Text: Revelation 6:1-8

My purpose for this message: To display God’s judgment and remind us of its justice.

Delivered: August 1, 2010

Seal Judgments #1-4: Riders of Doom

Revelation 6. Thursday night Pastor Charlie called and asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride. I was just about to head out on my bike which I’d just picked up from the shop. It had a new back tire, new brakes, the gears had been adjusted, and as I rode done our street, I thought, “Wow, that was almost worth the $93 it cost!” My old brakes had been so bad I didn’t even bother the squeeze the rear brake anymore.

Getting ready to turn onto Rt. 772, I grabbed for my brake. I’ve been riding bikes with handbrakes for 40 years but if you stopped in my office and asked me if the left or right handle controls the front brake, I couldn’t tell you. I always have to look down at the wheel.

I wasn’t looking and I grabbed the front brake and proved Newton’s first law of motion. The bike stopped in its tracks but I kept going about 12 mph.

My stomach slammed into the handlbars as I hurtled over them, and then the front of my helmet slammed into the pavement. My stomach hurt, I couldn’t seem to get my breath, and I wasn’t sure I should try to move. Someone driving east on 772 saw it happen and stopped; if you believe in coincidences, he just happened to be a physician. In another minute an EMT was on the scene, blocking the road—which I was lying in the middle of—with flashing lights. They checked my vitals, asked me who the president was, and talked about calling an ambulance.

A stunning surprise calamity; no warning. That’s what many who experience what God has in store for this planet, will feel. Because all along they had been convinced that things would always continue the way they are. …scoffers… will say, “Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation… Peter goes on to explain: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief (2 Peter 3:3-10). Surprise calamity; no warning.

It should not be a surprise. Christ has revealed the future to those who care. FIND Revelation 6:1-8. The so-called “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” launch God’s program of judgment. Christ’s Second Coming is still years away, but these catastrophic events come first, a buildup to God’s judgment against rebels. READ.

PRAY.

(I’m preparing a glossary explaining end time terms such as millennium, tribulation and rapture, and as we begin our discussion of such things, plan to have it for you next Sunday.)

In this chapter, Jesus begins opening seals 1-6 (the seventh seal isn’t opened until chapter 8). We will look at the first 4 today. Over the next 11 chapters, judgment follows judgment follows judgment. 7 seal judgments lead to 7 trumpet judgments which in turn lead to seven bowl judgments.

Before we start to unpack this passage, since it introduces God’s judgment through Christ, let’s do a flyover of what’s coming. 7 years before before Jesus comes back and sets up his kingdom on earth, begins a hellish time which Jeremiah 30:7 calls “Jacob’s trouble”; you may know it better as “the Tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). How do we know it’s seven years long?

FIND Daniel 9:24-27. Daniel was a prophet and a beloved advisor to pagan kings in Babylon. had been captured and taken to Babylon as a prisoner of war. One day the angel Gabriel came to him with this message about the future. READ.

Interpreting these verses begins with “The Anointed One” in v.25. Because it means “Messiah,” and is the only place the phrase appears in the OT; this is the future Jesus. Prophesied 500 years before he appears on the scene.

A “seven” (or “week” as some of your translations say) = 7 years. Gabriel said 69 sevens would elapse between the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the death of the Messiah (v.26). That has all taken place and almost all Bible teachers agree.

But Gabriel spoke of a total of 70 sevens. 1 is not accounted for. Remember at the beginning of our study we talked about the four different ways people interpret Revelation? One is the preterist who believes this is history. It took place in 70A.D. when General Titus and his Roman legionnaires sacked and leveled Jerusalem and the temple.

I think they’re wrong; that this and Revelation is not the past, but the future. And that what we’re living in is a kind of “parenthesis” between the 69^th week and the future 70^th week. That 7 year period is the Tribulation, which is divided into two 3 ½ year periods. Initially a world ruler (“ruler who will come”, v.26) will sign treaty with “many” (including the nation of Israel, v.27), but midway through the 7 years will break it and outlaw Jewish worship.

