The Last Stand

Series on Revelation

II The Viewpoint

D Cycle Four, The Seven Bowls

3 The Promise

Text: 16:15-17

Introduction

Verses 15-17 are like an interlude in the description of the outpouring of the cups of God’s wrath. They introduce the final stage as indicated by the words “it is done,” in verse 17. The stage for the final battle has been set. We should understand that each of the sections: the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven symbolic scenes, the seven cups of wrath and also the scenes which follow are all bringing us to the same moment in history, the end of the age. With each one we learn a little more about the end, but remember they are contemporaneous with each other. We are being given differing pictures of the same thing. Thus, we have seen the end before and we shall see it again. However with each view the intensity of the scene increases, so, although the scenes are parallel they are also progressive. Thus, although this is the last stand, it is not the last picture or portrayal of the last stand in Revelation. That occurs in chapters 17-20, and only then are we introduced to the new heavens and the new earth in 21 and 22. This passage is unique in that it is the first time since Jesus personally addressed the seven churches that he speaks Until this point it has been the voice of the apostle John sharing his visions. Although God will speak from heaven out of His throne in the ensuing chapters we will not hear the voice of the Lamb again until he speaks from His throne in the new heavens and earth in Revelation 21. It behooves us, therefore to give special heed to the warning. In these verses, 15-17 we are looking at a blessing, a battle, and a birth.

I The Blessing

The blessing is tied to a warning. Like all the prophets before Him the Prince of the prophets speaks with a threat and a promise in verse 15, “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.” Many warnings are given in advance of attacks. Those familiar with American history will remember that on the night of April 18, 1775, Revere and and companions waited for a signal from the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston; one lantern meant that the British were coming by land, two lanterns meant that the British were coming by sea. Two lanterns led to the ride for Lexington and then Concord, Massachusetts. Revere was arrested in Lexington but the mission succeeded and the colonists were warned. The incident was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” The alarm raised by the riders successfully allowed the militia to repel the British troops in Concord, after which the British were harried by the growing colonial militia all the way back to Boston. Here, then, Jesus warns believers that the time of His coming is unknown, but they must be ready. During His ministry Jesus taught His disciples that they should be like the owner of a house who stays awake to prevent a thief from breaking in at night as we read in Matthew 24:42-43, Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. In Revelation 3:3 Jesus is alerting the Christians in Sardis of His sudden and unexpected return. Paul makes a similar warning in I Thessalonians 5:2, For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and Peter says likewise in II Peter 3:10, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. In that day all will be laid bare, naked and undone except those who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Earlier Jesus spoke to the Christians in Laodicea in Revelation 3:17 and 18 saying, You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. We can only be ready if we are in Christ through faith in His atoning death and resurrection. When we have this new clothing from Jesus right now we begin again and it reminds us of Lisa Tarkington’s poem, “The Land of Beginning Again.” “I wish that there were some wonderful place In the Land of Beginning Again. Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches And all of our poor selfish grief Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never put on again.” The good news of the Gospel is that there is such a land where Jesus is.

II The Battle

Verse 16 speaks of the final battle, Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. First of all, This is the final battle, but it is not the last time we see the final battle. The events of “Armageddon” are rehearsed again in Revelation 19 and 20 where Christ as warrior disposes of Satan, the beast and the false prophet. As we said earlier it is progressive parallelism and it is eloquently stated by William Milligan in the Expositor’s Bible. “Nothing can more clearly prove that the Revelation of St. John is not written upon chronological principles than the scenes to which we are introduced in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the book. We have already been taken to the end. We have seen in chap. 14. the Son of man upon the throne of judgment, the harvest of the righteous, and the vintage of the wicked. Yet we are now met by another series of visions setting before us judgments that must take place before the final issue. This is not chronology; it is apocalyptic vision, which again and again turns round the kaleidoscope of the future, and delights to behold under different aspects the same great principles of the Almighty’s government, leading always to the same glorious results.” Thus, here we are at the great battle, the end and the judgment, Armageddon again. We will search in vain for the place called Armageddon. In the Hebrew “har” is the word for mountain so this is the equivalent of the “mountain of Megiddo,” but throughout the Old Testament Megiddo is referred to as a valley or plain. It is a real place, nevertheless, but a name, with a sound associated with the past, which bore to a Hebrew ear, when used of the future, an ominous significance of overthrow. It is the place where the Canaanitish kings were overthrown by Barak in Judges 5:19; an occasion which gave rise to one of the two triumphal songs of Israel recorded in the Old Testament, and therefore one well worthy of symbolizing the great final overthrow of the kings of the earth leagued against Christ. There Deborah and Barak sang, “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves—praise the LORD! Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I, even I, will sing to the LORD; I will praise the LORD, the God of Israel, in song. When you, LORD, went out from Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water. The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel.” Other significant battles also occurred in the plain of Megiddo including the defeat and death of the good king Josiah by Egypt’s Pharaoh Neccho, so it was a place of overthrow and calamity, but is especially notable for the defeat of God’s enemies. Wherever it is, this is the place where the kings of the earth that despised God’s anointed king and banded together to throw off God’s shackles will hear the divine laughter and be broken with a rod of iron and smashed into shards of pottery. And Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does his successive journeys run.

III The Birth

I call this a birth because when the old is finished the new emerges. Out of the destruction of the old order there comes a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. This is the meaning of verse 17, The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” Have any more wonderful words fallen on mortal ears, “It is done?” It is true that Jesus proclaimed on the cross as He gave his life for sinners, “It is finished,” and indeed it was, because in that single act lay the foundation and authority for the judgment of this present evil age and the beginning of a new heavens and earth. However, the hour of vindication was yet to come In God’s perspective it was done, but to mankind the issue was not fully settled. Either Jesus was a fake and a failure or He was God, but men continued to debate it. On the day mentioned in our Scripture, “It is done.” Before Jesus’ coming there were eschatological prophets telling the Israelites that because they were living contrary to the way God had commanded, their kingdom would fall. Jesus also tells them that if they follow him and repent from their ways, that they will escape or be delivered from the coming Judgment. The Judgment would take place, politically, socially, and even through nature. The radical change was that this time, instead of like the other prophets, Jesus was not only the one voicing the problem, but he was also the solution. If you wanted to escape the Judgment, then you must follow Jesus. History has a way of vindicating truth even though we may wait long and long much for the moment. Critics warned the Wrights Brothers that “if God wanted man to fly he would have given them wings.” But every airplane that flies today does so by use of devices and discoveries first made by the Wright brothers. Wernher Von Braun was told that “his rockets were punching holes in the sky causing a drought,” but we have seen man landing on the moon and space shuttles and a space station in our lives. However, there is no vindication so glorious, so awaited, and so fitting as when out of the temple a loud voice from the throne, says, “It is done!” God in His common grace allows us to enjoy many vindications in our every-day world, but all of his counsel and plan and supervision of history and creation is moving towards this one moment of vindication, Jesus is Lord. Thus states Paul when he says in Philippians 2:10 and 11, At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. When this happens it is really ‘done.”