Revelation 16: Jesus Will Right All Wrongs

Ever wondered what Armageddon really means beyond apocalyptic movie references? In this enlightening episode of Bible Breakdown, Pastor Brandon tackles Revelation 16 with clarity and purpose, demystifying one of scripture's most misunderstood chapters.

The seven bowls of God's wrath paint vivid images of divine judgment—seas turning to blood, scorching heat, and the infamous gathering at Har-Megiddo. But rather than getting lost in end-times speculation, we discover the original message that brought hope to persecuted early Christians. The striking parallels between these judgments and the Exodus plagues reveal a consistent truth: God's ultimate victory is assured.

Armageddon, far from being simply doomsday, represents the historical battleground where God's enemies are defeated once and for all. This perspective transforms our understanding from fear to faith, from preoccupation with timelines to preparation through faithfulness. As Pastor Brandon beautifully expresses, "When it gets the darkest, people start seeking after the light." Instead of merely looking up for escape, we're called to look out with expectancy, allowing our faith to shine brighter as the world grows more divided.

Whether you're a longtime student of Revelation or approaching it for the first time, this episode offers fresh insights that will challenge and encourage you. Join our growing community of believers diving deeper into God's Word one chapter at a time. Subscribe, share, and continue the conversation in our Bible Breakdown Discussion group on Facebook—because the more we dig, the more we find!

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 2:54 Reading Revelation 16
• 8:14 Understanding Armageddon
• 10:54 Message for the Early Church
• 13:34 Stay Faithful, Jesus is Coming
• 15:04 Closing Prayer and Encouragement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, revelation, chapter 16. And today's title is Jesus Will Right All Wrongs. Jesus Will Right All Wrongs. Today's going to be one of those chapters that you're definitely going to remember some things about, especially a word that has been thrown around a bunch and I'm kind of curious if you know what it actually means. It's the phrase Armageddon. So we're going to get to that in just a second.

Speaker 1: 0:53

But if you want to go and get your Bibles open with me, some people ask me sometimes what translation do we read? We read the New Living Translation together and I will let you know in some future podcast why I chose the New Living Translation, but that's the one we read podcast, why I chose the New Living Translation, but that's the one we read, and so if you want to get that out, get it open with us, you can follow along while you're doing that. Make sure you take just a moment, if you're new around here, to like, share, subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. I know we say this every time, but the reason why is because not everybody here has been here very long, even though my podcast listeners are my OG favorites and they always will be, because you guys have been with me since the very, very beginning and I love that. We've gotten a chance to go through God's work We've almost finished the New Testament, and so it's just a wonderful thing but also our YouTube channel listeners. You've been with us for a while and I want to tell you real quick, according to our statistics and different things, most of the people who listen to our podcast and watch our YouTube videos are not subscribed to either one. It really does help us. It lets us know. It also helps us in the algorithm so people can discover a podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Did you know that not many people actually have access to where they're able to read God's word one chapter at a time? There's a lot of podcasts, a lot of videos that will summarize, but what we are intending to do is to go read God's word one chapter at a time. There's a lot of podcasts, a lot of videos that will summarize, but what we are intending to do is to go through God's word one chapter at a time and just celebrate the goodness of God. And so if you have been enjoying this, please make sure you like, share, subscribe and you let somebody know what's going on, especially go to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. It's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job and, as always, the more we dig the more we find.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Well, as always, here is your friendly neighborhood disclaimer, because the book of Revelation has been very divisive over the years, and the reason why is because there is so much that is subjective. When we try to put the book of Revelation into our timetable, when we want to put it right here right now, it is very speculative, I mean, it's very subjective. Rather, there's a lot of different things could mean a lot of different things, and so people fight and argue about it, and so I want to save a lot of those fights and those arguments for other podcasters, for people who've studied it. I've studied the book of Revelation on and off for about 20 years and I have come to the conclusion that the best I can get out of the book of Revelation is when I stop looking at it in the future because only God knows the future and to realize that the original intent for the book of Revelation was not to be a horoscope, not for us to predict the future, but rather it was primarily written to the early church to tell them this one lesson, and that is this Jesus wins.

