Heaven's Response to Babylon's Fall

I'm trying to be a witness for Christ. If you turn to Revelation chapter 19, we're back. Let me just inform you and remind you of some things. Number one, we're in the seminary, so I'm treating it that way, which means you really gotta be on your toes here. You need somebody to ring class with me about fifteen minutes.

Secondly, I have about seven pair of glasses that my wife bought from the dollar store. I tried them all. I'm gonna go with these. None of them are perfect. I may use another pair on Sunday. Let's just see how things go here. But if you could put up with that, that will be encouragement to me.

So let me set my life up here a little bit. We began in 2019 looking into one of the most wonderful and really mysterious passages in all of scripture, Revelation chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. This is the section often referred to as the marriage supper of the lamb, and I think you'll see that next week. But since it's been several weeks since my hip surgery, since we've been here, I went back a little bit. I want us to capture the context again where we're at and give you a review of what we did three weeks ago, four weeks ago, whatever, and then we'll make some new ground in this wonderful passage.

Revelation 19 stands in the shadow of Revelation 17 and 18, which you remember is the fall of the final great evil world empire of the Antichrist. In fact, let me read for you chapter 18, verses 1 through 3. "After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.'"

So the angel here is picturing for John both the political and the religious system that has dominated the world during the final seven years that the Bible calls the tribulation period. Remember, it's been a religious system that's been built to form lies—the greatest lie—that the Antichrist is the actual savior of humanity. It's been a political system that's been built upon every kind of corruption and every kind of perversion. It's also been an empire that's been so filled with hatred for the true God that it's become drunk on the blood of his saints.

Look over at chapter 17, verse 6. We see that, if you remember, the woman who is the harlot—a description for the last one-world false religious system—is drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

Now, to be honest with you, if you look back at all of the world's history from the beginning, you could see all of these characteristics that we have seen in this one final great world empire. You remember John writes this will be the mother of all evil empires. The hatred of Christ and his people will reach an apex during the reign of Satan's Antichrist.

And when God's righteous judgment comes, what will be the reaction when God comes to put an end to man's evil? We'll look at chapter 18, verse 9. "The kings of the earth, those who bought into and partnered with Antichrist and committed acts of immorality and lost essentially with her—with the Antichrist kingdom—they will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning." Verse 15: "The merchants who were those who became wrenched on partnering with Antichrist in his final evil empire will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, and they will be weeping and mourning."

Now that's what's gonna take place on earth when God comes to bring final judgment on humanity. But the question is, what's gonna take place in heaven? What's gonna be going on in heaven? Because that's where we're gonna be. Remember, we are raptured just before this final seven-year period begins.

Well, the verses we come to this evening tell us that at the end of the tribulation, right before Christ returns in glory—we'll see that in future weeks—heaven will suddenly erupt with deafening, unrestrained praise to Almighty God.

So, beloved, I tell you these are some of the most blessed verses that you're ever gonna come across: 19:1 through 10. Notice—and this is important—notice when this takes place: "After these things." These things refer back to the angel's announcement of destruction of Babylon and the Antichrist world empire—what we saw deep for us in chapters 17 and 18. And because of that announcement, we saw the entire world mourn because their evil empire is collapsing. When heaven's response to the angel's announcement is radically different than the world's response.

We find, as we turn our gaze from earth to heaven, that there is great rejoicing. In fact, the rejoicing we're gonna see is so great that we are gonna be overwhelmed just trying to get our minds around what John sees here in this vision.

So the verses before us are heaven's response to the angel's call for praise for Babylon—or the worldwide evil empire's final destruction. So look at the angel's call for response to the fall of Babylon. It's back in chapter 18, verse 20. The angel says, "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment, watch this, for you—against her." So when God announces the destruction of the world's last and greatest evil empire, the earth will mourn. But earth's mourning is going to give way to heaven's celebration.

Now as we come to our passage, and we begin this—like I said, three, four weeks ago—there are four words that kind of set the outline for us. You can see there are the words "Hallelujah" in verse 1, verse 3, verse 4, and verse 6. So these four Hallelujahs will end up expressing for us four grand motivations for heaven's praise. And by the way, they're motivations that should cause us to praise God even today.

So let me review the first two, which we examined a number of weeks back, then we'll take up the third one. I want to leave the fourth one, which is the most exciting one, for next time.

The First Motivation: Heaven's Justice is Finally Accomplished

So the reason for heaven's praise, number one: because heaven's justice is finally accomplished.

So John begins by giving us the origin of this praise. Notice verse 1: "After these things, I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven."

Now here, my reference is all the angels of heaven. The Greek word is "mega." It's a mega multitude. Now the Bible nowhere tells us exactly how many angels there are. But remember we could do the math a little bit. Revelation 9:16 tells us that 200,000,000 demons are released upon the earth. Now we know in Revelation 12:4 that back at the beginning, one-third of the angels were cast out of heaven and became demons. So when you do the math, there was at least 400,000,000 holy angels. So what we see here in this mega multitude are at least hundreds of millions of angels that join together in a mighty voice in this magnificent chorus.

And notice what John says. I think it's purposeful here: "After these things, I heard something like a singular loud voice." So it's all like one voice. Hundreds of millions of angels with mighty voices all praising God with singular harmony. I mean, you just imagine what that's gonna be like?

Notice the nature of this praise. Verse 1: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God."

Now, hallelujah—I mentioned to you last time, once you understand what it means, you're never gonna use it again when your team scores a touchdown. It's too much. So it comes from two Hebrew words. By the way, it's used throughout the Old Testament. It's only used in the New Testament right here, only in this chapter, four times. So it occurs throughout the Old Testament, and it occurs in heaven at the end of human history.

Now there are two words here. One is "hallel," which simply means to praise, to exalt. The second word is "Yah," which is short for the Old Testament name of God. So literally, "Hallelujah" means "Praise Yahweh, Praise the Lord." Which, you remember, implies for us that the Old Testament name for God is his personal name, Yahweh, because that's the name we're gonna use in heaven. It's used everywhere in Psalms. It's a call to praise Yahweh. And in this, we see the first invitation, we might say, to heaven's praise, and that is divine justice. It's finally been accomplished.

Now let me just give you the arguments that John gives here with the angel. The angel begins by emphasizing number one that God's nature guarantees justice. "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God." They belong to him and him alone. Yahweh should be praised because salvation belongs to Yahweh. God the Savior—by nature that's who he is. He will ultimately and finally rescue his people.

Also, we see here his verdict is just. Notice verse 2: "Because his judgments are true and righteous."

So the angel first praises God because he is faithful to save his people, and then they praise the righteousness of his justice. The word "judgment" has to do with legal decisions from the bench. It's the legal judgments God makes from the bench of his heavenly throne. And what the angel says here is all of his decisions are true. They're always valid. The punishment always fits the crime. God has never made a wrong call from the bench. His judgments are righteous, meaning they are deserved. They are fair. Everyone gets exactly what they have earned.

His decisions display justice also in this first Hallelujah. The actions are just. Notice the angel describes: God's nature is to rescue people. That's a Hallelujah. His nature is to give righteous judgment. But it's not only the verdict that God deserves praise for, but it's the action of judgment he deserves praise for.

Notice verse 2: "His judgments are true and righteous, for he has judged the great harlot who is corrupting the earth" (see chapters 17 and 18). That's a reference to the destruction of Antichrist's empire. Remember, the religious system falls in chapter 17 at the midpoint of the tribulation. The political and economic system falls at the end of the seven-year tribulation in chapter 18.

So those are the reasons that the angels give for Hallelujah to be exalted. Now there are two reasons his judgment was justified. He is that he should. He vindicates God's judgment.

Number one: Antichrist's empire was characterized by immorality. Look again at verse 2: "He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality." That blood was leading to the moral corruption of the earth for all of humanity and the earth's people. And now the capital city from which the immorality was flowing received God's justice.

The second reason God's actions of judgment were fully justified is that Antichrist's persecution of God's people. Again, look at the end of verse 2: "God has avenged the blood of his bond-servants on her." "Avenged" means to inflict appropriate retribution for wrong done. In other words, this is a righteous judgment. This is what God is doing. He's avenging the blood of his bond servants. It refers to all of the slaughter of God's people through all of the ages, but specifically the persecution that will go on during that final seven-year tribulation where Antichrist and his followers become drunk on the slaughter of God's people. They are addicted to it. They can't get enough of this.

You remember I told you that in chapters 6, 7, and 11, the world is gonna experience the greatest revival it ever experienced during the final seven years of human history. And you could read those chapters. People are gonna get saved everywhere. But as people are getting saved, millions and millions are being slaughtered by Antichrist in the ensuing persecution.

Look at chapter 18, verse 24: "And in her, the capital city, was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of all who have been slain on the earth." In other words, from the capital city, Antichrist will give the orders that God's people are hunted down across the planet and slaughtered. And God will avenge the blood on the capital city—which, by the way, you remember, actually answers the prayers of God's people in chapter 6, verse 10: "When, O Lord, how long before you avenge what's been done to your people?"

