Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Angel and the Little Scroll!

The Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ is fast becoming, for me, the most exciting book in all the sacred volume!

The highly symbolic apocalyptic genre, in which these brilliant, radiant visions are wrapped, is a joy to unfold indeed.

The key thing being, I believe, the phrase, "in the spirit".

Not only does John see a vision...this he does – and, in that, many of them. But he takes part in the very fabric of these marvellous moving pictures. He becomes an actor in the story line of this final volume of Holy Writ.

This is vital in our appreciation of this pristine, prophetic epistle because it will iron out some of the creases of erroneous, speculative exegesis pertaining to the Revelation needing to be taken as literal.

John literally sees and experiences everything exactly as he says (writes) it. That is a given. But these visions of which he is himself a character must be interpreted in light of their intended associations. Rooted deeply and richly in the Old Testament Scriptures, Revelation draws its contentual imagery from the vast and rich sum of ancient sacred soil.

The first audience would immediately have grasped this.

The section we unpacked this Lord's Day past was chapter 10:1-11. Connected, of course with all that has gone before it, especially with respect to the 8th and 9th chapters, as well as leading on, in its meaning, to what follows, this section gives us none other than a re-affirmation of the Great Commission given to John on Patmos so as to encourage this suffering but stalwart saint of God to get up and get going again in the very purpose for which he was exiled in the first place...the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ - that is preaching the gospel!

Not only will John derive comfort from this portion, and that, again, to preach Christ risen and coming again, but each and every one of his audience, then and now, who too suffer for their faith will and must so draw from this holy spring sustenance and strength to ‘surf the prophetic wave all the way to the shore line’.

And so, in our text, Christ comes to John in the form of a mighty angel. (Either this is Christ or an actual angel - either way he, at very least, acts the part of Christ...note the descriptions he carries!) ‘Wrapped in a cloud’, ‘face’ shining ‘like the sun’, ‘rainbow over his head’ etc.

All of this is meant to bring our hearts and minds to familiar Biblical imagery!

Furthermore, this ‘mighty angel’ has a ‘little scroll’ (now called ‘little’ in contrast to the gigantic angelic holder thereof) in his right hand...not closed but opened! I wonder why…not!

Chapters 6ff tell us why. Christ, the Lamb/Lion took the seven-sealed scroll and, with specific reference to the conquest of the cross, has become worthy of opening its seals, all seven of them!

God's entire redemptive purpose is here meant and this is only possible by the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour!

So He, Jesus, rides off ‘conquering and to conquer’ (white horse)! This then leads to all manner of suffering unique and general that the Church must expect as par for the course.

Chapter 7 sends our minds to the positive protective side of this coin, the Church militant being sealed on their foreheads, and ends with the Church triumphant in glory resting, at last, in her Bridegroom’s arms.

Chapter 8 brings us back to the beginning of the New Covenant age with all the prayers of the saints, perfected by Christ’s intercession, ascending into the very throne room of God.

These are not only answered by God in powerful ways, but used of Him, as instrumental agencies, in the unfolding of His eternal redemptive and damning decree. From these prayers and in direct association with them come the seven trumpets of judgment...judgment, yes, but not final judgment...at least not until the seventh of these is brought to the fore (11:15ff).

These destroy ‘a third’ of the different parts of the universe and are given as parables of perdition so as to call the wicked to repentance...thus enhancing their culpableness if unheeded.

We must discern herein all the suffering of the wicked as coming from God Himself, without exception, as ‘mini-hell's’ until the real deal hits like a bare fist in the resurrected faces of the impenitent.

God is calling to repentance, with arms wide open, all sinners who will hear...this He does in these terrible, but not final, parabolic foretastes of wrath! (See Rom 1:18ff).

Chapter 10 then brings with this mighty angel (Christ - I believe) the oath to the Father (representing the Trinity) that there will be no more delay! Next in the chronological clock is chapter 11:15...however this is yet a little while away...at least as far as content and imagery goes. But the next aspect, unless the angel is ‘telling tales’, is the final judgment (the seventh trumpet).

Something important, however, remains to be said before this culminatory act of God in the Second Advent and judgment therein. This is to, quite simply, push 'pause' as it were, and that so as to call John to ‘go, take the scroll’ (once sealed, now fully opened - describing the seals and trumpets) and to ‘eat it’ (digest it fully himself), and then to ‘prophesy’ it!

This is none other than a re-enactment of the Great Commission that John had been party to receiving so many decades before, this time from the now (then) perspective of this struggling and frail apostle.

He is re-commissioned!

We are herein too re-commissioned!

Whenever we are feeling at the end of our rope…no matter how much we are suffering, this is to be interpreted as normative Christian experience!

Our prayers are heard in our trials and persecutions and even used of God in the unfolding of His eternal decree. The trumpets are how God answers and stands up for His bride against her enemies this side of the Grand Finale!

We must preach this!

This alone is Christianity!

Tell the Church what to expect and what to do in the face of suffering...that is, to get up and get going! God is yet your strength and shield!!!

Tell the devils people (all non-Christians) that all their suffering is from the hand of a very involved and blatantly busy God!

Whether He uses Satan (Job) or other demonic agencies, or people - ultimately all are His servants!

With all this right interpreting of life to the world remember all the while that ‘the gate is narrow’ and most will still reject God and curse Him to His face! That is not our problem ultimately...our business is to be faithful!

On the day of Judgment all these will not only have to give an account for their association with, and part in, the sin of our first parents, and that in the fall; not only will they have to explain their wholesale embrace of their sinful nature; not merely of all their actual sins committed in this life; not only will they have to answer for their further denial of God, albeit having heard and supressed the trumpets of general revelation in their every ounce of pain and torment throughout this life; but, more so, they will be irreparably culpable in that they have heard the preaching of the Word (little scroll) that explains God's calling to them in all their experiences and that in the view of Christ and His accomplishment on the Cross!

This, I believe, is the meaning of the angel and the little scroll!

What a glorious text indeed!

Preach it to everyone!!!

"You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings."

God be praised completely!!!

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