The Gravity And Glory of The Gospel
Ai Transcript
Mark Oshman (00:00.366)
you have your Bible, let's turn our attention to God's Word this morning. in Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14. A years, not a few years ago, earlier this year, I heard about something that had a kind of confluence of two of my passions. World War II history and surprisingly enough, church architecture. And when I saw that these two met in one place, I said,
I told my family, we need to make a day trip of this. It's about an hour south of Paris. this church site first had a church on it in the end of the third century. So it goes way back. Had different churches built on it over the years. Fires burned them down. But the current cathedral that is there now began construction in 1194. It only took
This is surprising for the enormity of it. It only took 30 years to build and it has some of the oldest and most well preserved stained glass and Christian sculptures in the world. so I knew I wanted to see that. But then I heard this story from World War Two. A guy by the name of Colonel Wellborn Barton Griffith is the center of the story. I mean, he just looks like a gangster, right? Like this guy.
I want to be him when I grow up. Well, here's the deal. In August 1944, as the Allied troops are pushing out of Normandy and beginning to make their way into various towns and to push the Nazis out, the Nazis were beginning to, and the Allies were finding that the Nazis were going into these towns and going into cathedrals and going up their tall spires and they would have spotters there to see the battlefield and they would have snipers there to take out
the allied troops. And so it became protocol policy for the the allied forces to just bomb these places out. Just take them out because they pose too much of a risk to the US troops and otherwise. And so one day in August 1944, Colonel Barton's in this meeting and they said, OK, we're about to go into this town called Chartres, France, and we need to bomb this this church because it's got these tall towers.
Mark Oshman (02:21.766)
And Colonel Barton was like, well, well, do we know for sure? They're like, well, we don't know for sure, but this is what the Nazis have been doing and we can't risk it. So, well, this is kind of a big deal. Like, maybe maybe we should go like confirm that there are Germans in in the church before we bomb it. They're like, it's too risky. It's too too much risk to our troops and otherwise. And besides, who is going to go?
And Colonel Griffith said, well, I'll go. And at great risk to his life, he and an enlisted guy went undercover, went into the town, went into the cathedral, searched it from the crypt to the spires, and reported back on the radio immediately, no enemies found. Hold off as the bombers were literally warming up to bomb the place. Because of truth and beauty, Colonel Griffith
risked his life. Later that day in a battle outside of Chartres, he died in battle. But he lived for truth and beauty. And I love that. So I had to go see this place. And we went there. I took my kids there. about an hour outside of France. It's hard to capture the enormity of this cathedral and its significance. Next picture here. This is one that I took.
Again, it's known for its oldest, most preserved stained glass in the world. That blue that you see is really, it's like trademark. And so I would take all these pictures. My daughters called me this week just to make fun of me. They're in college and they're like, hey dad, we were calling because we were laughing because you took us to this cathedral. And then after spending hours in the cathedral, you took us next door to the museum of stained glass for hours and we were going crazy.
Like why are we looking at so much of this. But I liked it. Next one. You can kind of see it again and then one more. Next one outside the church I think. OK so as you come into the west entrance you have these scenes that are above the doors as you come into worship and each one of them is a picture of Christ. So on the right we have Christ's incarnation. On the left you have the ascension of Christ but in the middle and we'll zoom into the middle here.
Mark Oshman (04:49.968)
In the middle is a picture from the book of Revelation. Christ on the throne surrounded by the four living creatures and the 24 elders. if you if we had a bigger picture you'd see those that are raised to righteousness and those that are condemned to hell. And imagine that symbolism and that imagery if you came to church every week and as you come into worship you are reminded of the ultimate reality that Christ is on the throne.
that there's more going on than meets the eye. Yeah. I don't think we're going to have this at our church, but that would be pretty awesome. Reformed church traditions have at least this one thing that I do think we'll have. As you go into the church and you go into the sanctuary, the doors of the church sanctuary are painted red to be a reminder that you enter in through the blood of Christ. Well, what this
that church is doing in sculpture. The Book of Revelation is doing for us in word it's pointing to symbols and that are pointing to the ultimate reality symbols and signs that point to that. And we're in this section in the Book of Revelation Revelation 12 13 and 14. There's it's kind of an interlude where John is getting this vision and he's pausing the movement and he'll pick it up again next week. But.
He's pausing to explore this idea that there are powers and principalities, real powers and principalities at work in the world making war against the kingdom of light. We saw that with the woman giving birth in Chapter 12. We saw that with governmental institutions and religious institutions in Chapter 13. And we'll continue to see through symbols and imagery pictures of what is actually going on behind the scene. And like so often in this book, we come to
Revelation 14 or at least I do and I read it at first and I'm like man that is bizarre and graphic in fact the most gruesome verse in all of the Bible is in Revelation 14 and so my first impulse is to kind of pull back but as I've dug deep into this chapter this week I am convinced it is absolutely gospel saturated absolutely gospel saturated before we started this series Rick and I were reading this commentary and
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The author, Daryl Johnson, if I was on a deserted island and I could only have one book of the Bible for the rest of my life, it would be the book of Revelation. And Rick and I looked at each other and we're like, I don't know about that. The author went on to say, the book of Revelation preaches the gospel more powerfully than any other book in the Bible. And again, I was like, OK, that's a big statement. And each week I've become more and more.
Convinced and that was the case this week as well this week. We're gonna see it's it's simple breakdown We're gonna see three angels proclaiming the gospel and then we're gonna see two harvests And it's gonna show us that the gospel is bigger than we think it is not just the ticket to get into heaven when we die There's more going on in the gospel. So we'll pick it up in verse 6 verse 6 the first angel
Says then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth to every nation and tribe and language and people. If you've been with this that phrase should sound familiar. But this is interesting. It says the angel and in Greek it just means messenger. Angel is the same as messenger. It says the angel goes out and proclaims an eternal gospel.
So I thought that was our job. I mean, that is the Great Commission, right? So is it the angel or is it us or is it both? Think about this. We often think about spiritual warfare, right? When we think of the realities that there are forces at work that are working against us and our family and even our country and the world, there's darkness in there and those are fallen angels. Why wouldn't it make sense that God's
angels also are fighting on behalf of the kingdom of light. This should fill us with confidence as we fulfill the great commission, as we open our mouths and tell people about Jesus. Not only do we have the commission from Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we actually have supernatural help in the spiritual world and the spiritual realm through angels. I don't know why we think of demons working against us, but we don't think of angels working
Mark Oshman (09:38.797)
for us as often. And so this is what he's saying. And here's the gospel it's reclaiming with a loud voice for seven. And he said with a loud voice fear God give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and the springs of water fear God give him glory worship. This is gospel. Absolutely. It's a picture of.
what God always intended for his image bearers to be in right relationship with him to rightly fear him to give him glory to worship him when the gospel come it makes the world renewed and redeemed. So that's the first message. A second angel comes in verse eight a second follow saying fallen fallen is Babylon the great she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.
This is gospel to yes this is gospel to fallen is Babylon. By the first century Babylon as we know from the Old Testament there is this picture of a kingdom set against the kingdom of light a kingdom of darkness that that that told God we don't go your way we don't follow you we'll do our things we'll have our own sexual ethics. It is Babylon now by the first century it is represented by Rome the Roman Empire.
And when John writes this, there is no indication to these Christians at the end of the first century that Rome was anywhere close to being fallen. And yet the promise is any kingdom that sets itself up against the kingdom of God eventually falls. And this is good news because kingdoms that set themselves up against the kingdom of God do not promote the flourishing of humanity but suppress it. And so good news, Babylon falls.
It will always fall. Now the message of the third angel is the hardest one for us to see and it too is gospel. Remember who this is written to. This is written to believers under oppression persecution at the end of the first century and the angel comes and has a message. Verse nine. And another angel a third follow them saying with a loud voice.
Mark Oshman (12:06.363)
If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger. This is something that's come up before and will continue to come up in the book of Revelation. But it is this God is love and therefore he has wrath. He is righteous.
He is holy. He is just. There will be no injustices that are left hanging in the universe. And so it is good news that God will come. But this is also a warning to the Christians, the Christians who might be tempted to go the way of Rome, that might be tempted to compromise their faith so that they can participate in all the blessings, earthly blessings of Rome. And it says, whoever has the mark of the beast. Again, that's not some...
strange esoteric mark on your hand or forehead. It is a lifestyle that is marked by the beast. It is a lifestyle giving yourself away to the things of darkness as opposed to the mark of the spirit. In the end, there are only two kinds of people, those that have the mark of the beast and those that have the mark of the spirit. And this passage begins to unpack a little bit more what that wrath is like.
said the person who has the mark of the beast when they received the wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger, he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lord. Tormented with fire and sulfur. Do I think it will be actual fire and sulfur? I don't know. I think that might be a sign, but if that is a sign, it is a sign of something far worse.
than fire and sulfur. Furthermore, sometimes maybe you've heard preachers say hell is the absence of God. God removes his presence. Well, there's two problems with that. Just the doctrine of God being one. God is omnipresent. He cannot not be somewhere. And furthermore, this verse not only says that God is presence in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb, he is fully present in hell.
