Grim Reapers

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14, our text for this morning is verses 14 through 20. As we look at the six of seven visions that come in the corpus of these two chapters, or these three chapters, chapters 12, 13 and 14 and part of 15. this little break in the book this hinge in the book that gives us these visions these vignettes of life in this age and now we come to this vision of a harvest let's ask God now to help us to understand his word and to be transformed by it Lord God we have come now to our worship to hear you.

We confess to you that we are much too fixated on this age. That we have forgotten to think of the end of it and to be transformed by the vision of what will happen when Jesus, the Son of Man, returns. Would you this day loosen that fixation so that we will fix our eyes on that harvest and be transformed by the truth of it. We confess to you, Lord, that we do not live as if there is a day of judgment coming.

But you've made it abundantly clear that there is. And so as we come to this text, transform our thinking and our lives as we see what you have for us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. What do you think of when you think of the end? Maybe you think of nuclear missiles arching through the sky with mushroom clouds erupting and most of humanity destroyed. quite possibly you have visions of people being cast into a pit of intense fire with the smell of brimstone or or maybe you think of nutty people standing on the street corner with signs that say repent the end is near Maybe you think of people bowing before the throne of God and weeping as the books are open and their doom is sealed We have many pictures in our heads, some of them accurate, some of them inaccurate.

And in chapter 14 of Revelation, God puts before you another kind of picture of the end. When thinking of the end, God has you watching reapers as they approach a field of wheat in one instance and a vineyard of grapes in the other. And putting their sickles to the wheat and the grapes. You follow then as we read this vision found in verses 14 through 20 of Revelation 14.

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 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 the 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 1,600 stadia. Now this is one of the many pictures that God gives us regarding the judgment that comes at the end of the age. You will see people standing before the judgment seat. You will see fire and brimstone, but God also wants you to see harvest.

Now these are not competing pictures, but complementary pictures intended to give us a complete understanding of the judgment, what it's about, what it's like. So let try to get another part of our understanding fixed in our minds concerning the judgment from this sixth vision The first thing that we need to see is to understand that this is divine judgment This is divine judgment. Now immediately a question comes to mind as you read the text.

Is this one judgment or two? Because there are two pictures here. One of a wheat harvest, one of a grape harvest. Some have thought that maybe the first is the harvest of believers and the second is of unbelievers. There are many ideas, but this is a picture of one judgment, the judgment that comes at the end of the age. I believe it's one judgment and not two, and just giving us different perspectives on that same judgment.

Because first of all, the angel calls it the hour of reaping. And if we look back at verse 7 of this chapter, we see that phrase used. And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come. And worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. In that case, the hour is used of the hour of judgment.

And the term the hour is used nine times in Revelation and each time for judgment. So because of that, I think this is one judgment. Both of these perspectives depend on Joel 3.13, which was our Old Testament reading. It has a picture of a harvester and the grapes being put into the wine press. And that is clearly a picture of judgment. And then the idea of harvest is a metaphor in both the Old Testament and the Gospels for judgment.

For example, in Jeremiah 51.33, we read this. for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden yet a little while in the time of her harvest will come so harvest and reaping and all these things are used in terms of judgment in the Gospels for example in Matthew chapter 13 the parable of the wheat and the tares where the farmers or the workers say to their Lord we've sown the field but tares have grown up do you want us to tear out the weeds and the master says no no let them grow together and at the end of the age there will be this harvest that will separate them and the tares will be burned up So this idea of harvest has the idea of judgment Okay Why then are there two different pictures I was watching a television program this last week and I saw an interesting scene. It begins with the press secretary wishing the president her best as he's going to give his inaugural address. And in the process, he's talking about getting a Bible.

They don't have a Bible and he sends his personal aide out to find a Bible that they can use in the ceremony. Well, then the same changes and goes back to the beginning of the week to show all the events of the week that bring them up to that point in the inaugural and why the aide is looking for a Bible. When we come back to the scene, after Ben here, going back to the week and coming back to the scene, now we see the scene from the perspective of the presidential aide who went to get the Bible.

And it's a little bit of a different perspective. And in fact, you see even more of the characters than in the first perspective. There are even more characters there. Now, they were there in the first visit of that scene, but you didn't see them. You do it from his perspective. What's the point?

