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Revelation 15:5-8

God Is Preparing His Kingdom

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on November 10, 2019 at Beacon Church

In my expert opinion (I used to work for Blockbuster Video), few actors have ever brought a villain to life on the big screen the way that Jeremy Irons did in the movie The Lion King. I detested Scar. Did you? Scar the bad lion, the brother of King Mufasa. But my heart broke for Simba when he believed Scar's lies that poor young Simba himself was to blame for his father's death. It was a lie but he believed that lie. Even though it wasn’t true, Simba was so overcome by shame he could not he could not find it in his heart to go back home. He could not face his mother because of what he believed he had done. So he ran. He lived in exile. And doesn't that remind us of Cain? The parallel is not perfect but Cain's shame was real. In a jealous rage Cain murdered his own brother and there was no going home after that. Cain told God “my punishment is worse than I can bear,” (Gen 4:13). But as if to say that it's really much worse than Cain realizes, Genesis 4:16 says, “Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden,” (Gen. 4:16 ESV). From the presence of the LORD. Cain went away from the only One who could save him.

See, shame is not our greatest problem. Shame is like that pain you feel somewhere in your body that alerts you to a problem, maybe an injury you need to pay attention to. Shame is like that. It alerts us to a greater problem. Shame is not our greatest problem. Guilt is. Like Cain,  every human being has run away from the presence of God, exiled and driven away by shame.  But actually, every human being is already separated from God by our very real guilt. Guilt is not a deception. It’s real. It separates sinners from the God who is holy. And unlike Simba, we are to blame. If it was left to us, we could never “go home.”

My sermon this morning is looking at the second half of Revelation 15. But these two sermons really need to be held together because the whole chapter is really one unit. In chapter 15, John gets his readers ready for the final act in the book of Revelation. It teaches us that God is preparing a people, a place, where Emmanuel Himself will come make His home with us. Jesus is judging the nations to prepare a home where He will live with the people He has saved. Even right now, God is working to bring many sons to glory, to bring His lost children home. We could not go to God; He had to come to us.

God is preparing a place

Last Sunday, we saw very briefly how the seven bowl judgements are the third and final phase of God’s plan to get the world ready for the return of Jesus Christ. These seven bowls, which the angels pour out in the next chapter, “are the last” (v1) and predict how God deals with the world of post-Catholic Europe—that is, the European nations ever since the breakup of the Pope’s 10-kingdom empire. One thing you need to notice about the 400 years (so far) of the era of the seven bowls, is that during this whole time, the Word of Christ has been preached like never before. The printing-press, the Protestant Reformation, the world missions movement, the famous ministries of preachers like Wesley, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Billy Graham, and John MacArthur—and thousands of preachers on the Internet—never before has the world been covered with so much preaching of the Gospel, so much opportunity to hear the Word of God, and never before have so many people refused to listen. That’s why the seven angels with seven last plagues is so fitting in the way it alludes to Leviticus 26: "But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins."  (Lev 26:27-28 ESV)

In John’s vision, the seven seals are a life and death warning, then the seven trumpets add intense urgency to that warning, then the seven bowls of wrath are announced here with a tone of finality—because even more certain than death is that the Kingdom of Christ is coming. Look again at the song in the verses just before this.

"Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!  4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed." (Rev. 15:3-4 ESV)

Everyone who hears the Gospel is given a chance to respond. But when Christ returns there will be no more choice—all nations will bow to Christ. The Day of the Lord was prophesied by the prophets. For example, Daniel foresaw the coming of the Kingdom of Christ when he wrote, “And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed,” (Dan. 7:14 ESV). And listen to how that Kingdom is explained as that prophecy goes on:

The place God is preparing is every place—it will be universal, global, and forever. Today is the day to listen.

God is preparing a people

This is what we learn when the Tent of Witness is opened. Let’s take a quick look at the whole scene here and then we’ll try and fill in the details.

