At the blast of the seventh trumpet God victoriously unveils his eternal kingdom, rewards his children, judges unrepentant sinners, and reveals the ark of the covenant.
Wes
This is Episode 14 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast entitled The Seventh Trumpet, where we’ll discuss Revelation 11:15-19. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, the end of Revelation 11 is a very rich passage with a lot of details. As the seventh trumpet is sounded, there’s a celebration in heaven, and the things that are said are really stunning. And so, we’re going to walk through some of those incredible themes at the end of Revelation 11.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 15-19 so that we have a sense of where we’re at in this book.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and heavy hail.
Andy, what happens when the seventh angel blows his trumpet here and how does the phrase, “of our Lord and of his Christ,” help to prove the deity of Christ?
Andy
Well, what an incredible moment. This is in the Book of Revelation and some great questions as we walk through it. Need to step back a little bit and to see some of the structure of the entire book of Revelation. We have these three series of sevens. We have the seven seals, and then we have the seven trumpets, and then we are going to have the seven bowls. And they seem to be nested almost or connected. Like the seventh seal leads to the seven trumpets, and the seven trumpets leads to the seven bowls. Interestingly, after the seventh seal was broken, there was silence in heaven for half an hour, but when the seventh trumpet is sounded, it’s just a cascade, an avalanche of worship in heaven. So, it’s really quite remarkable. We also see kind of an unfolding here as after the sixth trumpet is sounded. We have this little interlude. The six trumpets are described in Revelation 8 and 9. And they have a devastating effect on the earth, on the ecology of the earth and on the people of the earth, culminating ultimately in a third of mankind dying, which would be several billion people. It’s really quite overwhelming, but sadly at the end of Revelation 9, the people of the inhabitants of the earth do not repent of their wickedness. Then you get Revelation 10 where John is commissioned by a mighty heavenly angel to tell the earth the things God tells tell them. And so, he is one great source of information for the human race about these trials as they go on the book of Revelation. And then we’ve got the two witnesses in Revelation 11, the beginning part of this chapter. And they stand before the wicked Antichrist, the beast that we’re going to meet later. And with great courage and great effectiveness, they testify plainly as two prophets to the inhabitants of the earth about the actual trials that are going on. So, we have an interlude, but both Revelation 10 and 11 are kind of are summed up in terms of a prophetic word or the way by which God communicates to the human race what’s going on.
And let me just stop right there and say, here we must see the goodness of God. He doesn’t just bring wrath on the earth. Before it happens, he warns them. Before it ever comes, they’re told what is happening. We must heed the written word of God. Right now, as I’m doing scripture memorization in the Gospel of Luke, we have that terrifying parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And the rich man is in hell, and he wants Lazarus to come cool his tongue because he’s in the fire of hell, but it cannot be. Father Abraham cannot send Lazarus across this great chasm. He said, well then can you at least send Lazarus to my father’s house where I have five brothers and let him warn them lest they also come to this place of torment. And amazingly Abraham says, they have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.
And then this voice from hell, this terrible perspective says, no Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead rises, they’ll listen to him. He says, look, if they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they’re not going to listen even if someone rises from the dead. What that is is Jesus’s estimation of the importance of listening to the written word of God. It is vital for us to hear what God says. Now we are forewarned and therefore forearmed of what’s going to come. And so, at the end of Revelation 11 we have the sounding of the seventh trumpet. And unlike the seventh seal this time, it’s not silence in heaven for half an hour, we have overwhelming worship. Loud voices in heaven and they’re proclaiming the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. The question you ask is how does this show the deity of Christ? Well, simply we just need to understand the word, Lord.
If you talked to any pious Jew in those days, in the days of the apostles, the days of John the Baptist or before and asked or said, “the Lord, the Lord,” or the Lord heard, the Lord answered, and you asked, wait, wait, who are you talking about? They would know exactly. We’re talking about God, Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord. But for us as Christians, we believe Jesus is Lord. And so, the term, Lord, means the deity of Christ. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
And so, the Lord is God, God the Father, and Christ is his Christ or anointed one. So, the same title here, it’s representing I think the first person of the Trinity. “Of the Lord and of his Christ.” So, the Lord there is God the Father, but Jesus is called Lord in other places. So, I think that shows beautifully the deity of Christ. Also, we need to understand Christ got sent by the Father, it was Almighty God that sent him. And there is one kingdom, and there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. This deity of Christ, the reigning of Christ over all the earth is celebrated here.
Wes
And that’s how verse 15 concludes, speaking of this reign that will go on forever and ever. How is the promise that Christ will reign forever and ever a striking contrast to the present kingdoms of this world?
Andy
Right. Well, I’m going to pick up on the very last thing you said, kingdoms plural. First of all, there really is only one earthly kingdom ultimately. The kingdom that was given by God to Adam when he made him effectively the king of the earth. He said, fill the earth, rule over it, subdue it. So that’s a kingdom. Unfortunately, once Adam and Eve fell into sin, there was a tremendous divisiveness among the human race. And a great wickedness, which God sought to restrain at the Tower of Babel by confusing the languages. And the languages resulted in many peoples and languages and nations, et cetera, and therefore many kingdoms. But the verse here celebrates the kingdom of the world. There is ultimately one kingdom. When Jesus comes to unify all things that is the one Kingdom, and he will reign forever and ever.
This is proclaimed again and again. Especially I would commend our listeners to look at Daniel 2 with the image of human history in the statue of Nebuchadnezzar with the head of gold and the chest and arms with silver and belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and feet, partly iron, partly clay, that represents an unfolding of human history, really all of history. And in the time of those kings we’re told, this rock cut out, but not by human hands, strikes the thing. Turns the whole thing into chaff, and the wind blows it away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck this statue became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth.
