10-The Grapes of Wrath
Decoding the Apocalypse
Pastor Mike Cooke
Revelation 14
1.God gathers us in in the hopes that more will follow
“Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them.” (Jer 2:3)
2.He never brings His judgment without calling us to repentance
1.A Call to Worship(Rev 14:7)
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matt 24:14)
2.A Warning of Judgment (Rev 14:8)
“Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!’” (Isa 21:9)
3.A Call to Faithfulness (Rev 14:9-10)
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.” (Jer 25:15-16)
3.Just like a harvest, oppression always comes to a head
1.Jesus likened the world to a great harvest field
“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:26-29)
2.Jesus told us to pray for more workers for the Harvest
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matt 9:37-38)
3.Jesus told us the Kingdom would begin when the Harvest was ripe
“The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.” (Matt 13:37-39)
4.When that day comes the faithful will finally be vindicated
1.Joel first used the winepress for God’s judgment on Jerusalem
“Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow—so great is their wickedness!” (Joel 3:13)
2.It was also a judgment on her oppressors
“Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floorat the time it is trampled;
the time to harvest her will soon come.” (Jer 51:33); I trampled the nations in my anger;in my wrath I made them drunkand poured their blood on the ground.”(Isa 63:6)
3.Jesus promised a day when all our suffering would be vindicated
“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 13:40-42)
4.And we would be brought into the Kingdom
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matt 13:43)
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.”—Battle Hymn of the Republic
“And in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
—John Steinbech, The Grapes of Wrath