Introduction: The book of Revelation is generally considered to be a
book of “last day” events. Among those events is a message from God
brought by three angels. This week, we turn our attention to the
important message of the first angel. Let’s jump in!
- The Messenger
- Read Revelation 14:6. Let’s look at this first angel for a
moment. The text says “I saw another angel.” What do you think
it means by “another” angel? Isn’t this angel the first of
three? How can it be “another?” (If you review the book of
Revelation, you will see there are many angels who either give
or receive heavenly messages.) - This angel flies in “midair.” What is the significance
of flying in midair? Is this angel is a prudent flier
who is unlikely to crash anytime soon? (If you wanted to
be seen and heard you would get up where everyone could
see you. The significance is that this angel has a
message that it wants us to hear.) - What is the message of this angel? (The “eternal
gospel.”) - To whom is this gospel to be given? (To everyone
of every language.) - It seems so hard to be able to give the gospel to
everyone. Think of all of the people who live from
the edge of Eastern Europe to the Eastern boarder
of China. This is a vast area in which the gospel
has not thoroughly penetrated. Will God finally
send an angel because we have not presented the
gospel to everyone? - The gospel is described as the “eternal” gospel.
What does that mean to you? (The gospel does not
change.) - Our lessons this quarter are about “the pillars”
of faith. Why do you think that the first angel’s
message is the eternal gospel? (First and foremost
is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some might argue
this is the only pillar of our faith.) - The Preparation
- Imagine that you want a raise or want to change your work
hours, would you just walk into your boss’s office without
thinking about how you will approach the issue? - Do you remember when you were dating? Did you ask for
your initial date with a girl without planning what you
were going to say first?
- If you were a girl who wanted to date a specific guy,
did you plan how you could meet him and what you would
say to show that you were interested in him? - We’ve got an angel with a message to the world about the
gospel. Do you think the angel’s words were carefully
planned? Or did God just say to an angel, “Say a few
words about my coming to the world” and the angel ad-libbed a few lines? (This idea sounds impossible,
doesn’t it? If you were sent by God, went “midair” to be
sure everyone could hear, and then proclaimed what was
supposed to be the “eternal gospel” I would think your
words would be very carefully chosen.) - The Message
- Read Revelation 14:7. What part of the angel’s message really
grabs your attention? (The angel ties it to the judgment. He
tells us that the gospel is relevant now, because the time of
judgment is now.) - We were talking about planning important discussions. If
God especially planned to start out with a declaration
about the judgement, why do you think He started that
way? (This message is to make us think seriously about
our relationship with God.) - We concluded earlier that the gospel of Jesus Christ was
the first part of the message because of its extreme
importance. However, we did not discuss what the
“everlasting gospel” meant. What does Revelation 14:7
suggest is the eternal gospel? What are the elements of
the message? (List them.) - Fear (respect) God
- Glorify God
- Hour of judgment has come
- Worship the Creator.
- Does this seem to be the gospel that you know about? (It
does not seem, at first glance, to be the message of the
cross. So, let’s look deeper.) - What does it mean to fear God? (Fear in Greek is
“phobeo” which means to be in awe of God.) - What does v. 7 suggest is the reason for us to fear God?
(Judgment time has arrived.) - We are also told to give God glory because His
judgment is at hand. Why would you glorify God
because He is judging? Is that a “glorious” event? - Do you like people judging you?
- Would you like someone judging you who could
kill you? - Perhaps it will be clearer by putting these two
ideas together. The first angel says to be in awe
and give glory to our God because of His judgment.
Under what circumstances can you imagine you would
both be in awe and give glory to someone who
judged you? (When you successfully passed the
judgment! The gospel is not some little story
about a teacher, who we decided to follow, who it
turns out died like a criminal and we are ashamed
about it. This is the watershed event in the
history of the world. And our God prevailed! If
we decide to follow Him, we too will prevail in
the judgment. So fear God. Be in awe of Him and
what He did for us!) - What do you think it means to “give God glory?” (The
Greek word is “doxa.” Vines says this word means “good
opinion, praise, honor, glory, an appearance commanding
respect, magnificence, excellence, manifestation of
glory.”) - Let’s get practical: How can we give God glory? (List)
- Revelation 14:7 also tells us to worship God. When we read
that we should worship God, what comes to mind? That is, what
does it mean to worship? (List) - Consider that the Greek word for worship is “Proskeneo”
which literally means to “pros” “towards” and “kuneo”
“to kiss.” Kisses to God! Friend, do you give “kisses to
God?”
- The angel links fearing God to the judgment. To what does the
angel link worshiping God in Revelation 14:7? (His Creation.) - Is believing in the Creation a key element to true
worship of
God?
- If you do not believe in the Creation, are you able to
worship God? - If you did not believe in the Creation, on what basis
would you be worshiping God? (A literal Creation is one
of the most controverted aspects of the Bible. A lot of
people believe in God, “believe” in the Bible, yet do
not believe in a literal Creation.) - Is a literal Creation a fundamental truth? Or is
this just one of those debated and debatable
things that has little, if anything to do with
your salvation? (I believe it is fundamental. This
first angel links our worship of God to the
Creation. If you do not believe that God made us,
then it is more difficult to believe that He
“recreated us” when He arose from the grave. If
you don’t believe either of those (creation or
recreation), it is hard to understand the basis
for your worship.) - Practical Application
- We have discovered that the first angel has this judgment-time
gospel message that our Creator God has given His people
victory in the judgment. That is good news! Should we just be
sitting back waiting for this angel to share this news with
the world? (The word translated “angel” means “messenger.” If
you look at the first chapters of Revelation you see messages
“to the angel of the church” and then it mentions a specific
church. Since these messages are to the people of these
churches, it seems that “angel” is being used in a much
broader sense than just a heavenly angel. The NIV Study Bible
has a note on Revelation 1:20 which says that “angels” may be
either “heavenly messengers” or “earthly
messengers/ministers.”) - Friend, do you think that God has given part of the
responsibility of this “first angel” to spread the
“everlasting gospel” about that the time of judgment is at
hand? (In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus tells us that we are to be
His messengers to share the gospel. So we have the opportunity
and responsibility to share the first angel’s message.) - Will you decide, this week, to help share this important
end-time message? - Next week: Crisis of Loyalty
