Introduction

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Samuel Johnson … who single-handedly wrote the very first ever English dictionary … once said; ‘When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully’.  What he was getting at … is how most people think very little about the things that matter MOST in life … and think very much about the things that matter little in life.

The book of Revelation … is designed to keep us from such foolishness.  Now if you haven’t been with us across this sermon series … the book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible … that deals with the end of time.  And as we’ve been seeing … the book of Revelation is a picture book.  But by ‘picture book’ … I don’t mean colourful pop-up illustrations.  I mean it very cleverly and very helpfully gives us images of what is going to happen at the end of time.  So some of those images we’ve seen are (i) the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, (ii) the famed 144,000, (iii) a big red dragon, and (iv) the number of the beast … 666.  And our passage TODAY includes another very famous image from Revelation … which is the battle of Armageddon.

And the point of all these incredible pictures … is to wake us up from the numbness and sleepiness of our lives … and get us thinking about the things that matter MOST in life.  And what matters MOST in life … is that life will one day end.  And when that happens … all those things we THINK matter … will come to nothing.  Do you know how much Bill Gates or Elon Musk are going to leave in their wills?  All of it!  The purpose of our passage today … is to wake the reader up … and get us thinking about how you and I are going to meet our maker one day.  And when that day comes … there’s no second chance.  So what matters most in this life … is being ready for that day BEFORE it comes.  Because WHEN it comes … it’s too late.

Now MOST of us here are Christians … which means MOST of us probably thinking ‘well I’ve already prepared for that day Brendan.’  The question this passage asks CHRISTIANS is … what about everyone else?  Because if CHRISTIANS were thinking much about what matters most … then our churches would be vastly different to what they are today.  So whether you’re a believer or not … the point of today’s passage is to WAKE us up … and get us thinking MORE … about what matters MOST.

And I’ve got 3 points to help us do this … as your sermon outline shows.  We’re going to begin by briefly unpacking the details of the 7 bowls … this third and final round of judgments we see in Revelation.  So I’ve titled this first point (i) The form of God’s judgment.  We’ll then look at how we as Christians feel about these judgements.  Are they warranted … for the average guy or girl on the street.  So our second point is titled (ii) The fairness of God’s judgment.  We’ll then look at the application of all this … about how non-Christians AND Christians are to respond … which I’ve titled (iii) The finality of God’s judgment.

But our goal in all of this is to refocus our attention in life.  To STOP spending most of our time thinking about what matters LITTLE … and instead spend it on what matters MOST.  So please come with me as we look at the what, the why and the when … or the form, the fairness and the finality … of God’s judgment.

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The form of God’s judgment

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And our passage begins in Rev 15 with these words:

Revelation 15:1 (NIV) I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.

So if recall … our sermon series began with the 7 seals … each of which brought forth a terrible judgment upon creation.  We THEN saw the 7 trumpets … which were a SECOND set of judgments.  Yet the 7 trumpets are not a NEW batch of judgments that come AFTER the 7 seals.  Rather they’re a retelling of the SAME judgments seen in the 7 seals.  And it’s the same with the 7 bowls.  The 7 judgments in THIS passage are a retelling … from a different angle … of the end-time judgments we’ve already seen in the seals and the trumpets.  Yet the bowls are the final warning.  And they are a terrifying warning.  Let’s have a look.

So the first bowl sends festering boils upon people.  I remember watching a video on YouTube many years ago of a guy with a massive boil on his back … and his girlfriend squeezed out this enormous ooze of puss.  It was disgusting.  Now when God sent boils upon the people of Egypt … most of these judgments recall the plagues on Egypt … the court magicians couldn’t even be seen in public.  They were covered head to toe in festering boils.  And what we’re told HERE is that those who worship the beast … v. 2 of chapter 16 … will get the same treatment with the first bowl.

The second bowl turns the WHOLE sea to blood this time … not just a third like the trumpets.  And ALL the sea creatures die.  No more lobster or prawns or fish.

The third bowl turns the earth’s drinking water to blood as well … also recalling the 1st plague in Egypt.

The fourth bowl affects the sun.  Yet unlike the plague of darkness upon Egypt … the forth bowl intensifies the sun … so that the inhabitants of the earth and seared and scorched by it.  When we were travelling through America a few years ago … we drove through Death Valley.  It hit 46 degrees that day.  And for the last hour as we drove OUT … we passed only 2 cars.  If you break down there … you’re dead.  The forth plague makes the WHOLE Earth that dangerous.

The fifth bowl plunges the kingdom of the beast into chaos.  Now if you recall from 2 weeks ago … the beast is most likely the Antichrist.  And he places enormous pressure on the people of earth to follow his secular rules … his secular agenda.  We see this happening today … with the ever-increasing pressure to be pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-transgender women competing against biological women in sport … and pro-euthanasia … or you get cancelled … or in some instances fired.  Yet the fifth bowl is going to show people just how empty the kingdom of the beast is.  It will plunge society into darkness … into anarchy.

The sixth bowl is the one we’re probably most interested in … because it has to do with Armageddon.  This bowl begins by drying up the Euphrates River … recalling the parting of the Red Sea.  Now the Euphrates marked the eastern border of the Roman Empire.  And the Parthians … who lived to the east of the Euphrates … had defeated the Roman army TWICE.  So the drying up of the Euphrates would have driven FEAR into the original readers.

The sixth bowl then brings forth these 3 frogs … recalling the first plague in Egypt.  But these frogs are demonic spirits … who each come out of the Dark trinity; the dragon, the beast and the false prophet.  And these demonic spirits gather all the kings of the earth … to fight under the Beast’s single banner … against God and his people.  And these kings and their armies cross the now dried up River Euphrates … for the great final battle … at a place called Armageddon.  That’s what Armageddon is; the final battle just before the end of history.

The end finally comes with the seventh bowl … which causes the islands to melt into the sea … and the mountains to crumble.  On top of that … we have these giant hail stones … weighing 45 kg each.  Now if we were hit with a 1 kg hail stone … it would kill us.  45 kg hail stones means there’s no where we can hide.  They will break through rooves like they were made out of paper.

So … that’s the FORM God’s final judgments will take.  Now remember … there’s a lot of symbolism in all of this.  They’re probably not literal frogs.  But the point is … these judgments are terrifying.  People will ‘gnaw their tongues in agony’ … v. 10 … because of these judgments.

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The fairness of God’s judgment

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Now the question that arises is many people’s minds about all this is … are these terrifying judgments warranted?  Is it FAIR for God to send these plagues … these calamities upon the earth?  Blood to drink.  Scorched earth.  45 kg hail stones.  Like if the punishment is to fit the crime … in a just legal system … what sin could possibly warrant such horrible punishment?

Well the Bible actually asks that question the other way around.  HUMANS tend to ask ‘what possible sin could make these judgments fair?’  The Bible says ‘because these judgments ARE fair … how serious must our sin be … and how blind must our morality be … to even ask such a question?’  Twice in this passage we’re told these judgments are just:

Revelation 15:3 (NIV) “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways.

Revelation 16:6 (NIV) “You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were; 6 for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”

Now again … Revelation is all about imagery.  The blood they’re given to drink is unlikely to be literal blood.  The point is that the punishment DOES fit the crime.  If you SHED blood … you get blood to drink.  God is right and fair in his judgments.  And the reason he is right and fair is because sin is incredibly serious.  Let me explain … using an illustration I’ve used before.  For a legal system to be fair … the punishment for disobeying an authority should be proportional to the level of obligation we have TO that authority.  So what do I mean?

• If we disobey the lollipop person at a kid’s crossing … we get a fine … right?

• If we disobey a policeperson … by resisting arrest … we go to jail.

• If we disobey the government … by committing high treason … we get life in prison.

• If we disobey God … whom we’re infinitely obliged to obey as our creator … we deserve infinite punishment.

Friends … if God pretends that rebellion against our creator never happened … or that the evil perpetrated in this world never happened … then he ceases to be just.  There is not going to be ANYONE in Hell … who doesn’t deserve to be there.

But on top of that … there is not going to be anyone in Hell … who doesn’t WANT to be there.  Let me explain.  If you recall … the PURPOSE of the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets and the 7 bowls is to call people to repent.  They’re warnings to people … to flee the coming judgment.  But notice what their response is:

Revelation 16:9 (NIV) … they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

Revelation 16:10-11 (NIV) … People gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

Revelation 16:21 (NIV) And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

Friends … please don’t be sold the lie that Hell is full of people who have learned their lesson … and are crying out for a second chance.  Even the rich man in Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man isn’t crying out for a second chance.  He just wants relief from his suffering.  And it’s the same here.  These people don’t want God.  They’re cursing God for their suffering.  What they fail to realise is … their suffering has come from pushing God away.

In his book The Great Divorce … C. S. Lewis describes Heaven as a never ending journey towards the beautiful and warm light that is God … where every day is better than the previous one.  Hell on the other hand people ever moving AWAY from the light … towards the darkness … where every day is worse than the previous one.

Friends … the reason God’s judgment is fair … is because Hell will be full of people who not only deserve to be there … because of the seriousness of their sin; but also WANT to be there … away from God’s presence.  God’s judgment is fair.

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The finality of God’s judgment

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The FINAL thing we learn about God’s judgments … pun intended … is that it’s final.  It’s not a QUARTER of the earth being affected this time … like in the 7 seals.  Nor is it a THIRD of the earth … like with the trumpets.  This time the whole world comes undone.  The 7 bowls are the final warning to humanity.  Once the 7 bowls are poured out … there is no more opportunity to repent.  And this has different implications for believers and non-believers.

