October 13, 2019 “The Beginning of the Tribulation” Revelation 6

Take-Away’s from Revelation 6, The Tribulation Begins

Main Idea: Uninterrupted and intense judgment mark the beginning of the end; where will you run and hide?

6:1-8 Four Harrowing Horsemen gallop on to the stage as the Great Tribulation begins. Here are the symbolic meanings of their colors:

White: conquest. This is not the Christ, but the Anti-Christ. See Revelation 19 for a picture of the returning Christ. Red: bloodshed. This rider is permitted to remove peace from the earth. Therefore, there will be world war like we have never witnessed before. Black: famine. Pale: death. The pastor sees this last rider as sort of a street sweeper, cleaning up the mass of bodies left behind from bloodshed and famine.

6:9-11 White Robes for Tribulation Saints. The pastor obviously showed his hand here on his rapture view. The souls under the altar are the souls of Tribulation martyrs who persevered to the end and died in faith. John makes no mention of a rapture leading some to believe the Church will go through at least the first three and half years of the Tribulation. The end of chapter 6 marks the end of the first three and a half years.

The pastor took the opportunity to explain the meaning of God’s Sovereignty. Sovereignty in its essence means ownership and control. Notice the cries of the Tribulation Saints are not despairing; they are cries for vindication. They are quite certain that God owns their soul and is in perfect control of the tribulation around them. The pastor encouraged the church to pray like these souls prayed.

6:12-17 Nowhere to Run, No Place to Hide. In radical contrast to the souls under the altar protected by God, there will be an army of unredeemed people who proudly reject the goodness of God for too long. They cry out too, but their cry is not one of repentance and sorrow. They would rather be crushed by an avalanche of boulders than face the Lamb of God. Ask yourself, ‘To which group do I belong?’