Rev. Jonathan Gruen
Reformation Sunday
 October 25, 2009

Text: Revelation 14:6-7

The Eternal Gospel

             Friends, I picked the most difficult of our readings to preach on today.  Revelation is always difficult to work with, even for theologians and learned pastors.  I have studied carefully, and if you permit me a little explanation at the beginning, then I guarantee you will learn and grow.

            Well, we won’t get all of Revelation sorted out today, but we will look at one very short, very small, yet very significant part of the vision John was given on the Island of Patmos.  Before our text, John has just been describing a dragon and two fierce beasts. They form an unholy trinity of sorts, and refer to Satan and everything that is antichrist and antichurch.  They embody all forces of evil in this world, everything that seeks to deceive, everything that tries to pull us away from Christ.  They refer especially to people, teachings, and events in the end times that wage war against God and his saints.

            Then John writes: “Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.  And he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Rev. 14:6-7).

            Immediately after this, John describes seeing another angel who proclaims, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.”  Here Babylon describes again everything that is antichrist and antichurch.  Then a third angel shows up and pronounces judgment on all who have opposed Jesus, the Lamb of God.  Immediately after the third angel speaks John describes the final judgment on the Last Day.

            It seems as if the message of the first angel, the message we study today, is what God uses to break the power of the Old Evil Foe.  After the angel speaks his message, we see that the enemy is “fallen” from power.  So even before we come to understand who the angel is and what the message is, we can tell that it is a significant part of Revelation 14, and of the whole book.

            But what do we make of this angel and his message?  Pastor Johann Bugenhagen had an interesting take on it.  Bugenhagen was a supporter and friend of Martin Luther.  He was with Luther when he died, and then he preached Luther’s funeral sermon.

            In this sermon Bugenhagen says, “For the person [Luther] has indeed died in Christ, but the mighty, blessed, godly doctrine of this precious man still lives most powerfully.  For he was without doubt the angel concerning whom it is written in Revelation 14, who flew through the midst of heaven and had an eternal Gospel, etc., as the text says… This angel who says, ‘Fear God and give him the honor,’ was Dr. Martin Luther. And what is written here, ‘Fear God and give him the honor,’ are the two parts of Dr. Martin Luther’s doctrine, the Law and the Gospel, through which all of Scripture is unlocked and Christ, our righteousness and eternal life, is recognized.”[1]

            I find this comment fascinating.  I believe Bugenhagen is right.  Not that Luther had wings, but “angel” means “messenger,” and Luther was certainly that.  And not that God had only Martin Luther in mind when he revealed this vision to John.  I believe that the angel can certainly represent all voices who boldly and clearly proclaim the eternal Gospel.  But none since the apostles themselves have proclaimed it more clearly or more boldly than Martin Luther.  That is why we celebrate today – not that Luther was a great man, but that God used him mightily to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. 

Bugenhagen says that the phrase “Fear God and give him glory” means that the angel proclaims Law and Gospel in order to reveal and deliver Christ and his righteousness.  So, let’s look at the message of the angel.

First, we are commanded by the angel of Revelation 14 to “fear God.”  We are repeatedly told in Scripture to fear God.  We are told in Proverbs (9:10) that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  When the psalms praise God for his marvelous works, God’s people are often encouraged to fear him (Ps 34:9).  The concept is found from Genesis (20:11) to Revelation.

But what does this really mean?  Well, “fear” in the Bible doesn’t necessarily mean to be scared, though it can have that meaning too. But “when referring to a person of high position, [fear] takes on the idea of standing in awe or reverence before that individual.”  So it is with God.  “God wants us to fear Him in this sense.  He is our Creator and He is our Savior.  How can we ever think of God with indifference or treat Him lightly?”  (TLSB, p. 1001).

Recognizing the importance of fearing God, Luther wrote in every explanation to every commandment, “We should fear and love God.”  Luther understood the gravity, the seriousness of our words and actions.  He understood that God is a just God who punishes wickedness.  And so Luther preached that we should be humble, respectful, reverent, and obedient before God.  In the funeral sermon for Luther, Bugenhagen said, “[Luther] held so boldly to…pure doctrine that the world often believed that he was too sharp and too excessive with his rebuking and scolding.”

Indeed, Luther did what all messengers of God are to do, and he proclaimed the Law.  And so I too share God’s Word and tell you, “Fear God.”  Do you fear God?  Or are you indifferent?  Impartial?  Unconcerned?  You stand before God Most High, the maker of “heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water,” (Rev. 14:7) before the Lord, the God of Power and Might, the God of Sabaoth (A Heavenly Army).  He has fashioned you and given you life, and he has said, (1) “You shall have no other God’s before me.”  Do you fear him?  Or do you put other false gods before him?  Is God, his Will and his Word low on your list of priorities?  Is giving back to the One who gave you everything too much for Him to ask of you?  Is being a church, a community of believers who love, support, and help the church and one another too much for the God who created all life to demand?  Is it unfair that stepping out of our comfort zone and sharing the eternal Gospel of Jesus is expected by the God of nations who seeks to draw sinners into his kingdom?  Do we fear God?  Or do we honor, respect, and cherish ourselves and our own sinful desires more?

(2) Do we fear God so that we do not misuse his name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks?  (3) Do we fear God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word but gladly hear and learn it?  (4) Do we fear God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities but rather serve and obey them?  (5) Do we fear God that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor, but help and befriend him in every bodily need?  (6) Do we fear God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love each other? (7) Do we fear God so that we do not take anything that belongs to our neighbor, but help him improve and protect his possessions and money?  (8) Do we fear God that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray or slander him, but rather defend him and speak well of him? (9) Do we fear God that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, but help and be of service to him in keeping it? (10) Do we fear God that we do not entice or force away the people or animals in our neighbor’s life, but rather urge them to stay and do their duty?  Do we fear God as we ought?  You stand before the Maker and the Judge.  Can you give a glowing account for all your actions?

Our honest and humble answer is that no, we have not loved God, obeyed God, and feared God as we ought.  Our lives have all too often not given him glory.  The Law condemns all of us.  And Luther clearly taught this, so clearly that the world winced at the Word of God he shared.  The world continues to recoil.  Our sinful nature is still offended and angered when we hear God’s commands.  But we cannot pretend to live in denial, blind in sin, for the Light of God’s Word has dawned upon us.  We must admit before our Mighty God that we have fallen far short of the glory of God.  We have earned the pain, suffering, and dysfunction that is upon us.

But Paul declares to us in our epistle lesson, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Rom 3:21-22).  Yes, there is Good News because of Jesus Christ.  In fact, that is what “Gospel” means: Good News.  In Revelation 14 we hear that the angel proclaims an “eternal Gospel.”  This is the Good News of Jesus Christ.  It is eternal because this news, this story of Jesus, was written before the foundation of the world, and this story is the unending source of our praise.

This Gospel, which Luther so clearly and boldly proclaimed (much to the dismay, anger and rage of the corrupt and deceptive church) is what the Apostle Paul plainly sets forth: that sinners who have fallen short “are justified [declared innocent] by his [God’s] grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation [payment for sin] by his blood, to be received by faith.”

There you have it.  The eternal Gospel is this: we are saved by Grace Alone through Faith in Jesus Christ Alone.  This Gospel is not revealed to us by our hearts or our brains, but in Scripture Alone.

And friends, this is why we celebrate today.  We celebrate because of the eternal Gospel that proclaims to us that our Father sent his only begotten Son in to the flesh, so that found in human form he could bear the weight of all our terrible sins and be obedient in life and death to the glory of God the Father.  Yes, he was even obedient on the cross, stricken and smitten with the affliction of the wrath of God, to suffer the burning torture of hell for our sins, to die with body resting in the grave and soul resting in his Father’s hands, and then to rise triumphant from the grave to receive all authority, all glory, honor, and praise.

Yes your sins—your failure to keep the first and chief commandment to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and, your failure to keep the second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself—yes all your sins are forgiven in Christ.  There is not one sin left that you need to atone for.  There is not one sin you could atone for, so it is certainly Good News that we are declared innocent, righteous, and holy before God as a free gift of Jesus that comes to us by faith.  This is the eternal Gospel the angel proclaims.  And by faith we do “give God glory” as the angel says.  For Jesus has glorified God, and we who are hidden in him share in this glory by faith.

And this is why you and I do not need to fear the judgment that the angel also proclaims.  We are baptized into Christ, we have his righteousness by grace through faith as revealed in Scripture, we have the promise of heavenly peace and paradise guaranteed to us.

This is what Luther stood for.  This is what the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod still stands for, so help us God.

Friends, in these times of troubles and wickedness, the church and all of you are under attack.  There are those who disgrace the honorable title of Lutheran. There are those who bring great dishonor and shame to the name Christian.  There are those who betray, deceive, and attack all who belong to Christ.

But Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever is our Champion and our Victorious Lord.  He sends his angels, his messengers, to proclaim the eternal Gospel that will spread to the ends of the earth before the end comes.  Gladly receiving this eternal Gospel, joyfully clinging in faith to our Savior, we will be safely carried in the ark of the church until he comes to judge the living and the dead.  By grace alone through faith alone as revealed in Scripture alone, you and I are strengthened and encouraged to look forward to that day.  Happy Reformation.  Amen.