The Book of Revelation: The Six Seals

Speaker: Dustin Scott

Passage: Revelation 6:1-17

REVIEWING THE FIRST FIVE CHAPTERS OF REVELATION

Yesterday, as I was thinking about today, I was cutting the lawn. I opened up YouTube and found this panel of theologians giving four different views on chapter 6 of Revelation. I was like, Oh, this is exciting. I’m ready to dive in and learn. About four minutes in, they’re screaming over the top of each other, cutting each other off at every start of a sentence, and at some point I was like, Man, you know, I’m just going to grab a Coca-Cola, turn on Neil Young, and shut this off because it’s nonsense.

It really made me think that I’m very proud to be a pastor here at Vintage, where we’re not interested in aligning with any group or identity other than being followers of Him and studying the Scriptures.

So, as we embark into Revelation 6, where so many churches have fallen into fruitless speculation and argument, I think it’s important for us to go back to chapter 1 and remember the principles that Saint John gave us at the onset of this book.

The first principle is the very first statement: apocalypsis Jesu Christu. What does that mean? A revelation, a revealing of Jesus, the anointed one. That means whether we’re in chapter 1, chapter 22, chapter 6, or anywhere in between, the overarching purpose of the Book of Revelation is this: to reveal the person of Jesus to His people and the world.

If we go back to chapter 1 and explore our next foundational principle, I believe it’s in verse three, we learn there’s blessing attached to this book. It says, “Blessed is the one who reads the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey it”.

Do you know why that makes me excited? I grew up in a tradition that never stopped talking about the Book of Revelation. Interestingly, it was all abstract speculation, esotericism, and end-of-the-world stuff. Do you know what this tells me in verse 3? Revelation has practical things that inform our lives. Isn’t that cool? That makes me excited.

Last but not least, we find in verses 4 and 11 of chapter 1 that we know who the audience of this book was. This book is a piece of Scripture. It is infallible. It was for the church throughout time, but it had a very specific audience. It says, “…two of the seven churches, which were in Asia Minor…”. What does that mean? These were real people and real places with real problems. And while the book of Revelation exists for us as Scripture, it was not written to us; it was written to them. We have to remember that as we carry on.

As we proceed, I encourage us not to narrow ourselves into any of the strange and novel groups or movements which have arisen in the 19th and 20th centuries. As Pastor Greg said in the first teaching of our series, You know what kind of unites post-millennialism, premillennialism, amillennialism, futurism, praetorism, all this stuff—you know what they all have in common? They’re kind of dumb. They’re really not all that interesting. And worse yet, they trap us into boxes rather than encouraging us to continue to explore and learn the Scriptures.

As we move forward, don’t get stuck in a box. Study the Scriptures with the early church, with the church throughout the ages, with us today, and let’s learn in real time because chapter 1 gives us the essentials.

When we move into chapter 6, it’s going to do three things. It will reveal Jesus. It will provide us with truths to read, hear, and obey. And it will help inform how we live as Christians today. So, with that, let’s go ahead and dive into Revelation 6:1-17.

REVELATION 6:1-17

“Then I saw the Lamb break one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer. When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, ‘Come!’ And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another, and he was given a great sword.

When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand, and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s pay and three quarts of barley for a day’s pay, but do not damage the olive oil and the wine!’

When He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him; they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and pestilence and by the wild animals of the earth.

When He broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’ They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.

When He broke the sixth seal, I looked, and there was a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'”

Positive and encouraging, right? Let’s pray before we get started.

Lord Jesus, as we embark into this sobering and, at times, mystical text, would You guide us as we travel ahead? I remember those haunting words at the end of this book, “…to anyone who adds or takes away…” So, would we not add or take away from Your Word this morning? But would You give us ears to hear what You’re speaking? Would You tell us how to live in obedience to You and how to reveal You to the world? Lord, we know chapter 6 has things for us, Your church, so lead us and guide us as we study. We ask this in Your name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

THE FIRST FOUR SEALS

As you look at chapters 3 and 4 and how they flow into chapter 6, the broadest perspective you are going to get is two different responses to the person of Jesus. In Revelation 4, we learned that St. John was invited by the Lord up into Heaven. What did he see? He saw the right response to the Lamb. He saw worship. He saw honor.