The Second Motivation: Man's Revolt Against God is Finally Finished

Now all that brings us to heaven's second Hallelujah. So number one, the first reason for Hallelujah is God's justice is accomplished. Heaven rejoices because God's justice is accomplished.

Number two: Man's revolt against God is finally finished.

Jumping to verse 3, with the source of praise, he says, "A second time they said, 'Hallelujah!'" This is the same multitude—about 400,000,000 holy angels—from verse 1. So these hundreds of millions of angels are continuing to praise, and now they articulate a second reason for their praise. The second time they said, "Hallelujah! Praise Yahweh. Why? For smoke rises up from Babylon. Smoke rises up forever and ever."

So together, the angels call for Yahweh to be praised because the smoke of the destruction of Babylon—the Antichrist's capital city, this evil world empire—rises up forever and ever.

Back in chapter 18, you could look at verse 8 when God announces the destruction of Babylon. Look at the end of verse 8: "As he burns the city with the seven bowl judgment, she will be burned up with fire. For the Lord God who judges her is mighty, mighty."

Chapter 19 tells us the smoke from the fire of Babylon's destruction rises up forever and ever. It's a figure of speech to say that the judgment upon mankind's rebellion against God—Antichrist's evil empire—judgment is permanent and irreversible.

You remember all this started, by the way, back in Genesis chapter 11. Humanity got together. They built a tower. "We're gonna worship our own gods. We're gonna make a name for ourselves." To symbolize all of humanity's rebellion against God, God came down in judgment. He confused their languages so they couldn't communicate with one another.

So people spoke this language and went this way. People spoke this language and went that way. And they took their rebellion and their talents with them, and thus we are today. At the end of human history, it's namesake—Babel, the babble of the great. At the end of the age, the capital city of the Antichrist empire will be the center of world rebellion, human rebellion against God. And it will be destroyed permanently. Its smoke going up forever and ever. And heaven will celebrate. It will celebrate when man's revolt against God has been permanently, finally, and totally destroyed.

One author gave this illustration. He says when Christ returns with a shout, what will he shout? He will shout: Enough. Enough suffering, enough terror, enough death, enough indignity, enough hopelessness, enough sickness, enough disease, enough corruption, enough dishonesty, enough perversion, enough violence, enough adultery, enough abuse of children, enough cheating, enough blasphemy, enough irreverence towards God. Enough. When human rebellion is finally over, all of heaven—including us, beloved—we will break out the hallelujah chorus.

The Kingdom of Christ

Now what brings us to the third great hallelujah. The kingdom of Christ has just arrived. So notice verses four through six. John starts with the source of praise, but now it's going to add two other groups to this hallelujah chorus.

Revelation 19:4—"And the 24 elders and the four living creatures."

There are two views about these 24 elders. Some say it's another category of angels and celestial beings, maybe the cherubim or maybe the seraphim. Others say that the 24 elders represent a group of humans. Those who say that state that they represent New Testament saints, or they represent both Old and New Testament saints.

So who are these 24 elders? Let me try to show you from scripture. Turn back to Revelation 4. Then I think we get a clear understanding of who they are. This is the first time we meet them, and in this text, we're going to see some important clues as to who these 24 elders are.

Revelation 4:4—"Around the throne were 24 thrones."

We're going to begin to build up some evidence here. You have these 24 thrones, and we're going to see 24 elders sit on these 24 thrones. Thrones imply that whoever these elders are—angels or saints, whoever they are—they're engaged in ruling. They're sitting on thrones. They're engaged in reigning.

Now scripture nowhere instructs us that angels are engaged in ruling or reigning over anyone but themselves. In fact, remember in Hebrews 1:14, they are servants, ministers of God to the saints. On the other hand, throughout the New Testament and the Old Testament, saints are often described as ruling with Christ in the end.

Look at Revelation 2:26—"He who overcomes, that's believers, you are overcomers. And he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken into pieces. And as I also received authority from my Father."

Revelation 5:10—"You have made them believers to be a kingdom and priests of our God, and they will reign upon the earth."

So the first clue is that those who are sitting on the throne are humans. They are saints, and they are reigning with Christ. And you see this everywhere in scripture.

