Imagine going to church as a Christian in Europe in the beginning of 1526, 500 years ago. What you would see there wouldn’t be totally different from what we see today. Churches were beautiful buildings. They had organs and bells, they had paintings and stained glass windows. Up in front there was an altar and a pulpit. Their pastors wore the same kinds of robes that had been in use for a thousand years.
But the words that you heard, well, they would have sounded something like this:
Et vidi alterum angelum volantem per medium cæli, habentem Evangelium æternum, ut evangelizaret sedentibus super terram, et super omnem gentem, et tribum, et linguam, et populum: dicens magna voce: Timete Dominum, et date illi honorem, quia venit hora judicii ejus: et adorate eum, qui fecit cælum, et terram, mare, et fontes aquarum.
That’s the passage from Revelation in Latin. The whole service would have been that way. “Latin is the language of the church,” people said. “It’s always been that way. You don’t need to understand it. You just need to do it.”
But 500 years ago that changed. The idea was already there, so it didn’t come as a total surprise. But in 1526 Martin Luther published his Deutsche Messe, his German Mass, and in doing so he gave the service back to the people.
This year, then, we’re celebrating the anniversary of something we often take for granted. When we worship, we worship in our own language. But just like so many things we celebrate in the Reformation, this concept wasn’t invented by Martin Luther. It’s the pattern that was set by the Ancient Church. And more than that, it’s inherent to the Gospel. The good news of a Savior is for all people. So the angel in Revelation cries out to people of every language, “Worship the Lord of the eternal Gospel!”
Our sermon text for today is that short passage from Revelation 14. The book of Revelation is a series of visions that God gave to the Apostle John, with each vision serving as a different way of looking at how the church must endure suffering in this world as we wait for Jesus to appear in the same way that he disappeared when he ascended into heaven. Revelation 14 is a part of the central vision series of the book, and this series of visions paints a very dramatic picture. Satan appears as a great red dragon. There’s a war in heaven and Satan is thrown down to earth. He summons terrible beasts from the earth and the sea.
These things aren’t shrugged off. They aren’t small challenges for God’s people. Instead, the whole world is going astray and those who refuse to give in and go along with it all face blasphemies and persecutions and many of them are put to death.
This isn’t fantasy. It’s the world we’re living in. It is not easy to be a Christian in this world. Christians face persecution and death for their faith every single day. And maybe you’ll say, “Well, that’s not my experience at least.” But don’t think that that fierce dragon is any less hungry for your soul. He knows your weaknesses. He’s seen them all before. And the greatest danger that he poses is not to convince people to tie you to a stake and light you on fire. The greatest danger is that you fall prey to temptation and through sin you follow after the rest of the whole world in worshipping the dragon and the beasts he commands.
And it’s right there in the middle of this vision, this terrifying vision that describes perfectly the world that we know, that John writes
Et vidi alterum angelum volantem per medium cæli
Wait. Let’s try that again. You need to know what John is saying here. He says,
6Then I saw another angel flying in the middle of the sky. He had the everlasting gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7He said with a loud voice:
Fear God and give him glory,
because the hour of his judgment has come.
Worship him who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.
This angel in John’s vision was not hiding in the margins. He wasn’t under cover in some far away secret cave. While our eyes are focused on all the trouble and persecution and temptation going on here on the ground, up there in the middle of the sky is the messenger of God with the everlasting gospel to proclaim. That Gospel is not hard to find. It’s not far away. You shouldn’t need to take a foreign language class to understand it. It’s for every nation, tribe, language, and people. It’s for all who live on the earth.
Just like the other visions of Revelation, this is symbolic. John is not telling you to go outside and stare up at the sky for a message from God. An angel is a messenger, and ever since Jesus ascended into heaven he has been sending his messengers to every nation and tribe and language and people. That was his parting command to his disciples. The miracle of Pentecost equipped them with the languages they needed to carry out that command. And the message they’re sent to proclaim is an everlasting one. Satan can wage war all he wants. The whole world can go astray following after one lie after another. But the everlasting Gospel endures.
That gospel is proclaimed with our lips and it is revered in our hearts. “Worship him,” the angel says, and he says this to those of every nation, tribe, language, and people. How do we do that? To worship is to ascribe worth. “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” That’s the song of all the hosts of heaven in Revelation 5. It’s your song, too.
What a privilege it is to have the word of God at your fingertips! What a blessing to have hundreds of hymns and songs to sing! The first German hymnal had 8 hymns in it. By contrast, the committees who have worked on recent hymnals had their biggest challenge in deciding which hymns and hymn stanzas to cut out so that they could print out a book that wasn’t too big. And for English translations of the Bible, well, just one popular website has 64 different English translations. Most of you are carrying around in your pocket a device that could let you read them all.
So do you? It doesn’t do much good to have hundreds of hymns if you only ever sing a few on Sunday. Sixty English translations of the Bible won’t do you any good if you can’t find the time to read even one. We live in a highly literate society. We have God’s word readily available to us in so many ways. And yet our lips are still often so sluggish to sing the praises of our God and to pray to him as we ought.
The real problem there of course is not with the words on our lips. The problem is the sin in our hearts. We could easily program a whole chorus of robots to sit here in church and sing hymns all day and night, but to what end? If our worship is a matter of turning off our brains and mindlessly reciting words then those words might as well be in Latin.
But the angel who is carrying the everlasting gospel in Revelation commands that we fear God and give him glory. I think most Christians know that fearing God means to hold him in awe and reverence. It’s not quite the same as saying that we should live in terror of him. At the same time, we might still think of this primarily as a negative thing. We fear God because of his awesome power. We fear him because of his righteous judgment. No sin is a secret from him. No sinner can escape him. That’s why you need go to church. That’s why you need to say the words, no matter what language they’re in. That’s why you need to do all the things that worship requires.
But is that the kind of fear that the angel of Revelation is proclaiming? He does say that the hour of God’s judgment has come. But if this is fear that is driven by terror of God’s judgment then this angel isn’t really proclaiming the everlasting gospel. That kind of fear is the fear that comes from the law. It’s the fear that Israel had at the foot of Mount Sinai. It’s the fear of my sinful flesh that wants to run and hide from God, just like the ungodly in Revelation 6 who beg the mountains in vain to fall on them and hide them from God’s wrath.
That was us too. But the everlasting gospel has been proclaimed to us, just as it has to those of every nation and tribe and language and people. And what does that Gospel proclaim? It proclaims the salvation of God for sinners. God himself has taken on your flesh. God himself has taken on your sins. And God himself has suffered judgment and death and hell so that you are declared righteous and so that you can live with him forever.
True praise of God on our lips must come from true loving fear of God in our hearts. The law of God does produce fear that is terrified of God’s righteous judgment, but the Gospel produces a different kind of fear. This fear is one that looks in overwhelmed awe at the mighty love of God displayed at the cross. This fear is one that does not know what to say to a God whose love is so great for you. This fear is one that wants nothing more than to sing at the top of its lungs the praises of Christ Jesus, who died and rose and lives forever to make the Day of God’s Judgment the Day of your salvation.
Praise him, then, who has freed you from your sins. Praise him who has rescued you from death and hell. Praise him who has given you an inheritance with him in heaven. Praise him in every language and tongue. Praise him with all your heart. Worship the Lord of the everlasting gospel. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson