Matt Chandler - Lament and Hope

In Revelation chapter 14, the first five verses depict the church of Jesus across time and space worshiping before the throne of God. Then, the scene shifts to three angels sent out from heaven, hovering between heaven and earth, proclaiming the gospel. What is communicated in that chapter is that the church of Jesus Christ has supernatural help when it comes to the good, hard work of gospel proclamation. It is not that the angels do the work. Although I have met people in other parts of the world who have come to Christ through a dream or even, some would claim, a visitation, what is in view here is not that angels evangelize. Rather, the church is supernaturally empowered in her proclamation of the gospel. The second angel comes from the throne and flies like an eagle, as the imagery in Revelation 14 suggests. This angel soars over the world and makes the proclamation, «Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, who has made the nations drunk with the wine of the passion of her immorality.» This proclamation by the angel goes out not in some future tense but across the church age. If you remember our study in the book of Revelation, it cannot mean for us what it did not mean for them. So, in Revelation 14, when we hear about an angel flying between heaven and earth and saying, «Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great,» he is not referring to the literal physical Babylonian empire, which, by the way, fell hundreds of years, if not a thousand years, before this was written in 96 A.D. What is in view in this moment is the church age— that time between Jesus’s ascension and his ultimate return in the consummation of all things. There will be moments when the brokenness of the world becomes so vivid and so apparent that we have a chance for renewal. When this angel soars between heaven and earth and makes the proclamation that Babylon has fallen, those who have ears to hear will awaken to the reality that our way of life is broken. I hope, by the grace of God, that we are in such a moment. I hope, by the grace of God, that we are waking up to what we have done, what we have built, and what this is, that it might, in turn, turn our eyes back to what I believe is our only real hope. In the past two weeks, we have been rocked by the deaths of 31 people, 19 of them fourth graders, at the hands of two 18-year-olds. We will not be the first ones in human history to ask all the questions that arise when such tragedies appear on our feeds. We will not be the first to ask, «Where were you, God?» We will not be the first to say, «Help me understand this.» We will not be the first to struggle with the paradox of God’s goodness and beauty in light of the horror of this moment. You couple this with what appears to be wave after wave of evil and wickedness right before us. How are we to process such things? Well, here’s why I love the Bible: it never shies away from any of these issues. The Bible is a grimy book; it does not present a picture of reality that’s inconsistent with our own experience. The Bible does not shy away from these moments; it asks you to lean in and understand these instances as best as we can, being created beings and not the Creator. There are even prayers in the Bible; the Psalms express this. We read it in the response of reading, like David, who says, «How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? Will you turn your face from me forever?» Similarly, Jeremiah would be an awkward hang as a prophet, but he makes all sorts of accusations against God. He asks why the wicked get away with their wickedness. The prophets, as a whole, highlight the evil and wickedness of the world and God’s judgment concerning it. The whole book of Job dives into the question of evil and suffering. The Bible does not shrink back from a moment like this; it seeks to draw your attention to consider things we might not be thinking about. It doesn’t ask you to just swallow easy bumper sticker theology. It doesn’t ask you to ignore your feelings or pretend they do not exist. It doesn’t tell you to stop being angry, nor does it tell you to stop being sad. It invites you into all the confusion of «What in the world is going on?» and to be met there by Jesus. I picked this passage because my heart was drawn to it as the week progressed. It has been a wave after wave of terrible things over the last month, or perhaps the last few years. I wanted to take us to this passage to highlight the process of lamentation—a process of lament that takes us out the other side with hope and does not leave us in despair. If I could turn your attention back to this passage: 1 Peter 5, starting in verse 6, begins like this: «Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.» I just want to stop there; I have tried to convey for years now that the message of the Bible— from Genesis to Revelation— can be condensed into three words. Here are the three: