Alright, you can turn with me to the Revelation and Chapter 8. Revelation and Chapter 8. We see in Revelation Chapter 8. Silence and prayer and the unfolding trumpets of the seventh seal. And this morning we are gonna focus on the first six verses of Revelation chapter eight. And we'll see silence in heaven and we will see prayer. Brethren, this is a very reassuring paragraph we're gonna be looking at because we know what it is to feel sometimes that we stumble through our prayers, yes? that our prayers sometimes feel very weak. Sometimes they feel very earthly. Sometimes they feel like they are mixed with our own agendas and our own selfish ambitions. Sometimes we even feel a lack of confidence because they sound so plain and not very beautiful that the Lord should even hear such an earthly language from our lips. And what we see in the Revelation in chapter 8 is heaven's perspective on prayer. It's a beautiful passage. And I have been focusing on larger sections, but I really wanted to take the time this morning to sort of zero in on prayer and to see it from God's perspective. We have the perspective on earth. We know what it is to feel like we fumble and stumble and our words are just so plain, but see it here in this passage, the beauty of our prayers as they go up to heaven mixed with our Lord's intercession as a sweet smelling incense. It's a beautiful passage and I hope it inspires us to and challenges us to be a people of prayer and to see prayer as a priority, to see the power of prayer and of course to be the people of prayer that we have been called to be. Let's read this together. This is the revelation in chapter 8 and beginning in verse 1. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And then another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar, He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there was noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound." This is the word of God, and Father, we approach your word with reverence and a holy zeal to know what you have to say to us through your word. And so now we pray, Spirit of God, you bring illumination and understanding in the deepest application as your people now sit and listen. Help us, Lord, to engage with the text and be quick to hear. We ask that in Christ's name, amen. And so when Chapter seven, we saw the vision of the triumphant church. It was symbolically 144,000, but we also saw in chapter seven, it was a great multitude that no one could number. In chapter eight now, we are opening the seventh seal, and this is the beginning of a new cycle of visions in the Revelation. We saw the first cycle in chapters one through three, the second cycle in chapters four through seven, and now we are starting the third cycle of visions in the Revelation. And we see in the beginning of this opening, the seventh seal being opened, silence in heaven. Now, like many things in the book of Revelation, when we might say, what does this mean? We get insight from the Old Testament. When we opened up the book of Revelation for the first time in our introduction, I mentioned that there are over 500 allusions to the Old Testament in the Revelation. That is incredible. That is incredible. And this is one of those allusions, I believe, to the Old Testament. Silence equates, is equal to divine judgment in the Old Testament. For example, in Habakkuk chapter 20, Habakkuk chapter 20, I'm sorry, chapter two in verse 20, But the Lord is in His temple, let all the earth keep silent before Him. Or Zechariah 2 in verse 13, speaking of a time of coming judgment, Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for He is raised up out of His holy habitation. And there's other references to this as well, but silence is oftentimes a moment to pause and ponder God's coming justice and judgment. And we see that here with the opening of the seventh seal. It is a revelation of God's majesty that results in silence. You could say it is the calm before the storm. It is a silence before God's judgment as we see beginning in verse seven with the trumpets of the seventh seal. So this silence is the result of the cries of the martyrs we saw going back to chapter six. And also the screams of the wicked as Christ's wrath falls on them. Again, chapter 6, verses 9 through 17. So this is an awesome silence, an awe-filled silence. silence as both the angels and the saints have their mouths shut as they stand amazed at God's sovereignty displayed in His justice and judgment upon the wicked. And brethren, this scene reminds us that there are times when silence is the right response. For example, when somebody is grieving, do you ever feel like you don't have the right words to say? You know that happens to pastors, too. In fact, when I was very young, I was in my mid-twenties, maybe too young, but anyway, I was an interim pastor at a very small church, and we had a gentleman who was visiting, and his father had just passed away. This gentleman who was visiting was not that much older than I am, and his father was relatively young. and I just didn't really know what to say, and I felt bad about that. I just kind of hugged him and tried to give words of comfort. Later on, I actually found out that's the appropriate thing to do. Sometimes we don't have the perfect words to say. We give words of truth, and we give hugs and prayer for them. Times of grief, times of worship, there are moments it's appropriate for silence. I think one of the symptoms of worldliness in modern worship is sometimes a fear of silence. You ever notice that? So, especially in much larger congregations, you know, there'll be this seamless transition between all the elements of worship, so there is not a moment of silence. There always has to be music playing or somebody talking. There's a fear almost of silence, but sometimes in worship, a moment of silence is appropriate, a moment to reflect, a moment to pray. Sometimes when we behold things that are just incredibly beautiful, God's creation, we don't have words for the wonder and silence is sometimes appropriate. Joel Beakey, who has, I think, a really helpful commentary on the Revelation, suggests