Revelation chapter 14, verses 14 through 20.

Revelation 14, verses 14 through 20.

John writes, Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud, one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he too had a sharp sickle. And he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle across the earth, and gathered the grape harvest of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle for sixteen hundred states.

I know when it gets cold in these winter months, and it’s dark outside, and your alarm clock goes off at six or seven, maybe you’re better at being a morning person than me, but if you’re like me when you hear the alarm clock go off, you don’t get up, what do you do? You hit the snooze button, and you think, oh, I’ll get up in a few minutes, and about five minutes later, you’re up. three four minutes pass and there is again you hit it and maybe you go back to sleep again and then a three four minutes later it goes off again and you hit it and then you drag yourself out of bed and you have the snooze feature because few of us I guess get up right away ready to hit the day running I envy those kinds of people but if you’re like me you just turn it off and think I’ll get up in a little bit I don’t need to keep hearing this and you wake up way past when you’re supposed to get up so you need a reminder the same reminder over and over again we need that whether it’s getting up in life or doing the right things or instructions at work sometimes we just need to be reminded over and over again and this section in chapter 14 it’s really just part two to what we looked at two weeks ago we call that sermon the divine part one and this is just part two

part one made quite clear all the things that we need to know about the coming judgment we talked about the fear of God that if we don’t walk in the fear of the Lord we will surely be judged and we were told for sure that Babylon would fall and we were told for sure that there is this dark night and we were told for sure that there is this dark night and we were told for sure that there is this dark night and we were told for sure that there is this dark night and we were told there is this place where those who don’t surrender to the king and those who take the mark of the beast they go forever so it’s not necessarily new but it’s something that I think John says to us again obviously because the spirit communicates it and it’s another divine warning that we need to hear in verse 14 we get this description And it’s a description of someone on a white cloud. And white clouds are always a reference to what’s heavenly, a reference to what’s above. In the beginning of Acts, when Jesus is getting ready to ascend, it says he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. In Luke 21, it says, Jesus says they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now, ultimately, this passage here comes from Daniel chapter 7, verse 13.

Daniel writes, I saw in the night visions and behold, the clouds of heaven became one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. 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. So this person seated on this cloud is not just another angelic messenger. And we’ve seen a lot of just angelic messengers throughout Revelation. This is none other than the Lord Jesus. Because we’re also told that this is the Son of Man. And as you probably know, the Son of Man was a messianic title. A title that Jesus used for himself more than any other title. And it could only be Jesus who was the Son of Man. Because Jesus was God in the flesh. And as God in the flesh, Jesus, and Jesus alone was crucified, risen and ascended to the right hand of God. So Jesus is the Son of God, Son of Man. Same thing fits his description next. Jesus wears a golden crown. Because he is. He is, as chapter 17 will show us when we get to chapter 17. Jesus is King of Kings. Jesus is Lord of Lords. And there’s no one like him.

So this is Jesus.

Jesus on a cloud coming is also judge. Jesus is King. Jesus is judge. Jesus is jury. And we’re told that Jesus has… He has a sharp sickle in his hand. A sharp sickle. It’s an agrarian reference. Everyone at the time would have understood. It’s a curved blade with a handle. And you use it to cut down wheat and bundle the wheat up at harvest time. There’s an angel from the temple. So this angel is coming from the presence of God. And he tells the Lord Jesus on this cloud. On this cloud, now is the time to reap the harvest of the earth. It’s fully… Ripe. So it’s a future event to occur when all is said and done. Jesus on a cloud. And he comes to reap the harvest of the earth.

The passage is pretty plain. I think you and I have looked at a lot of strange imagery in Revelation. And all kinds of creatures and all sorts of happenings. And we scratch our heads sometimes and go, That’s pretty wild. I think this one is pretty straightforward. It’s Jesus coming back in judgment. You know, commentators are a little bit divided on Is it talking about harvesting the righteous and the wicked? Or just the wicked? Or their allusions to both here? I think if context is a clue, and that’s always a clue, I think it’s more to do with judgment because the previous passages and the passages that come after this are on the judgment of the earth in times. But here’s the thing. Either way, this passage should leave us asking the same question. And here’s the most important question for you and I to ask ourselves from this passage. This is the most important question to ask from Revelation. This is just the most important question to ask yourself for all time. And it’s this. Am I ready for that day? That’s the most important question. That’s the most important question you could ask yourself. Am I ready for the day when Jesus returns on a cloud to harvest the earth?

