The Sixth Seal

I. Introduction
A. In Rev.4-5 we read of John’s vision of God’s heavenly throne room, where the One on the throne held a scroll with seven seals on it. And only the Lamb was able to open the seals.
1. As the Lamb opened the first four seals, He unleashed destructive forces onto the earth, forces of conflict and famine and disease and death.
2. When He opened the fifth seal, we saw the souls of believers who had died crying out to God, “How long before you avenge our blood?” And they were told to wait a little longer.
B. Revelation 6:12–17 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
II. Two parts of Revelation 6:12-17, both relating to the great day of judgment coming at the end of time
A. The deconstruction of creation
1. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. (Rev.6:12-14)
2. This language is designed to be alarming to us, but it is commonly used in the Bible. E.g. Is.13:10-13; 24:1-6, 19-23; 34:4; Ezek.32:6-8; Joel 2:10, 30-31; 3:15-16; Hab.3:6-11, and also in the NT: in Jesus’ eschatological discourse (Matt.24:29; Mark 13:24-25), and even in Peter’s sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:19-20).
a. All these passages mention the same or similar phenomenon as found here in the Rev.6:12-14.
(1) the shaking of the earth or mountains;
(2) the darkening or shaking of the moon, stars, sun, and/or heaven;
(3) the pouring out of blood
3. BUT, often, though it may have the sound of finality to it, this destruction-of-the-cosmos language is not always used to refer to the final judgment on the last day but to smaller preliminary judgments which point forward to the final judgment.
a. There are, of course, many judgment days in Bible: Noah’s ark, Sodom & Gomorrah, the Exodus, the turning away of Sennacherib, the cleansing of the temple. But these are only small glimpses of the final Judgment Day which will come at the end of history. God rearranged the cosmos to some degree in sending water in Noah’s flood, in sending fire and brimstone upon Sodom & Gomorrah, in sending the wind and parting the sea in the Exodus story.
b. Just as Jesus deconstructed some furniture in the temple through His righteous rampage when He cleansed the temple, one day His wrath will not be confined to one small part of one building. One day it will be displayed fully & finally, with no restraint. He will take His whip & dismantle the entire cosmos.
4. Here in the sixth seal, it seems, it’s speaking of this ultimate, final day of God’s judgment.
5. Let me explain why this seems to be the case.
a. Rev.6:12-14 seems to be a direct answer to prayer in Rev.6:10, the fifth seal, where the saints asked, “How long before you will avenge our blood?” The answer is, “a little longer” and then the very next seal depicts the vengeance of God coming upon the opponents of his people. If this IS God’s answer to the prayer in 6:10, then it must be talking about the final judgment, since 6:11 implies that the suffering of all God’s people must be completed before the final judgment.
b. — In Rev.8:12 there is a description of a preliminary judgment of God which involved a third of the sun, moon and stars. But here, the entire sun, moon and stars are destroyed, signifying that this is referring not to a partial judgment but to a complete and final judgment.
c. — Various phrases from 6:12-17 appear later in contexts in Revelation where it’s obvious it’s talking about the final Judgment Day. For example, a great earthquake in 16:18, the moving of mountains and islands in 16:20, creation fleeing from the One sitting on the throne in 20:11.
B. The deconstruction of human confidence:
1. Rev.6:15-17 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
2. — The symbolic number here, it seems, is the number six, the number of man, made on the sixth day.
a. This is the sixth seal.
b. Six parts of creation are destroyed: (1) earth, (2) sun, (3) moon, (4) stars, (5) heaven, (6) “every mountain and island”
c. Six types of people are judged: (1) kings, (2) great ones, (3) generals, (4) the rich, (5) the powerful, (6) “everyone, slave and free.”
d. Later, of course, we have the number 666.
3. This list of various classes of people being judged is very intriguing: “the kings of the earth, the great ones, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave and free.” These are not just a random assortment of professions, like ‘butcher, baker, and candlestick-maker.’ The first five are positions of power and prestige: kings of the earth, great ones, generals, the rich, the powerful.
a. But just as the oppressed are ready to rise up and cheer on this judgment of their oppressors, one more grouping is listed: every slave and free person. Wait, if slaves are included then the notion is dispelled that the high and mighty are the bad guys and the weak and lowly are the good guys. In fact, this last category (slave and free) includes everyone! It’s like saying Jews and Gentiles or male and female. It encompasses all humanity.
b. So, what are we to make of this? If the list is designed to connote all humanity, why are the first five categories referring to prominent people?
c. Well, you remember that this judgment comes as a result of the prayer of Rev.6:10, “How long, O Lord, before you avenge our blood?” Well, who are the ones by-and-large who shed the blood of God’s people? It was the kings, the generals, the powerful. As it says in James 2:6–7 “Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?”
d. So, that’s how the list starts. But so that He doesn’t give the impression that ONLY powerful people are in danger of judgment, he adds at the end, “every slave and free person.”
e. You see, there are poor and lowly people who do not come to Christ, though through history most of the Christian community have come from the humbler strata of society.
f. And generally, the rich and powerful are enemies of Christ. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24).