Mark Oshman (14:31.642)
But He is withholding the manifest grace and mercy that He offers to us now. And He is a just and righteous judge in this moment. It is still gospel, but Jesus is there. He is warning His people, do not take the mark of the beast. Do not give up your faith. Persevere or else this is what's going to happen. Verse 11 is even scarier. It says,
goes up forever and ever.
It is eternal. It is conscious torment for those that take the mark of the beast. This should sober us. That there is an eternal wait to the gospel.
And when we as God's people read this verse, we should not be indifferent. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And some say, well, smoke, that might mean annihilation. That's what's happening here. Except for the very next verse. Not only does it go on forever and ever, they have no rest. There is no rest. Day or night, it's this picture of ongoing, eternal conscious torment. These worshipers of the beast.
and its image and whoever receives the mark of the beast.
Mark Oshman (16:02.996)
We said throughout this series that the book of Revelation does not teach us any new doctrine or truth. It just shows us in a different way. The person who speaks most about hell and its eternality is Jesus as he warns people. And even today, if you are under the wrath of God, you have embraced the mark of the beast, I plead with you to come out under the wrath of God and under the
waterfall of His grace and mercy. This could be grace to you this morning." Again, nothing is new that Jesus didn't first teach. Let me give a few quotes here. First one I was thinking about this week was from Marcy Sproul's book, The Holiness of God. In the holiness of God, we'll put that on the screen.
He writes this and this is one of my all-time favorite books. says this, Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the one to whom we owe everything. To the one who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin of the most minute peccadillo? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point?
We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, God, your law is not good. My judgment is better than yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do and what you command me to do. Yeah. Jesus talked about the eternality of hell in Matthew chapter 25.
But the Bible also talks about those that are there are there by their own choosing. John chapter three, we know John chapter three, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life. But if you drop down to verse 19, it says this, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Mark Oshman (18:22.055)
Again, one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Great Divorce, says this, there are only two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says in the end, thy will be done. All that are in hell, choose it. Without the self-choice, there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek, find.
those who knock it is opened. Romans chapter one talks about God handing people over to do what ought not to be done, calling God's wrath on themselves. This is a weighty passage and again it as the big idea of this whole section is that the gospel declares both the gravity of eternity and the glory of the lamb who saves. Like eternity
Eternity is at stake in our lives and in our world. Look at the next verses. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Why is this recorded for us as God's people? To remind us that this life has eternal implications. Every moment of our lives has eternal implications.
There is a weight to it. Verse 13. I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, says the spirit, that they may rest. Those in Christ, they get to rest. Those outside of Christ, they do not rest. Eternal conscious torment. Why is it eternal? Well, one, it is against the ultimate, holy, righteous sovereign. But beyond that, it is also eternal.
conscious punishment because they are eternally in rebellion to God forever. They are never turning to God. There is nothing in them that comes to God. They're continuing to deny His kingship and lordship forever and ever and ever. As C.S. Lewis says, the gates of hell are locked from the inside. Eternal rebellion deserves eternal judgment.
Mark Oshman (20:48.368)
go on to the two harvests. Now the first one is easy to understand. It's the second one that I want to spend some time in. 14, then I looked and behold a white cloud and seated on the cloud, one like a son of man. This is Jesus with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come.
The harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped. This is a picture of salvation. Jesus reaping his own. Jesus died on the cross for his own and he knew his own. Jesus' death on the cross. He wasn't just hoping that some would be saved. We can look back at chapter 13 and see that those whose names are written before the
foundation of the earth have their names in the Lamb's book of life. This is a picture of salvation. But salvation when at the very end? Yes, but also now and in the past. John chapter four verse 35, Jesus says to the disciples, the fields are ripe for harvest now. So as we go out and we proclaim the gospel by the spirit and empowered by the angels and people come into the harvest, Jesus is swinging his sickle.
Well, there's a second harvest here. I'll read it. You think about what it's saying here, and then we'll jump into it together. Verse 17. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle.
Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city and blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle for 1,600 stadia.
Mark Oshman (23:11.696)
Verse said, was the most gruesome, gory verse in all the Bible. What is happening here? What do you think? Well, if you are like me, you come to this verse and you see a picture of judgment. And I think it is that, but I think there's more going on. But as I studied this week, early in the week, and as I read commentaries of men much smarter than me, that's exactly what they said.