He saw glory being dispensed to the Lamb because the people of Heaven had accepted who the Lamb was and had given their lives over to Him. So, in chapters 4 and 5, we find the right response to the person of Jesus.

What we find in Revelation chapter 6 is a world in sin and turmoil, and because this world will not give over its authority to the Lamb, we find the kings and the rulers hiding in caves and under rocks so they do not need to surrender to Him. What does that inspire in them? Not worship, not glory, not honor, not praise—terror.

This shows me that on the broadest plane, there are two responses humanity can live into. We can either confess, accept, follow, and worship the Lamb, and so live in heavenly bliss, or we can reject Him, and so live in terror, anxiety, and turmoil. And isn’t that what we see so much of in the world today? As we begin, I want us to keep those two responses to the person of Jesus at the forefront.

Jesus will break seven seals in total, six of them within this chapter. The first of these four seals are what are termed the four horsemen. We are presented with images of a white horse, a bright red horse, a black horse, and a pale green horse. I don’t love the translation “pale green”; I think ashen or sickly would be a bit better. Maybe you’ve heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Maybe you listen to a metal band called that?

The four horsemen, as we’ll discover by taking Revelation 6 and putting it beside parallel texts like Matthew 24 and Luke 21, represent four realities on the earth: false messiahs, warfare, famine, and mass death. Before we unpack those realities, I want us, as students of the Scriptures, to explore where in the Bible we have encountered these four figures before.

UNDERSTANDING THE FOUR HORSEMEN

Did you know we’ve seen these horses before within the Scriptures? In the Book of Zechariah, the prophet Zechariah sees them. It says in Zechariah 1:8, “In the night I saw a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among myrtle trees in the shadows. And behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.”

We see them again in Zechariah chapter 6:1-5, “And again I looked up and I saw four chariots coming out between two mountains, mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses. The second chariot had black horses. The third chariot had white horses. And the fourth chariot had dappled gray horses. Then I said to the angel who spoke with me, ‘What are these, my Lord?’ And the angel answered me, ‘These are the four winds of heaven going out after presenting themselves before the Lord of the whole earth'”.

It’s important to recognize that both within Zachariah and in Revelation, we find this cycle of questions being asked and answers being given. This pattern is all over Scripture. If you go to the Book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is going to have a vision of a valley of dried bones, and the Lord is going to ask him a question: Son of man, can these bones live? How does Ezekiel respond? If you say they can, Lord.

In Revelation, we find the same thing happening in chapter 1. When John sees seven lampstands, this very mysterious mystical image, the Lord tells John, Hey, this is who those seven lampstands are. They are the churches. 

Why is that important? When the Scriptures themselves, when the Lord or one of His angels, give us an answer to a question, it means that we, the interpreter, don’t have the creative license to make up a new answer for what this thing is.

Why do I say that? I bet if you picked up one hundred devotional books, or if you hopped on social media, you would find four hundred and fifty thousand different interpretations of who the four horsemen are. You know why that’s dumb? Because the angel tells Zachariah exactly what they are, so we don’t need to wonder about it.

So, who are they? They’re the four winds of Heaven. What are the four winds of Heaven within the Old Testament? They are an Old Testament image of God’s judgment poured out upon the earth.

Jeremiah 4:11-12 says, “At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: a hot wind comes from me the Lord out of the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or to cleanse, a wind too strong for that. Now it is I the Lord who speaks in judgment against them…”. 

Later, Jeremiah 49:36 says, “…I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and I will scatter them to all these winds, and there shall be no nation to which the exiles from Elam shall not come…”.

So when we see the Lamb breaking the first four seals, the four horsemen, we are given an image of Jesus’ absolute sovereignty over the world and over created history. What does that mean? If we look at the Old Testament and how these four horses, these four winds, are used, we see that God has already begun to judge and rout out wickedness in this world. Judgment is not just a future reality.