The point is this is the same way. These are two different perspectives on the same event, telling us something about this judgment. It is clearly a judgment scene. It is direct divine judgment. This is not providential judgment. Now, what do I mean when I say providential judgment?

This is a judgment that's accomplished directly by God and not by providential means. That is, God does not use instruments in accomplishing this. For example, if we would think of Nazi Germany. God judged Nazi Germany. Did he do it by sending angels? No.

In his providence, he gathered a collection of nations, the Allies, which marched on Germany and utterly destroyed that country by the end of World War II. God used instruments. God used means. This is not one of those cases. This is God directly involved. It comes at God's direction.

The angels that call for this judgment come from the presence of God. Notice, the first angel that calls for judgment, in verse 15, comes out of the temple. Now remember, in this book, the temple is where we see the Father and the Lamb. And all the way through this book, it's like they're in the temple, seeing all these visions from their side, while we see it from this side.

And every once in a while, we're brought back to the temple. See God, you remember? Chapter 4, we're in the temple and God is sitting on his throne with that calm sea in front of him, that great rainbow around him. And then chapter 5, we're still in the temple and we see the Lamb on the throne, right? And then the seals are delivered from the temple and then we see all these visions.

And again, we're going to go back to that temple in this book. But the point is, the angel comes from the temple, comes from the presence of God. The same thing is true with the third angel here that we find in verse 18. This angel came from the altar. Well, where is the altar? We've seen that altar in chapter 6.

It's the altar under which the martyrs are and they're crying for justice from God. And in chapter 8, it's the altar where the angel has the incense or the censer and is burning incense, which are the prayers of the saints to God. And in chapter 8, it says that altar is in the presence of God. So the angels are coming from God. They are emissaries of God.

They are declaring the will of God. Now, one question is, how can this first angel that we see command the Son of Man, which is Jesus? Well, I don't think he's commanding him. He's not telling Jesus what to do. He's delivering the command from the Father. Remember what Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 24?

But concerning that day and hour, that is the hour of his return, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. And so this angel is coming with word from the Father to the Son of Man. Take your sickle and reap the harvest. it's divine judgment because it's accomplished by the son of man now again we see this phrase all the way through the new testament particularly in the gospels who is this son of man let's refresh your memory again because we've seen him a number of times in this book turn back to daniel chapter 7 and and take this with you not just for the book of revelation but for whenever you read the Gospels and you see that phrase, Son of Man.

We tend to think that that phrase means someone who is a human And that not exactly what it means It grows up out of this vision that Daniel had in Daniel chapter 7 This mysterious divine figure that is introduced by the prophet Daniel Daniel 7 verse 13. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

And to him, that is the son of man, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. And all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. That should sound familiar to you from the book of Revelation, right? His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. And his kingdom won that shall not be destroyed. So, Daniel introduces us to this mysterious, divine figure called the Son of Man.

And we find him in this book, for example, you remember, Revelation chapter 1, verse 7. Behold, he is coming with the clouds. What is that? It's a reference to, as we saw in Daniel 7, with the clouds of heaven. The Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven. Verse 13 of Revelation chapter 1. and in the midst of the lamb stands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The son of man. What's that? He's saying just like the one that we saw in Daniel. So the son of man is Jesus. He's identified with Jesus. And by the way, Jesus identifies himself as the son of man in the Gospels and gets in trouble for it.

Do you remember that? Do you remember the scene? Here is Jesus. He stands before the high priest of the nation of Israel. And the thing is, they've got all these competing witnesses coming in to try to make a charge stick. But the Old Testament says two witnesses have to agree.

And they couldn't find two witnesses to agree. They couldn't agree. They could not get anything on Jesus. And then the high priest looks at him and says, are you the Christ? and he says to the high priest, you will see the son of man coming in the clouds to judge. You remember what the high priest did at that point? He rips his robes and says, what more do we need We got it from his own mouth He blaspheming You see the son of man is not just as human that we think Jesus is the Son of Man because he human No Jesus is claiming to be this divine figure from the Old Testament who has been given this eternal kingdom from his Father from the ancient of days.

See? And so this is the Son of Man who has got his sickle ready to come and reap the harvest. It is this divine figure who has been given dominion over an eternal dominion, an eternal kingdom who is now ready to come and harvest. And notice this. Now this is new. You don't see this in the vision of the Son of Man.

