The Seven Trumpets (Revelation): While we wait for Christ’s return, what should the church be doing in the meantime? Hiding? Fighting? Building a bunker?? John’s vision of the seven trumpets reveals the need for the church to be a faithful witness to a world that is lost without Christ. The church must carry on her prophetic work of sharing the gospel and making disciples of all nations. Recorded on Jun 14, 2026, on Revelation 8-11 by Pastor David Parks.
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This sermon is part of the Revelation: All Things Made New series. Christians live in incredible tension. In Christ, we’re already saved, but we’re not yet delivered from this broken world. We’re being made holy, but we’re not yet perfected. We have love, joy, and peace, but we still long for justice, healing, and the death of death. How can we endure all this without giving in to complacency or compromise? In our series, we’ll pull back the veil of reality, exposing both a cosmic spiritual battle and the truth about how this story ends. One day, Jesus will return and bring a final end to evil. He will defeat his enemies and vindicate his people, wiping away every tear. Jesus will finally, fully establish his kingdom on the earth, making everything new. “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Sermon Transcript
We’re continuing our series on the book of Revelation called All Things Made New. Revelation was written by the Apostle John to seven churches in modern Turkey. And we’ve seen that it has a unique apocalyptic style, including wild visions, symbolic numbers, and all sorts of unusual (for us) features. Last week, we considered the vision of the opening of the seven seals. The seals were on a scroll, and we said that the scroll represents God’s plan of salvation (a scroll we’ll see again today). But we said that the seals represent the span of history between the resurrection and the return of Christ, meaning our current age. And we learned that the mess of this broken world, including the persecution and even death of Christians, will continue until the return of Christ because there are more people who still need to be saved. So, believe it or not, everything is going according to plan. And we need to be patient because justice and our vindication will come. But is this all that we ought to be doing? Just waiting for Jesus to return? Is there anything else? Well, the big question of John’s vision of the seven trumpets is this: What should the church be doing in the meantime? Should we build a bunker or something? Prepare for the end of the world? The answer revealed here is both practical and hopeful and is connected to the core mission of God. Well, if you have a Bible/app, please open to Rev 8:6. And this is a very long passage, so we’re only going to skip some of the description to get to all seven trumpets.
Revelation 8:6–12 (NIV), “6 Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. 7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. 8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. 10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water—11 the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. 12 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.” So, these first four trumpets are very similar to the first four seals, relating to the mess of the world in our current age. But if the seven seals focused especially on believers, the seven trumpets, we’ll see as we continue, focus more on unbelievers. This focus is revealed by a pattern similar to the one we saw with the seven seals. There were four seals grouped together, highlighting the mess of our world from a human standpoint, including war, conflict, famine, and death. Then we had the fifth seal of the martyrs, or people who were killed because of their faith in Jesus, then the sixth seal, which represented the beginning of the end of the world, and then Judgment Day came on the opening of the seventh seal. But a curious part of the pattern was that there was a long interlude between the sixth and seventh seals: a vision of a great multitude of all the believers, people from every nation, tribe, people group, and language, who were saved by the blood of the Lamb. This vision provided so much hope and strength to endure all the pain and suffering, all the mess of this world. I remind you of this because John follows a similar pattern with the seven trumpets. But instead of focusing on the brokenness of people between the resurrection and return of Christ, the first four trumpets speak more to the brokenness of creation. Everything in creation, to some degree, has been affected and corrupted by the power of sin. This is why there are earthquakes, wildfires, and floods. Now, the destruction of a third of everything means that not everything is corrupt. There is still some of the inherent beauty and goodness in creation from originally being created to be “very good” (Ge 1:31). But now, everything has been affected, and needs liberation from this “bondage to decay” (Ro 8:21). The created world is often more of a threat than anything. But we’re not done. The mess of this world includes more than just the pain of people and the corruption of creation.
Revelation 8:13-9:3, 13-16, 20-21 (NIV), “13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels! The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. [jump down to v. 13] 13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number. [jump down to v. 20] 20 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” So, the eagle was the symbol of Rome, but the judgments here seem to be more universal, not just against Rome, given the similar pattern of the seven seals and the universal scope of the first four trumpets. Either way, the eagle gives a threefold woe—a prophetic pronouncement of the coming judgment of God. And then we see the fifth and sixth trumpets brought forth what are described as plagues, like the ten plagues of Egypt during the Exodus. John sees these grotesque, demonic creatures, the locusts, that consume everything, and then, an army of 200 million horses and riders (again, probably an Exodus reference to Pharaoh’s army), who bring great spiritual destruction and death. Some modern people have thought the locusts represented Apache helicopters, but I have to remind you of one of the guidelines I shared at the beginning of this series: Revelation can’t mean something to us that it never meant to Christians in the past. Symbolic images were a common part of apocalyptic literature. But we also see symbolic language used in the descriptions of the locusts and horses. John says they were “like” this or “resembled” that. At any rate, these demonic plagues are terrible, but they are limited, limited in time and scope. Things are not as bad as they could be. Things haven’t devolved into total anarchy or seen the destruction of all life. In a cursed land, this is one of God’s mercies. But then, the heartbreaking conclusion of v. 20 is that even after all this, even after the pain of people and the corruption of creation, and even after the spiritual forces of evil come to steal, kill, and destroy—after all of the mess—there will still be some people who never repent, who never repent of their idolatry and sin, as bad as it might be, and turn back to God. I can’t think of anything worse than to live through all the pain and suffering of this world and then to still hardheartedly reject the God whose very mission in the world is rooted in his desire that no one would perish, but everyone come to saving faith and eternal life in Christ Jesus. This rejection of God makes no sense, but that’s the deceptive power of sin. But is there anything we can do about it? Well, again, between the sixth and seventh trumpets, starting in ch. 10, we have our interlude.
