Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Hey, everybody. Pastor Chuck Allen back with another weekday podcast. And we're still in the Book of the Revelation. And today we're going to skip forward to Revelation, chapter 14 and 15 and talk a little bit about the song that no empire can silence.
[00:00:24] So, again, welcome to the weekday podcast. Some parts of the Book of the Revelation can feel like you're walking into a movie, kind of like halfway through, and you're just trying to figure out where you're at, where we're going, what's happened. There's angels that are flying through the sky. There's beasts, there's bowls, there's strange numbers, smoke, thunder, fire. People singing by something called a sea of glass mixed with fire.
[00:00:49] And it can feel a little bit like, okay, like, Chuck, what am I supposed to do with this today while I'm trying to get kids out the door? Answer emails, navigate relationships, and then just even try to remember why I walked into this room.
[00:01:04] But the Book of the Revelation was not written to make people who follow Jesus afraid of the future. It was written to give exhausted, pressured, compromised, suffering believers courageous in the present.
[00:01:20] And one of the most beautiful truths in the second half of the Book of the Revelation is this. Before the story ends in a city, it rises in a song.
[00:01:31] In Revelation, chapter 14, it. The book opens in this chapter with this stunning scene. John sees the Lamb standing on Mount Zion. The Lamb. Now, that's Jesus. Not a dragon, not a beast, not Caesar, not violence, not fear, not the latest empire or the ideology or the headline.
[00:01:53] It's a lamb. The Lamb. Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, is standing. And with him are 144,000 people who have his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. Now, whatever you believe about that number, and faithful followers of Jesus have understood it in a lot of different ways, the point is wonderfully clear. These people belong to Jesus, marked by Him.
[00:02:22] In Revelation, everyone's marked by something.
[00:02:25] The beast marks people with his counterfeit allegiance, and the Lamb marks people with his name. And that's still true every day. The world asks, who owns your imagination?
[00:02:39] Who gets your deepest loyalty? What is it that shapes your fear? And what is it that tells you who you are?
[00:02:46] And Jesus is saying, but you're mine.
[00:02:49] Not because we earned it, not because we get everything right, not because we never doubted or struggled or stumbled.
[00:02:59] We belong to Jesus because the Lamb has claimed us. And then John, he hears a sound from heaven like the roar of mighty ocean waves, like rolling thunder. And like harpists play on their harps and they sing a new song. A new song. There's. There's something about a new song that tells you the old song wasn't enough.
[00:03:23] The old sign. The. The old song. It says, hey, y', all, protect yourself.
[00:03:28] Make sure you protect yourself at all costs. The old song says you. You are kind of what you produce. The old song says, get a. Get ahead. Build your platform, defend your image. Make sure people know you're right.
[00:03:41] The old song says, the strong wind, the powerful last, the loudest voice controls the room. But heaven is singing a different kind of song. And it's a song only the redeemed of the Lord can learn. Not because it's exclusives in some petty way, but because heaven is a club with a different and difficult audition process.
[00:04:06] It's because some songs can only be sung by people who have been rescued by Jesus.
[00:04:11] You can explain grace to somebody for sure.
[00:04:15] You can try and define mercy for sure.
[00:04:18] You can preach about forgiveness, absolutely.
[00:04:21] But there is a particular kind of song that rises out of someone who knows. I was lost and Jesus found me.
[00:04:28] I was ashamed, and Jesus covered me. I was exhausted, and Jesus carried me. I was afraid and Jesus stayed.
[00:04:39] Now, that person.
[00:04:42] That person sings differently, man.
[00:04:44] Maybe quietly or through tears, maybe. Or most likely not with perfect pitch, but differently.
[00:04:51] And then in Revelation 15, John sees something even more remarkable.
[00:04:57] He sees people standing beside what looks like a glass sea mixed with fire.
[00:05:03] And these are people who have come through the conflict. They have faced the beast. They have endured pressure. They have not given their worship to false gods of their world. And what are they doing?
[00:05:15] They're holding harps given to them by God. They're singing, I just stinking love that they've been through the fire. And they're still singing. Not because the fire was good or that suffering is beautiful in and of itself, but because the fire didn't get the final word.
[00:05:32] Rome didn't get the last statement. The empire didn't get to be able to call your future the diagnosis or betrayal or grief. None of those got the last words.
[00:05:44] But the lamb. The lamb, the spotless lamb of God gets the final word. And the final word is not survival, it's worship.
[00:05:54] Revelation 15 says they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God. And the song of the Lamb.
[00:06:00] That is such a fascinating detail.
[00:06:03] The song of Moses is the song Israel sang after God delivered them through the Red Sea.
[00:06:09] Pharaoh's army was behind him. The sea was in front of him. There's nowhere to go. And God made a way.
[00:06:14] So what did they do? They sang.
[00:06:16] Then, in the book of the Revelation, it takes that ancient song of deliverance and points it to the song of the Lamb. And in other words, the God who delivered his people through the sea is the same God who delivers his people through the cross. Old Exodus, New Exodus, Moses, the lamb. Rescued then and rescued now.
[00:06:38] Maybe today you're standing right at the edge of something that feels impossible, and you feel trapped, friend. The God of the book of the Revelation is still the God who makes a way. Not always on our time frame, but I tell you, he always makes way.
[00:06:55] And you know what's interesting?
[00:06:56] Sing that song.
[00:06:58] Maybe sing it in the car while you're having coffee.
[00:07:02] Jesus, I still belong to you, friend. That's the very nature of worship. That's hope.
[00:07:08] The beasts of this world want your fear. They want your allegiance. They want your imaginations and your thoughts. But the Lamb of God, he's written your name.
[00:07:18] No, not your name. He's written his name over your life. But he did write your name in the book of life. And one day, the song's going to be louder than every empire. God bless you, friends. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