The interpretation is given concerning that rock. It represents the kingdom of Christ. And it says, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will last forever and ever. It will not come to an end, nor will it be left to another people. And so, this is the one final kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. Now, let’s say, the word reign. We need to understand when we get to heaven and we’re in our resurrection bodies, we will submit gladly to the reign of God and of Christ. We will not be rebels anymore. And so there will be submission, there will be obedience. We’re not free to do whatever we want at that point, but we’ll be delighted to submit to the reign of God and of his Christ.
Wes
As this account of cascading heavenly worship continues, we’re introduced here to these 24 elders. Who do the 24 elders represent and what do they do here in verse 16?
Andy
Right. So, we have seen the 24 elders before in Revelation 4 where we have the throne of God, and around that throne are 24 other thrones. And so, what this means is there is one kingdom, but it is subdivided. And that subdivision shows that created beings including angels, but also humans have areas of jurisdiction, they have domains or dominions. And so, some of them fell into wickedness and sin. We’ll see that in the next chapter where Satan takes a third of the stars with his tail, so to speak, the dragon, and throws them or sweeps them to the earth. These represent demons, but we see the language in Ephesians 6 of rulers, authorities, powers, dominions, this kind of thing. And so, these angels have areas of jurisdiction or domains, they’re just using them for evil.
When all of that is dealt with and all of the demons are thrown in the lake of fire, and all the wicked people are thrown in the lake of fire, and all that’s left are angels and humans that are pure and perfect and holy, we will still have dominions. We’ll still have creatures reigning, and there’ll be some in an authority. The 24 elders then represent it seems human beings that are put in positions of authority. Jesus said to the apostles, “You who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). And so, there is that sense. So, the 24 elders here represent human beings who will be in positions of authority in the kingdom of God.
Wes
How could their response that we see here as well affect our own worship of the Lord?
Andy
They fall on their faces. So, here’s the thing, we also saw in Revelation 4 how they cast their crowns before the throne. And so those crowns represent their authority, but they are submitting gladly to the perfection of Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. They will be kings, but he will be the King. And they will be lords, but he’ll be the Lord. And so, they are in Revelation 4. They cast their crown saying, we are in total submission to you. And all of the reigning we do, we do under your ultimate authority.
We see the same thing by the way in Daniel 7, they will reign under him who reigns forever and ever. In this case they get down on their faces so there’s a sense of complete humility. Every creature who has a true understanding, a redeemed holy creature who has a true understanding of the power of God realizes the infinite majesty of God and our own infinite smallness. So, when you fall down on your face before the throne of God, you’re saying, You are Almighty, you are God, you are Creator. I am a creature. I am as nothing compared to you.
Wes
What do the 24 elders say as they worship God in verse 17?
Andy
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was.” All right, so they’re giving thanks to God, and they speak of God’s eternality. He is the God who is and who was. And he is also the God in other verses who is to come. And the point is he never changes, he is eternal. He’s the same God he was yesterday, is today and will be forever. And so, they’re praising the Lord God Almighty. This is a sense of his omnipotence. Lord God Almighty gives a sense of the infinite majesty and power of God. And they’re giving thanks. And why are they giving him thanks? They’re giving him thanks for reigning, for taking his great power and beginning to reign on the earth.
So, we see the same thing again in Revelation 4 when they give thanks. It says whenever the 24 elders give thanks to the God who sits on the throne, they cast their crowns, they fall down on their faces, and they cast their crowns before the throne. So, the idea there is ripples of revelation from God in which they have a sense of God’s activity and they’re praising him for it. They’re thanking him for it. They are glad that he has done it. They are so glad that God is getting rid of all the wicked thrones and powers and authorities. And he himself has taken his power and is actively reigning.
Wes
Now they address their thanks to, “You, Lord God Almighty,” it says in verse 17. Which person of the Trinity should we understand this to be here in verse 17?
Andy
Yeah, it’s really hard to know, and I don’t think we really can go wrong because we already saw in verse 15 the kingdom of the world has become the of our Lord and of his Christ. If it said of the Christ we would just say of the Lord and of the Christ, we would think it’s the Lord means Jesus there. But when it says his, then it’s got to be the first person in the Trinity. And so here we give thanks to you Lord God Almighty. So that I think in this passage it seems to be the first person in the Trinity that God, God has taken his power and has begun to reign. Now we need to say something, God is sovereign right now.
Wes
I was going to ask about that phrase that he’s taken his power and begun to reign.
Andy
Yeah. So, we have to understand this. God was sovereign before we were born. He was sovereign before we were converted. There is a kingdom. Whether we believe it or not, he’s king. He is king. So then what is the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God? And the kingdom, the kingdom is advancing. What does that mean? What does it mean to enter the kingdom? And what does it mean here that he has taken his power and has begun to reign now? What does all that mean? Well, I think what it has to do with is the appreciation and the awareness of the creatures concerning his kingly rule and their delight in it. So, for example, to enter the kingdom means to recognize that God is King and to be glad about it and to repent of your own rebellion against it. That’s what it means I think to become a Christian.
To take Jesus’ yoke upon yourself means to submit to his kingly reign.
To take Jesus’ yoke upon yourself means to submit to his kingly reign. And so, what it means then to enter the kingdom of God means to turn away from rebellion against God’s kingly rule and to come into his kingdom in such a way that you are glad. And delighted to bring every area of your life in submission to his kingly rule. By the way, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come with your careful observation, nor can anyone say here it is or there it is because the kingdom of God is within you” (Matthew 17:20-21). One of the translations says it that way, and I think it’s true because it’s an inner heart work at this present time. The spread of the gospel is an inner heart work among individuals who have a different disposition than they had yesterday about Almighty God reigning over their lives. They’re now glad about it.
So that’s the spreading of the kingdom. The issue here is that God is going to put his sovereign reign on open display before everyone, whether they love him or not, whether they believe in him or not. This is not a matter of faith anymore. The second coming of Christ will not be a matter of faith. It’ll be very important that a moment or a day or week or year before that you believed. Because then you’ll spend eternity in heaven. If you didn’t, you’ll be in hell. So, the point is though, at the second coming of Christ, every eye will see Him. There’s no faith needed. And what they’re celebrating here is that that is about to happen. God is going to take his power and begin to reign openly and obviously before all of His enemies.
Wes
How is Christ’s victory over Satan at the cross really essential to the celebration that we see in this passage?
Andy
Well, I think the way I would answer that question is the cross of Jesus Christ, by the cross, him who held the power of death is defeated. And we’re going to be immersed in his hateful attack on the people of God in the next chapter. And we also know that it was really Satan who became the god of this age or the king of this world when Adam gave control to him. And then Satan tempted Jesus in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms, plural, of the world in their glory. And said, all this has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. So, if you’ll fall down and worship me, it’ll all be yours. Jesus refused to do that. Instead, honored his Father, obeyed his father and now all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. And so, he ends up getting it all but from God, not from Satan and by honoring his Father in that sense.
So, the death of Jesus on the cross then guarantees that there’ll be human beings in that kingdom. Without Jesus’s blood shed on the cross for our sins, the kingdom of the world and of his Christ would have only holy angels in it and no human beings because we would all be in hell. But by the death of Jesus the one who held the power of death, that is the devil, was defeated and the law that stood opposed to us was nailed to the cross and no longer testified against us. And therefore, His kingdom will be populated by a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people and nation of redeemed human beings.
Wes
Now before we move to verse 18, Andy, talk a little bit more about the power that’s on display here. Its nature and its significance.
Andy
Well, they celebrate that God, the Lord God Almighty has taken his great power and has used it to bring about the reigning that’s celebrated here. So, we need to understand that the power of God, theologians call it omnipotence, he has all power in heaven and earth. There is nothing that power can do that he cannot do. And it is not difficult at all for him to do this. I mean we think about how difficult would it be for the sun burning up there in the heavens 93 million miles away to ignite something on the earth like a stick.
Would it tax the sun to do that? No. How about at a whole tree? No problem. How about a whole forest? No problem. Equally, no problem. And I could keep going. How about the whole earth? No problem. That is the infinite majesty of the power of God. This is not going to be hard for God to do. The second coming of Christ will not be a touch-and-go battle, and we’ll see how it turns out. It will be effortless for him to defeat his enemies. So, God here, God the Father has taken his great power and is using it to reign openly before all creatures.
Wes
It is striking to meditate on God’s omnipotence, especially in light of verse 18, which goes on to pit the wrath of the nations against the wrath of God. Which also brings to mind Psalm 2:1-5. How have the nations displayed their wrath against Christ and his people throughout history? And how does God display his wrath against the nations here?
Andy
Well, I think we’ve seen, and we talked about this before we went on the podcast, how this section fulfills the Lord’s prayer, our Father in heaven hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come and may at last your reign, your will be done on earth as is in heaven. May we submit to you gladly. Well, that’s happening here, it’s being fulfilled. But that is a prayer prayed by genuine disciples. It’s something we genuine disciples want. The world doesn’t want it, it never has. It doesn’t want God’s will to be done on earth or in their lives as it is in heaven. And so, they’re enraged by this. They don’t want God and Christ to openly reign on the earth. They are rebels against him, and they’re fighting against him. And so, the nations, it says were angry. Every era of history they were angry. And Psalm 2 talks about this and says, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain” (Psalm 2:1)?
So, they are very angry, and they do everything they can to oppose the reign of Almighty God. By the way, this reminds me of Daniel 3, when Nebuchadnezzar becomes overwhelmingly enraged at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for refusing to bow down and worship his gods. And so fundamentally there’s this sense of rage, but it’s not the only rage mentioned in here or wrath. We have the wrath of the nations, and we have the wrath of God.
And God’s wrath is infinitely more powerful and infinitely greater. God laughs frankly at the wrath of the nations. It is as nothing to him. And so, the fact that they’re angry about the second coming of Christ, or they’re angry about the coming reign of God doesn’t stop him or daunt him at all. And we also see this, it’s really remarkable how independent and completely unconcerned at one level Jesus was of human opposition to the things he was saying. He said what needed to be said. And he knew very well that what he said would enrage people, but he said it anyway. We see that kind of boldness, and God has absolutely no terror of this, but he’s bringing his wrath on the earth. The time has come for that wrath.
Wes
What’s the significance of that phrase that follows, “The time has come to judge the dead and to reward your servants”? What is that time and what does it mean that the time has come?
Andy
All right, well that’s judgment day, and we’re going to see it in Revelation 20 with the great white throne judgment. And so, all of the dead, the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and the ground gave up the dead that was in it. And all the dead were assembled, and they were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the book. So, time’s coming for judgment day. So that’s judgment and not just for the judging of the dead, but for the rewarding of God’s servants, the prophets and the saints and everyone that feared God’s name. So fundamentally it’s judgment day.
This is speaking about judgment day. I want to say one more thing about the nations’ wrath. It really is remarkable to me how much people have hated Christ. And it says, “They hated me without a cause” (John 15:25). And how much the rulers of the earth gathered together and conspired to do everything they could to stop the spread of the gospel, to stop Christianity. How many edicts have there been from the Roman era? Even before that the synagogues deciding that anyone who said that Jesus was the Messiah would be thrown out of the synagogue. So, these are edicts, and it’s gone on now for 20 centuries plus. And it has made life miserable for the servants of God here on earth, but it is as nothing to God.
Wes
You spoke a moment ago of this idea of judgment day, but also included here is this concept of rewards. What do you think about that concept of rewards for Christians who serve God, who receives them, and how should we understand them?