THE LAMB IS DELAYING GOD’S FINAL JUDGMENT

I want us to notice something incredibly unique about Revelation 6. While Jesus, the Lamb, is the one breaking the seals, he’s not actually the one calling forth the judgments. The living creatures, the angels, do. Why? I believe that in Revelation 6, we are shown God’s merciful hesitation in bringing about judgment. He doesn’t delight in it. He brings forth suffering and purgation because He desires that evil would be cleansed from the earth and sinners might repent.

Ezekiel 33:11 illustrates this when it says, “‘As I live’, says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live…’”

It’s interesting that when we look at Revelation 6, not only is the Lamb not calling forth the judgments, but He’s actually giving limits to how far the angels can go. We find that in verses 6 and 8, the four horsemen are only permitted to touch a fourth of the earth. Why? Because God, in His mercy, is allowing time for the sinners of the world to repent. He is still compassionate, even in His judgment.

So why is the world falling apart? Why is the world in turmoil? Well, Paul says in Romans 6:2, “The wages of sin is death”. This means we as believers live in a world that is already dying under the judgment of God.

How do I know that? Jesus says so. That’s kind of a good trump card, isn’t it? In John 12:31, Jesus is looking forward to the cross and He says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out”.

Or when His apostle John says, “Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour”. 

We know it is the last hour. We are living in the last hour. It’s not just a future reality. God is slowing down the world’s decay so that sinners can be brought to repentance. As God’s people, why do we suffer? Because we’re living in the crossfire between the judgment of God and the wickedness of the world.

That’s why we’re called sojourners. That’s why we’re called estranged people. This isn’t just a future reality; it’s a historical reality. It’s a reality that is present and happening now. It’s what a world under judgment looks like, and it is our world.

THE LAST THREE SEALS

Let’s turn now to the last three seals. They’re different; they aren’t described as horsemen. Matthew 24 and Luke 21 will describe these seals as being martyrdom, earthquakes, and final judgment.

And while the four horsemen representing God’s sovereign judgment over a sinful world is proved and corroborated by the presence of the four winds in the Old Testament, I want us to go to a really microscopic level here and look at a fourfold cycle of punishment which concludes the fourth seal. John draws this from Leviticus chapter 26, and what we find is that there’s sword, famine, pestilence, and wild animals of the earth.

I believe these last three seals differ from the initial four horses because they illustrate what I’m going to call the collateral damage of heavenly judgment. Let me show you what I mean by that. Look at the final woe within this four-fold cycle: “the wild animals of the earth” in verse eight. This is an important literary symbol both within the Old Testament and within the Jewish apocalyptic literature of this time.

If you go to Deuteronomy 7, Jeremiah 12, Daniel 7, 1st Enoch 4 and 1st Enoch 88—if you’re looking outside the biblical text to apocalyptic literature from this time—or the testament of the twelve patriarchs, the wild animals operate as a symbol for gentile or foreign oppressors of God’s people. Not only do we find that in those writings, but as we get to chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation, we’re going to find a beast of the air and a beast of the sea, both of which oppress God’s people. Isn’t it interesting that he flows right from those wild animals into the martyrs, the suffering people of God?

WE ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM THE PROCESS OF JUDGEMENT

This shift from the first four horsemen of judgment to the final three seals of martyrdom, earthquakes, and the final judgment is important. Why? It means that we, as God’s people, are not exempt from the process of God’s judgment. We are redeemed from the results of God’s judgment.

What do I mean by that? In Revelation 20:6 it says, “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power…” Why is it important that the second death has no power over us? Because the first death does. We suffer. We die just like everybody else in this world. And it’s worth noting that within Revelation 6, the only escape given to faithful believers, whether believers in the past or believers in the future, until the second coming of Jesus is death. It’s martyrdom.

Why does that matter? Throughout the past two hundred years, particularly within Britain and the United States, a new and strange escapism has crept into the church. Strange teachings that claim believers will be spared the sufferings of earthly tribulation. You know what? The Book of Revelation doesn’t teach that. The New Testament doesn’t teach that. The church, through eighteen hundred years of its history and all of its traditions, never taught that.

Look at the center of chapter 6. Who is bordering the very center of this text? It is the martyrs. It is the suffering people of God under the altar of Heaven. As God’s people, we have suffered, we are suffering, and we will continue to suffer as long as the Lamb is unleashing judgment upon the earth, at least until we get to the final judgment.

That prompts a few important questions for us in the midst of this suffering world under judgment. Are we trying to run from suffering? Are we struggling to find meaning in our suffering? Are we looking for quick fixes and escapes from our suffering? Are we dreading the possibility of suffering?

All of these questions show us why it’s so important to go back to the beginning of chapter 4, where John, as a pastor, is full of dread, full of anxiety, and full of regret thinking about the crises of the church and the turmoil of the world. John is torn up inside, and you know what the Lord says to him? Hey, come up here. Stop looking at those things and behold Me.

Worship is what changes our perspective. We don’t try to change the world; it’s a world already under judgment. Worship is what changes our perspective because it gives us an eternal anchor in a temporary world that is suffering and dying.

WE HAVE A MISSION TO SPREAD THE KINGDOM

I think it’s interesting and even haunting that Jesus in this passage isn’t bashful about allowing our suffering. The martyrs ask him, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before You judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” How does Jesus respond? He says, “They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow slaves and of their brothers and sisters who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.” 

Can you imagine that? You get to Heaven, you pay the ultimate cost for Christ, your spirit is beneath the altar of God, and you turn to the Lord and ask him, Lord, I gave up everything for you. How long are you going to wait to make this right? How long are you going to wait as my brothers and sisters suffer? And the Lord’s response is, Hey, because My Gospel has not gone out to all the world yet, and there are sinners who still need to repent out there, more of your brothers and sisters are going to have to die. Be patient.

Can we imagine that? This is the Lord speaking. How do you stay anchored in a context and a circumstance like that? You have to go up and behold the Lamb. You have to go up and see what’s eternal rather than temporary. You have to go up in worship because that is what transforms you.

We are not going to see transformation in this world. It’s dying. Transformation comes by becoming a follower of Him and letting your infectious worship spread the Kingdom. That’s how we change the world.

Maybe like the little Baptist kid I was about twenty-two years ago, you might be asking the question, Well, if the Lord is making all things new, why am I still here? Why is He making me stay in this world under judgment? It’s because we have a mission. The Triune God has given us a mission in this world under judgment. We are to partner with Him and His Holy Spirit in the salvation of humanity. We are to love and even suffer for the redemption of those still lost.

We have to attain a heavenly perspective. How do we do that? Through our constant worship of Him. If we stop looking at the world and we start looking at Him, then nothing can derail us. 

Remember, Revelation 6 is a parallel text to Matthew 24 and Luke 21. I want to ask the question, Why is maintaining a heavenly perspective so crucial? Because the tumult of the world can so easily derail us. Jesus warned his disciples in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. The woes of the seven seals, as they’re given in Revelation, Matthew, and Luke are false religions, warfare, famines, mass and unnecessary death, martyrdom, earthquakes, and then the final judgment.

With the exception of the seventh seal, doesn’t that look like the world we already see? Doesn’t that look like the world our fellow believers are experiencing in China, in Iran, in Ukraine, and throughout the world? So why do we think this is just the future? It’s happening now.

TWO APPROACHES TO A WORLD IN TRIBULATION

Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 24, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place”. What does that mean? Jesus was telling His disciples, You are going to see and experience these things in your life. Likewise, St. John is warning us in Revelation chapter 6 that we are going to experience and see these things in our lifetime, too.

The woes exempting the final judgment are not just far away future realities; they’ve already happened. They’re happening right now. They are what a world under judgment looks like: false messiahs seducing, warfare inspiring fear and panic, famines impoverishing and making vulnerable, mass death threatening and destroying, persecution and martyrdom seeking to stamp out Jesus and his followers, and literal and metaphorical earthquakes shaking the world. Doesn’t that all sound familiar?

