Revelation 6:1A
Something to Panic About
Rev 6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of
the seals….
That is far enough for the time being.
I’m sure it never happened in your childhood home, but it did in
mine. There would be times when I would be pouting or crying over not
getting my way about something, and one of my parents would say, "You
keep that up, and I’ll give you something to cry about." It must have
been effective as I seem to recall using that phrase a time or two
with my children.
Presently, our nation and our world are experiencing the worse case
of panic I have ever seen and, and maybe the worst case of panic in
the history of the world. I do not mean to make light of a virus that
has and will kill again; however, at this point in time the panic
seems to have far exceeded the reaction of the people.
In my mind, I can hear God saying, "If you want to panic, I’ll give
you something to panic about." Indeed, God has recorded in this book
and even in this chapter, something are worthy of a panic.
Let’s see what future—and maybe even the immediate future—holds.
I. The Event
A. All we read were a few words that spoke of the Lamb opening one
of the seven seals on the scroll.
1. If you have not been here, all I can say in review is that
John was translated into heaven two chapters ago, and I
believe that transfer was a picture of the rapture of the
church.
2. John then spent chapters 4-5 describing the things he
saw in heaven.
a. The last thing John described was seeing the Lamb
take a scroll with seven seals from the hand of the
One who sat upon the throne.
b. In \\#Rev 6:1\\, the Lamb opens the first seal.
3. Soon after the rapture of the church, an event called the
Tribulation will begin.
4. Unless you have lived a religiously secluded life, you
should know something about the Tribulation.
5. However, we need to make sure you know some things about
the tribulation.
a. There is a problem.
b. The New Testament does not teach the Tribulation.
c. The New Testament assumes the Tribulation.
d. For you to know the basics of the Tribulation, you
will have to study the Old Testament.
B. I believe the basics of the Tribulation are taught in very
well in just two Bible verses.
1. The nature of the Tribulation is described in:
Is 13:11 And I will punish the world for their
\evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I
will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease,
and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
a. Throughout the Old Testament, the Tribulation is
referred to as "the day of the Lord."
b. It is a day of judgment upon the world and the people
that live upon the world.
(1) God has not poured out the wrath that the world
deserves for its sin, except maybe at the
flood.
(2) Instead, like a boiling, bubbling cauldron, God
has stored it for the day of the Lord.
(3) During the Tribulation, God will pour that brew
upon the world and the unfortunate generation
of people living on the planet at that time.
2. A Bible verse that gives a lot of information about the
Tribulation is:
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week: and in the midst of the week
he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease, and for the overspreading of abominations
he shall make it desolate, even until the
consummation, and that determined shall be poured
upon the desolate.
3. I cannot prove or even explain everything I say, but I
believe I could if we had time.
a. Notice the duration of the Tribulation:
"for one week"
(1) I know it is confusing but the word translated
week does not mean seven days.
(2) It just means a set of seven.
(3) It is like the word dozen which means a set of
12.
(4) We might assume a dozen is 12 eggs but it could
be a dozen eggs, a dozen doughnuts, or a dozen
dozen (gross).
(5) The only way to know what the dozen is of is to
look at the context; and the only way to know
what the week is of is to look at the context.
(6) If we had a lot of time, I believe I could show
you that it is a set of seven years.
(7) It is from this Bible passage and this word that
we know the tribulation will last seven years.
b. Notice, from the earth’s prospective, what starts the
Tribulation.
"And he shall confirm the covenant with many"
(1) A covenant is a treat. The Tribulation, at least
from earth’s side, will begin when a treaty is
signed.
(2) From our text, it appears that in heaven what
starts the Tribulation is the opening of one
seal.
(3) As you go through the Book of Revelation, you are
going to have to decide whether the events on
earth cause God to react or whether the events
in heaven cause the earth to react.
(4) Personally, I am firmly convinced earth reacts to
heaven and that it is not the other way around.
(5) On earth some people are going to be strutting
around one day thinking they have gotten a big
treaty signed, but those of us in heaven will
know that the treaty was signed as a result of
the Lamb opening that seal.
c. Notice who is signing the treaty.
(1) Israel is one of the signees on the treaty.
(a) We know that because of the context.
(b) Daniel was seeing a vision in which God was
revealing Israel’s future.
(c) Even though this vision was given by Daniel
over 2500 years ago, it has not been
fulfilled yet, but will be.
(2) The other party that signs the treaty is
mentioned in Daniel 9:26.
(a) He is called the prince and he has a people.
(b) It was his people the verse says that burnt
the Jewish city and sanctuary when they
killed the Messiah.
(c) How can that be? No prince from the days
of Jesus would still be alive today, let
along in the future.
(d) Don’t think of the earthly prince but the
spiritual prince behind the people.
i. Who was it that put betrayal into the
mind of Judas?
ii. Who was it that put rejection in the
mind of the Jews.
iii. Who was it that stole mercy and
compassion from the Romans, allowing
them to ever even conceive the
crucifixion?
iv. Who was it that thought he had won the
victory until on Resurrection Morning
Jesus blew the bars of death away?
v. The prince referred to here is not a
man but the devil.