One of them said, this is definitely a picture of judgment. I said, yes, I see that. is Jesus is going to come back on a cloud. He's going to judge the living and the dead. But then I looked deeper into it, read some other commentaries and I shifted my thought. Now you don't have to agree with me. Again, I could be wrong in where I'm landing here, but let me show you what I think is actually happening here. In the first one, we have Jesus coming with the sickle.
and he's harvesting his own. The creeds tell us that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. But did you notice Jesus isn't the one swinging the sickle here? So another angel came out. He too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar. The angel who has authority over the fire. So Jesus is not seen in this passage, and yet there's a harvesting going on. And the other angel is from the fire. You could say,
That's from the fire earlier in the chapter. That's the fire, the eternal conscious torment. Yes. But what else does fire represent throughout the Old Testament? Spirit, the presence of God, the burning bush, the pillar of fire. And he called out with a loud voice to the one who with a sharp sickle, put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth for its grapes are ripe. But there's a problem with that imagery, right? Do you know what the problem is?
Grapes are not harvested with a sickle. They are harvested by hand. So John is signaling to us that he has more in mind than just an agricultural parallel here. So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. One of the things that's perplexing and super interesting to me that
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is that throughout the Old and the New Testament, the wine is often this metaphor for two, in my mind, equal and opposite things. It is often a metaphor for God pouring out his justified judgment and wrath against sin, like we see here, but it's also a metaphor for God pouring out his mercy and grace. Same thing, two symbols.
I actually think both of are at play here. So the great wine press of the wrath of God, and verse 20 is the most important part of this. says, the wine press was trodden outside the city. Outside the city. Pay attention to the details. What do we know about outside the city or outside the camp? In the Old Testament, outside the city, outside the camp, that is where the unclean were, the lepers, the sinners.
outside the campus where those that don't belong to the community are. You fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus tells this parable of this vineyard and these wicked vineyard tenants and they're mistreating all that the owner sends and then eventually the owner sends his own son and the vineyard workers take the son. Where do they kill the son? Outside the city. It's a picture of Jesus.
In fact, the author of Hebrews tells us just this. Hebrews 13, verse 12. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city. Outside the city gate to make the people holy. How? Through His own blood.
Mark Oshman (27:28.007)
And Revelation says, blood flowed from the wine press as high as horses bridle for 1,600 stadia, 184 miles, which just happens to be the traditional length of Palestine from Tyre to Egypt, a river of blood. Whose blood is here? Is this judgment or is this salvation?
And the answer is yes. But in this picture, who is being judged? Well, sin is being judged, but it's a picture of Jesus on the cross who went outside the city and he bore the full weight of the winepress of the wrath of God in himself, in our place, and his blood flowed. And why is there so much blood? Again, it's an apocalyptic image. It's a river of blood, six feet deep, 184 miles. Here's what I think it's saying.
There is more than enough blood to cover your sin in Jesus. He took the wrath of God that you deserved. Come out from under the wrath of God and into the bloodbath that is Jesus. If you're visiting and you're not a Christian, you're like, what is going on? This is weird. You're absolutely right. But friend, I just want to say this is the only way to get right with God to...
Get into the river of Jesus's blood. He died for you. He bled for you. There is more than enough blood to cover every one of your sins. So now, how should we live? I told you chapter 14 was gospel saturated. Graphic imagery. How now should we live? In light of all this, in light of the message of the angels and the message of the harvest, how should we live? I've already alluded to it. First of all, we should live with urgency.
Our life bears an eternal significance. There should be some weight to it. But we should live with urgency because we have been given this commission by God to go out and to call people out of the wrath of God into the mercy and grace that God offers. So there's urgency. But not only that, we should live with confidence. Confidence.
Mark Oshman (29:54.747)
Like nothing can happen to We already saw this. are those who die in the Lord, for they will receive rest. Like this, the worst thing that can happen to you in this life is not that you would die. The worst thing that could happen to you in this life is that you would waste your life and live like this is all there is. We have confidence because we are indwelt by the Spirit. We are battling a battle with an army of angels behind us. And so we go out.
So Redemption Parker, I want to challenge us to be a problem. Be a problem for the enemy. If you have no urgency and you have no confidence, you're not a problem. You probably don't notice any spiritual warfare in your life because why would they? Let's just keep them sedated. But you go out and you begin to prayer walk your neighborhood, you start to become a problem.
You go and pray for each house and pray that God's mercy would enter in. You go and as you're meeting your neighbors, you begin to get to know them and you have good God-Gospel conversation. That's a problem for the enemy. Right? I love that scene in Acts chapter 16 or 19 where the Jewish itinerant teachers hear about casting out demons and apparently that was a thing, right?
And there's these guys called the sons of Sceva. They're like, let's try to do this ourselves. And they go try to cast out a demon. find someone demon possessed and they try to cast it out in Jesus name. And the demon says to him, Paul, Jesus, we know and Paul, we've heard about. Well, who are you?
Mark Oshman (31:42.444)
I love that scene just because.
It's not a bad thing for the demons to know your name. Because you're causing a problem.
Brothers and sisters, let's cause some good trouble. Amen. For the glory of God and the joy of all people, let me pray for us.