Revelation 06: Jesus is in Control

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Revelation 6
• 1:32 Understanding the Book's Original Purpose
• 3:28 Jesus Opens the Seals
• 5:16 The Four Horsemen Explained
• 8:20 Finding Comfort in Christ's Control
• 11:59 Prayer and Final Encouragement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Revelation chapter 6, and today's title is Jesus is in Control. Jesus is in Control. Today we're going off the deep end into metaphor city and it's going to be a lot of fun. So, if you've got your Bibles, go ahead and get them out with me and open up to Revelation chapter 6. While you're doing that, make sure, as always, you take just a moment like share and subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Man, the more we dig, the more we find, and the book of Revelation is so much fun to dig into. Just dig deeper. I've already made it my goal in this kind of journey together is that, by the time we are finished with this book, that you are not scared of the book of Revelation anymore, that if this book is one you've stayed away from because you don't understand it, and all that I want to say constantly throughout this podcast. There are a lot of great podcasts that go I'm talking about like over your head deep into a lot of the symbolism, a lot of the things, and so when you don't hear me talk about those kinds of things, it's not because they're not necessarily there, it's. I want to focus on what this meant to the original audience, how they would have understood it, can I tell you, one of the things I don't agree with, necessarily, is I don't agree with different people who say that the book of Revelation would have been a complete mystery to those who first read it. I just don't think so, because when you read it and you look at it, it was intended to be an encouragement. Remember, the overall goal of the book of Revelation is to convey that Jesus wins. Jesus has won, and he is not writing this in a way that wouldn't have been encouraging but confusing. And so I think that when we see what they would have saw, it can encourage us to.

Speaker 1: 2:08

And so if you have been with us, you realize that the book of Revelation was primarily written to seven churches in the Asia Minor area. These churches would have been places that the Apostle John would have been overseeing as kind of their well overseer, and what they would have been doing is they were actually experiencing a lot of persecution from Rome, from Jerusalem, from all kinds of other areas. There's a lot of emperor worship going on at the time. There's a lot of idolatry, there's a lot of pressure for them to compromise and John is telling them he's like man listen, I had a vision and Jesus wins and he's awesome. Bad things are going to happen, some things are going to get worse, but Jesus is still in control. We've been talking about that and in chapter two and chapter three that's what he tells them.

Speaker 1: 2:53

Chapter four we get to see a picture of what the throne room of heaven looks like, and we talked about how it kind of mirrored a little bit what the throne room of the emperor looked like, only it was much greater. And it was John's way of saying yes, rome has an emperor, but have you seen our king? He's so much greater and nobody stands equal to him. All bow to him. Chapter 5, yesterday it talked about how all of heaven didn't know what to do because the deed to the land, of the earth, the deed to the land, was there and God said who's going to open this? And John was upset because who is worthy? Who is worthy to to take the earth? Who's worthy to take back all this chaos? And Jesus stepped forward and he said, as the great theologian of Doc Holliday would say, I'm your huckleberry. And he said I'll do it. And when that happened, these poor 24 elders, they could not keep their seat. As I told you, they gonna be slipping and sliding this whole time. They slipped down. They were like worthy is the lamb. And Jesus is now getting ready to open these seals. And remember, every time he opens a seal, in the literal sense, when they would open up a seal to a land document, that was them taking possession of the land and then when all the seals were opened, that meant it was now theirs. And so every time Jesus is opening a seal, he is declaring victory and declaring ownership over all of his creation. So I go and tell you the encouragement is no matter what happens, jesus is the one holding the seal, jesus is in control.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Let's read this and once again remember this is metaphor. It doesn't mean that there's a white horse and a red horse and a black horse and a pale horse and they're just walking around heaven right now. That's not what it means. I don't think anybody who tries to interpret the book of Revelation thinks that there are four horses, just you know, walking around eating hay in heaven. You know about this. These are metaphors to talk about different waves of things that's coming along. So we're going to read this and realize this is also not the first time this has shown up. John is borrowing from Zechariah 1 and Zechariah 6 to talk about four horsemen, and so this is something that the early church would have been very familiar with and they would have understood the implications that John is talking about. So here we go Revelation, chapter 6, verse 1.