The second clue: the 24 elders sit on the throne clothed in white garments. Now listen, this could be true of angels. Do you remember Matthew 28? When the angel comes to the tomb, and there's the stone rolling away, there are two angels in these white, blazing garments. But when you come to the book of Revelation, most often when someone is clothed with white garments, white linen, it's the saints of God.

Look at Revelation 19:8—"It was given to her to clothe herself, that's the church, that's saints, in fine linen bright and clean. For the fine linen is representative of the righteous acts of the saints."

So that's just another clue. These are saints, and they're not angels.

The third clue, I think, is conclusive. Back in Revelation 4:4, these 24 elders have golden crowns on their heads. Now nowhere in scripture does it ever say that angels are wearing crowns, but often believers in the New Testament especially are described as wearing crowns.

Revelation 2:10—"Jesus says to the saints, 'Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.'"

So when you put all the evidence together, it seems sure to me that the 24 elders are not some different category of angelic being, and we'll see some of those, but they're representative of believers.

Which begs the next question: Who are these believers? Well, there are two basic answers. Some say that they are exclusively New Testament saints. Others say that they're New Testament saints and Old Testament saints. And I'm saying you could make an argument for both. Either way, it's a legitimate understanding.

Now I take it as all believers. Let me tell you why. Notice there are 24 elders, not 23, not 42, but 24. I believe that number instructs us that these 24 include both the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints.

How is that? Well, 12 elders represent the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel throughout the Old Testament—12 tribes, 12 sons of Jacob, which represent all true believers during the Old Testament history of Israel. And even though they're not part of the rapture of the church, I believe the Old Testament saints are not raised during the rapture but after the tribulation. That's Daniel 12. Their spirits are in heaven just like all believers' spirits are in heaven now because there hasn't been a resurrection.

Now what about the other 12? Well, that's obvious. They were the 12 apostles, which in turn represents the New Testament church—all New Testament believers.

Now it's interesting when we go to Revelation 21, we're going to see that the heavenly city, where we're going to live on a reconstructed earth with access to the universe and especially the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city where God is, has 12 gates. On those 12 gates are the 12 names of the tribes of Israel. The heavenly city has 12 grand foundational stones. On those 12 foundational stones are the names of the 12 apostles. So you have 12 plus 12, which equals what? 24.

Excellent. Meaning—and this is theologically important and unites the people of God—the 24 elders represent the redeemed of the Old Testament and the redeemed of the New Testament.

Now in addition to all of the hundreds of millions of angels, in addition to all of the saints—so you say, how many saints? We don't know. But those who do these studies estimate that there have been about 100 billion people on the planet since the beginning. Whatever the number is, many people, billions of people. Now how many of those were saved? We don't know, but we know that the narrow gate—that only those who enter in shall be saved. So maybe 4 billion, 6 billion, maybe 10 billion. I'm not sure. You have maybe hundreds of millions of angels, billions of saints—Old Testament and New Testament saints—all joining together in this hallelujah chorus.

But that's not all. Back to Revelation 19:4—the 24 elders represent all the saints of all time, and also "the four living creatures."

The four living ones are a distinct class of angelic being. Let me show you what these are. We go back to Revelation 4. Back in chapter 4 and chapter 5 are pictures of what will happen.

Revelation 4:8—"And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, and they were full of eyes all around and within. And they do not cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'"

This comes right out of Isaiah 6. Remember, in the year King Uzziah died—the Messiah died—I, Isaiah, was taken and transformed into the heavenly throne room. He saw a vision, and there was God on the throne with brilliance and glory, and there were the seraphim. They were flying with six wings, and they were crying, "Holy, holy."

So most scholars, back to Revelation 19, see this as the exalted guardians of the throne of God, the seraphim. They're pouring out God's wrath upon sinful humanity because his holiness has been so long violated over the ages.

Now both of these groups then—the 24 elders, representing all believers, Old Testament and New Testament saints, and these four living creatures—they joined with approximately several hundred million angels, and they praise God.

Again, Revelation 19:4—"And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne."

This is a physical response—a prostration. They worship. Their reverence, their adoration before God. And the physical act of worship breaks out into a call to praise at the end of verse 4: "Amen. Hallelujah."

This is probably a quote from Psalm 106:48, which is the only time these two words are used together. Both are Hebrew words. The Hebrew word in the Hebrew Bible is "amen." We took that word and made the Greek word "amen." We took that word and made it an English word "amen." Whenever you say amen, you're saying the Hebrew word. It simply means it's a word that expresses full agreement with what has just been said. You might say, "Amen. Let it come to pass. Let it be."