(1) But it isn’t absolutely true that the rich & powerful are Christ’s enemies. Paul tells us that “not many were wise in a worldly sense, not many were powerful, or of noble birth” 1Cor.1:26-31. But not MANY doesn’t mean not ANY.
III. Scary stuff
A. As a pastor and preacher of God’s word, it is my job to comfort the disturbed with the precious promises of Scriptures – but also to disturb the comfortable with its solemn warnings.
B. A few months ago I was telling a liberal non-believer that the Bible says that in the end, the earth as we know it will be destroyed and God will create a new heavens and a new earth. The person’s reaction surprised me, “Isn’t that a little drastic?” That response really made me think.
1. First of all, it made me realize that to this person the earth is the ultimate reality, even above God, if they believe in one. This planet is our only home, our only life, our only hope.
2. Secondly, it made me realize that this person’s view of human sin is very shallow. They assume that human sin is minor and think God’s anger ought to correspond. And it’s true that God has restrained His anger and shown much patience. But human sin is not minor. It may APPEAR to be minor because our view of it is skewed by our own sin, and we are so surrounded with this and so permeated with sin that it has become normalized to us.
a. But Rev.6:12-17 does not describe a divine temper tantrum; it is not an exaggerated reaction to the sinfulness of mankind. This is the reasonable reaction to sin by a holy and just God.
3. There are scenes given in Scripture to help us grasp the weightiness of sin:
a. The cross: If sin was trivial, how come it took the death of the very Son of God to cover it? “If you think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here you see its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate: mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load; 'tis the Word, the Lord's anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.” (Stricken, Smitten & Afflicted by Thomas Kelly)
b. This picture of Christ’s furious return here in Rev.6:12-17.
4. The problem is, people are afraid of all the wrong things.
a. Liberals say: Oh no! We are exploiting and destroying the planet, the only place we have to live!
b. Conservatives: Oh no! Our freedoms are being shrewdly seized by a control-hungry government!
c. God: I am the One you should fear! One day I’ll unleash My anger & dismantle this whole place, and those who have resisted Me I will put into a prison worse than any on earth!
5. Whether we like it or not, this is the way history is going to end.
a. Jesus is going to return, He’s going to dismantle the present cosmos, and He’s going to bring justice down upon those who refused Him. And there’s going to be nowhere for them to go. As the old spiritual says, “O sinner man, where you gonna run to, oh! on that day?”
6. On that day of terror, all the things people clung to for security, all idols will be exposed as useless and empty. As it says in Is.2:19-21, “People shall enter the caves of the rocks & the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver & gold to the moles and the bats, idols which they made for themselves to worship, as they enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.”
7. If this gives us nightmares, then so be it. This is the stuff which OUGHT to give us nightmares! This is the stuff which really poses a grave danger to our lives, not just now but eternally!
8. It’s an amazing passage. It’s amazing in its severity. It’s amazing in it finality. It’s amazing in its frightfulness.
IV. But there are two more ways in which the scene painted here in this sixth seal is amazing.
A. First of all, these people who are fleeing in a panic, desperate to escape from the wrath of God and the Lamb, these aren’t timid people. Most of these are tough guys: kings, rulers, military leaders, people of power. These are the hardest people to spook. These are people who intimidate others. These are the people who make other people shake in their boots.
1. These are the people who have been bullying the believers, threatening them, pushing them around, falsely accusing them, treating them like trash.
2. And now they are getting their comeuppance. Now THEY’RE the scared ones, running to hide.
3. “He has scattered the proud and brought down the mighty from their thrones.” Luke 2:51-52
B. The second one is even more startling. It’s not that easy to get the Lamb to show wrath.
1. It’s very rare in the Bible that we see this. A couple of times during His ministry Jesus is said to be angry: at the cleansing of the temple, and when the synagogue leaders didn’t want Him to heal the man with the withered hand on the sabbath day.
2. By and large, He is so kind, so gentle, so compassionate, so full of grace. He said He did not come to judge, but to save (John 3:17).
3. And yet here in Rev.6:12-17 He is terrifying in His wrath.
4. Since Jesus is so meek and mild, so slow to anger and so quick to forgive, many people are complacent about the idea of facing Him on Judgment Day.
5. But those who in the end refuse His grace and salvation, wow! He has people in full panic, as scared as its possible to be.
6. When He appears on Judgment Day, they will quickly realize how wrong they have been. They will quickly realize that though Jesus makes a wonderful friend, He makes an awful enemy.