Andy
we’re going to spend some of our time in eternity studying what God did in the past.
Well, it’s a very, very important theme. And we’re going to see it at the very end of this book where he says in Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I’m coming soon, my reward is with me, and I’ll give to everyone according to what he has done.” So, this doctrine of rewards comes right to the very end of the Bible. So, I’ve studied this a lot. It’s a big part of my book on heaven, and I want to commend that to you. It’s called The Glory Now Revealed, and I talk about heaven. And one of the themes, maybe the central theme of the book is that we’re going to spend some of our time in eternity studying what God did in the past. And one of the proofs I have that we’ll even remember what we did in the past is the doctrine of rewards. So, I immerse myself in that.
And as I look at rewards, I think of them as fundamentally relational between us and God in which God lets us know how much our works pleased him. And he gives us honors and emblems of honor based on that. So, the three C’s that I’ve said before, it’s commendation, which is praise from God. It’s crowns, which is emblems of honor and of authority from God. And its capacity to take God into yourself even as a finite being. That’s the essence of rewards. And we should want as many rewards as we possibly can get. So, to fundamentally say it, every moment of our lives here on earth, I want to please my Father.
And the Father is saying, I want to express that pleasure to you as my son or daughter. That’s the essence of the reward. And we shouldn’t be squeamish about it. All we should want as many rewards as we can get. And frankly, let’s be generous. We want as many rewards as our brothers and sisters can get too. We’re not in competition with each other. And so, I want you, Wes, to be as rewarded as you possibly can be. And so, I’ll try to do that by my ministry of teaching and praying and encouraging to you. And you can also provoke me to love and good deeds, so I’ll be as rewarded as possible. We’re all in it together.
Wes
Ultimately, who is punished in verse 18 and why? We spoke about this a little bit before as well, some of the interesting language here at the end of verse 18.
Andy
Well, fundamentally first, anyone who is angry about God and Christ reigning will be punished. I mean, let’s just keep it at that. If that makes you angry, you’re not born again. If there’s any opposition, any distaste, any disaffection, any magnetic opposition within your heart, you’re not born again. That’s the essence of the heart of the rebel. And Romans [8:7] says, “the mind of the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God. Indeed, it cannot.” And so, if you have that mind, be warned and repent and flee to Christ.
And so fundamentally, anyone who is in opposition to God reigning on earth or over his or her own life, that’s the one that the Lord comes to destroy if he hasn’t yet converted them. But here it also says, for destroying those who destroy the earth, which is interesting. We were talking about this again before the podcast, how this is kind of an ecological or green verse. How God actually cares very much about how his earth was treated. And he wants the earth to be well cared for and not ravaged or destroyed by the greed of individuals. Now, that doesn’t mean that we can’t chop down a tree and cut it up and use it for firewood or to make furniture. Jesus was a carpenter. And so, it’s not that, the point is wantonly destroying the earth. You could just keep it simple that it refers to Adam’s sin and that God cursed the earth because of it.
And the consummation of that curse is in the book of Revelation with Revelation 8 and 9 is especially Revelation 8, terrible ecological disaster. And so ultimately God judged planet earth, but it was because of human sin. So, it’s either volitionally or willfully destroying the earth so you can make a profit like strip mining or polluting the earth or polluting a river with sewage or something like that. Or it’s just being part of wicked humanity that destroyed the earth as a result of that. God is going to destroy those who destroy the earth.
Wes
What is the significance in verse 19 of the ark appearing in heaven? And what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage that we’ve been looking at?
Andy
All right, so verse 19 says, God’s temple in heaven was open. Now we need to understand the temple was a structure that was built under the leadership initiative of King David, but ultimately consummated by his son Solomon. But that itself was a work to replace a movable tent called the tabernacle that was constructed by the pattern shown to Moses in the Book of Exodus. And so, Moses saw a vision of a heavenly pattern the author of Hebrews tells us. David also saw a vision of a heavenly pattern. Both the tabernacle-the movable tent, and the more permanent structure-the temple, were earthly shadows of a heavenly reality, which is a temple in heaven. They were pictures of a place where God and man could meet together or where the atoning, the blood of the atoning sacrifice could be poured out. Those things were literally physically done by the priests on earth, but they were just a type and a shadow of the true heavenly temple.
And so now we have a vision of the heavenly temple open. And within that temple we’re seeing the ark of the covenant. So, the ark itself was a type or shadow of perhaps a heavenly ark. So, whether this is the literal ark of the covenant. And those of you who saw that famous movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it ends up in some warehouse somewhere, I guess in Washington, D.C., or something like that. And you can just kind of snicker a little bit about that. But I think what’s happening here is all of the earthly stuff was merely a type and shadow of a heavenly reality.
And so, the heavenly reality is on display here. And when that was opened, there came, it says flashes of lightning rumbling, peals of thunder, earthquake, great hailstorm. All of that was the kind of stuff that would bring terror to us as human beings. A lot of natural things like lightning, rumbles, peals of thunder and hailstorms are all weather patterns that could bring fear, would bring fear, and then an earthquake as well. So, there’s a sense of our own smallness and the great power of God.
Wes
What final thoughts do you have for us today on these verses?
Andy
Oh, what an incredible journey. There are just a few verses here. We’ve gone through five verses, but they’re rich with reality. And I think fundamentally we should set our hearts on things above and things to come. And know that when Christ comes and sets up his kingdom, we will be worshiping forever and ever. Like the 24 elders we’ll be on our faces praising God that at last the rebellion has been finally put down. And God Almighty and his Christ will come to openly reign, and we should yearn for that. And so, I would frankly go back at that point to the Lord’s prayer and pray it. Say, “O God, may your kingdom come, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Wes
This has been Episode 14 in our Revelation Bible Study Podcast. We invite you to join us next time for Episode 15 entitled, The Woman, the Dragon and the Child where we’ll discuss Revelation 12:1-17. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
This is Episode 14 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast entitled The Seventh Trumpet, where we’ll discuss Revelation 11:15-19. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, the end of Revelation 11 is a very rich passage with a lot of details. As the seventh trumpet is sounded, there’s a celebration in heaven, and the things that are said are really stunning. And so, we’re going to walk through some of those incredible themes at the end of Revelation 11.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 15-19 so that we have a sense of where we’re at in this book.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and heavy hail.
Andy, what happens when the seventh angel blows his trumpet here and how does the phrase, “of our Lord and of his Christ,” help to prove the deity of Christ?
Andy
Well, what an incredible moment. This is in the Book of Revelation and some great questions as we walk through it. Need to step back a little bit and to see some of the structure of the entire book of Revelation. We have these three series of sevens. We have the seven seals, and then we have the seven trumpets, and then we are going to have the seven bowls. And they seem to be nested almost or connected. Like the seventh seal leads to the seven trumpets, and the seven trumpets leads to the seven bowls. Interestingly, after the seventh seal was broken, there was silence in heaven for half an hour, but when the seventh trumpet is sounded, it’s just a cascade, an avalanche of worship in heaven. So, it’s really quite remarkable. We also see kind of an unfolding here as after the sixth trumpet is sounded. We have this little interlude. The six trumpets are described in Revelation 8 and 9. And they have a devastating effect on the earth, on the ecology of the earth and on the people of the earth, culminating ultimately in a third of mankind dying, which would be several billion people. It’s really quite overwhelming, but sadly at the end of Revelation 9, the people of the inhabitants of the earth do not repent of their wickedness. Then you get Revelation 10 where John is commissioned by a mighty heavenly angel to tell the earth the things God tells tell them. And so, he is one great source of information for the human race about these trials as they go on the book of Revelation. And then we’ve got the two witnesses in Revelation 11, the beginning part of this chapter. And they stand before the wicked Antichrist, the beast that we’re going to meet later. And with great courage and great effectiveness, they testify plainly as two prophets to the inhabitants of the earth about the actual trials that are going on. So, we have an interlude, but both Revelation 10 and 11 are kind of are summed up in terms of a prophetic word or the way by which God communicates to the human race what’s going on.
And let me just stop right there and say, here we must see the goodness of God. He doesn’t just bring wrath on the earth. Before it happens, he warns them. Before it ever comes, they’re told what is happening. We must heed the written word of God. Right now, as I’m doing scripture memorization in the Gospel of Luke, we have that terrifying parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And the rich man is in hell, and he wants Lazarus to come cool his tongue because he’s in the fire of hell, but it cannot be. Father Abraham cannot send Lazarus across this great chasm. He said, well then can you at least send Lazarus to my father’s house where I have five brothers and let him warn them lest they also come to this place of torment. And amazingly Abraham says, they have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.
And then this voice from hell, this terrible perspective says, no Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead rises, they’ll listen to him. He says, look, if they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they’re not going to listen even if someone rises from the dead. What that is is Jesus’s estimation of the importance of listening to the written word of God. It is vital for us to hear what God says. Now we are forewarned and therefore forearmed of what’s going to come. And so, at the end of Revelation 11 we have the sounding of the seventh trumpet. And unlike the seventh seal this time, it’s not silence in heaven for half an hour, we have overwhelming worship. Loud voices in heaven and they’re proclaiming the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. The question you ask is how does this show the deity of Christ? Well, simply we just need to understand the word, Lord.
If you talked to any pious Jew in those days, in the days of the apostles, the days of John the Baptist or before and asked or said, “the Lord, the Lord,” or the Lord heard, the Lord answered, and you asked, wait, wait, who are you talking about? They would know exactly. We’re talking about God, Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord. But for us as Christians, we believe Jesus is Lord. And so, the term, Lord, means the deity of Christ. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
And so, the Lord is God, God the Father, and Christ is his Christ or anointed one. So, the same title here, it’s representing I think the first person of the Trinity. “Of the Lord and of his Christ.” So, the Lord there is God the Father, but Jesus is called Lord in other places. So, I think that shows beautifully the deity of Christ. Also, we need to understand Christ got sent by the Father, it was Almighty God that sent him. And there is one kingdom, and there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. This deity of Christ, the reigning of Christ over all the earth is celebrated here.
Wes
And that’s how verse 15 concludes, speaking of this reign that will go on forever and ever. How is the promise that Christ will reign forever and ever a striking contrast to the present kingdoms of this world?
Andy
Right. Well, I’m going to pick up on the very last thing you said, kingdoms plural. First of all, there really is only one earthly kingdom ultimately. The kingdom that was given by God to Adam when he made him effectively the king of the earth. He said, fill the earth, rule over it, subdue it. So that’s a kingdom. Unfortunately, once Adam and Eve fell into sin, there was a tremendous divisiveness among the human race. And a great wickedness, which God sought to restrain at the Tower of Babel by confusing the languages. And the languages resulted in many peoples and languages and nations, et cetera, and therefore many kingdoms. But the verse here celebrates the kingdom of the world. There is ultimately one kingdom. When Jesus comes to unify all things that is the one Kingdom, and he will reign forever and ever.
This is proclaimed again and again. Especially I would commend our listeners to look at Daniel 2 with the image of human history in the statue of Nebuchadnezzar with the head of gold and the chest and arms with silver and belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and feet, partly iron, partly clay, that represents an unfolding of human history, really all of history. And in the time of those kings we’re told, this rock cut out, but not by human hands, strikes the thing. Turns the whole thing into chaff, and the wind blows it away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck this statue became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth.