After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened,  6 and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests.  7 And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever,  8 and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.  (Rev. 15:5-8 ESV)

That last part, when God’s glory fills the Tent, that only happened once in the Old Testament. In Revelation 15, this is a symbolic scene, a “sign” (John even calls it that in verse 1). This symbolic scene points to that long-ago day in Israelite history when God’s glory filled the Tent with the same result. It was the day when Moses set up and dedicated the Tent of Witness, the Tabernacle. The connection between this symbolic scene and that actual event means that something about that event is important for John’s readers to understand what God is doing in the era of the seven angels with seven bowls. Because that event was when the Tent of Witness was set up and dedicated, it means that during these last seven plagues, God is not just judging the nations, He is also setting up and dedicating something new and wonderful. Turn with me to Exodus 40. This is the passage where God told Moses exactly how to set up the original Tent of Witness—

Think about all those things: the ark of the covenant, the lampstand, the golden altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering, the basin of water. We have already seen all of these displayed as prominent symbols throughout Revelation.

In Revelation 1, we saw the lampstands; in Revelation 5, John sees the Lamb who had been slain, but the offering had already happened; in Revelation 8, we see the incense offered along with the coals that are still hot from the burnt offering. That scene introduced the previous seven judgements, the seven trumpets. In Revelation 11:19a, John saw the Ark of the Testimony inside the Tent. “Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple,” (Rev. 11:19 ESV).

The Tent is called “the Tent of Witness” because the Ark of the Testimony is inside it. The Ark had the tablets of God’s Testimony inside it. John saw the Tent open and the Ark inside to show that the seventh trumpet happened because people refused to listen to God’s Testimony; they refused to receive the offer of a covenant with God in the blood of the Lamb; they rejected the mercy God extended to them through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But while most rejected God’s Testimony, many listened and were saved. That’s how God is preparing a people. That’s why there is a crowd of people praising God in Revelation 7; that’s why there is a choir of people singing to the Lamb in Revelation 15:2-4.

Again, John saw the tent opened and the Ark inside it at the seventh trumpet; now John sees the Tent opened and seven last judgements coming out of it in chapter 15:5 and 6. But at the end of this scene, it’s like God comes Home—He fills up His sanctuary with the majesty of His glorious presence. It happened when Moses finished setting up the Tent; it happens again, symbolically, when the angels receive their final mission. What seems to us to be the end of a story, for Moses was a new beginning.

Has it ever occurred to you that the end of the world might be just the beginning? After Jesus rose from the dead, didn’t He say to Mary, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father…” (Jo 20:17); didn’t Paul say, " So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable." (1Co 15:42) Didn’t the Lord comfort His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you?” (Joh 14:2) I wonder how many of the disappointments we experience come from clinging to this place, counting on what is perishable, and failing to wait for what Jesus is preparing? Could we be more patient, could we persevere more, could we even enjoy God more now, if we learned to relax our grip on the here and now?

As verse 1 said, John saw “another sign in heaven, great and amazing…” This “sanctuary of the tent of witness” is a sign of a miracle, the mystery of the ages coming to fulfillment, that as God’s final justice is poured out on a rebellious world, at the same time, He is preparing something new, something good, not only a place, but a people to enjoy Him forever. The tent is much more than a tent. “After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened,” (Rev. 15:5 ESV). Verse 5 calls it, “the sanctuary of the Tent of Witness”—referring to the part inside the Tent where God’s Holy Presence rested above the Ark.

In Revelation, any time the “Temple” is mentioned, it’s really this word, “sanctuary” in Greek. It’s not the word John used in his Gospel for the Temple in Jerusalem—that’s the word hieron. But this word, naos, in John’s Gospel is the word Jesus uses for His own Body. It means “God’s house” or “dwelling place.”[i] The wonderful and tantalizing fact about this word “sanctuary” in Revelation is who we find with God inside His dwelling place.

“Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, "Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,  2 but do not measure the court outside the temple,” (Rev. 11:1-2 ESV). Those who worship inside the sanctuary are the people Jesus saves—they are the Church—we see this in two places: First, in Rev 11:4, these worshippers are “two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.” In Rev 1, there are seven lampstands, which Jesus interpreted saying, “the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” The lampstands were inside the Sanctuary, in God’s presence, in His dwelling place. This is how the New Testament speaks about the Church of Jesus Christ: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” That’s the same Greek word here for “sanctuary”—the dwelling place of God. 2 Cor 6 quotes, "as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (2Co 6:16 ESV) Ephesians 2 says all believers in Jesus, “[grow] into a holy temple in the Lord." (Eph 2:21 ESV)

Before Christ came, God dwelled in the Tabernacle and then the Temple in Jerusalem; after Christ came that changed. In Christ, the fulness of God was pleased to dwell. And from the day He sent His Holy Spirit, God dwells in the Church of Jesus Christ, in every believer and every congregation where Jesus is Lord. Jesus is judging the nations to prepare a Home where He will live with the people He has saved. But what we discover next is that God is not just preparing a people to live with Him, He is preparing a priesthood.

God is preparing a priesthood

We should already expect that those worshiping inside this symbolic sanctuary (as Revelation 11:1 describes us) are priests, since in the Old Testament, nobody but the priests entered the sanctuary. We should also expect this because Peter told his readers, "[you] are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1Pe 2:5 ESV) And John praised Jesus in Revelation 1 saying, "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."  (Rev 1:5-6 ESV)

When we compared the Tent of Witness Moses set up to the symbolic Tent in Revelation 15, I sort of skipped over one tiny part. The last thing part of the ritual that Moses set up is the first thing John saw in Revelation 15:2.

30 He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing,  31 with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet.  32 When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the LORD commanded Moses. (Exod. 40:30-32 ESV)

When John saw the scene with the Tent of Witness, filled with the glory of God like on the day Moses dedicated the Tabernacle, John did not just see a basin of water—he saw “what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire…” (Rev 15:2). Earlier in chapter 4, there too, instead of a basin of water, John saw “and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass like crystal” (Rev 4:6). Moses explained, in Ex 40:31-32 that the basin of water was where every priest had to wash before entering into God’s dwelling place. I’m not exactly sure what to make of the difference between the basin of water/sea of glass in chapter 6 and the basin of water/sea of glass mixed with fire in chapter 15. But we do know that no priest was allowed to enter into God’s presence, to serve Him in the sanctuary, unless he washed as God commanded.

Just because someone was a priest did not make him ready to enter God’s presence. God is holy. But our hands are not clean; our thoughts are not righteous; our hearts are not pure. In Zech 3, Joshua the High Priest had the same problem. " Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.  4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.""  (Zec 3:3-4) God calls you and me to be holy, to remember and confess our iniquity and receive His forgiveness. Isa 1:18 resounds with that invitation--"18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." (Isa 1:18) This book of Revelation ends with an invitation: " Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates." (Rev 22:14) God told Moses to set up that basin of water so that every priest entering God’s presence would be reminded to confess his sin, trust in God’s promise to remove his iniquity, and commit himself to serve the Lord in holiness.

When Moses had finished preparing the Tent of Witness, Ex 40:34 says, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud  settled on it, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle.” Look one more time at Revelation 15:6. “…And out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests,” (Rev. 15:6 ESV). The seven angels with the seven last plagues came out of the sanctuary; then the glory of God went in and filled it up! “…And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished,” (Rev. 15:8 ESV). From that day on, no priest, and not even Moses, could enter the sanctuary or else they would die. [ii] They had to wait for God’s invitation.[iii] Jesus is judging the nations to prepare a Home where He will live with the people He has saved.

The seven last plagues that we will read about in the next chapter, bring all of the Lord’s preparations to an end—the place He is preparing and the people He is preparing to be a Kingdom of priests. There is a finality to these last seven judgements. But while we live in this last era, verse 8 is not saying no one can come to God. It is saying, as the glory of God made clear to Moses in that awesome display of holy power, that no sinner can serve the Lord in His Kingdom. It is saying that nobody is able to come unless God invites you. The very next verse Moses wrote, Lev 1:1, said, “the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting…” After what he just saw, you can be sure he obeyed God’s call.

When you read the conclusion to this great and amazing sign in Revelation 15, when you read verse 8, does God’s holy glory fill you with a realization of your own sinfulness, of your need for mercy? “…And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished,” (Rev. 15:8 ESV). Then listen to the Lord. Heed His call. Come, relying on Jesus alone to save you and make you clean. Be washed in the blood of the Lamb, so that He will remove your iniquity. Do not resist Him. Do not harden your heart to this invitation—none of us know whether this might be the last chance we get.

[i] Louw-Nida Lexicon, 7.15.[ii] See Albert Barnes, John Gill, and Durham, who all point out the invitation that follows either immediately in Lev 1:1, or later in Lev 16.[iii] John I Durham, Exodus (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2018), 500, accessed November 9, 2019, http://rbdigital.rbdigital.com.