I think the Bible sometimes, with all of its epic stories and characters, it can maybe for some people feel like a fantasy tale. A good one. But it feels like a story that’s kind of far away. Or maybe you grew up in church, and so you’ve kind of got numb ears. You’ve heard it all. But I think it’s a dangerous thing for us to hear the Bible as just another story. Hear the Bible as something to get principles from. While we’ve talked about we shouldn’t try to read ourselves into Revelation. You know, like, oh, this is talking about America right here. Oh, here’s the year 2023 right here. I don’t think that’s wise. You and I have to, have to see the Bible as our story. Simply because God, by His grace and grace alone, has brought us into it. You were on the outside, right? And Jesus brought you in. We were all orphans. Christ made us children. We were all rebels. Christ made us friends. We were sinful in every part. Christ makes us holy in every part. We were dead. Jesus made us alive. Jesus did that. This is Jesus’ story. And by God’s grace, you and I are a part of God’s grand story of salvation and redemption.

So this is not good literature. This is not just ancient literature. This is not your favorite fantasy fiction tale, whether it be the Lord of the Rings or the Chronicles of Narnia. It’s real. It’s all real. And the worst thing that could happen to you is at some point in your life, it stops hitting you like that.

Obviously, that happens all the time. It happens with one who would claim to be an atheist, right? It’s easy to write off some book. It’s convenient for an agnostic. Well, God’s there, but He’s not interested in really telling us who He is or what we should do. It certainly happens. Those who claim to be Christians, but from their life, it doesn’t seem to be, any different from anyone else’s.

Worse, it happens for those of us who are in the church, and we can kind of wonder, can’t we, in the seasons of carelessness, and what we say we are is not how we are really living and thinking, and we can be hypocritical at times. And so I have to, in that moment, ask myself, gosh, am I a hypocrite? I have to ask myself that hard question, and the Bible would have me ask myself, that hard question, to really, really test myself. It would ask me, what’s the fruit of my life? Is my faith authentic? Because judgment day, it’s coming.

And I need to ask the hard question. I need to ask the hard question while the hard question can be asked. Think about the famous TV actor, Matthew Perry, in a very, very popular show, Friends, very, very popular show in pop culture. And, you know, he had, I guess, an up and down with drugs and alcohol throughout his life, but no one knows exactly, I don’t think, what happened, but he passed away in his hot tub in his 50s. Gone. Did he answer that question for himself? What about a surprise attack from a terrorist group? Gone. Old age. Or? The Lord Jesus returns. So the delay that you and I experience between right now and the day of Christ, that delay, it works like kind of like an anesthetic, if you will, to keep us from taking the day of judgment serious because it feels far away. It feels far away. But friends, I want you to be wise to this passage that it’s not far away. It’s not far away.

Notice that Jesus’s sickle was described as sharp. You ever tried to use a chainsaw or maybe with a knife and it’s dulled, it’s blunted? It’s really frustrating because you can’t do the job you want to do.

Now, if you’ve ever been cut by a sharp knife, and I have, I cut my hand open one time a few years ago, I had to get it all stitched up. A sharp knife is unforgiving in every way. Hallelujah. Jesus has a sharp sickle, which means when judgment day comes, he’s able to do what he says he’s going to do. Jesus will harvest. He will cut down the wicked and bundle them and throw them in the fire. He will harvest the righteous. The blade will not be blunted by your disbelief or carelessness. It will happen. And the eye of this harvester is perfectly discerning between who is righteous, and who is wicked. It’s an unforgiving blade in the hand of a perfectly discerning judge.

And Chase read the passage during our time of worship. But in Matthew 13,

Jesus gives this parable of wheat and weed growing up. And what does the farmer say? No, let the wheat and the weeds grow up. And in the end, we’ll bundle up the wheat. And in the end, we’ll bundle up the wheat. And the wheat will be brought into the barn, and the weeds will be cast out. So friends, I want to say to us this evening, each one of us, whether we have been in the church our whole life, or whatever your relationship with it is, the Bible would have you take that question so serious. At the very last, at the very last, on this day when it comes, what is the nature of your soul? What’s the nature of your works when you’re laid bare?