there might be a connection between our culture's Immersion is the word he used in noise and our inability to disconnect with our culture's lack of reverence for God. I can testify to that working on college campuses. Students would always have their earbuds in. They look like zombies sometimes walking to their classes. They just inability not to be hearing something. And certainly we saw a lack of reverence for the things of God, that is for sure. But brethren, either way, this silence in heaven is a reaction to the final judgment that is coming. The vision here of the revelation is now a flashback to see the last days from heaven's point of view. Before further judgment again, beginning in verse seven that we'll see next time with the trumpets, before these further judgments are revealed, the Lord reveals how these events, these seven trumpets proceed from the prayers of His people. It's an incredible perspective when we know our own earthliness to see heaven's perspective. And it opens up to God's people the value of our prayers. It's been my prayer this week, the Lord would show us the value of our prayers. This third cycle of vision, in this third cycle of visions, we see the prayers of the saints are ascending and the judgments of God are descending. And we look now as the saints' prayers ascend to God, and there is a moment of silence. In verse one, when he opened the seven seals, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. As all things, this is symbolic in time and in number. But there's this pause, heavenly silence, a sign of God's answering the prayers of the saints and bringing judgment. It also opens up the way for the church's prayers to reach the throne of grace. We're going to look at the prayers of these saints under five headings. We see, first of all, the point of prayer. The point of prayer. Do you ever struggle, church family, with the point of prayer? You recall from chapter five that we have a scroll. What is a scroll? It is the unchangeable, eternal decrees of God. It's all God's sovereign purposes to minutia. It includes all God's elective purposes. It includes God's plans to bring justice and judgment upon the world. And so as a people who love the sovereignty of God, how do we think about our prayer? So we could ask this way, what is the point of prayer in light of the fact of the sovereignty of God? God's answer to this question can be seen at least in part in this paragraph because we see that He determines all things that come to pass and He ordains the means to bring them about. We see that unfolding in verse two and following, I saw, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God And to them were given seven trumpets, this is again unfolding in verse seven. Verse three, then another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar and he was given much incense that with, I'm sorry, that he should offer with it the prayers of all the saints. upon the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascend before God from the angel's hand. What an incredible picture of heaven's perspective on our prayers. And prayers are a powerful means when we see heaven's point of view. I think we understand this, of course, this is the same with evangelism. God has an elect people. They are a determined, unchangeable, fixed amount of people. And so for these elect people, God has both ordained that he should call them in time, and he also ordained that they would hear the gospel. In fact, the gospel call is in the order of salvation. God has ordained both the means, I'm sorry, both the end and the means to that end. It's that way with prayer. The sovereign Lord uses the prayers of the saints to carry out His eternal decrees. And that's what we see in these verses. This teaching about prayer cannot be separated from God's mighty acts in history, including justice and judgment, as we see unfolding next time in verses seven and following. Notice again in verse two, there's seven angels who are given seven trumpets, but the seven trumpets are delayed until after our prayers rise to heaven. Now, brethren, one of the things that we have said every single week, I think, is that this book has the mailing address to the seven churches of Asia Minor, and everything that transpires in the Revelation has to make sense to them. Do you think that they prayed for God's justice? Do you think they prayed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven? Do you think they prayed, deliver us from our enemies, justify your great name by vindicating your people? The truth that's being revealed here is that all those prayers that seemed at that moment not to be heard was being heard and is going to be answered. Now, I want to get some cautions as we think through these things. I think we're all on board, but let's make sure. Caution number one is prayer does not change God's mind. You are a creature. We are finite. We do not change the creator. What a blasphemy that would be. A finite person cannot change or move the infinite God. But prayer does change us. And prayer does line up God's people with His will. And caution number two, we do not and cannot bring God into our plans. In other words, no matter how fervently we pray, it's not as if God says, oh, you're right. I didn't see it from that angle. That is impossible. Caution number three, prayer is not overcoming God's resistance. Rather, prayer is a powerful means God uses to carry out His eternal decrees. It's an amazing thought. Our second heading under prayer, is the people who pray, the people who pray. We see here in verse three, the prayers of all the saints, the prayers of all the saints. Brethren, if you are in Christ, you are a saint. You know this, that Paul, for example, wrote the book of Ephesians to the saints. It is not some sort of hierarchy within Christianity where there's a select few that is wrong. Saints are those who've been set apart. They are the sanctified ones. Scripture does not promise that God will hear the prayers of non-believers, but Scripture does give the promises to the believer that he will hear their prayers. He will hear their prayers. And again, in this