But we don’t have to be afraid. Why? Because Jesus has asked us to have a holy fear of only one of the seals, and that’s the seventh. It’s the final judgment. When we live for Him and His judgment alone, guess what? Even though they can affect this temporary world, the other woes cannot touch and derail us. Why? Because we have Him.

There’s this beautiful picture painted in chapters 6 and 7. In chapter 6, you find a terrified world; in chapter 7, you find confident followers of the Lamb. I want to read these two passages for us.

In chapter 6, verses 16 through 17, the terrified world cries out, “Hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” That’s the question that our world is asking. Who is able to stand? In a world of warfare, famine, sin, poverty, and tribulation, and especially in a world that one day will face Christ’s final judgment of the world, who can stand in the midst of that?

Do you know where we find the answer? Revelation 7 verse 9 says, “…and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” So when we see sinners in the world crying out, who can stand in the midst of this tribulation, you know what our response should be? We can because we have Him. That’s the hope that resides within us. That’s the hope that changes the world.

So instead of trying to escape, should we not be exploring in our own hearts and in our own minds the question of, How can I share the confident hope I have in Him? And if you’re like, I don’t have confident hope, it’s because you haven’t been looking at Him; you’ve been looking at the world. Get your eyes on Him and then share your hope. 

Not only can we stand, we can stand right in front of the throne of God and the Lamb. As the worshipful people of God, we are able to stand through any trial or tribulation or worldly difficulty. We can even stand the final judgment.

CLOSING REMARKS

Revelation is going to depict two kinds of people, two kinds of seals, and two destinies for humankind as we move ahead. We are going to find those who worship wickedness, sealed by the beast, destined unto death, and we are going to find those who worship Jesus, sealed by the Lamb, destined to eternal life. I think this truth is so gorgeously illustrated within the two visions of God’s people in chapter 7, but we’re not there yet. 

The seven seals, rather, are pictures of God’s judgment against a deteriorating, sinful world. And right now, we often find ourselves in the crossfire. Not so much in the United States, but believers in China, in Ukraine, in the Middle East—they’ll tell you what the crossfire feels like. Yet, as God’s priestly people, we have our mission, and we can stand in it.

We are to carry the tangible presence of God. We are to reveal the nature of Jesus in the way in which we live. We are to advance His Kingdom by partnering in the salvation of the lost. And most importantly, when we feel the winds of this earth trying to blow us astray, what do we do? We put our eyes on Him, and we stand in heavenly worship.

Come up here, and I will show you what must take place. This was the solution to all the problems, all the crises, all the sufferings in the seven churches, all the waywardness and apostasy and idolatry. Jesus was telling John, Hey, I’ll show you the solution if your church’s worship looks like Heaven. Then you won’t have any problem.

Chapter 6 stresses our desperate need to obey the words of Jesus and come up here. We must stop fixating on the tribulation of a dying world under judgment and instead fix our eyes on Jesus through pure worship and lives of obedience. That is what will carry us through any tribulation, past, present, or to come.

Let’s pray.

Lord, as we look at Revelation 6, it can incite such fear and panic and dread, not just within the world but within us. But Lord, would You reveal Your merciful character to us?  Even in the midst of judgment, You’re compassionate, and You are a steady and sure guide to those who follow You.

Lord, we know that so much of Your church and Your people are suffering throughout the world, and we pray for them at this moment. Give them the grace to handle the tasks and the challenges and the persecution which face them. Keep their eyes fixed on You so that they can give a reason for the hope that lies within them. 

Lord, we’ve been so blessed to live in the United States, where persecution and oppression feel so foreign, yet it seems like the winds are changing. So, would You prepare us for what’s to come? Don’t let us fall away to fear and dread and anxiety and panic because the world has enough of that. Would You give us confidence in You that we can stand?

Lord, over the tumult of the world, we pray for Your peace. Lord, now over Jerusalem we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Would that be dispensed upon the city and all the people who live there? Lord, we pray for all Your followers throughout the world. Bind them and help them to stand. We ask this in Your name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.