The interpretation is given concerning that rock. It represents the kingdom of Christ. And it says, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will last forever and ever. It will not come to an end, nor will it be left to another people. And so, this is the one final kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. Now, let’s say, the word reign. We need to understand when we get to heaven and we’re in our resurrection bodies, we will submit gladly to the reign of God and of Christ. We will not be rebels anymore. And so there will be submission, there will be obedience. We’re not free to do whatever we want at that point, but we’ll be delighted to submit to the reign of God and of his Christ.
Wes
As this account of cascading heavenly worship continues, we’re introduced here to these 24 elders. Who do the 24 elders represent and what do they do here in verse 16?
Andy
Right. So, we have seen the 24 elders before in Revelation 4 where we have the throne of God, and around that throne are 24 other thrones. And so, what this means is there is one kingdom, but it is subdivided. And that subdivision shows that created beings including angels, but also humans have areas of jurisdiction, they have domains or dominions. And so, some of them fell into wickedness and sin. We’ll see that in the next chapter where Satan takes a third of the stars with his tail, so to speak, the dragon, and throws them or sweeps them to the earth. These represent demons, but we see the language in Ephesians 6 of rulers, authorities, powers, dominions, this kind of thing. And so, these angels have areas of jurisdiction or domains, they’re just using them for evil.
When all of that is dealt with and all of the demons are thrown in the lake of fire, and all the wicked people are thrown in the lake of fire, and all that’s left are angels and humans that are pure and perfect and holy, we will still have dominions. We’ll still have creatures reigning, and there’ll be some in an authority. The 24 elders then represent it seems human beings that are put in positions of authority. Jesus said to the apostles, “You who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). And so, there is that sense. So, the 24 elders here represent human beings who will be in positions of authority in the kingdom of God.
Wes
How could their response that we see here as well affect our own worship of the Lord?
Andy
They fall on their faces. So, here’s the thing, we also saw in Revelation 4 how they cast their crowns before the throne. And so those crowns represent their authority, but they are submitting gladly to the perfection of Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. They will be kings, but he will be the King. And they will be lords, but he’ll be the Lord. And so, they are in Revelation 4. They cast their crown saying, we are in total submission to you. And all of the reigning we do, we do under your ultimate authority.
We see the same thing by the way in Daniel 7, they will reign under him who reigns forever and ever. In this case they get down on their faces so there’s a sense of complete humility. Every creature who has a true understanding, a redeemed holy creature who has a true understanding of the power of God realizes the infinite majesty of God and our own infinite smallness. So, when you fall down on your face before the throne of God, you’re saying, You are Almighty, you are God, you are Creator. I am a creature. I am as nothing compared to you.
Wes
What do the 24 elders say as they worship God in verse 17?
Andy
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was.” All right, so they’re giving thanks to God, and they speak of God’s eternality. He is the God who is and who was. And he is also the God in other verses who is to come. And the point is he never changes, he is eternal. He’s the same God he was yesterday, is today and will be forever. And so, they’re praising the Lord God Almighty. This is a sense of his omnipotence. Lord God Almighty gives a sense of the infinite majesty and power of God. And they’re giving thanks. And why are they giving him thanks? They’re giving him thanks for reigning, for taking his great power and beginning to reign on the earth.
So, we see the same thing again in Revelation 4 when they give thanks. It says whenever the 24 elders give thanks to the God who sits on the throne, they cast their crowns, they fall down on their faces, and they cast their crowns before the throne. So, the idea there is ripples of revelation from God in which they have a sense of God’s activity and they’re praising him for it. They’re thanking him for it. They are glad that he has done it. They are so glad that God is getting rid of all the wicked thrones and powers and authorities. And he himself has taken his power and is actively reigning.
Wes
Now they address their thanks to, “You, Lord God Almighty,” it says in verse 17. Which person of the Trinity should we understand this to be here in verse 17?
Andy
Yeah, it’s really hard to know, and I don’t think we really can go wrong because we already saw in verse 15 the kingdom of the world has become the of our Lord and of his Christ. If it said of the Christ we would just say of the Lord and of the Christ, we would think it’s the Lord means Jesus there. But when it says his, then it’s got to be the first person in the Trinity. And so here we give thanks to you Lord God Almighty. So that I think in this passage it seems to be the first person in the Trinity that God, God has taken his power and has begun to reign. Now we need to say something, God is sovereign right now.
Wes
I was going to ask about that phrase that he’s taken his power and begun to reign.
Andy
Yeah. So, we have to understand this. God was sovereign before we were born. He was sovereign before we were converted. There is a kingdom. Whether we believe it or not, he’s king. He is king. So then what is the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God? And the kingdom, the kingdom is advancing. What does that mean? What does it mean to enter the kingdom? And what does it mean here that he has taken his power and has begun to reign now? What does all that mean? Well, I think what it has to do with is the appreciation and the awareness of the creatures concerning his kingly rule and their delight in it. So, for example, to enter the kingdom means to recognize that God is King and to be glad about it and to repent of your own rebellion against it. That’s what it means I think to become a Christian.
To take Jesus’ yoke upon yourself means to submit to his kingly reign.
To take Jesus’ yoke upon yourself means to submit to his kingly reign. And so, what it means then to enter the kingdom of God means to turn away from rebellion against God’s kingly rule and to come into his kingdom in such a way that you are glad. And delighted to bring every area of your life in submission to his kingly rule. By the way, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come with your careful observation, nor can anyone say here it is or there it is because the kingdom of God is within you” (Matthew 17:20-21). One of the translations says it that way, and I think it’s true because it’s an inner heart work at this present time. The spread of the gospel is an inner heart work among individuals who have a different disposition than they had yesterday about Almighty God reigning over their lives. They’re now glad about it.
So that’s the spreading of the kingdom. The issue here is that God is going to put his sovereign reign on open display before everyone, whether they love him or not, whether they believe in him or not. This is not a matter of faith anymore. The second coming of Christ will not be a matter of faith. It’ll be very important that a moment or a day or week or year before that you believed. Because then you’ll spend eternity in heaven. If you didn’t, you’ll be in hell. So, the point is though, at the second coming of Christ, every eye will see Him. There’s no faith needed. And what they’re celebrating here is that that is about to happen. God is going to take his power and begin to reign openly and obviously before all of His enemies.
Wes
How is Christ’s victory over Satan at the cross really essential to the celebration that we see in this passage?
Andy
Well, I think the way I would answer that question is the cross of Jesus Christ, by the cross, him who held the power of death is defeated. And we’re going to be immersed in his hateful attack on the people of God in the next chapter. And we also know that it was really Satan who became the god of this age or the king of this world when Adam gave control to him. And then Satan tempted Jesus in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms, plural, of the world in their glory. And said, all this has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. So, if you’ll fall down and worship me, it’ll all be yours. Jesus refused to do that. Instead, honored his Father, obeyed his father and now all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. And so, he ends up getting it all but from God, not from Satan and by honoring his Father in that sense.
So, the death of Jesus on the cross then guarantees that there’ll be human beings in that kingdom. Without Jesus’s blood shed on the cross for our sins, the kingdom of the world and of his Christ would have only holy angels in it and no human beings because we would all be in hell. But by the death of Jesus the one who held the power of death, that is the devil, was defeated and the law that stood opposed to us was nailed to the cross and no longer testified against us. And therefore, His kingdom will be populated by a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people and nation of redeemed human beings.
Wes
Now before we move to verse 18, Andy, talk a little bit more about the power that’s on display here. Its nature and its significance.
Andy
Well, they celebrate that God, the Lord God Almighty has taken his great power and has used it to bring about the reigning that’s celebrated here. So, we need to understand that the power of God, theologians call it omnipotence, he has all power in heaven and earth. There is nothing that power can do that he cannot do. And it is not difficult at all for him to do this. I mean we think about how difficult would it be for the sun burning up there in the heavens 93 million miles away to ignite something on the earth like a stick.
Would it tax the sun to do that? No. How about at a whole tree? No problem. How about a whole forest? No problem. Equally, no problem. And I could keep going. How about the whole earth? No problem. That is the infinite majesty of the power of God. This is not going to be hard for God to do. The second coming of Christ will not be a touch-and-go battle, and we’ll see how it turns out. It will be effortless for him to defeat his enemies. So, God here, God the Father has taken his great power and is using it to reign openly before all creatures.
Wes
It is striking to meditate on God’s omnipotence, especially in light of verse 18, which goes on to pit the wrath of the nations against the wrath of God. Which also brings to mind Psalm 2:1-5. How have the nations displayed their wrath against Christ and his people throughout history? And how does God display his wrath against the nations here?
Andy
Well, I think we’ve seen, and we talked about this before we went on the podcast, how this section fulfills the Lord’s prayer, our Father in heaven hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come and may at last your reign, your will be done on earth as is in heaven. May we submit to you gladly. Well, that’s happening here, it’s being fulfilled. But that is a prayer prayed by genuine disciples. It’s something we genuine disciples want. The world doesn’t want it, it never has. It doesn’t want God’s will to be done on earth or in their lives as it is in heaven. And so, they’re enraged by this. They don’t want God and Christ to openly reign on the earth. They are rebels against him, and they’re fighting against him. And so, the nations, it says were angry. Every era of history they were angry. And Psalm 2 talks about this and says, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain” (Psalm 2:1)?
So, they are very angry, and they do everything they can to oppose the reign of Almighty God. By the way, this reminds me of Daniel 3, when Nebuchadnezzar becomes overwhelmingly enraged at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for refusing to bow down and worship his gods. And so fundamentally there’s this sense of rage, but it’s not the only rage mentioned in here or wrath. We have the wrath of the nations, and we have the wrath of God.
And God’s wrath is infinitely more powerful and infinitely greater. God laughs frankly at the wrath of the nations. It is as nothing to him. And so, the fact that they’re angry about the second coming of Christ, or they’re angry about the coming reign of God doesn’t stop him or daunt him at all. And we also see this, it’s really remarkable how independent and completely unconcerned at one level Jesus was of human opposition to the things he was saying. He said what needed to be said. And he knew very well that what he said would enrage people, but he said it anyway. We see that kind of boldness, and God has absolutely no terror of this, but he’s bringing his wrath on the earth. The time has come for that wrath.
Wes
What’s the significance of that phrase that follows, “The time has come to judge the dead and to reward your servants”? What is that time and what does it mean that the time has come?
Andy
All right, well that’s judgment day, and we’re going to see it in Revelation 20 with the great white throne judgment. And so, all of the dead, the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and the ground gave up the dead that was in it. And all the dead were assembled, and they were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the book. So, time’s coming for judgment day. So that’s judgment and not just for the judging of the dead, but for the rewarding of God’s servants, the prophets and the saints and everyone that feared God’s name. So fundamentally it’s judgment day.
This is speaking about judgment day. I want to say one more thing about the nations’ wrath. It really is remarkable to me how much people have hated Christ. And it says, “They hated me without a cause” (John 15:25). And how much the rulers of the earth gathered together and conspired to do everything they could to stop the spread of the gospel, to stop Christianity. How many edicts have there been from the Roman era? Even before that the synagogues deciding that anyone who said that Jesus was the Messiah would be thrown out of the synagogue. So, these are edicts, and it’s gone on now for 20 centuries plus. And it has made life miserable for the servants of God here on earth, but it is as nothing to God.
Wes
You spoke a moment ago of this idea of judgment day, but also included here is this concept of rewards. What do you think about that concept of rewards for Christians who serve God, who receives them, and how should we understand them?
Andy
we’re going to spend some of our time in eternity studying what God did in the past.
Well, it’s a very, very important theme. And we’re going to see it at the very end of this book where he says in Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I’m coming soon, my reward is with me, and I’ll give to everyone according to what he has done.” So, this doctrine of rewards comes right to the very end of the Bible. So, I’ve studied this a lot. It’s a big part of my book on heaven, and I want to commend that to you. It’s called The Glory Now Revealed, and I talk about heaven. And one of the themes, maybe the central theme of the book is that we’re going to spend some of our time in eternity studying what God did in the past. And one of the proofs I have that we’ll even remember what we did in the past is the doctrine of rewards. So, I immerse myself in that.
And as I look at rewards, I think of them as fundamentally relational between us and God in which God lets us know how much our works pleased him. And he gives us honors and emblems of honor based on that. So, the three C’s that I’ve said before, it’s commendation, which is praise from God. It’s crowns, which is emblems of honor and of authority from God. And its capacity to take God into yourself even as a finite being. That’s the essence of rewards. And we should want as many rewards as we possibly can get. So, to fundamentally say it, every moment of our lives here on earth, I want to please my Father.
And the Father is saying, I want to express that pleasure to you as my son or daughter. That’s the essence of the reward. And we shouldn’t be squeamish about it. All we should want as many rewards as we can get. And frankly, let’s be generous. We want as many rewards as our brothers and sisters can get too. We’re not in competition with each other. And so, I want you, Wes, to be as rewarded as you possibly can be. And so, I’ll try to do that by my ministry of teaching and praying and encouraging to you. And you can also provoke me to love and good deeds, so I’ll be as rewarded as possible. We’re all in it together.
Wes
Ultimately, who is punished in verse 18 and why? We spoke about this a little bit before as well, some of the interesting language here at the end of verse 18.
Andy
Well, fundamentally first, anyone who is angry about God and Christ reigning will be punished. I mean, let’s just keep it at that. If that makes you angry, you’re not born again. If there’s any opposition, any distaste, any disaffection, any magnetic opposition within your heart, you’re not born again. That’s the essence of the heart of the rebel. And Romans [8:7] says, “the mind of the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God. Indeed, it cannot.” And so, if you have that mind, be warned and repent and flee to Christ.
And so fundamentally, anyone who is in opposition to God reigning on earth or over his or her own life, that’s the one that the Lord comes to destroy if he hasn’t yet converted them. But here it also says, for destroying those who destroy the earth, which is interesting. We were talking about this again before the podcast, how this is kind of an ecological or green verse. How God actually cares very much about how his earth was treated. And he wants the earth to be well cared for and not ravaged or destroyed by the greed of individuals. Now, that doesn’t mean that we can’t chop down a tree and cut it up and use it for firewood or to make furniture. Jesus was a carpenter. And so, it’s not that, the point is wantonly destroying the earth. You could just keep it simple that it refers to Adam’s sin and that God cursed the earth because of it.
And the consummation of that curse is in the book of Revelation with Revelation 8 and 9 is especially Revelation 8, terrible ecological disaster. And so ultimately God judged planet earth, but it was because of human sin. So, it’s either volitionally or willfully destroying the earth so you can make a profit like strip mining or polluting the earth or polluting a river with sewage or something like that. Or it’s just being part of wicked humanity that destroyed the earth as a result of that. God is going to destroy those who destroy the earth.
Wes
What is the significance in verse 19 of the ark appearing in heaven? And what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage that we’ve been looking at?
Andy
All right, so verse 19 says, God’s temple in heaven was open. Now we need to understand the temple was a structure that was built under the leadership initiative of King David, but ultimately consummated by his son Solomon. But that itself was a work to replace a movable tent called the tabernacle that was constructed by the pattern shown to Moses in the Book of Exodus. And so, Moses saw a vision of a heavenly pattern the author of Hebrews tells us. David also saw a vision of a heavenly pattern. Both the tabernacle-the movable tent, and the more permanent structure-the temple, were earthly shadows of a heavenly reality, which is a temple in heaven. They were pictures of a place where God and man could meet together or where the atoning, the blood of the atoning sacrifice could be poured out. Those things were literally physically done by the priests on earth, but they were just a type and a shadow of the true heavenly temple.
And so now we have a vision of the heavenly temple open. And within that temple we’re seeing the ark of the covenant. So, the ark itself was a type or shadow of perhaps a heavenly ark. So, whether this is the literal ark of the covenant. And those of you who saw that famous movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it ends up in some warehouse somewhere, I guess in Washington, D.C., or something like that. And you can just kind of snicker a little bit about that. But I think what’s happening here is all of the earthly stuff was merely a type and shadow of a heavenly reality.
And so, the heavenly reality is on display here. And when that was opened, there came, it says flashes of lightning rumbling, peals of thunder, earthquake, great hailstorm. All of that was the kind of stuff that would bring terror to us as human beings. A lot of natural things like lightning, rumbles, peals of thunder and hailstorms are all weather patterns that could bring fear, would bring fear, and then an earthquake as well. So, there’s a sense of our own smallness and the great power of God.
Wes
What final thoughts do you have for us today on these verses?
Andy
Oh, what an incredible journey. There are just a few verses here. We’ve gone through five verses, but they’re rich with reality. And I think fundamentally we should set our hearts on things above and things to come. And know that when Christ comes and sets up his kingdom, we will be worshiping forever and ever. Like the 24 elders we’ll be on our faces praising God that at last the rebellion has been finally put down. And God Almighty and his Christ will come to openly reign, and we should yearn for that. And so, I would frankly go back at that point to the Lord’s prayer and pray it. Say, “O God, may your kingdom come, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Wes
This has been Episode 14 in our Revelation Bible Study Podcast. We invite you to join us next time for Episode 15 entitled, The Woman, the Dragon and the Child where we’ll discuss Revelation 12:1-17. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
