Why is the world the way it is?

Well good morning folks! You might think these strange times we live in are a bit crazy – but I wonder if you’ve ever found yourself trapped in the body of a cat? No? Yeah, I didn’t think so!

BUT that is the premise of the film “Nine Lives.” As in it, Kevin Spacey plays Tom – a workaholic businessman who accidentally gets trapped in the body of his daughter’s cat – “Mr. Fuzzypants” – with of course… “hilarious consequences”.

Please don’t judge me for having watched this! It’s hard to find a film that all the family might want to watch these days, and it actually wasn’t half as bad as you might think.

As at first Mr. Fuzzypants drives his family mad trying to convince them of who he is. But then from his radical new viewpoint he slowly comes to see how his driven-ness at work and personal ambition has left his relationships with his wife, daughter and business partners on very rocky ground.

He would never have realised the danger his life was in if he hadn’t been forced to take a totally different look at it… from a totally different perspective.

AND folks, it has been said that, “What you see… depends not only what you look at, but also… on where you look from.” Which is one of the reasons we’ve been looking at the book of Revelation in our online church services these last few weeks – As in it we’re being given the chance to see what’s going on from a different perspective – behind the scenes of human history in the spiritual realm.

The book is a series of visions given to the Apostle John – AND it’s written in a weird kind of picture language because in it we are reading things that are almost beyond description – which words alone cannot fully describe.

AND last week this glimpse into the inner workings of the throne room in heaven showed God the Father placing into Jesus’ hands the scroll of his plan for the world. He alone is worthy to handle whatever is in it.

And now at the start of chapter 6 (drum roll please!) he is going to open the scroll!

But this isn’t like opening Gold envelopes at an awards ceremony. It’s not all red carpets, champagne, diamond chandeliers and “... the winner is!”

No! This is more like opening a bottle of pop that’s been shaken up too much or a dirty nappy. Things are about to get very sticky and messy – As the terrors that are unleashed when Jesus opens these first 4 seals reveal the fact that:

1. HUMAN HISTORY IS FULL OF TYRANNY AND CHAOS

Jesus opens the first seal and it unleashes a White Horse – in verse 2: “And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.”

Now you may think at first glance that this is Jesus – As white usually symbolises purity in the Bible. But this rider is anything but pure. For this rider takes away your freedom!

>> This horse represents Conquest & Imperialism.

Then from the second seal comes a Red Horse – in verse 3: “Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.” Bright red is symbolic of bloodshed. As this rider takes away your peace!

>> As this horse represents Conflict & Bloodshed.

Then seal number 3 reveals a Black Horse – in verse 5: “And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”

Folks, the prices being quoted here are a rip-off! It’s like walking into McDonalds and being charged £40 for a Big Mac. And while the poor get a bad deal the rich get away with it as they still prosper and insist on their luxuries – of oil & wine. They won’t live simply that others may simply live.

>> This horse represents Famine & Economic Injustice – As this rider takes away all sense of fair play!

Then from the fourth seal comes a Pale, sickly looking Horse – verse 8: “And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”

>> No need to try to decode this, folks! This horse represents Death & Decay. And its rider is very blunt. Folks don’t pass away or kick the bucket; they get snuffed out – in many and varied ways. As this rider eventually, inevitably takes away your life!

Conquest, war, injustice, illness, and death. This is the view of our world we see from heaven’s perspective. Our world is broken. It is full of tyranny and chaos.

Why does God want us to view our world like this?

Well for a start – I think God is saying: “Do you see? Do you see that this is the way the world really is?”

I think most of us who have grown up in the affluent west over the last 40 to 50 years have lived through a period of unprecedented peace and security in this part of the world. AND the development of our culture has only managed to airbrush these realities or cosset them from our sight.

But the truth is that for most people in most eras of human history – tyranny and chaos have trampled like 2 great boots right the way across our world – with depressing regularity.

AND I think we’re being shown this also – so we won’t be under any illusions that we can fix it. We are such “fixers”, aren’t we? We think we can fix practically anything and everything.