In this vision, he's wearing a golden crown. Isn't that interesting? Instead of a crown of thorns, He now appears with a golden crown. No longer the crown of suffering and shame, but the crown of victory. The crown of victory. And this direct divine judgment is victory.

Now we have seen all through this book already that our losses, our sufferings, our deaths, are seen by the world as losing, but from heaven's perspective, they're what? They're our victory. If we remain faithful to Christ and we die for it, that is our victory. And you notice that it is built on the model of Jesus who achieved his great victory at the cross at the point of his greatest shame was the point of his victory that the world looked at him and saw a criminal shamefully hung on a cross, but from heaven's perspective, he's won the victory.

And so, we are those who, even though we die in our faithfulness to Jesus, are victors, we are not defeated. But here, at the end of the age, when the Son of Man appears to judge, we will taste victory. it will not just be victory in principle the victory that will be ours we will experience it we will see then true victory and so the son of man comes in judgment but in victory because he wearing a golden crown so the first thing we need to see is understand is that this is a direct divine judgment We need to understand that this is divine judgment at the right time. At the right time.

I grew up in the good, solid, stable Midwest. I will always be a Midwesterner. I love going out west and seeing the mountains. I love going down to North Carolina, seeing those mountains. It's fun to go to Calvin's house and look at the ocean. It was nice to go to San Francisco and see all that, but give me the Midwest any day.

I tell folks, I'll take my corn canyons any day to what you have to offer. Be that as it may. I love the Midwest because of its marvelous rhythm of seasons, right? Winter, spring, summer, fall. Always come. That rhythm of the seasons.

And my favorite season is the fall. I love fall. I love autumn. I love the harvest time. And I grew up as a kid in farm country. In fact, in dairy farm country.

I was telling someone the other day, our evening services were at 8 o'clock at night. You know that? I thought it was weird when people were having evening service like at 6 at night. That's weird to me. Eight o'clock because we had all dairy farmers and they had to milk. So I grew up in dairy farm country and every year starting in September they'd go out and pick corn.

They wouldn't combine it. In those days they picked it with corn pickers and they would chop silage. I can still smell that and see that and that nice cool air. The time of harvest. And those farmers never went out in May to pick their corn. Why not?

No one around here picks their corn in May. Why not? It's not ripe. It's not harvest time. That's right. It's not harvest time.

It's not time for that yet. And so there is a rhythm to God's plan. There is the rhythm of seasons to God's plan. There will come a season for harvest, but not before it's time for the harvest. You see? Notice what he says.

Put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come. Harvest of the earth is fully ripe. Put your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe. There's a rhythm to God's plan. There are seasons. And the final season is harvest season.

And it will come when it's time and not before. You know what? The history of the world is not the story of the endless suffering of the people of God. We sometimes think that. You see, we get so fixated on this age that we think nothing, it's just going to keep going. The history of the world is not the story of the unending suffering of the people of God.

There is an end to it all, and that's when harvest season arrives. there will be rest and peace when the hour to reap has come when everything is fully ripe and not before and that's what we need to remember you see that's going to help us not to give up that's going to help us to throw ourselves into the work of god for his kingdom because we know there is a harvest season coming. It isn't an endless, it's not a never-ending thing. Josh and I, a couple months ago, went to Detroit to hear a guy who's starting a church in the worst part of Detroit you can imagine.

And one of the things he said struck me and convicted me to the core of my being. He said, when I get to heaven, I want to cross the finish line exhausted and totally spent. I don't want to cross the finish line with more energy left. I want to cross the finish line exhausted, totally spent. How are you going to do that? You're going to do that if you believe there's a harvest coming. that it isn't an endless story of suffering and gritting your teeth.

Harvest is coming. You can find hope in the harvest. Now this harvest comes after the sowing and growth of the gospel It comes after the sowing the planting and growth of the gospel Now when we look back at Joel look back at Joel our Old Testament reading Joel chapter 3 Think you can find it? Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah. Joel chapter 3. Verse 13.

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their evil is great. multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining. To Joel, he saw the promised king coming and immediately executing this harvest of judgment.

At his appearing, Joel saw that the Messiah would come and immediately exercise this judgment harvest. But with Jesus comes a fuller revelation of God's plan. With the arrival of the king, we see that that wasn't the entire picture. Turn back to Matthew 13. Matthew 13. Verse 24.