7. The friends of Jesus can face the wrath of anyone, because they can call on the Lamb.
a. He is their mighty fortress! In Him they can hide from the wrath of bullies, they can hide from wrath of their enemies, the wrath of their boss, the wrath of their parents.
b. But where can any man hide from the wrath of the Lamb?
8. There are times in the Bible when God says to someone, “I am against you!” E.g. Jer.21:13; 50:31; 51:25; Ezek.5:8; 29:3, 9, 10; 38:3; 39:1; Nahum 2:13; 3:5. Is there any more haunting thing God could say?
9. Rom.8:31 “If God is for us, who can be against us?” What a verse of comfort – for God’s friends.
a. But what if God is not ‘for’ someone? What if God is ‘against’ someone?
b. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” But if God is against you, who can be for you? Who can protect you? Who can shield you? No one!
10. Another comforting verse is Rom.8:38-39, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
a. But what if Jesus is against you – as He is against these people in Rev.6:7-12?
b. What do you do when Jesus is against you? There’s nowhere to run.
c. It’s like desperately running away from a lion, and meeting a bear, and even if you finally escape and make it into your house and lean your hand against the wall to catch your breath, and your hand is bitten by a viper. (Amos 5:19)
d. "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me." The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson
e. In that case neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from the wrath of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!
11. The nations rage. The peoples plot in vain. The king of the earth set themselves against the LORD and against his Anointed. But He who sits in the heavens laughs. Then He speaks to them in his wrath, and terrifies them in his fury. And the Anointed One breaks them with a rod of iron and dashes them in pieces like a clay pot. Psalm 2
12. All we get of this now is warnings and little glimpses. Some of you have experienced intensely frightening things.
a. We live in the woods on the side of a big hill. And sometimes the wind comes across our little valley and slams into our hill with such force that these giant trees shake like a hyper-active toddler on a sugar high. You just can’t believe they stay standing. I’ve seen trees straight as an arrow which are noticeably crooked after a storm.
b. There’s a verse about this in the OT – in Isaiah 7:2. King Ahaz found out that his enemies, Syria & Ephraim, had joined together to oppose him, and he and his people were scared to death!
c. “When the house of David was told, ‘Syria is in league with Ephraim,’ the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” Full-scale panic!
d. But this terror of God’s enemies in Rev.6:14-17 is even greater than that, so I’ll share an even greater analogy.
e. Hurricane Mitch (1998) was the deadliest hurricane in Central American history. The most disastrous impacts were in Honduras. Off the northern coast of Honduras are three bay islands: Utila, Roatan and Guanaja. It reached maximum intensity of 185 mph and then hovered for a couple of days over these islands before moving onto the mainland. The next year our congregation sent a team down to Guanaja to help rebuild. I went down, and my son & daughter.
f. Every leaf on every tree was blown off; not one leaf was left on a tree on the whole island.
g. Only one house remained intact, the only concrete house on the island, and virtually everyone who survived had crowded into that house. Think about the people inside shaking in fear.
h. What makes this an inadequate analogy is two things:
i. They didn’t know if they would survive, they didn’t know when it would stop. But those in Rev.6 know that the storm was sent for them. They are the target. And the archer has perfect aim.
j. They feared death. In Rev.6 they fear something worse than death. They fear His wrath (hell).
V. Conclusion
A. If the purpose of the Bible is to cheer us up, why in the world are there passages like this in it?
B. The purpose of the Bible is to tell us the truth about God and about ourselves.
C. And to some extent that cheers us up, and to some extent it terrifies us.
D. This passage might seem terrifying. But there’s something wonderful here as well.
E. Here’s the good news: this scene is not happening right now. It is still future. It’s not too late!
F. It’s not too late to avoid the wrath of the One on the throne and of the Lamb!
G. It is not too late to run to the Rock that CAN hide you!
H. The Lamb is still in His extending-grace-to-His-enemies mode. He has not yet shifted over to His pour-out-wrath-on-His-enemies mode. The fuse is lit, and we don’t know how much of the fuse of His patience is left. But for now it’s still burning.
I. Maybe you know down deep in your heart that though you’ve played along with Christianity, you’ve never truly welcomed Christ into your life.
J. Or maybe you’re just hearing this online and have never put your faith in Christ.
K. Or perhaps you’re reading the text of this sermon & are unacquainted with Jesus the Son of God.
L. It is not too late! The fuse has been lit but the bomb has not yet gone off.
M. Before it’s too late, come to Jesus. Stop thinking that you are enough. Accept that you need the Lord just like I do! Acknowledge that! Give yourself up. Surrender to Him. Open your eyes to His great love shown on the cross. Do it right now. And if you need help, get help. Talk to me or someone else. Don’t wait.