Matt Chandler - Seven Seals

If you have your Bibles, please keep them open. I want to highlight and pull something out. Let’s extract a couple of things from the two chapters we are examining today. This passage, in particular, these few chapters, are the ones that inspired me to teach through the Book of Revelation to begin with, in light of where we currently are and the help I believe this revelation provides. It is also the two that truly frustrated me regarding how we have been trained to perceive the Book of Revelation—as something scary, something to be avoided, or something we ultimately couldn’t understand. I am excited to dive into this passage with you.

To catch you up on what’s happening, you and I, by the grace of God, through this revelation to the Apostle John, are receiving a picture of ultimate reality—not the reality we can see with our physical eyes or touch with our physical hands or smell with our physical noses, but the true reality. All right? What is actually going on—not what we can see, but ultimate reality. It is a real gift of God’s grace to see that ultimate reality.

Where we find ourselves in ultimate reality is that no one was able to open the scroll. We spent a lot of time discussing that; we just couldn’t unlock what life’s all about, what the meaning of life is, how we flourish as humankind, what this is about, or what that is about. We couldn’t quite get it open. If you remember, John wept because no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll, except for one who could. The scroll contains the meaning of history—world history, your history, my history, our children’s history, and, if the Lord tarries, our great-grandchildren’s history. It is the consummation of creation’s intended purposes. That’s what’s in the scroll—all about how the heavens will come down to earth and all things will be made new, that the former things will pass away and there will be no more tears, as everything resets the way God originally intended before sin fractured the cosmos.

As the seals begin to open, we encounter the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Now, for some of you, the four horsemen remind you of watching wrestling when you were a kid. For others, the pale horse in particular brings back memories of watching westerns with your father. Perhaps you were the one watching the pale rider. There are numerous images associated with the four horsemen in our culture. However, here’s where some of the things I mentioned in week one become crucial for us to grasp before we proceed: namely, this passage cannot mean for us what it did not mean for them. This passage cannot mean for us what it did not mean for them; hence, we cannot take this and make it mean something entirely different from what these men and women would have understood in the first century.

With that said, I want us to dive into the four horsemen. Now, let me clarify what they are, so you will not need to worry about it. The four horsemen are the major players in suffering, pain, and death among humankind—this is what the four horsemen represent. So, you don’t need to wonder: are they good or bad? They are not good. They are not good; they are not for you. It’s not the kind of horse you want to own. There are kinds of horses you like and kinds you don’t; these are the ones you don’t want. These are the ones that can harm you—the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Now, here’s another point I made in week one that I want you to remember: Revelation doesn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said. In fact, in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus is unpacking what was to come in the end times, and it completely mirrors what is in this passage. I will try to show you that as we progress.

Let me introduce you to your enemies. The first one is the white horse, which, in essence, symbolizes the antichrist. There is a major figure known as the antichrist that we will discuss in a couple of weeks; this is the vibe associated with the antichrist. He imitates Jesus but isn’t Jesus. Jesus warns us that this will happen in Matthew 24:4-5: «And Jesus answered them, ‘See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, „I am the Christ, ” and they will lead many astray.’“ This rider on the white horse, dressed in a white robe, wearing a crown, and holding a bow, looks almost identical to Jesus in Revelation 19—riding a white horse, dressed in a white robe, armed with a sword—but it is an imitation; it is not the real thing.

Outside the church, the white horse represents the belief that there are many ways to salvation. There are many ways for you to unlock the scroll, many ways for you to discover your life’s purpose. Inside the church, it manifests as poor teaching about who Jesus is; inside the church, it resembles heresy. Let me show you this: in 1 John 4:2-3, it states, „By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.“ This is the spirit.