Speaker 1: 3:30

That this persecuted church was getting all of this static from all these different places, and the Apostle John was inspired of the Holy Spirit to tell these seven churches hey, listen, I know it's bad, I know there's a lot going on, but what you need to remember is Jesus already got this in the back. He has already got it, and so what we've been talking about is there are these, these seven churches that are all throughout the Asia Minor area, and they are receiving crazy persecution from the Roman world, from the people from Jerusalem, who think they shouldn't even be following Jesus anyway. They should be Judaizers you got to become Jewish and then just random stuff where they are being encouraged to compromise, and so in chapter two and three, jesus speaks directly to them and says hey, listen, I see what's up, I see where you're doing well, I see where you can improve and I love you anyway, so overcome. And then we see all of these different illusions and metaphors about how Jesus has taken care of so many things while they are being faithful. And, man, if there's ever a lesson that we can still learn from today, is that while we are being faithful. Jesus is doing so much more than we can imagine. And if you're with us yesterday, as we were in chapter 15, he talked about how there's one more set of judgments that's coming, and in the end it's these bold judgments, and then the end is finally going to come. And so, as we are kind of rushing to the great climax, to me the great climax happens in chapter 19. And we're almost there. Let's kind of get that direction together. So, if you're ready, revelation 16, verse 1 says this.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Then I heard a mighty voice from the temple say to the seven angels Go your ways and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God's wrath. That sounds terrible. The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it became like the blood of a corpse and everything in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs and they became blood. Does any of this sound familiar? Let's keep going.

Speaker 1: 5:48

Verse 5, and I heard an angel who had authority over all the waters saying you are just, o Holy One, who is and who always was, because you have sent these judgments, since they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is their just reward. And I heard the voice from the altar saying yes, o Lord, god the Almighty, your judgments are true. And just Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and caused it to scorch everyone with its fire. Everyone was burned by this blast of heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over all these plagues. They did not repent of their sins and turn to God and give him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom was plunged into darkness and his subjects ground their teeth in anguish and they cursed the God of heaven with their pains and sores, for they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God.

Speaker 1: 6:58

And then I saw three evil spirits so they're like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. They're like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for the battle against the Lord and the great judgment day of the God of Israel, of God the Almighty. Then Jesus says you see this? If you're looking on the screen, it's in red. It says look, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their clothing ready so they will not have to walk around naked and ashamed. The demonic spirits gathered all the rulers of the armies to a place with a Hebrew name Armageddon. We'll cover that in just a moment.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a mighty shout came from the throne of the temple saying it is finished. That's what Jesus said when he was on the cross. Then the thunder crashed and rolled and lightning flashed and the great earthquake struck, the worst since the people were placed on the earth. So in other words, it's the biggest earthquake ever recorded. 19,. Then the great city of Babylon, another name for the Roman empire. Then the great Babylon split into three sections and the cities of many nations fell into heaps of rubble. So God remembered all of Babylon's sins, that he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath, and every island disappeared and the mountains were leveled. In other words, it was a terrible, terrible earthquake, verse 21. So in other words, that's a bad day.

Speaker 1: 8:55

It's a really, really bad day, and so can you also see how easy it would be for people to guess as to what that could symbolize. I mean, easy enough to me would be that the hell storms that are 75 pounds apiece. That sounds like asteroids, right. And then you've got all these other things that are happening and it's very, very possible. But once again, it's for another podcast. What does this mean for the early church? Well, if you've heard the phrase Armageddon, then you're living, you know it's everywhere. It is synonymous for a final battle, right. And also synonymous for a movie in the 90s when Bruce Willis saves the world from an asteroid, right? Yeah, modern day, classic, right.

