Read Revelation 11:15–19
Questions from the Scripture text: Which angel sounded in Revelation 11:15? What were there in response? Where? About what did they speak? What had happened o these kingdoms—Whose had they become? What would He do? For how long? Who respond to this in Revelation 11:16? Where were they sitting? Upon what did they fall? What did they do? To Whom? What did they begin by giving in Revelation 11:17? What do they call Him? What has He done? What had the nations done (Revelation 11:18a, cf. Psalm 2:1)? And how did God respond to them (Revelation 11:18a, e; cf. Psalm 2:5, Psalm 2:9, Psalm 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9)? And to His saints (Revelation 11:18c–d, cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 2 Thessalonians 1:10)? Then what was opened (Revelation 11:19)? Where? What was seen in it? What phenomena accompanied this sight?
What will the last day be like? Revelation 11:15–19 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the last day will be a day of rejoicing, worship, and praise for believers, and a day of wrath and destruction for unbelievers.
This brief passage on the seventh trumpet gives us a summary of world history since the fall, and shows us that Psalm 2 is a cliff’s-notes version of the book of Revelation. That Psalm shows history from the split-screen perspectives of heaven and earth, with the nations raging against God, and God speaking in wrath, as He gives the kingdom of this world to His Son. The applications are for unbelievers to hurry and repent and trust in Christ before the day of His wrath, and for believers to be confident that “blessed are all who trust in Him.” This is precisely the point of the book of Revelation.
We have seen six trumpets blast their alarm that the last day will come. The alarm of the seventh is the point at which it is too late, for it is the arrival of that day itself. The many, crescendoing sounds that indicate the approaching end now climax in this trumpet and the “loud voices” of Revelation 11:15.
The Greek text that the Lord has preserved in His church throughout the millennia uses the singular: kingdom. On the last day, the kingdom of this world, where Satan has provoked men to rage against the authority of God and Christ (cf. Psalm 2:1), will have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (cf. Psalm 2:2, Psalm 2:6).
For believers, this is a day of rejoicing, (Revelation 11:15), worship (Revelation 11:16), and praise (Revelation 11:17). The Lord is coming to be admired among those who believe in Him. We prepare for that day by admiring Him now—and more and more so, as His Spirit conforms us to Christ and His own delight in God’s glory.
It will be a day of rejoicing. We can already rejoice in hope, now. But what a relief, and release, and sustained and glorious thrill, it will be in the last day, when we hear the thunderous announcement in Revelation 11:15!
It will be a day of worship. The twenty-four elders lead and represent the church throughout the ages. They fall on their faces and worship God. When Habakkuk learned only of God’s plans for Babylon, he responded with astonished worship: “Are You not from everlasting, O YHWH, my God, my Holy One?!” This is similar but intensified. The completion of God’s work in history brings His power and faithfulness and goodness and justice into clear, ultimate view. And His people fall on their races in worship (Revelation 11:16).
It will be a day of praise and thanksgiving. They thank God for reigning (Revelation 11:17). When you are His, praise for His power is tied to thanksgiving, because His power is your profit.
For unbelievers, it is a day of wrath and destruction. When the Lord returns to be admired among all those who believe (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:10), He takes vengeance, and begins pouring out everlasting wrath, upon those who have refused to know Him or respond to the gospel (Revelation 11:18, cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9).
For all, it is a day of revelation. With all assembled for judgment, God opens His temple, so that all may now view what the Lord’s focus has been in all of history: the keeping of His covenant. The covenant is not just a series of agreements that God has made with men through the ages. It goes back into God Himself, a compact of salvation from eternity, in which the Father pledges a people and kingdom to His Son, and the Son pledges to redeem them unto the Father, in fellowship with the Spirit. The appearance of “the ark of the covenant of the Lord” (Revelation 11:19, majority text) reminds us of that eternal, divine agreement into which Jesus’s prayer in John 17 gives us such an intimate glimpse.
It is God’s commitment to save His people unto His glory that is behind all of His mighty (lightnings, noises, thunderings, earthquakes, hail, in Revelation 11:19) acts throughout the history of the world! And what God has sworn Himself to, within Himself, must surely be accomplished. When the day of its ultimate accomplishment comes, surely we will rejoice, and worship, and praise! Until then, we must heed the blasts of the trumpets that announce its impending arrival. Let all kiss the Son before His wrath is kindled but a little, and let those who trust in Him be sure and glad of their blessedness.
In what circumstances do you need to remember the reality of the Lord’s present reigning, and the certainty of the defeat of all competing powers? What delight do you take in admiring the Lord now? How is this preparing you for perfect and eternal blessedness?
Sample prayer: We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One Who is and Who was and Who is to come, because You are taking Your great power and reigning. Forgive us for when we have desired and attempted to bend all things to our own wills. And forgive us for when we have trembled before the nations as they rage, and the kingdoms and peoples, as they plot in vain. Give us to submit ourselves cheerfully to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to live in great confidence in Him, which we ask in His Name!
Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage” or TPH389 “Great God, What Do I See and Hear”