• You only have to jump on social media,
• or switch on the radio,
• or eavesdrop on the conversations going on at your local pub (if it were open that is) – and you will hear all kinds of theories being offered as surefire solutions to the problems of the world.

Yet for all our cleverness, for all the advances we have made in science and technology and medicine in the last century – these horsemen are still riding just as strongly today! We can hear the thunder of their hoof-beats reverberating all around this world, can’t we?

I heard Dion Dublin – the ex-footballer turned TV presenter talking about racism at the weekend. He said, “I'm sick of T-shirts. I just want action.”

AND we know how he feels, don’t we? Of course, I must love my neighbor and speak out for truth and justice – BUT we know it’s going to take a lot more than T-Shirts and hashtags and slogans to solve the problems of our world.

Which is why God also wants us to see here – that…

2. CHRIST NOT CHAOS RULES OVER HUMAN HISTORY

Have a closer look at these verses. Do you see? There is nothing that is out of control here. Jesus the lamb is in charge – Verse 1: “Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!”

This scroll is not Pandora’s box. These riders don’t escape… they are summoned. They can’t enter the scene without a voice inviting them to “come!” They are sent forth with heaven’s permission.

Which begs the obvious question: “Why? Why is Jesus letting all this happen?”

What’s going on here reminds me a bit of a time when Fiona and I were preparing breakfast one Saturday morning – AND we turned round to see water dripping through the ceiling into the kitchen. And as we watched the drips started to get a bit heavier, until there was actually water running down the wall.

At which point we figured it must be coming from somewhere and that somewhere must be the bathroom. So, we rushed upstairs, pushed open the door and this was the scene that greeted us:

• Both taps in the sink were running full pelt.
• The sink was totally clogged up with toys from the bath.
• Water was running over the side of the sink and had flooded the bathroom floor.
• AND there in the middle of it all was a certain child dancing soggily around like they were Fred Astaire in “Singing in The Rain.”

I personally am still congratulating us for not to throttling said child on the spot – BUT we still couldn’t help but cry out, “What on earth are you playing at?”

AND as we walk in on Jesus opening these seals, isn’t that what you want to shout? “What are you doing Jesus? This is running out of control! For goodness sake – Please stop opening these seals!”

BUT the answer is that Jesus has unleashed these riders like drips falling from the ceiling above to warn us that there is a problem up above. AND it isn’t God – behaving like a 5-year-old with the taps on full!

BUT what is happening in heaven is that he is giving us over to The Consequences of OUR Sin.

Romans 1 verse 28 gives us a further insight into the mind of God – there the writer says that “…since people do not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done…”

Do you see? We are getting what we deserve for the way we’ve treated God. We think we know better than God and “do not see fit to acknowledge...” him and obey him. AND the Bible calls that sin.

And astonishingly God’s judgement on our sin in the present... is to let us do what we want. We insist on ignoring him, living as we want. And he says: “Ok, have it your way. Live in that kind of world.”

So, when we see these riders ride – bringing conquest, conflict, famine, injustice and death – we shouldn’t ask: What is God playing at? BUT what have we done?

• 9 million people die each year from hunger related diseases – when according to the United Nations one third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste – why is that?
• Humans killed 1,300 fellow humans every day last year – and that figure sky-rockets if you chose to include the 40 million babies terminated worldwide through abortion. 98% of which were for social reasons.
• AND why do people of privilege and power so often grab after the reigns of leadership. AND use them to maintain the status quo… even when it ends up enslaving others for their own ends?

What God is showing us here is NOT that there is something wrong with him – But that there is something very wrong with us.

God is so good – AND everything that is good comes from him. BUT that means that the more we move away from God, the more we move away from his goodness.

We try to live in a world without God and God lets us. But then we complain about a lack of justice. Or are surprised by a lack of love as people let us down and fail us. Well of course the world is unjust and unloving when we turn our back on the God who IS love and justice himself.

