And turn your Bibles please to Revelation chapter 8 verse 1. We're in a series on strength for today, hope for tomorrow from Revelation. Revelation chapter 8 verse 1 and this is the Word of God. When the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the angels who stood before God and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. and there were peals of thunder, rumbling, splashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Join me. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God will stand forever. Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful to You that we have Your Word this morning, that it's true and that it's certain. Father, You've spoken in time and space. Father, You've spoken to give us an understanding of the glory of Your Son, Jesus Christ. So Father, help now by your spirit to grasp what you're teaching us here. Father, how it applies to the way we think, the way we live, the way we speak, the way we pray. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Sound of Silence is a song written by Paul Simon back in 1963, recorded with Art Garfunkel in 1964 in an acoustic style. Initially that album flops, and so the two go their separate ways. But then producer Tom Wilson learns the song is being played in Boston, particularly for college students there. They go to Florida for spring break, they get the stations to play it there. And so Wilson, unbeknownst to the duo, adds electric guitar and some percussion to it, and re-releases it in 1965. By the first of the year, it hits number one on the charts, and in 1967, enters into the film The Graduate. Now, what do you know about that? The song's intended, really, to be about alienation from another and the silence that brings. And the title is, in fact, supposed to be sort of an oxymoron. Silence should not have any sound. but we know it does. Sounds in the silence come according to Paul Simon like a flash of neon light, or words like silent raindrops that fall into wells of silence. There are always for us unknown noises in the dark, sounds of fear, of loneliness, or even of wonder. After all, it's in the darkness of the silent night that loneliness is felt. Again, Simon writes, hello darkness, my old friend. But it's also in the silence of the night that the heavens declare the glory of God. So it depends on the circumstances. Silence might bring fear and despair, or it might bring strength and hope. The sounds in the silence that we meet in the text today are like that. It's a surprising silence, given what we've seen so far in Revelation, which is a story full of strange sights and amazing sounds. Now, quite frankly, if Revelation had ended at the end of chapter 7, We probably wouldn't have noticed anything was missing. I mean, God's enemies faced the wrath of God as chapter 6 ends, and God's people are praising God in heaven in chapter 7, except for one thing. There are seven seals, and we've only opened six of them so far. So what are the sounds in the silence? Let's go to the text and see. When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. So opening that seal brings silence. Now with Jesus' return in seal number six, we might have expected the seventh seal would have given us Revelation 21 and 22, the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven, the new heavens, the new earth. But God's message to His church to give strength and hope is not over. And so the seventh seal is needed to further our journey. So what do we get when the seal is open? Well, silence. And John describes it as about 30 minutes of silence. Now, that's a bit surprising. The heaven we've seen so far is a noisy place. It's a worshiping place. Indeed, we might remember that Jesus has said at the triumph of entry that if the people and crowd and praise and the very rocks would have worshipped here, there would have not been silence. And so there's constant worship going on. It's a place of loud and joyous worship. You have the seraphim singing in Tiffany back and forth to one another, holy, holy, holy. And the four living creatures are singing, and the elders are singing, and the angels are singing, and the people of God, all declaring God's glory. The martyrs beneath the altar crying out, how long? But now we have the sound of silence. and a place that ever since the creation of the universe has been filled with praises to the triune God. Now why the silence? Surely there is complete awe for God as we've been singing about this morning, but I think suddenly everybody's really silent because of the solemnity of the judgment that's about to take place. And certainly the silence builds suspense. about what's coming, it creates tension. People are not comfortable with silence. See what I mean? All right? The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Be silent before the Lord, for the day of the Lord is near. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling. The unbelievers cried out, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come, and who can stand? And the response is the sound of silence. We live in a noisy world, even our backyard with all its solitude. The silence maybe is only momentary. There's the cry of the coyote or a dog barking in the distance. There's a squirrel rustling in the leaves or a Carolina wren singing. Or there's thunder sounding, as like last night. Always sounds in the silence. And God used silence with great effect when the people took on the city of Jericho. That silence intimidated the people of Jericho as God brought judgment on the unbelievers there. The sounds one hears in the silence are knees knocking together and hearts pounding as the judgment of God hangs like a giant rock above their head. In a noisy world, silence stands out precisely because the world is so ordinarily noisy. The sounds and the silence as God's impending judgment is about to fall are deafening with God's people in silent awe and unbelievers in silent dread. Heaven itself is quiet as judgment is about to be poured out. And of course, this seventh seal functions as a transition scene. It both concludes the seven seals and introduces the seven trumpets. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and the seven trumpets who were given to them. It's fascinating, it gives out the trumpets during this time of silence. I think the effect is it ratchets up the tension even more. As those angels stand there simply holding their trumpets. The book of Numbers tells us that to make silver trumpets in the wilderness, to use them to guide the people when they're traveling, to give the orders, to be used in their festival celebrations. The trumpets were reused as blasts to declare God's holy war against his enemies through his people. Watch Gideon use trumpets to enable a small tiny army to defeat the Midianites. Watch in Jericho, that grabs our attention. There are seven days, seven laps. There's the silence and then the sound of the trumpets as the walls come tumbling down. We go to the New Testament and we learn trumpet blasts be part of the second coming. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. So the trumpets create all sorts of expectations, including that of war and the coming of God's kingdom in all its finality, in its fullness, and its splendor. But we'll have to wait until next week to see the role the trumpets actually play. Today, they're silent. And then another angel shows up and he doesn't have a trumpet. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. So instead of a trumpet, he has a censer, a golden censer, and it's full of incense. Now we've already seen back in chapter five, we're told that the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And so prayer is one of the sounds in the silence. And now we see there's a connection between incense and prayer. Now we can read about the temple incense in Leviticus. We read about the special recipe, the sweet aroma, the special rules for its use. And the angel standing by the altar beneath, which the souls of the martyrs are crying out for God to take vengeance. And so we have an illusion here that the priest duties on the day of atonement. If the priest was going to go into the Holy of Holies without dying, he had to go with incense filled and coals from the altar and allow the smoke to cover the mercy seat to cloud what God was doing. And so with heaven silent, the angels performing the duties of priest were that the prayers of God's people might be offered as a sacrifice. So why describe prayer as incense? Well, incense is fragrant like perfume. And then so too are our prayers pleasing to God, like a pleasing aroma, like, we might say, like barbecue. God strongly delights in the prayer of His people. And some would say that the mixing of these prayers here with incense points to the role of Jesus as the intercessor who takes our prayers to God, to the Holy Spirit who gives voice to the prayers that our words cannot form, Notice that the angel offers up the prayers of all the saints. So the angel's combining the prayers of those souls in heaven along with the prayers of the saints on earth. We saw with our singing and worship that that's a picture of the marvelous sweet communion we share with the people in heaven already. And this is the same sort of picture of our communion in prayer. Our prayers are being joined together. When Deus prayed this morning, that was our prayer. And that prayer that he offered is taken up and is combined with the people of God from all over the world. It's combined with the prayers of the martyrs before the throne. And together, they're brought together and offered up to God. You see, God carries out his sovereign decrees for the universe. by involving the prayers of His universal church. So what's the content going to be of such prayers? Psalm 141 is the Old Testament root of this prayer and incense concept. David's prayer there begins this way. Oh Lord, I call upon you, hasten to me. Give ear to my voice when I call to you. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you. And lift up my hands as the evening sacrifice. And then you read that prayer. David goes on and first thing he prays for is personal holiness. in our ongoing battle against sin. He prays for preservation and protection from those who would do him harm. Certainly this prayer is sweet incense before the Lord. It's what we should be praying. We saw several weeks ago that the martyrs in chapter 6 are praying for God to act to vindicate His name and view of the nations. They want God to act and stop those who are blaspheming His name by killing His people, and we pray the same for the persecuted church. And what should encourage us here is that God hears our prayers. Again, they're a sweet aroma for faithful walking before Him in holiness, for His protection in a sin-obsessed, violent world, in praying for the return of King Jesus. God doesn't just listen to the martyrs who are crying out, He also hears the cries from our hearts and He answers them. So let's look at the answer, the impact of prayer in the silence that will bring about more sounds in the silence. You know, the world's view of prayer today is not very high. In fact, it's more and more held up to ridicule today. Paul Simon's song, he says, all the people bowed and prayed. But he says it was to the neon God they'd made. And the only answer they received was graffiti on the walls of the subway and the tenement housing. How despairing. But watch what happens here. All right, if you've ever doubted that our prayers make much difference, watch this. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Responding to the prayers of God's people, the judgments in chapter six finally begin. The sounds and the silence include the thunder, the lightning, the quaking earth. And the language is very Exodus 19 like when God arrives at Sinai. We read it earlier, now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. The early 16th century pastor-poet George Herbert has a poem called Prayer, which is just simply a long list of metaphors used to describe prayer. And I think of those, the most arresting, the most thought-provoking is reverse thunder. That thunder that reverberates across the night sky and shakes our homes and sometimes our hearts. That's the impact our prayers bring back to this world. Tells us what an opportunity that prayer truly is. When we're in despair because maybe we sense God has been silent and not answered our prayers, perhaps not heard them. Well, this passage says no to that. As one writer challenges us, when we are disappointed by God's alleged