Peter Barnes: Revelation 15:1-8
(15 April 2018)
SERMON NOTES: THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED (Revelation 15)
C. S. Lewis: ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’ Revelation 15-16 concentrate on the megaphone.
1. God’s redeemed people sing His praise.
– 15:1-3a. The redeemed in heaven stand beside the sea of glass, perhaps a parallel to the Red Sea, and they play harps and they sing.
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne: ‘We will enter into the same mind with God.’ Jonathan Edwards: ‘Heaven will have no pity for hell, not because the saints are unloving, but because they are perfectly loving. They love as God loves and whom God loves, being now in perfect conformity with his love.’
2. The song of Moses is fulfilled in the song of the Lamb.
– 15:3-4. The redeemed saints play their harps, and sing the song of Moses in Exodus 15 – Ex.14:30-31; 15:1-7, 21. Israel was saved, her enemies were dead on the seashore; salvation for God’s people meant judgment on unbelievers. Still the people of God rejoiced.
– God is praised for His deeds, His ways, His name, His holiness, and His acts. He is not just King of Israel but of the nations. Ps.86:9-10. That is how the Old Testament connects to the New – the shadow is real but it points to something far greater.
3. God’s holy wrath.
– 15:5-8. Peter van Onselen, Professor of Politics the University of Western Australia, recently took on Israel Folau and commented that there is ‘no direct mention’ of hell in the Bible. He dreams!
– the seven bowls of wrath indicate the holiness of God.