AND these riders folks – they are like a billboard for us advertising the consequences of life without God. This is a god-less world, isn’t it? Or so it sometimes seems.

But look again – Jesus not only gives these riders permission to ride. BUT any power or authority they have is “given” to them:

• The first rider is “given” his crown – verse 2.
• The second is “permitted to take peace” – verse 4.
• The third is told exactly what to say – verse 6.
• The fourth is “given authority over a quarter of the earth” – verse 8.

In other words – Jesus is still at work. He is holding these riders on a leash – so that we don’t experience the full force of the consequences of our sin.

We have not yet, been fully given over to that – BUT in the meantime God lets us experience some of the wickedness of the world as…

ii.) A Foretaste of Coming Judgement

You see there is a day when Jesus will return to wrap up human history – not as a savior, but as our Judge. That’s seal 6 – and we’ll get to that next week!

BUT until that day God is allowing us a taste of what that will be like – as a warning. He is showing us these riders so that we will say, “I do not want that. I do not want to experience the full reality of life without God... forever.”

Because when Jesus finally let’s go of the leash, we will be given over fully to the hellish reality of a world without Him. A world without any goodness in it at all.

Now God does not delight in this! He says many times in the Bible, “I do not delight in the death of the wicked.”

He doesn’t want to come in judgement! He wants us to turn to him – but he permits the forces of destruction and Satan to unleash as it were drips of the judgement to come upon the earth – that we might look upwards and take him seriously – before it is too late.

In the pleasures of life – we are not good listeners! But when we go through hardships and suffering, we often cry out – As many have been doing through this Pandemic.

This week I read a paper written about the huge upsurge in Google searches for the word “PRAYER” since March. It was entitled “In Crisis, We Pray” AND one of the writers Professor Jeanet Sinding Bentzen said: “We humans have a tendency to use religion to cope with crisis. COVID-19 has proven no exception. The rise in prayer intensity supersedes what the world has seen for years.”

AND that is the right move folks – NOT because God is the last resort in a crisis… BUT because he is good and he loves us and he can be trusted. And he IS still in control of all the chaos and turmoil we are going through – even if like the book of Revelation – we’re struggling to fully understand it.

Let me finish by illustrating this with something I know virtually nothing about – Tapestry.

• I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the story of Corrie Ten Boom.
• She was a Dutch Christian whose family sheltered Jews from the Nazis in the 2nd world war.
• Eventually they were betrayed and discovered and sent to Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp – where they suffered unspeakable horrors… And Corrie’s beloved sister Betsy was killed.

And Corrie should’ve died herself – but through an administrative mix-up she was released the week before her execution should have taken place.

And so later on in life as she reflected on the chaos and tyranny that she lived through at that time – she made this tapestry. It’s not the prettiest is it? But that is what she lived through – a complete mess.

But if you were to turn the tapestry over – on the other side there is this crown. And the point is very simple: Though in our life experience – and for her especially – it feels just like chaos reigns – the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding madly over the Earth. On the other side there is the crown – as the lamb who was slain has begun to reign… and HE is working out his perfect golden rule.

And so, if you’re absolutely bent low in the difficulties of life and feel like you can’t take any more this morning – please know that your struggles are NOT because you are more sinful than anyone else. Jesus makes that clear elsewhere in the Bible.

Instead hear what Corrie famously said, “When you look at the world you get distressed. When you look at yourself you probably get depressed. BUT when you look at God… well then… then you find rest.”

The picture of your life may look messy now, but Jesus is ruling over even the chaos – and he is weaving together something beautiful that one day you will see fully from heaven’s perspective… and be amazed.

Let’s pray: “Risen Lord Jesus Christ, reigning in power. We see here that this judgement which we already taste in the tears and tragedies of this planet – is only drips of the ocean of judgement which will one day engulf the world. So, we pray Lord that we would not try to run from you, but run to you. May we seek protection in the blood of Jesus, in his loving arms – that we might be forgiven and spend our lives now and in eternity worshipping you – rather than face you as judge on the day of judgement. We ask this in your precious name. Amen.”