Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Chapters 4–7 form a section in Revelation that deals with the seven seals. We noticed that chapter 4 opens with the heavenly host standing before God’s throne and praising him. In chapter 5, a problem arises because John becomes aware that there is no-one present who can take the seven-sealed book out of God’s hands. The book, we suggested, is the book of life containing the names of all God’s people. But John’s difficulty was removed by the arrival, in royal dignity, of the freshly-slain Lamb who has triumphed on Calvary and won the right to open the book. Before he can open the book, he has to remove the seals, which turn out to represent tyranny, war, famine, death, martyrdom and final judgement (ch. 6). It is a terrible, but true, picture of human history between the two comings of Christ. This would cause two questions to be asked: what would happen to those named in the book and how many of them are there? The answer to the first question is given in the first section of chapter...

I cannot say if it is still the case, but for many decades following the Reformation this psalm was sung on the twelfth of December in Geneva (the book in which I saw this recorded was published in 1886). The practice began in 1602 after the Protestant city had resisted an attacking army that was sent to restore the city to Roman Catholic control. Once the attack had been repulsed, Theodore Beza, who was Calvin’s successor there and was then eighty years of age, gave out this psalm to be sung, and it was sung annually on that date afterwards. Isaac Watts wrote many versions of the psalms. The title he gave to his version of Psalm 124 was ‘A Song for the Fifth of November’. That was the date of the Gunpowder Plot, when Guy Fawkes and others planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Although Watts wrote his version about a century after the event, he obviously regarded the prevention as an occasion when God preserved his cause. In the 1650 psalter, there are two versions of t...

In chapters 4 and 5 we have a description of the enthronement of Jesus, which occurred at his ascension to heaven. At his enthronement he was given a book sealed with seven seals, with one purpose of his enthronement being that he should open the book. The book cannot be opened until the seven seals are removed. I suggested that the book is the book of life in which is written the names of all who believe in Jesus. In chapter 6, Jesus takes the seals of the book. As he opens each one, he releases a power that will help bring about the opening of the book of life. What are these powers that are in the hand of Jesus the king that he will use to accomplish his own purposes? The first four seals concern the well-known four horsemen of the Apocalypse. These judgements are similar to ones mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse: ‘When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingd...

In 4:1, a new section of the book of Revelation opens, which lasts until the end of chapter 20. John receives a summons to ascend to heaven to receive information regarding what must take place in the future, that is, from the period in which John was living. Recall that John has just been given letters to seven churches, only two of which received no rebuke. Perhaps he needed reassurance that the church was not going to disappear under the effects of heresy and persecution. So he is given insight into how heaven sees the big picture. That is a reminder to us as to how to view things today, not by our assessment of current circumstances but by how God describes the future in his Word. Between 4:1 and 20:15 of this book, John is given descriptions of life on earth during the period between Christ’s two comings. These descriptions are given in a variety of images such as seals, plagues, beasts, and trumpets. I would mention three ways of helping us understand what is being depicted. Fi...

We suggested in previous studies that these seven churches had been chosen because they represented the types of churches that would be found throughout the Christian era. There is a similar structure to each letter in that each begins with a characteristic feature of Christ followed by his commendation of the church, his criticism of the church, his counsel to the church and his comfort for the church. Two churches (Smyrna and Philadelphia) are not criticised, and one church (Laodicea) is not commended. If it were possible to arrange the seven churches in order of devotion to Christ, then the church in Laodicea would be the worst. The other candidate for this undesirable position is the church in Sardis, but at least there was a faithful remnant within her, unlike the church in Laodicea. The Lord Jesus has nothing good to say about the church in Laodicea. This verse is an appeal from the Lord of the Church to individuals in a decadent church in order to have fellowship with him. The ...

The commotion connected to the healing of the lame man reached the temple authorities. They were annoyed at the message of Peter and John and arrested them (4:1 indicates that John had joined Peter in speaking to the crowd). It is interesting to note how Luke describes the message of the apostles – he says that they were proclaiming the resurrection of the dead through Christ. This message would have been very offensive to the priests and Sadducees because they did not believe in the possibility of a resurrection. Therefore they had the apostles arrested. There are three brief points we can note about this response. First, the opposition to the preaching of the gospel often comes from religious persons. This was the case in the history of the Scottish church at the Reformation and during the days of the Covenanters. Today, the loudest critics of the gospel in the western world often are persons who believe in a form of liberal Christianity. Of course, opposition and persecution ca...