So you have these two groups—all believers, all believers, four amazing living creatures around the throne of God—and they say, "Amen." In other words, they're in full agreement with the praise and the reasons for praise of all of the angels in verses 1, 2, and 3. And once again comes this call to praise. We have a third hallelujah now.

And the third hallelujah doesn't bring in a new idea. It just echoes with the word "amen." It echoes the praise and affirms the previous ideas of praise.

But then look at verse 5. "And a voice came from the throne."

This is separate from the voices of the multitude of angels, separate from the voices of all the saints of all the ages, separate from the voices of the four living creatures. There comes another voice, and it's said to come from the throne. Now this preposition "from the throne"—it's probably better translated "out of the throne." It doesn't necessarily mean that it comes from the one sitting on the throne. The idea is, from John's perspective, it's coming from the direction of where the throne is.

So the voice is not the voice of God the Father. It's not the voice of God the Son. Why? Look at verse 5: "The voice gives praise to our God."

In the book of Ezekiel, if it's not God, then who is this? Well, in the book of Ezekiel, we have a parallel. I'm giving you a bit of speculation here, but scholars kind of lean in this direction.

It's not the normal mega multitude of the holy angels. It's not these unique four living creatures—the seraphim from Isaiah 6. In the book of Ezekiel, you have a group of angelic beings called the cherubim. They're the closest to the throne. They support God's authority and his throne. So it's likely that this new voice comes from another angelic order of angels.

And it says, "Give praise to our God."

The angelic being addresses and calls forth praise now from even a wider circle: "Give praise to our God, all you who put yourselves in the category of his servants, his slaves, you who reverence him, both small and great."

Great, mighty, and exalted beings, and small, puny saints like us, you might say.

So this voice calls for all of those who identify as servants of God, all of those who fear God, who worship God—all of redeemed humanity, all of the holy angels, all of the various categories of seraphim and cherubim. This sums up everything we've seen up until this point. There is universal praise to our God. Every holy angel, every redeemed saint, all joins in together.

I can only ask myself the question: what would it sound like? I mean, we're going to be there, but what will it be like? I love this. John, you don't have to guess. John gives us three figures of speech—similes, I think would be the grammatical term—to capture what it will be like.

Look at verse 6: "Then I heard something like the voice of a mega multitude."

So it's not this, but let me give you three illustrations.

Something like the voice of a massive crowd. A race crowd, maybe the biggest crowd that we've ever been to—maybe something like a football game, right? 60,000, 80,000 at MetLife, and it gets loud. It gets so loud that they're using electronic devices now because they can't even hear themselves on the field. But the Jews have had bigger crowds. They've had bigger crowds in somewhat smaller places. The Passover was said to bring in 2 million Jews to the city of Jerusalem to the temple—26 acres. Can you imagine what hundreds of millions of angels and saints will sound like?

Then he has another illustration: "Sound of many waters."

Think Niagara Falls—the deafening roar. If you've ever been to Niagara Falls, there's an experience where they take you close. Years ago, we went to the Cave of the Winds. You go in an elevator and descend into the mist as they put you in boats and bring you close to the falls.

and you actually walked right in front of the falls. They kinda had you roped up, and they gave you special shoes to wear and special raincoats. When you were down there, the sound was deafening. You couldn't hear anything.

Then he gives one more simile illustration. Many pearls or breakings of thunder—think Florida, think of simultaneous crashing of multiple thunderstorms, one right after another. Thunder and thunder. You think the sky is falling. You're fearful.

Together, every angel—every unique category of angelic being—will call out with one thunderous, mighty voice in harmony for the praise of Yahweh.

Verse six: Hallelujah. The end of verse six: Hallelujah. Now that's the fourth hallelujah in this heavenly chorus.

Now the fourth hallelujah introduces more reasons to praise. The third one is in verse six. The one in verse seven and ten, we'll do that next time. Like I said, it's the most exciting.

But notice this third reason for praise in verse six. See the anniversary six: Hallelujah. Praise Yahweh. Why? For or because the Lord our God almighty reigns.

You know, I can tell you that those believers—let's go back to the context in the first century. You have these believers in these little churches in those seven cities of Asia Minor: Ephesus, Thyatira, and Philadelphia. These were not megachurches. Think a hundred twenty people, a hundred forty people maybe. And they're sitting in these churches, and they're hearing this for the first time, and they are shocked.

By the way, it's interesting, and I think you'll note it. The emperor during the time they would have received these letters was a man named Domitian. And like all the emperors, he exalted titles for himself. So Domitian took the title for himself: "our lord and our god."