Because the language has, the language has a great finitude to it. Chapter 14, verse 16, it says, He who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

It doesn’t say he may swing, he might swing. It says he swung. And the earth maybe was reaped, kind of was reaped, partially was reaped. No, it says he swung the sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Are you, are you wheat? Are you a weed? Are you righteous or are you wicked?

I was having a conversation with one of my advocates at the Pregnancy Center recently, and he was very distressed because he was just kind of having this, what are we doing here? Kind of frustration with me because you meet so often people, and these are people who grow up here in the Deep South, just like you and I, and you know, sure, they’ve made a mistake, but you tell them like, hey, next best step, you’re saying you know who God is, you’re saying you know who Jesus is. You know what you should really do if you want to honor the Lord is you need to make this a family. You need to get married. Like God would have you get married. Like what’s keeping you from that? No, I’m not really into that. I’m not doing that. But you said that you believe God’s word and you said that you want to honor him with your life and you said you can actually electronically get online in the state of Alabama and sign an affidavit right now. You don’t have to go to the courthouse and you can be married.

And it’s frustrating when you talk to people and this is, I guess, is a contextual problem for you and I in the South. People who know all the right things to say, but you don’t know how to like hit them with a spiritual two by four up against the head and say, no, you don’t. You don’t.

The word of God says, choose you this day who you will serve. Choose you this day who you will serve. Choose you this day who you will serve. The word says, take up your cross.

The scriptures make so clear our problem, don’t they? Yes, but they make so much more clear graciously the solution and it’s surrendering fully to Christ. The remedies in Jesus. So I want you to see how this passage, whenever Christ returns in the future, it’s reaching back. It’s reaching back to 2023 to this moment and it’s collapsing the distance so that you and I can take judgment day serious. All of our excuses, all of our reasons, all of our carelessness can be pushed away and we can see Jesus, King and judge of the earth with a sharp sickle in his hand. Are you prepared? Are you prepared for that day? Have you believed superficially?

And you say, well, how can I know? I mean, how can I know? Well, the word tells us how we can know. If we go back to Matthew chapter three, before even Jesus began his ministry, John the Baptist tells us how we can know when he saw the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, right? What did they have? But a superficial relationship with God. He said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you? You to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So how can I know that my faith is real? It’s because I have a conviction that I need to bear fruit with my life that matches in the inward pull and the inward work of the spirit and that authenticates it. It’s not to say outward work saved me, but friends, if I have repented and I’m ready for the day of judgment, that means I’m bearing fruit. I’m bearing fruit that says so. So is your heart, is your mind, the thoughts you think, the emotions you feel, is your inward desire starting there and then going out to look like and serve Jesus?

The divine warning asks us to wonder if we’re ready. But the divine warning, also encourages us to help others get ready. Encourage others to get ready.

In verse 17, it says, then another angel came out of the temple in heaven and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire. And he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, put in your sickle and gather the clusters, from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden outside the city and the blood flowed from the wine press as high as a horse’s bridle for 1600 stadia or 184 miles. So the vision intensifies. You get an angel, again, coming from the temple, that is to say from God’s presence. So he’s bearing God’s message. And there’s a separate angel from the altar who has authority over the fire. And you say, well, what’s the significance of that angel, the altar, authority over the fire? Remember back to Revelation chapter 8. It said, and another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer and he was given much incense to offer the prayers. Of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth and the repeals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and earthquakes. So this is that same angel who’s taking the prayer of the saints and God’s answering their pleas for justice against the wicked. You see the angel who has the fire, who has the prayers of the saints executing God’s judgment finally.

And he tells the first angel to gather the harvest of grapes from the earth and throw it into the wine press of God’s wrath.

Now, we’re moderns, right? So we don’t always know how, how is that made? I don’t know. I just get it from the store. But a wine press was simply, a big trough and it had little conduits that flowed out of it. So someone or some ones would get in there and jump and jump and jump and crush those grapes and the juice would flow through the little conduits and into bottles and they would bottle it and they would ferment it. And that’s how the wine was made. But that’s used so often in the Old Testament in a negative sense. It’s used as judgment. And here, obviously it’s used that way. We’re told that these grapes are trodden or crushed. Where?