He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away so when the plants came up and bore grain then the weeds appeared also and the servants of the master of the house came and said to him master did you not sow good seed in your field how then does it have weeds he said to them an enemy has done this so the servant said to him then do you want us to go and gather them but he said no lest in gathering the weeds you root up the weed along with them let both grow together until the harvest and at the harvest time i will tell the reapers Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. Now drop down to verse 36 where Jesus interprets this parable. Then he left the crowds and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.

He answered, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who sowed them is the devil the harvest is the close of the age and the reapers are angels Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire so will it be at the close of the age The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear. Jesus did inaugurate the long-awaited kingdom, not as a grim reaper, but as a patient planter. And through sowing the word as seed, Jesus, and then the church, us, through the witness of the gospel, launches first a growing season of grace. in which people are called into the kingdom, in which the gospel goes out and conquers hearts and brings them into submission to the Father.

And then the final harvest foretold through the prophets would come at the end of that age. And that's what Jesus describes here. So the gospel grows until it ends with the harvest of judgment. Now notice what we see in verse 18. and another angel came out from the altar the angel who has authority over the fire and called to the other angel with the sickle this is the angel that we have met in chapter eight okay you remember this angel turn back to chapter eight chapter 8 verse 3 and another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer and he was given much incense to offer with 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 angels this is the one who has authority over the fire on this altar this one who represents the prayers of the saints to god then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth and there were peals of thunder rumblings flashes of lightning and an earthquake that is the end has come all right you remember what we saw there this is the angel who offers the prayers of the saints who has authority over the fires of judgment who throws the censer at last and brings judgment on the earth We see that this is also the altar under which the martyrs are in chapter 6 You remember the opening of the fifth seal.

What do we see? We see the martyrs under the altar crying out to God, How long? How long before you avenge our blood? And remember what is said to them? wait until the full number of martyrs has been completed then God will bring judgment. Well, we saw in chapter 8 that the casting of that censer bringing judgment is an answer to the prayers of the saints and the martyrs.

What are we to take from this? Simply this. God's judgment of the wicked is the final answer to our prayers. God's judgment of the wicked is the final answer to our prayers. God has not ignored your prayers about the mistreatment you suffered. God has not ignored them.

In one case, he may use those prayers to turn your enemies to Christ. But in another, he says, wait. Time of harvest and judgment is coming. I will answer that prayer. It will come when I put the sickle to the wheat and to the grapes. You see?

We never have to worry about God not answering our prayer in this regard. His harvest day of judgment is the answer to our prayers of persecution and mistreatment. So God's harvest of judgment will come at just the right time. finally as we look at this two-part vision understand this as divine judgment of just the right kind it's the right kind as i meditated on this and tried to wrestle with this i believe this is what what god is telling us first of all in the first picture god will bring a judgment that is absolutely comprehensive.

God will bring a judgment that is absolutely comprehensive, verses 14 through 16. Now, you see here the picture of a wheat harvest. Now, We're fortunate in that many of our neighbors still harvest wheat like this, our Amish neighbors. They send the reapers out into the field with their sickles. They cut the wheat. The wheat then is bundled, you remember?

They bundle it up into those little stacks. Then they come along, the harvesters pick up the bundles, bring them to the threshing floor where they are beaten. I don't know if the Amish do that. This is what they did in the day of Revelation. You bring the bundles to the threshing floor and you have these threshing tools and you just beat and beat and beat the wheat until the kernels were separated from the husks and the stems.

And then you recall, as you see some of these pictures, they still do it in some countries. They throw that wheat up into the air and the chaff blows away. Right. That's how they get the wheat. They separate the wheat from the chaff. And the wheat is gathered in and the chaff is burned.

Such is the lot of all mankind. You know what? It is too easy to think of this in the abstract. We can all here faithfully say with very little emotion, God's judgment is like the harvesting of wheat. But what we must see is that people we love are going to go through this harvest and will be burned like chaff. This is not an abstract thing.

On that day, they will be separated from God's people and consigned to eternal punishment. This is a harvest that will reap the entire earth. This judgment is absolutely comprehensive. No one is going to slip through. No one is going to avoid the harvest. No one is going to avoid the threshing floor.