Not so fast. In contrast to this failed, weak human who in a few years would return to the dust is the Lord God Almighty. He's referred to in the book of Revelation as Almighty nine times. Only one other time in the New Testament. So where does John come up with this idea of what's called mighty—but it's really not used in the rest of the New Testament? Revelation's the last book. It comes from the Old Testament. The word most often translated in the Old Testament, you'll be familiar, is "the Lord of hosts"—the Lord of armies. And shelter armies. The word almighty then is a focus on the power of God to rule, the power of God to control all things. Nothing happens outside of his powerful control. He is sovereign. That's the idea of almighty.

He just showed that power, the sovereign power, by destroying history's greatest dictator in history's greatest empire. For seven years, they led Christ and his empire. They felt they were invisible, just like every empire. Right? No one will ever take us down. And in God's decision, there's nothing left but smoke.

So this call to praise is grounded in the reality that because God is almighty, his kingdom has finally come. Look at verse six again at the end of verse six: Hallelujah. Praise Yahweh, for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Now understand the idea of the verb here: reigns. It isn't the same, maybe, but it looks on the surface. It's not saying that God simply continues to exercise sovereign control of the universe, which he does. I'm not denying that. That's not what this verb is saying. The better way to translate it is this: I'm gonna show you another passage. The Lord our God, the Almighty, has begun to reign. In other words, his reign is now taking a new and different form. This is a reference to the inauguration of God's reign, which we're gonna see in chapter twenty. Specifically, it's when Jesus, the Messiah, and his kingdom. Later in chapter nineteen and verse eleven following, Christ returns. He defeats the armies of antichrist at Armageddon. In chapter twenty, verse one through six, Jesus, he said, he establishes the long-promised millennial kingdom, and people reign on a renewed earth for a thousand years. Done. That's what this is celebrating.

Go back to chapter eleven. I'll show you this. Then how we should read it. Chapter eleven, verse fifteen: "And the angel sounded and there was a lot of voices and had him say, 'The kingdom of the world was the kingdom of our Lord and of his tribes. And he will reign forever and ever.' And for a twenty-four hour, you should sit on the throne before God, fall on your faces and worship God saying, 'We give thanks, oh Lord God, Almighty, who are and who were.'"

Now watch what he says next: "You have taken your great power and have begun to reign."

It doesn't mean that God hasn't been reigning over the universe. It means there's going to be a new expression of this reign. He's going to give his Son the kingdom, and he will rule and reign over the earth for a thousand years.

Think about this. For two thousand years now, believers—you and I, believers—have been praying the Lord's prayer: "May your kingdom come." You prayed that prayer. We prayed that prayer. Old Testament saints prayed that prayer because this was a promise all the way back. When will your Lord make your kingdom covenant for the disciples? "What, what are you gonna establish your kingdom?" And when it comes, all heaven will break loose and hallelujahs. The kingdom has finally arrived.

In this scene, heaven celebrates. It prays. This Yahweh—that the prayer that believers have prayed since the beginning, that the promises have been given—have finally been answered. And basically, what this passage does is it calls upon us today to join in and have celebration.

See, this is what you and I will do one day. This is us. It describes us in the future in the Lord's presence. But it's also given us reasons to celebrate and worship God with hallelujah today.

What? Well, one day, divine justice will finally be done. One day, human rebellion will finally be over. And one day, Christ's kingdom will finally come.

Next week, I'm gonna play a song for you. It's one of my favorites: Andrew Peterson. Andrew came actually to a concert with my previous church. He had since written this song. You may be familiar with it—Sunday before. Let me read some of it.

"Do you feel the world is broken? We do. Do you feel the shadows deepen? We do. But do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through? We do. Do you wish that it could all be made new? We do.

"Is all creation groaning? It is. Is a new creation humming? It is. Is the glory of the Lord to be our light in its midst? It is.

"And then he asks, 'Is it good that we remind ourselves of this?' It is. 'Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? The line of Judah. He conquered the grave. He was David's root and the land who died to ransom the slave. Is he worthy? Is he worthy of all blessing and honor and glory? Is he worthy of this?' Heaven's answer: 'He is. He is.'"

Come, let's pray. This passage of scripture speaks of what the makes in the future and a reality that awaits us.

Lord, we do sense the darkness has deepened. The world and all of creation is groaning. But we know that a new day is coming. And we shout hallelujah. Praise Yahweh for what you will do for us, for your glory. Lord, help us to live in light of these truths. I pray in Jesus' name.