must come to terms with today, now – not just at a certain date in the future.  We must always be living as if Jesus were to come back tomorrow – today.  There is a sense of urgency about life for us and those around us.  Today we must acknowledge Jesus as Lord.  Today we must witness for Christ to that neighbour.  Because Jesus is no longer delaying His return.

So says the mighty angel.  We see him (vs.5) raising his right hand to heaven and making an oath.  And in vss.6a-7, “And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, ‘There shall be no more delay!’”  But in the days when the seventh angel is about to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

Notice who the angel swears by – the everlasting God who created everything.  Therefore nothing can stop him bringing His judgment because everything – in creation, spiritual, powers, things – they are all but the creatures of his Word.  So when the angel makes his oath and says the end is now coming without delay, this is not a sign that God is panicked into action because of the unrepentant response of the world.  He is supreme over time and creation.  He fulfils what He plans.  The last days, no less than the first, are in His hands.

And God has determined, implies the angel, that the time for the final judgment has come.  There will be no more delay, no more warning.  The martyrs under the altar (5:4-12) would have welcomed this announcement.  They had asked, “Lord how long till we are avenged?”  The creation is certainly groaning for this day.  I wonder if we as part of today’s church are waiting ‘on tippy-toes’ for this day, straining eagerly for it to come?

Now nothing stands in the way of the final dramatic period of human history.  From this point on God will not intervene to give further opportunity for people to repent.  The restraint is to be removed and the forces of God and Satan will meet in final confrontation.  The angel says the “mystery of God shall be accomplished”.

What is this mystery?  Well we have two clues from the text.  It is something that was long ago announced (actually ‘gospelled’ in Greek) by the prophets and it is something that which can be accomplished – fulfilled.  In Paul’s letters the mystery of God is associated with the coming of Jesus and the calling of the Gentiles.

So the mystery of God is revealed when the gospel is preached to the Gentiles (that’s all of us) and it will be fulfilled when the full number of God’s people is brought in, when the world is brought to an end – the unbelievers brought to judgment and the believers brought to the new earth.  As the gospel is going out in nearly all the languages of the earth, we know the time is coming.

Throughout the New Testament the time of Christ’s coming again is always imminent – it can be any moment.  Revelation does not allow us to say, “We can determine when Jesus will return – so we can go easy before then.”  No, the time is now.  The delays are removed.  From now on in the book of Revelation – from Chapter 12 onwards – we see the overlapping visions of the final battle.

In the final segment of this vision John is told to take the little scroll from the mighty angel and when he does so the angel says (vs.9), “…take it and eat it.  It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey”.  So John in the vision (not in reality) takes the scroll and eats it – and sure enough it tasted as sweet as honey but when he had eaten it, his stomach turned sour.  Now again we have symbolism here.  But what does it mean?

Well, as we said, the little scroll reveals what God is going to do with the seventh trumpet and so on.  It’s not the large scroll that actually is the will of God that Jesus holds.  The little scroll tells John what’s going to happen – the unfolding of the mystery.  Now John is not just to read this scroll, i.e., get generally acquainted with its contents, have a bit of ‘head knowledge’ on this issue and be able to pass on some information.

No, John has to eat the scroll, i.e., the truth of what the scroll says must be thoroughly appropriated by John.  He must digest it.  He must take it into his very system.  It must become part of his flesh and blood, his life.  It must transform him.  He must come under the scroll’s power and influence.  At the end of the Chapter (vs.11) John is told he must prophesy “about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

Anyone who is to be a prophet for God does not just pass on some information to others and then leave it.  The prophet must himself believe the message and be gripped by it, challenged and changed by the message he is to bring.  In other words, the prophet does not just bring the Word – he is the Word – a living example displaying the effect of the power of God’s Word, being a living example of what the Word does.

Now why is it that when John first eats the Word it’s sweet as honey, but then goes sour in the stomach.  The sweetness is not hard to understand.  It presents the joy and peace that comes when we receive the ‘good news’ of the gospel.  The Word creates a change in a person that is so good as we receive God’s forgiveness and experience the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

But the Word of God is a two-edged sword.  It cuts both ways.  In bringing us to God, it also shows clearly our wrong, where we need to change.  There is still so much within us that is sinful and even evil.  Added to that, Jesus said that even as we follow Him we must take up our cross and follow Him.  He meant to expect a hard time for being Christian, just as He suffered.  The Christian life is not all sweet and lovely.

And further still, the Word itself that John had to bring was both gracious and a judgment – they are the two sides of the one coin.  John had to tell of the dreadful judgment of God – and he felt that not just as a theological theory – but as absolute certainty.  He knew of the dreadful suffering – the hell – that would be experienced because of the world’s stubborn unbelief.  No person who knows the deep love of God, can just speak of the eternal damnation of other human beings – men, women, children, family, friends – and not be moved.  It is a part of the prophetic calling that can leave a very sour taste.

And the sourness gets worse when the people respond to the prophet with reactions of bitter opposition that is pushed along by the locusts – the evil push to get further from God – and leaves despair hanging in the air.  But despite the sour stomach, John must prophesy for all the world, a message for everyone – even the ‘kings’, the so called powerful in the world.

And therein lies the challenge for the church – which includes us today.  This vision gives great comfort as we see the power of the angel who is on the side of the church.  Those who belong to Jesus can never be snatched away.

But the challenge for us is that we, like John, must be prophets.  We, too, need to eat the Word.  We are far too content in our day to just be a bit acquainted with some Bible knowledge.  But we should so soak up the Word that it grips us.  That we deeply believe it and no other philosophy of life.  That we are single minded – determined in our Christianity.  That we let the Word radically affect the whole of our lives.  That we have so digested the Word that we are living examples of what we witness about.

So we must do because the angel of the Lord has declared, “There will be no more delay”.  The final judgment is imminent – it can be here any moment.  Now is the time to preach for Christ.  Now is the time to repent.  For when Jesus returns, then “time will be no more”.  Then it will be too late.  Then everything will be fixed and unchangeable.

Then the unbeliever will not only taste a bit of hell on earth.  Then it will be hell.  But for the believer sealed with the Spirit it will be paradise with the Lamb.

Repent today.  Prophesy today.

Amen.