Speaker 1: 5:10

As I watched the Lamb, my Jesus, broke the first of the seven seals on the scroll, and then I heard one of the four living beings say with a voice like thunder Come. And I looked up and I saw a white horse standing there and his rider carried a bow and a crown was placed on his head and he rode out to win many battles and gain the victory. When the lamb broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature say come. And another horse, this one was red and his rider was given a mighty sword and authority to take peace from the earth, and there was war and slaughter everywhere. Then the lamb broke the third seal and I heard the third living creature say come. And I looked and I saw a black horse. This rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand and I heard the voice from among the four living creatures say a loaf of wheat, of bread and three loaves of barley will cost a day's pay. Don't waste the olive oil and wine.

Speaker 1: 6:11

When the lamb broke the fourth seal I heard the fourth living creature say come. And I looked up and I saw a horse whose color was pale green. He's probably sick and its rider was named Death. I'd be sick too if Death was riding on me, and his companion was a grave. These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals.

Speaker 1: 6:35

When the lamb broke the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony, and they shouted to the Lord and said oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us? Then a white robe was given to each of them and they were told to rest for a little longer and the full number of their brothers and sisters for their fellow servants of Jesus, who will be martyred, had joined them, and I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake. The sun became dark as black cloth and the moon became red as blood, and then the stars of the sky fell on the earth Verse 2. And they cried to the mountains and the rocks fall on us. Hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come. Who is able to survive?

Speaker 1: 7:57

So there's a lot going on there, and if you can see how easy is that To try to guess what all that means. I mean, how fun is that? I mean it's not fun. It's not fun. Okay, look, bad things are happening, bad things are happening. Bad pastor, don't talk like that. I don't mean it like that. I just mean, think about this for a moment. When it says stars fell from the sky to the earth like green figs falling to the sky, in other words, green figs would be hard. You know what I mean. It sounds like an asteroid strike, or it could sound like atomic weapons, like missiles falling. I mean, you could, you could say that the sky rolling up like a scroll, that sounds like a nuclear attack, or it could sound like an asteroid. A lot of people think it's like an asteroid. All the mountains and the islands were moved from their places. That sounds like an asteroid strike. I mean, that's what you hear all these people trying to do all these things and trying to put things we know today into those contexts, and that's really cool and really fun. It's like a lot of fun, right.

Speaker 1: 8:50

But what did it mean to the early church? Well, here's the thing the four horsemen, first of all, were not the first time they'd ever heard of these. They heard of these back in the book of Zechariah, and then some of these different things were actually talked about in Isaiah 13, joel 2, and Haggai 12. Two, my goodness. And so what that would have meant to them was it's very possible that the white horse may have reflected false peace or imperial conquest, because, remember, this is a suffering church and he was saying that while the king is in control, he's in control even though these things are happening. The red horse may have represented civil unrest and persecution. The black horse reflected economic oppression, like food shortages and price gouging, and then the pale horse was death itself, often the result of plagues, poverty and violence. What we don't realize now is, back then, plagues, poverty and violence were all like recent suspects. I mean these people. These things happen all the time. Plagues were all the time, poverty was very real and folks be killing folks all the time, and so it was very easy for the early church to realize.

Speaker 1: 10:03

What John was saying is is John was saying, even though God is in control, and that God is doing things, when he takes control, it doesn't mean bad things aren't going to happen. What it means is is he's still in control? It means that Jesus is on his throne and Jesus is working and he's doing things even while bad things are happening, and as he is doing the right things and as he is taking over and as suffering is happening and chaos is happening, it doesn't shake our faith because the king is in control. So what does that say to us? Exactly the same thing.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Sometimes we struggle because we think God is in control only if it looks like he is to us. We see bad things happening and we think that God can't be in control because that's not the way we would do it. And we think that God's not in control, because it doesn't look like it to us. However, god plays the long game and while God is doing all the right things, sometimes it looks like only bad things are happening. But can I encourage you, if that's how it seems to you, keep reading, keep watching, because Jesus wins, and I think that's what's important for us to get out of. This Is no matter what's going on in your life, whatever suffering you're dealing with, never forget Jesus wins, and in this chapter we can see that, as Jesus is taking back control. Sometimes bad things are going to happen, it doesn't mean he's lost control. As a matter of fact, he is the only one who is holding the scroll.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, jesus, that you are in control, that you are leading us and you're guiding us in so many ways. I pray God you help us to see that, even in the middle of our struggles, god, you help us to see that, even in the middle of our struggles, even the middle of our suffering, even when it seems like the world has gone crazy it may have, you, haven't You're still in control. Help us to trust you in all things. In Jesus' name we pray Amen, amen, what God's word says in Revelation 1, verse 7,. It says look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him. My hope is that you will see God clearly more every day, as you realize Jesus is a winner. He's already won and because of that all things are possible. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Revelation, chapter 7.