passage, we see our prayers from God's perspective. They don't stink. They're not earthly as we think they are. We see in verse three, they're upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. Now, you know, or maybe you know, that some people teach, Catholics, that God has saints in heaven who listen to the prayers of the saints. or that these select few saints have some storehouse of prayer that they can throw before God as needed. This is not what Revelation 8 teaches. This is not what we believe. This is not scriptural. Rather, the image of this golden altar points us to the priestly work of Jesus, who made a blood atonement on behalf of his people. and he makes intercession for them. One of the keys to understanding this passage is to remember that Jesus, our great high priest, is praying for you. And that the prayers of the saints are pictured here as resting upon the altar of God. And all the merit is in Christ's blood atonement placed upon the altar. And now the good news for us is the value of our prayers is not based on how beautiful your words are. Children, your parents are teaching you how to pray and sometimes our children feel insecure. I don't know what to say. Believing children can be assured that their prayers are beautiful to God, not because their vocabulary is rich, but because God is gracious, and he's now your father, and he receives your prayer. It's accepted because of the blood of Jesus. The reason there's no promise to the prayers of an unbeliever is their prayers are not offered on the altar of Christ, finished work, and his blood atonement. Now, the third heading under prayer is that we see the beauty of our prayers to God as they are presented to him, the beauty of our prayers. Again, in verses three through four, we see The angel. This might be the angel of his presence. Then another angel having a golden censer. This might be the angel of his presence that's mentioned in Isaiah 63 verse 9, for example. We know that Gabriel, when he appeared in Luke chapter 1, said he came from the presence of God. Either way, he's given incense to mingle with the prayers of the saints. incense to mingle with the prayers of the saints. Here is a quote from Spurgeon I thought was helpful. Spurgeon said, quote, our great high priest is here represented as standing at the golden altar, which is before the throne of God, having in his hand a golden censer full of incense, the fragrance of which would give acceptance to the prayers of the saints for his sake, unquote. As Spurgeon notes, the incense makes the prayers acceptable and beautiful to God. And so, brethren, as we sometimes struggle with prayer, prioritizing prayer, making time for prayer, sometimes we feel like it's fleshly mixed with motives, selfish ambition. Know that our prayers ascend to God as a sweet smelling incense, that incense that makes our tainted prayers acceptable is the intercession of Jesus. That instance that's mixed in with our prayers is the intercession of the Lord Jesus. He ever lives, Hebrews tells us, to make intercession for his own. He is the great high priest who sanctifies our prayers. by mingling his intercession with ours, and he covers that selfishness, and he covers that earthliness that we often feel. And he transforms what we often know to be pitiful and plain stumbling prayers into sweet smelling aroma. So brethren, if you ever feel inadequate in your prayer life, When you're alone or when you're with your family or you're in a small group with church, know that the Lord takes something that is small and he makes it something big, something that seems plain and he makes it into something beautiful. Glory to God. We have this ordinary means of grace, praying, and God takes it and uses it for his own glory. You know, brethren, there are three divine supports to our prayers. You need to think about this. One is that God is our father. And he invites us to come to his throne of grace that we relate to him now as his children. We were once enemies. We were at enmity with God. Now. We are his beloved. He relates to us like a father to his child or like a groom to his bride. Secondly, Christ is a great high priest who's interceding for us. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. You know, you're familiar with Romans 8, 26, the Spirit also makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You ever feel like you don't know what to say? Has your heart been so troubled by an unbelieving spouse or an unbelieving child or grandchild or just the state of the world or your health or et cetera, et cetera. That you just don't know what to say, the spirit helps you in your intercession. It comes out feeble, you feel it small, but it rises up as a sweet smelling aroma mixed with the incense of our savior's intercession. With these three supports, we can know that our weak Feeble prayers rise up to our God. They have value in the sight of God because they are mingled with the intercession of Christ. Now in our fourth heading, we see the power of prayer, the power of prayer. We see that in verse five. The angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth And there was thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes. It's an incredible picture. Thunderings, lightnings, and earthquakes. Brethren, we oftentimes under-emphasize, I am sure, the value and power of Again, we see our prayers ascend and the angels prepare to send them in the seven trumpets. We see the symbolism here of thundering and lightning and earthquakes. This reminds us of Exodus and chapter 19. This would be very familiar to the Apostle John and especially those Jewish believers in the seven churches. And God is saying, I will confound human plans. It seems that the synagogue of Satan, those Jews who say they are Jews but are not in Smyrna, they think that they are going to permanently dismiss and persecute God's church. They will not. Rome, they thought it was unbreakable. and could not be moved will be moved by the power of the prayers of God's people. The thread on the great sweater of Rome is being pulled by the power of prayer by God's people. Rome will fall. Caesar will