Outside the city, which is significant. So this judgment happens on people. And where are they? Away from Zion, away from Jerusalem, away from God’s safe place. And then it’s not grape juice. It’s blood. Blood. That would be four or five feet high and again, 184 miles. This is a wildly gory, this is a wildly horrific scene and I don’t think you need me to come up here and try to give you a word picture. You can do that yourself of imagining God in a wine press crushing the wicked and blood flowing. It’s pretty punchy all on its own.

It comes from Isaiah chapter 63. Who is this who comes from Edom in crimson garments from Basra? He who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength. It is I speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is your apparel red and your garments like his who treads in the wine press? I’ve trodden the wine press alone in front of you. From the peoples, no one was with me. I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood spattered on my garments and stained all my apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart and my year of redemption had come. I looked, there was no one to help. I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold. So my own arm brought me salvation and my wrath upheld me. I trampled down the peoples in my anger. I made them drunk in my wrath and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth. God’s wrath was foretold and in the end, God’s wrath will be made known against the wicked. Who can bear that? Who can bear that?

I must be driven then, again, if I take this serious, I must be driven to not only care for my own soul, to keep it from great destruction, I must be about the business of loving and helping others, warning others. And truly, the Bible, it has no category for someone who wants to keep their own soul safe for the day of judgment, but isn’t concerned about anyone else’s. That’s a non-category. From the prophets that told of God’s coming judgment to John the Baptist, to Jesus himself, to the apostles, and to the church, you and I are not just about saving ourselves, we’re about preaching the good news of Jesus that others would be spared from that day.

Romans 10, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching, and how are they to preach unless they’re sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. And that’s Paul quoting Isaiah, and in that same passage it’s told that we’re at a published peace. Published peace. Can you imagine getting on your favorite website where you read news and there’s no articles? Could you imagine reading a blank newspaper? It wouldn’t be much of a publishing site, would it? In the same way, we’re not being the heralds of the gospel we’re supposed to be. We’re not doing what? Publishing peace to the lost. The same one who will crush the wicked is sending us out to preach the gospel to the wicked that they may be spared.

Will you and I say no to he who spilled his blood for us? Will we say no to him who commands us to go and preach the good news to others? Truly, if we’re blood-bought, we should desire to obey. Even when it’s really difficult. We should desire what Christ desires. We should desire to love the wicked. We should desire to make known his salvation.

What do the scriptures call us? I think Paul says it clearest in 2 Corinthians. He says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us what? The miracle. The ministry of reconciliation. So we’re not talking about pastors. We’re not talking about people who have been to seminary. Talking about all of us. We have a ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through. Through us.

Friends, we have been saved to be sent. It’s a short, cute little moniker, but it makes the point really good. We’ve been saved to be sent. We’re to go in the power of the kingdom under the leadership of the kingdom of the spirit with the word of the king of that kingdom kingdom to tell, others to repent and join the kingdom or perish in the wine press. You know, and I do, I do think there’s a distinction between Christians generally and missionaries. I think there are some people who God gives a very special high calling to go to a particular place and people and that’s all of life. That’s vocational. That’s what they do and praise God for that. Absolutely. But I say that because that doesn’t let you and I off the hook. Well, I’m not a missionary. No, you’re not a missionary. But when Paul writes the Colossians, he says you ought to be seasoned. You ought to know how to answer each one. You ought to know how to walk in wisdom before outsiders. That’s to all of us. So your day-to-day life, you know, is significant. So if you’re not a missionary on the mission field, it doesn’t mean you’re insignificant in the kingdom. It means God wants you to be a faithful presence in your neighborhood. He wants you to be a faithful presence in your workplace. He wants you to be a faithful presence where you go as you do life to make disciples.

In living day-to-day life, the Lord gives us opportunities to share Christ if we’re seeking them. Okay? Jesus will give us daily opportunities to publish peace if we’re asking for them and looking for them.

We did Halloween around our neighborhood, you know, whenever Halloween was last week, earlier this week.

And every door we went to, I don’t know how many houses we did, a lot, but, you know, Dawson would get his candy, but he would pull out one of those evangelistic cards my dad carries, and he said, hey, let me ask you a question. Do you watch videos on YouTube? Do you watch stuff? And, yeah, well, hey, there’s some great videos on here. You know, check them out and just let us know what you think about them. And they were, you know, those evangelistic videos that share the gospel. And there’s different stuff on them. And he did it, like, multiple times, multiple times, multiple times. And I’m thinking, I should tell him to stop. Just be a kid and have fun trick-or-treating. I’m like, why would I tell him that? He’s a seven-year-old and he has no shame. He doesn’t care what people think about him. And he was wanting to share Christ over and over again.

Friends, let’s not be outdone by my seven-year-old son on Halloween. Let us publish peace everywhere we go. So here’s a real,

heart-punch question for each of us to consider. Am I continually disobedient to the call of Christ to preach Christ and make disciples? Am I living in continual disobedience to preach Christ and make disciples, to engage non-believers? And I think sometimes we think about evangelism strictly as it’s me against the world and I got to go out. And I got to like find people. And sometimes God certainly brings us to do that. Maybe it’s someone, you know, you meet in public or it’s just something where you’re alone. Absolutely. But I think evangelism, like most things in the Christian life, is a team sport. And so there’s value in talking about together. Hey, what are we doing to share the gospel? How can we reach someone? Hey, brother, what’s that look like for you in your life? What’s that look like for me in my life? So I think evangelism is a good thing. I think we collectively have to keep the conversation going and talk about what does it look like to be better trained to share Christ? So, you know, the value of Wednesday nights and discipleship group is not just so we can get together and study God’s word, which is so important, but really we need to in those times get back to saying, hey, what are we doing to publish peace together? How can we be faithful in that? Because it’s so easy, isn’t it? To let that fall off. It’s so easy to get in the rhythms of life and I’m in survival mode. Absolutely. But friends, we don’t want to fail at this great calling we’ve been given to share Christ. And when January comes, we’re going to start studying the book of Acts together on Wednesday nights. I think Acts, like nothing else, reinvigorates our hearts for the purpose and the power of faithful evangelism. I want to encourage you, as I do so often on your way out tonight, grab one, one, two, three of the tracts we have out there. Just make a point. Hey, before next Sunday, I’m going to give this little pamphlet to somebody. Just tell them that, hey, this is just a little something you can read about who God is and how much He loves you. Check it out when you have time. Make a point to just do that. Take one if you need to just take one and that’ll be maybe more faithful this coming week than you were last week and that would be a win.

Maybe you need to meet your neighbors. Maybe you have lived in the same house for a long time and you don’t know the people around you and you need to begin building relationships so you can eventually have inroads to share Christ. Certainly, we all need to be praying, Lord, give me a passion for evangelism. Give me courage for evangelism. Give me and my church passion and courage for evangelism.

So why does, why does the Lord give the divine warning? And why does He make it so explicit and draw it out for us here? Another sermon. Even a whole book. So that we would heed it. And that’s it.

God gives us multiple warnings so that you and I would heed it.

Am I ready for the day of Christ?

Am I helping others get ready for the day of Christ? Because the Lord doesn’t want us to live, you know, unsure. He doesn’t want us to live uncaring about it. He wants us to look forward with hope and joyous expectation that when Christ comes, He’s certainly going to harvest me, but I’m going in the barn. I’m not going in the fire. Not because I don’t deserve to be in the fire. Oh, I deserve to be in the fire, but by the grace of God, I’ve trusted Christ and I’m in the barn.

Look forward with joyful anticipation the day of Christ. And friends, let’s be about the business of the kingdom and share Christ. How soon that day will approach. Let’s be found ready and let’s be found faithful. Let’s be found ready and let us be found faithful. Let’s pray.

Father, your word lays out so clearly and so plain who you are and who we are to be in your son, Jesus. God, we ask that we would not hear these things with deaf ears, that our minds wouldn’t be easily distracted by other things, but Lord, we would sit under the very weight of your word or that we may in all things know you more, that we may believe and obey or that we would bear fruit in keeping with repentance. I pray that over each one of us. Jesus, give us a special, special conviction to cling to you, Lord Jesus, for salvation. Lord, a special desire to share it. Lord, how short these lives are that you’ve given us. Lord, we don’t want to waste that. We just want to make your name known. We want your noun to be great.

Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for life. And we pray that in his name. Amen. Amen.