All mankind will. People that you can think of right now that you love, unless God intervenes by His grace, will be reaped in this way. Let not think in the abstract And then there the grape harvest that we find in the following picture God will bring a judgment that is not just comprehensive. God will bring a judgment that is absolutely terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

Look at these words. 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 1600 stadia.

Here's a picture of a grape harvest. The angel from the altar announces God's command to gather in the rebellious humanity. So the second angel comes with a sickle to cut the grape clusters and throw them into the winepress of God's wrath. Alluded to here in Joel, but clearly described in Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63.

This is a picture that will stick in your minds. Isaiah 63, verse 1. Who is this who comes from Edom in crimson garments from Bozrah? He who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength. And the reply from God. It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.

Question from the questioner. Why is your apparel red and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? answer from God. I have trodden the wine press alone and from the peoples no one was with me. I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood spattered 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 but 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 There is the picture of the wrath of God That is what John refers to here God will crush the wicked in that wine press They will feel the relentless fury of his anger Rebels will be crushed in God's press until their blood, their blood, the blood of those who have shed the blood of martyrs flows like a river of red wine. All of you listen to me now.

Listen. this is a picture of the righteous anger of God to all those who have not bowed the knee and owned him as Lord you know we often see gruesome pictures today don't we we're used to gruesome pictures we go on the internet and we see bodies of hundreds of soldiers washing up on the shore because their amphibious assault was unsuccessful we see the mutilated bodies of civilians who have been massacred by tyranny but John wants you to get an unforgettable picture of God's righteous fury you know what he says here? his judgment is going to be so intense that the river of blood will extend for 200 miles again, this is just a picture but he wants you to get the picture when God presses out in his fury the unrighteous of the earth their blood will extend for 200 miles and it will be so deep that the horses will have trouble swimming through it. That's what he wants you to see. This is the righteous anger of God.

This is nothing to be fooled with. You know, some of you right now aren't hearing a word I'm saying. You need to listen. God's fury is unrelenting and if you never bow the knee to him he will crush you in the winepress of his anger it says it will happen outside the city and we already saw in Revelation 11 that the city part of the city part of the temple is being trodden underfoot by those who persecute Well, they will be trodden underfoot, it says here, by the church's mighty avenger.

Their blood flows from the winepress outside the city of God because they have no place in the heavenly city. They will be excluded from the heavenly city. Mount Zion, the church of Jesus, they will be excluded from that. No one unclean shall ever enter the holy city of Jerusalem. A horrific harvest awaits rebellious humanity. It is absolutely comprehensive.

It is absolutely terrifying. So, harvest time approaches. The season of God's judgment will come as certainly as the harvest that we're used to seeing every autumn. It will come. And the harvest will gather those who rebel against God, who refuse his summons of obedience to the gospel of Jesus. He will gather them in.

Some of you today are not prepared for the winepress of God's fury. Let me say something to you. You can be prepared. You know why? Because there has been one who has actually entered the winepress of God's fury already. And has had his blood spilled.

Do you know that? There is this one called Jesus. Who has actually gone into the wine press already for you. And has had his blood trampled out. In the book of Romans it says. But God shows his love for us.

In that while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood. much more so we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Man, you are safe if you entrust yourself to the one who has already entered the winepress of the fury of God and has experienced the treading anger of God who has already spilled his blood so that your blood does not have to be spilled in that winepress.

God has given you a way of escape you know that harvest for those of us who belong to him and can give us hope. God knows your suffering. He's not blind. God has not turned a deaf ear to the prayers of His saints here or all around the world who are suffering persecution. He's not ignoring it, but He has appointed a time of harvest when suffering will end and peaceful rest begins.

But not until then. and so until then we give ourselves for him Father Lord God you have spoken to us clearly that there is a time of harvest that will never be escaped and will not be escaped by anyone a harvest that is comprehensive and terrifying. We pray that for those who are not ready for that end, who are not ready that you would penetrate their hearts They would see that there is escape from the winepress of God fury Open their eyes Lord Father, I even say this now. Terrify them now so that they will not face terror at the end of this age.

Use the terror that is coming to show them Jesus. open their hearts Father we pray that we would have hope as we serve you now knowing that there is a harvest coming that we don't live in an endless cycle of recriminations and suffering but that just as there is a rhythm to the seasons there is a rhythm to your plan and the last season is harvest make that clear to us and change us by that knowledge help us we pray to live in light of that harvest grant it for your glory we pray and our good Amen