silence, This word thunder does seem perhaps as an exaggeration, but do you remember what Augustine said? God does not hear us as man hears. Some of you women know this, unless you shout with your lungs and chest and lips, a mere man does not hear. Whereas God hears your very thoughts. Think about it. God's so attentive to us. He receives our thoughts as if they were shouts. Love what Alfred Lord Tennyson said about battering the gates of hell with storms of prayer. And the point is, keep praying. Keep praying. There's the source of encouragement and hope, strength. Our praying as a church, our praying in small groups, our praying as individuals. See, when God's people pray, it brings reverse thunder. God takes delight in what he smells, and then mighty things happen in this world. Do you remember what happens in the book of Acts when the people pray? Earthquakes shake prisoners free. Angels open locked doors. Chains fall off. A whole building quakes when the people pray. Proud kings fall. The dead are raised. The sick are healed. The lame walk. Storms howl in the Mediterranean Sea, but no one is harmed. And God opens the door for the gospel in Europe. All that happens as people pray. So are our prayers ever in vain? No way. The earth quakes in response to our prayers. The silence ends with this reverse thunder. And why? Because the power behind world events is our prayer answering God. We need to hear a fresh Jesus challenge for us to pray our Father in heaven. How it be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us all our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Friends, we need to stick with it when we pray. Luke 18 begins, and Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said in a certain city there was a judge who feared neither God nor a respected man. There was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but after he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to His elect, who are out to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Well, will He? The evidence will be if we're praying. Remember James' encouragement, the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it's working. Remember Paul's encouragement, pray without ceasing. That's why we need to read the Psalms constantly. They're the prayer for God's glory to be seen in a rebellious, fallen world. As one writer put it, every prayer we pray to God today, no matter how weak or ineffective or powerless we may feel like it is, will someday be used by God to vindicate His glory here on earth. Our prayers will cause His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let the reverse thunder roll. So what about us? I know we've not focused on the Gospel per se this morning, but the privilege we have is the people of God to pray. Maybe you're an unbeliever and you're intrigued by what you've heard. Well, let me tell you, the promise is that God hears the prayers of His children. And we become His children through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain. And we'd love to tell you how you can know that certainty to be brought from death to life so you can pray. Please see one of us after the service. See, Jesus opens His seventh seal to show us God listens to our prayers. Warner puts it, there are no orders given, no decrees made, no questions, comments, or words of any kind. The chorus of praise and awe fall silent. Heaven as a world listens to the prayers of the battle-weary church made up of Jews and Gentiles alike. The great multitude of God's people on earth who are sealed with the Holy Spirit are doing what the church needs to always be doing, and that is praying to God for help. Perhaps we need to be reminded about God's role of using prayer in history or the prayer in the Bible and church history in our own lives. Read the Bible, read about God's people in history who've prayed. Keep records of how God answers your prayers. Use today's prayer guide. Pray for our children. Certainly this text is a rebuke and chastisement to me that I don't pray enough or boldly enough. Maybe it challenges you the same way. And we may be frustrated sometimes that we don't think our prayers are being answered. And we forget God answers every prayer. Might be yes, might be no, might be not yet. And this helps us see God's gathering our prayers up. They make a huge impact. You don't try to light a fire by lighting one stick, correct? You get several sticks together and then you light them. All right, same with prayer. We talk about missions, we talk about how we impact the universe from our knees. So we boldly pray prayers for our missionaries that we send out because the prayer I pray and the prayer that you pray is combined with the prayer that somebody else prays in Alabama or Florida or Germany or Bulgaria, such that reverse thunder shakes the world. Peter ends his letter by asking the question, it's near the end, he says this, the end of all things is near. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. May our prayers be sounds in the silence. Brothers and sisters, let's pray. Father, we're so grateful to you for your greatness and your glory. Father, You're worthy of continual shouting and praise, yet we see this silence, silence that causes us to stand in awe of You, a silence, Father, because of the severity of the impending judgment that's about to come. So, Father, we pray that in that silence, Lord, we'll not be silent in making the gospel known. Father, we'll not be silent in our prayers. Father, cause us to come boldly before the throne of grace. Father, to see that when we pray Lord alone, we pray together in a small group, we pray together collectively as the people of God, that those prayers are joined with the prayers from all over this earth. Father, with the prayers of the saints in heaven for the glory of your name, for your kingdom to come, your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Father, stir our hearts to pray. Lord, as you may hear, they cannot pray because they're not a believer. Lord, today show them the glory of your Son. Father, show them the privilege of prayer and draw them from death to life by showing them the cross of your Son, Jesus Christ. And this we ask in Jesus' name. Now join me as He taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.