(e) Hold on. It is brain blowing time.
i. I have repeatedly mentioned the Holy
Trinity. We do not worship three
gods but one God manifest in three
Persons.
ii. The devil, who likes to pretend he is
god, is going to create his own
unholy trinity during the
Tribulation.
iii. Let me introduce them to you.
(aa) Playing the part of God the
Father will be the devil.
(bb) Playing the part of God the Son
will be the devil’s offspring,
the anti-Christ.
(cc) Playing the part of God the Holy
Spirit will be a being that
this book will introduce as the
False Prophet.
(f) The one who will actually sign the treaty
with Israel will be anti-Christ, that is
the devil in flesh.
d. Notice Israel is hesitant to sign the treaty.
"And he shall confirm the covenant"
(1) The "he" is the anti-Christ.
(2) The word "confirm" means with strength, with
might, to be stronger.
(3) The word does not tell us why Israel will be
hesitant, and it does tell us how hesitant
Israel will be, but it does suggest Israel will
have some reservations about the treaty.
e. Notice what happens to the treaty.
"in the midst (middle) of the week (seven) he
(anti-Christ) shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease…."
(1) Apparently, Israel’s reward for signing the
treaty will be to sacrifice in their temple.
(2) Half way through the seven, the anti-Christ will
renege on his deal.
(3) Small wonder - He is the devil, the "father of
lies."
(4) The middle of seven is 3 1/2.
(5) It is this verse that causes us to divide the
Tribulation into two halves.
(a) The first half is bad.
(b) The second half is even worse.
(6) The last half is called "the great tribulation"
or "the time of Jacob’s trouble" because the
anti-Christ will persecute the Jews with no
mercy during the last half of the tribulation.
f. Notice how bad the last half will be.
"and for the overspreading of abominations he
shall make it desolate, even until the
consummation, and that determined shall be poured
upon the desolate."
(1) The anti-Christ will commit so many abominations
in the Jewish temple that it is just described
as being overspread, things laid on top of one
another.
(2) Twice the word "desolate" is used.
(3) It is going to be bad.
C. That in one verse is the Tribulation. It is bad. From earth
it starts with the signing of a treaty, but from haven, it
starts when the Lamb opens one of the seals.
II. \\#Rev 1-8\\ The Horsemen
A. Again, if you know anything about the Tribulation, whether
fact or fiction, you have probably heard of the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
1. This is the them.
2. They ride four different colored horses: white, red,
black, and a ghostly gray.
3. Whenever an artist draws the riders, they usually draw
them as Grim Reapers, skeletons dressed in black robes,
either carrying the sickle of death or some ancient
weapon of war.
4. Either that or some monstrous, nightmarish figure of
the artist’s imagination.
5. The horses are usually clothed in the battle armaments of
the King Author’s day.
6. All with the obvious intent of producing fear, panic in
those who see them.
B. All four of the horsemen are released in the first 8 verses
of chapter 6.
1. They do not ride together as a herd, but are released one
at time, each with a seal being broken.
2. Perhaps you think, "Well, there are just seven seals. At
this rate, they will all be opened in chapter 6. That
won’t be too bad."
a. Not so.
b. In addition to the seven seals, there are also seven
trumpets and seven bowls of God’s wrath to be poured
out.
c. In the midst of that there are seven thunders which
we must also assume are judgments.
d. In addition, some of these judgments are not single
blows but combination punches.
e. But even if they were all single blows, that would be
28 judgments in just seven years so they would be
occurring at the average rate of one every six to
seven WEEKS.
f. I promise you no one will go through the Tribulation
and come out on the other side saying, "That wasn’t
too bad."
C. To most of us, the horse may not be considered a frightening
figure.
1. The westerns changed our cultures view of the horse.
a. To us the horse is a majestic and beautiful creature.
b. Our children grew up with playmates such as "My
Little Pony" and reading books with unicorns.
2. That is not the way horses were viewed in Biblical days.
a. Horses in Biblical days were viewed as powerful but
fearsome weapons of war.
b. Few people would have owned a horse in Jesus’ day.
c. Perhaps they would have had an ox, or a donkey, or
even a camel, but not a horse.
d. Horses were mostly reserved for armies of the great
kings and were used either in a cavalry or with
their chariots.
e. So to them, the horse was a picture of power, of war,
of fear, and of death.
3. The Bible gives us a brief picture of how people viewed
the horse. \\#Job 39:19-25\\
4. So the very presence of the horse was one of fear and
death.
5. It is God’s way of saying, "This is what you should be
afraid of. Not viruses. Not stock market failures.
This… the time of my judgment!"
D. Here is a thought: The best I can tell, these horses are not
literal.
1. They are a picture or a symbol.
2. I do not think you will be able to look up into the sky
and see these horses and their riders running across it.
3. Why give us this image then?
a. One reason is to inform us of what is going to happen
and we will continue looking at it.
b. But another is that God wanted to frighten you.
(1) Fear may not the best reason to turn to God, but
it is a good reason.
(2) If you are not afraid of the Tribulation you
either do not understand it, do not believe it,
or are not playing with a full deck.
We will do what we can to stay safe in the face of a virus. Most of
always have, but if you want a reason to panic, the Coronavirus is
not it. God has given us something to panic about.
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