Speaker 1: 9:37

But the idea here is a little bit more nuanced than we realize, because Armageddon actually the Hebrew word har H-A-R means mountain and Megiddo is a place, and actually in the Old Testament, megiddo was the staging ground for many different major battles, and so, even though it's not technically a mountain, it's more like a hill, right? You know, if you were to measure it, what John is actually saying is that it is going to be the battle of all battles, not because of anything other than it is the place where so many battles were fought, but this time, when this battle was fought, the enemies of God are going to face off with God, and God will win. Now here's the question why people kind of get all wrapped up in it is if this were literal, how do these people know who they're going to fight? Do they literally think they're going to fight God? Well, that's stupid. How they're going to fight God? Well, that's stupid. How are they going to defeat God? So that's why a lot of people say that actually, what that means is they're going to fight the people of God, which would be Israel. And so that's where you get into all these kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 10:45

But what would this have meant to the early church? What would they have taken from this idea in Revelation 16, of all of these bold judgments which, by the way, did you notice that almost all the bold judgments were very similar to what happened when God started pouring out the wrath on the people in the book of Exodus. So it's very possible that the goal of this chapter was not for us to look forward into the future, but actually look to the past and see how the end of all of this was the victory of God. And so what would they have known in this? They would have looked at these judgments, looked at the past, looked at what happened to the nation of Israel while their Egyptian bondage, and they realized that it culminated with victory. And so the message for the early church out of Revelation, chapter 7, wouldn't have been to look for earthquakes, and it wouldn't have been to look for asteroids and Bruce Willis does not have to get on a spaceship it would have been stay faithful, jesus is coming. Stay faithful because Jesus is coming. Notice how the chapter began with saying that all of these things were about to happen so that it could usher in this final battle. And so what the early church would have known is it was saying that all the enemies of God are going to come against the people of God, but they stand no chance that when they think that they are mounting some kind of resistance really and don't even know it. And so the lesson for all of us is stay faithful. Jesus is coming.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Now, can I tell you, I live in the same world you do, and that means that we live in times right now where some people say we're more divided than ever, and some people say that when all of this chaos and all this kinds of things happen, especially for people who believe in the rapture and they believe in, you know, in all these different things. They say look up for your redemption draws nigh right Like look up, look up. And I think there's a place for that. But for me, when I read the book of Revelation, it doesn't tell me that I need to look up and escape. It means to tell me to look out and expect escape. It means to tell me to look out and expect, because when it gets dark, when it looks divided, it reminds me that the King is coming. And the King isn't coming to to take away the people. The King is coming to take over the world. And so can I just encourage you stay faithful. Jesus is coming.

Speaker 1: 13:16

And I'll be honest with you and say I don't know exactly what that means. I don't know if that means there's a rapture of the church. I sure hope so. I don't know if that means that there is a second coming. I sure hope so. I think there is a second coming. I don't know if there's a rapture that happens before that. We'll leave that to other podcasts to look at.

Speaker 1: 13:32

But what I can say is no matter how divided the world looks instead of looking up, look out and get ready to see the glory of God, because it's when it gets the darkest that people start seeking after the light. Can I tell you, I think right now we are living in some of the most exciting days that have ever existed, and I want to be honest with you and say it's not because I think we're living in the last days. I think we've been living in the last days ever since Acts, chapter two. I think we're living the most exciting days ever because it's getting dark outside and when it gets dark, the light shines even brighter. That's why, as Christians, we need to shine. We need to do God, do the godly things in public. We don't need to hide our relationship with God, because we need to be faithful and encourage other people.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Jesus is coming. I don't know what it looks like, I don't know when, I don't know where, but I trust that he is. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, lord, that your word is true and your word teaches us that you are on the way. Lord, we can celebrate you today because we know that you hold tomorrow. And God, as we get ready to finish, over the next few days, the book of Revelation. I pray that it will encourage us that you are just, your word is true and you are on the way. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen. Well, revelation 1, verse 7, if you know it, say it with me. It says look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him. My prayer is that the more we read this book, the more you will see Jesus, and that you will see that Jesus wins. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Revelation, chapter 17.