Sermon from April 15, 2007
The book of Revelation tells a story of conflict. From age to age this conflict rages between Christ and His Bride on one hand and the beast and Babylon the harlot on the other. John's vision reveals the nature and intensity of the conflict. It also reveals why the Church is called on to play a decisive role in this age-long conflict.

The outcome of this age-long conflict is "the transfer of the sovereignty of the whole world from the dragon and the beast, who presently dominate it, to God, whose universal kingdom is to come on earth," (Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 242).

But this transfer of authority does not come about as a result of God's judgment, as if the one who sits on the throne were a God, who destroys in order to rule. I now regret my earlier perception that heaven's purpose was to cow a rebellious world into submission by sheer force.

Judgment alone fails to bring about repentance and faith toward God. After the sixth trumpet sounded we heard this outcome of judgment: The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands ... Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts – Revelation 9:20-21.

After the seventh angel poured out the last bowl of judgment upon the earth, John heard the same outcome of judgment: And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible – Revelation 16:21.

That is not to say that judgment has no role in "the transfer of the sovereignty of the whole world from the dragon and the beast ... to God." But God's judgment is often nothing more than God's consent, when humanity refuses to be governed any longer by devices and desires. "You want things your way without my guidance? Very well, that is what you'll have." Human evil carries with it a terrible self-destruction. Sometimes that brings people to their senses; more often it does not.

God uses it to achieve His purpose, but by itself judgment does not transfer the sovereignty of the world to God to whom it belongs by viture of creation. What does that is the faithful witness of Christ and His Church even to the point of death. Revelation 12:11 says: They (the Church) overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb (by Jesus' faithful witness even unto death) and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

This central theme emerges in the constant interruptions that accumulate throughout the book of Revelation. They gave the impression that heaven is in no hurry to bring about the end of all things. Instead, one interruption of judgment after the other bears witness to the tender patience of heaven, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance – 2 Peter 3:9.

Today, we come to the fruition of God's patience and of the Bride's faithful witness to the Lamb. We come to John's final vision. Please turn with me one last time to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Let's begin in chapter 17 of John's vision, verses one and three.

The Vision of the Harlot
Verse one: One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters."

Verse three: Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into the desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

Verses 5-6 identify her further: This title was written on her forehead:

MYSTERY
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. John called her Babylon the Great, in order to compare her to Babylon of old that destroyed the people of God. Verse 18 identifies her as the great city that rules over the kings of the earth, a clear reference to the Roman Empire. The city and the Empire had taken on the character of a prostitute.

After this, in Revelation 18:1: I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!"

Then, verse four: I heard another voice from heaven say to followers of the Lamb: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues."

"Come out of her!" always means to remember deep down that this world – however much reason we have to love it and however much we may serve its needs – this world is not our home. How could the harlot, who seduces, deceives, and sometimes kills our brothers and sisters, make a home for us?

Listen to the song of those who consort with the harlot in our generation:

The unfettered pursuit of happiness is my shepherd, I will not be thwarted.
          The grass is always greener on the other side,
a little white water never hurt anybody,
          and excitement keeps me going.
This pursuit takes me down the path of self-fulfillment
          for my well-being.
Even though I risk my health
          and damage people around me,
I will fear no evil:
          I have insurance;
My doctor and my lawyer
          will make it all okay again.
The entertainment world reassures me,
          when others judge me,
that most people are like me.
          I can handle this!
Surely pleasure and security will follow me
          all the days of mylife,
and I will shop the malls of America forever.

John warns the Church away from the harlot's enticement by his vision of her sad fate. First, in verses 9-10: "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

"'Woe! Woe, O great city,
O Babylon, city of power!
In one hour your doom has come!'"

Verses 15-16: The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out:

"Woe! Woe, O great city,
dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet,
and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!
In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!'"

Verse 19 says of every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors and all who earn their living from the sea that they will thrown dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out:

"'Woe! Woe, O great city,
where all who had ships on the sea
became rich through her wealth!
In one hour she has been brought to ruin!'"

Chapter nineteen of John's vision begins with something quite different from the mourning of kings and merchants and men of the sea. After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

"Hallelujah!"
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

In the visionary eye of the Christian prophet the Empire had reached the pinnacle of human civilization. The wave of man had never risen higher, and in a moment it would come crashing down like a great tsunami and leave behind incalculable wreckage – because it had set itself against the one who sits on the throne and the Lamb.

The Vision of the Bride
Then, I behld a new wonder in chapter 21 of John's vision, verse nine. As in the Vision of the Harlot one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to John, using the same language as in the vision of the harlot, "Come, I will show you, not a harlot but the bride, the wife of the Lamb."

As in the Vision of the Harlot he carried me away in the Spirit, this time not to the desert but to a mountain great and high, and showed me, this time not a woman but the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. The Bride is also a city, as the harlot was also a city.

These deliberate parallels and contrasts mark this vision of the harlot and the bride as "the climax toward which John's vision has aimed: the destruction of Babylon and her replacement by the New Jerusalem," (Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy, 5).

I could say much about the New Jerusalem. I will content myself to highlight two splendors. In verse 24 John wrote: The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. The nations and the kings and their splendor survive the final judgments. Chastened and cleansed by repentance and faith, all can now be offered to the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.

What fires heart with hope and the promise of coming goodness closes the vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22:1-5. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
John's vision of the harlot and the Bride anticipates the breath-taking transfer of authority by which "the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."

The vision of the harlot ends in Revelation 19:10. The vision of the bride begins in Revelation 21:9. In between them, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, not science, education, or politics, makes the vision of the bride a reality.

John's vision of the harlot and the Bride is not "history written in advance," (Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, 149-150). John did see the fall of the Roman Empire in his vision. That really happened – but more than 300 years later and after the Empire had adopted Christianity as its official religion.

We may be sure that dreamers in the Age of Constantine said that with the conversion of the Empire and with Christian Emperors on the throne the New Jerusalem was right around the corner. It was a foolish dream. The sack of Rome by Northern European barbarians in the fifth century and the sweep of Islam's armies across Arabia and North Africa in the seventh reveal its folly.

On the other hand, the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity bears eloquent witness to the central message of Revelation: the faithful witness of Christ and His Church even to the point of death really did bring about the conversion of the nations.

John's vision of the harlot and the bride "offer(s) a different way of perceiving the world which leads people to resist and to challenge the effects of the dominant ideology," (Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, 159) of their own age.

This different way of perceiving the world offers an enduring reminder of the fate of any nation or empire that sets itself against the Lord and His Messiah. Nations and empires that resist will see their ambitions and pretensions diminish and disappear like smoke on the autumn wind; and those who trust in them shall weep.

Within living memory many in this room have seen that happen again and again. The sun finally set on the British Empire. The German Empire collapsed in a few, bloody years. The Soviet Empire is no more. We watch today the slow dismantling of Europe. To our own fair land has come "the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood ... For the good or evil side."

With a rush of gratitude I and thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand knelt before the one who sits on the throne and the Lamb and thanked Him for the vision He had given to John to give to the Church for all time. It feeds us with an enduring image of His purpose to bless all the nations of the earth and with an irrevocable calling to the Church to bear witness to Christ even to the point of death.

Listen to the psalm of those in this and every generation who follow the Lamb:

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
          He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
          he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
          for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
          through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
          for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
          they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
          in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
          my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
          all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever – Psalm 23.

Babylon the harlot and Jerusalem the bride: choose which city will be your home and which psalm your lips will lift in praise!