So if you’re here today … or are listening on-line … and you haven’t yet given your life to Jesus … the question you need to grapple with is … how are you going to atone for your sin?  There’s a scene from the TV show ER … the old medical drama … of a man with stage 4 cancer.  Yet it’s not the cancer that troubles this man.  You see this man helped execute a wrongly convicted person … years before.  And his conscience has not been able to deal with it.  So he asks to see the hospital chaplain … who is your typical TV chaplain … who has more questions than answers.  And the conversation goes like this:

Patient: How can I even hope for forgiveness

Chaplain: I think sometimes it’s easier to feel guilty than forgiven

Patient: Which means what

Chaplain: That maybe your guilt over this death has become your reason for living.  Maybe you need a new reason to go on.

Patient: I don’t want to go on.  Can’t you see I’m old.  I have cancer.  I’ve had enough.  The only thing that is holding me back is I’m afraid of what comes next.

Chaplain: And what do you think that is.

Patient: You tell me.  Is atonement even possible?  What does God want from me?

Chaplain: I think it’s up to each one of us to interpret what God wants.

Patient: So what are you saying?  Because all I’m hearing is some new age … God is love … one size fits all crap.  I want a REAL chaplain … who believes in a REAL God and a REAL Hell.

Chaplain: I hear that you’re frustrated.  But you need to ask yourself …

Patient: No I don’t need to ask myself.  I need answers.  And all your questions and your uncertainty are only making things worse.  I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness … because I am running out of time.

It’s probably the most real moment I’ve ever seen on TV.  You can look it up on YouTube.  Just type in ER Atonement.  And the reason the moment is so real is because that patient is asking the most real question you can ask.  Is atonement possible?  It is the question we ALL need to ask … because we’re ALL running out of time.

And where that TV chaplain fails … the Bible comes through for us.  The Bible tells us that God is very real … and Hell is very real.  But it also says that atonement … forgiveness is very real.  The reason being that when Jesus was hanging on the cross … God poured all 7 bowls of his wrath … the kind of wrath that brings about the end of the world … God poured all 7 bowls of his wrath onto Jesus.  Now if Jesus had sinned … that wrath would have atoned for JESUS’ sin.  But what the Bible is at pains to make clear is … Jesus never sinned.  And because he never sinned … the judgment he experienced on that cross … he experienced in our place.  And all we need to do … to avoid the 7 bowls of the full wrath of God being poured out on us … is (i) to say sorry for our sin … repent of our sin, and (ii) put our faith in Jesus … live with Jesus as our boss.  Atonement is THAT simple.  And friends if you haven’t done those 2 things yet … repent and believe … then please come and see me today … because you’re not getting any younger.  You TOO are running out of time.

For the Christians among us … the question this passage asks is … how often to YOU think about God’s judgment?  Not for yourself.  If you’re a Christian … you don’t need to worry about it.  But for others?  Because if Christians thought MUCH about the things that matter the MOST … then we would be pulling out all stops to call people to Jesus … would we not?

Next month is our annual month of evangelism; October Outreach.  So what I want to ask us today is … are we ready to pull together as a church community … and focus on the things that matter most?  So what can we do?  Well here are some ideas:

• If you’re on the lawn mowing roster … let’s make sure our lawns look great.  Let’s show visitors we take pride in our church.

• If you’re a green-thumb … perhaps you could come up during the week and do some gardening.  Make our grounds look inviting.

• If you see opportunities to clean up the place INSIDE … don’t wait for someone else to do it.  Now if you’re not sure what to do about something … come and ask me.  But take the rubbish out … pick up stray cups and rubbish that … someone’s … kids have left lying around.  Empty the bins in the toilet.  CLEAN the toilets.  Let’s make this place look like we love it.

• How about turn up early each week in October … to make sure visitors have someone to talk to.  Visitors usually come early.  So should we.

• How about check who’s on morning tea on those weeks … and ask if they’d mind you bringing some extra stuff.  Let’s lift our morning tea even further for October.

• How about bringing your good coffee machine up … and setting it up outside a half hour before the service … to greet any early birds with a good coffee … and maybe a muffin.  You could then volunteer to make good coffee over morning tea as well.

• How about just BEING here every Sunday across October … to keep an eye out for visitors that you could go and make feel welcome.

• And of course there’s praying hard for God to pour out his Spirit … and bring the crowds in.  Or even better … INVITING the crowds yourself.

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Conclusion

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So friends … we can keep focussing all our attention … all our thoughts … on those things that matter little in life.  Things like career and money … reputation and politics … comfort and material things.  OR … we can focus on the things that matter MOST.  God’s judgment is coming.  Very few of us know the day it will reach us.  Very few of us know we’re going to be hanged in a fortnight.  So may we listen to the message of Revelation 15 and 16 … and spend time thinking about those important things now.

God’s judgment is frightening.  It is fair.  And it is final.  But there is forgiveness.  May we do all we can … to call others to that forgiveness too.  Amen.