fall. But King Jesus has a name that will last forever and his people will be with him forever. They are the ones who are kings and priests. Not Caesar and not the synagogue of Satan in Smyrna. It's incredible. This is the power of prayer. He will turn the world upside down to deliver his people. Brethren, consider the early church. Consider these seven churches in Asia Minor who were small. and persecuted. Many of them were slaves. Remember Paul's words in 1 Corinthians? Not many of you were noble. Not many of you are wise, according to this world. But within two centuries, Rome falls. We see in the book of Acts the church was charged with turning the world upside down by what means? By the means of preaching coupled with prayer. So powerful are these rather ordinary looking means, preaching and prayer, that the Lord indeed did turn the world upside down. Like thunder and lightning and earthquakes. Derek Thomas has a small study guide through the revelation, and he said this in his little commentary. Derek Thomas said, quote, our prayers might, sorry, our prayers may make little impact on those who hear them in this world, but when they reach heaven, they are sent back as reversed thunder. The power of prayer is immense. Reverse thunder. Brethren, it takes a lot of faith for us in our prayer time at home and at church to realize that we are thundering heaven. But this is what this moment of silence reveals, the prayers of the saints now being displayed in God's justice and judgment on the non-believer. And again, we see the potential of our prayer in verse six, the potential of our prayers. Again, so the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The potential of prayer, the seven angels are waiting around the throne of grace on our prayers to be accepted by the Father. Now, like many images in the Revelation, we should understand that the precise meaning of these seven angels, whether they're presence angels, we do know there's a hierarchy in angels in the Bible. We should probably understand this as we do with other numbers, seven being a number of completeness, the full number of the elect angels standing around the throne of God is probably the meaning here. But either way, what we do know is the angels who are in the presence of God. We see in Hebrews 1, verse 14, describe these angels as God's ministering spirit sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Again, Psalm 91, fulfilled most clearly messianically through Jesus. Psalm 91, 11 through 12, that God has given his angels charge over us, lest we should dash our feet against a stone. This is a comfort to John. This would be a comfort for those seven churches in Asia Minor that have been told, to he who overcomes, I will give the crown of life. It's a great comfort to us as well. We all know the times that we live in. We know that our government is crossing the lines and restricting churches from gathering We too know that prayer is a powerful means, that God has ordained that His people should pray. When God has an end, He has a means. So when we gather before the throne of grace, we come before the Lord Jesus, our great high priest, we can know that He accepts our prayers and He improves them. He covers them. He presents them to our Father, and our Father receives them as a sweet-smelling incense mingled in with our Lord's intercession. And in due time, the Lord will answer all our prayers according to the wise counsel of His own will. Brethren, I call upon all of us to see our prayers from heaven's perspective. We know the earthly perspective. No one needs to tell us about our weaknesses, we already know. But see it from God's perspective when one of his saints pray, no matter how weak or small or feeble, it's mixed in with our Lord's high priestly intercessory prayer, and our Lord receives it, and our Lord loves it. Glory be to God, it's his great name. Our Father, we approach your throne. And we are so thankful that you receive and hear the prayers of your saints. That you call us as your beloved children to approach the throne of grace boldly. Lord, so often we struggle with our prayers. We know people who have beautiful prayers, beautiful prayers. Sometimes compared to them, our prayers seem so earthly and scattered. And we confess that sometimes as we are praying, our mind drifts. We think about our daily responsibilities and wonder what's gonna happen to us throughout the day. And Lord, it's a tremendous comfort to your people to know that even in those times that we struggle to pray, that you hear and receive our prayers. And we are so thankful for our blessed Savior, Jesus. What a Savior. He lived for us, he lived a perfect life. We could not live. He died for the sake of his people, granting perfect righteousness so that we who believe are sanctified in his sights, called saints. And every single moment we have a home to run to, no matter where we are, no matter what's happening in our life, the believer always has a home. and that is in Christ through prayer. So, Lord, encourage our hearts, we pray, to pray, to pray for our nation, to pray for our family, to pray for nonbelievers, to pray for our illnesses, to pray for our troubles, to pray for our spiritual maladies. And give us faith to see through this text, inspired by the spirit of the living God, that you are the God who hears and answers prayers. And we ask this, Lord, because we are a blood-bought people who have no hope. We stand on no other foundation than the foundation of our Lord and Savior Jesus. In his great name we pray. Amen. I'm going to sing it to the tune of, oh, 4,000 tongues to sing. Let's stand as we close this afternoon. Lord, like the public, can I stand and lift my heart to thee? Thy pardoning grace, O God, come and be merciful to me. I smile upon my anxious breast, overwhelmed with agony. Oh, save my soul by sin oppressed. Be merciful to me. My guilt, my shame, I all confess. I have no hope nor plea. But Jesus' blood and righteousness be merciful to me. Here at thy cross I still would wait, nor from its shelter flee, till thou, O God, in mercy great art merciful to me. Yeah, well, those answers all the time.