So, the troubles contained in these first 4 seals happen during those first 3 ½ years. If you’re a true Christian and pretrib theology’s correct, you won’t witness this because the church will be removed before this all happens. But for those left behind, these seals describe what you’ll experience.

1. White Horse. V.2

After Jesus opened the first seal, one of the living creatures gave the order: “COME!” Out of the scroll pranced a white horse and rider. He has a bow, receives a crown, and is bent on conquest. This is not Jesus Christ even though He’s on a white horse in Revelation 19:11-16.

• Jesus is opening the seals, not exiting them

• Those who believe it’s Jesus see this as His final offer of the gospel to the world (Mark 13:10). But the other riders are destructive so probably this one is too.

• Jesus’ crown in Revelation 19 is a king’s crown while this rider’s is nothing more than a champion runner or boxer’s crown.

• Jesus will return at the end of the tribulation, not the beginning.

• To this rider (& two others) “was given…” In Rev., this phrase usually describes the permission God gives evil powers to carry out destruction.

This may be the antichrist/beast, but since the other 3 riders represent forces rather than people, this probably is too; more the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:3). The bow suggests power, but the absence of ammunition suggests power through diplomacy instead of military might. Probably the longing for world peace has given this force its power.

2. Red Horse. V.4

Jesus opened the second seal and another living creature gave the command: “COME!” This rider’s on a red horse, not a dull rust or burgundy, but bright red, like fire. And like blood. He has a sword and “was given power” to turn people against one another. It’s like when God won the victory for Gideon. Judges 7:22 says that in the enemy’s camp, …the Lord caused [them] …to turn on each other with their swords. There’s a supernatural belligerence that is being promoted. And not just nation warring against nation, but people groups among themselves; civil war. This presumably comes on the heels of the shortlived peace that Israel and the world initially enjoyed under the antichrist. Still first half of tribulation.

3. Black Horse. Vv.5-6

Next is black horse whose rider holds a scales. War consume money and resources. This one’s no different and as a result food will become scarce and be rationed (hence, the scales). The good wheat to make good bread costs a day’s wages. The cheaper barley for livestock is a third less, but even that is pricey when you’re trying to feed a family.

For some reason, while the rider is able to destroy and limit grain at his pleasure, the oil and wine supplies seem to be off limits. There are many guesses why this is but perhaps the best is that one that simply acknowledges that God is sovereign and even over his judgments, places limits.

4. Pale (ashen) Horse. V.8

The 4^th seal is broken, the living creature commands, and a rider emerges on a pale horse. Kind of a ghoulish yellow-green color which is fitting for its rider named “Death”. Dead people are so common “Hades” tags along and acts as a gravedigger. People are dying from many of the same things they die of today. Only the scale is bigger: ¼ of the world (nearly 1 ¾ billion people today) will die from war, famine, the diseases that famine promotes, and even the wild animals get in the act. (Did you see that grizzly bear they just put down? It killed one camper and mauled two others 5 miles from Yellowstone Park.) This will be commonplace during this time.

Concl:

The picture is horrific. And one Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:3-11. Does it bother you that so much awfulness is unleashed by the hand of God? How bothered do you think God is by sin?

When I was in high school, God did a work in a girl with a checkered past. I’ll call her Gretchen. One day she was telling a few of us what the Lord had done in her life. With a smile stretching from ear to ear as she described God’s grace as “He just doesn’t give a damn.” She meant that in Christ, God no longer holds her sins against her, that she no longer has to worry about consequences for them.

But there’s a big difference between not caring about a problem, and solving that problem at great personal expense. God does care about mankind’s sin. It’s why His Son died a grisly death. God not only left Him die, He sent Him to die (Acts 2:23). Which is also why, He will one day come—not as a lamb to bear salvation, but as a lion, judge and king. Jude 1:14-15 reads …the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

The first time Jesus became sin; the second time he will outlaw sin.

The first time Jesus came to rescue sinners; the second time he will judge sinners.

The first time he came in weakness; the second time, in power.

The first time he came in humility; the second time he will come in glory.