Revelation 10:1-3, 9-11 (NIV), “1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. 2 He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. [jump down to v. 9] 9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’” 10 I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. 11 Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” John sees a mighty angel coming from heaven with a message from God. I believe the little scroll is the same scroll from chapter 5, which only the Lamb was worthy to open, the plan of God for salvation. It’s a gospel scroll. Now, it’s a little scroll because the angel is so big. He stands on the land and sea, which reminds us that the good news is not just for people, but for all of creation (“far as the curse is found”). The angel gives the gospel scroll to John and, like the prophet Ezekiel, is told to eat it. As the word of God, it was sweet like honey, but it gave John heartburn. Why? Because what is certainly good news for those who believe, it is also bad news of the doom of humanity apart from the saving work of God through Christ. Nevertheless, John is told he must prophesy, or speak the word of God, to and about all the peoples of the earth. From chapter 7, we know that when our current age comes to an end, there will be people from every nation, tribe, people, and language making up the people of God. But how do they all get there? Well, it starts here with John symbolically eating the scroll, meaning the testimony of the apostles. But remember, all the other apostles were dead and gone by this point. And John, when he wrote this, was an old man. How would this prophetic work continue until the gospel reached all the nations? Let’s go to Rev 11:3.
Revelation 11:3-4 (NIV), “3 And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4 They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.” One commentator joked that there are 1,260 different theories about who these two witnesses represent. (Great!) Are they the Old and New Testaments of the Bible? Do they represent the dual witness of creation and salvation? Are they the spirit and power of Moses and Elijah? It’s hard to say, but I believe the two witnesses represent the church during this age between the resurrection and return of Christ. First, why two? Well, in the Law, there needed to be two to three witnesses to validate testimony in matters of life and death, so two witnesses meant that the testimony was true. Second, they’re called the two olive trees, a reference from Zechariah chapter 4 that represents people anointed to serve the Lord. Since the day of Pentecost, the anointed servants of God are the people who make up the church. Third, they’re also called two lampstands, which is the clearest connection in Revelation to the church. Back in chapter 1, the seven lampstands represented the seven churches John was writing to. Finally, John says they stand before the Lord. And chapter 7 said that only those who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, meaning the believers and followers of Christ, can stand before the Lord. Ok! But we also saw last week that this age is certainly not easy for Christians. Chapter 11 goes on to describe the abuse and even death of the two faithful witnesses experienced as they do their prophetic work of sharing good news. And the unbelieving inhabitants of the earth gloat over the seeming death of the church. But when the church appeared to be dead, just like Ezekiel’s vision in the Valley of the Dry Bones, God’s Spirit brought his church back to life and raised them up to be with him in heaven. Jump down to v. 14 for the seventh trumpet. Following the pattern, we should expect Judgment Day.
Revelation 11:14-19 (NIV), “14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon. 15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” 19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.” This is God’s word. And with all the same imagery of God descending on Mount Sinai from Exodus, we know that it is Judgment Day. As the prophet Daniel wrote, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Dan 12:2). If the seven seals were about why the world is how it is today, the seven trumpets answer the question: What should the church be doing in the meantime? In the time between the resurrection and the return of Christ, in the middle of all the mess, what should we be doing? Should we hide from the mess of the world? Should we go to war against it? Should we build a bunker?!? The message of the seven trumpets is this: The church must carry on her prophetic work of sharing the gospel and making disciples of all nations. This is what we should always be doing, but especially in light of what’s to come. Now, as much as it gives me heartburn sometimes, the message of the gospel must include the bad news of the coming judgment and wrath in order for the good news of salvation in Christ to make any sense. I’ve heard some pastors who preach against preaching against sin. They don’t like it because it seems negative or judgmental. But this is more than irresponsible; it’s dangerous. Because if the Bible is true, then people need to know what God has promised to do! But Christians don’t share the bad news of the gospel with glee or delight, even for those who have persecuted us for our faith. Our hope is not that our enemies would get what’s coming to them but that our enemies might still one day become our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not everyone will believe. We know that some will reject the grace and mercy of God. But some will believe! Some will hear the gospel and respond with repentance, faith, and obedience to Christ and will experience the whole-life transformation that following Jesus brings! Therefore, as a church, we will continue our mission of “sharing good news,” knowing that this, too, is all part of God’s plan. We will strive to be faithful witnesses in our homes, workplaces, schools, and everywhere we might go. Because everyone knows this world is a mess, and the forces of evil are fearsome, but we know that God is good, the gospel is true, and Jesus is alive, and even in a vision of Judgment Day, we still have this hopeful image of the Ark of the Covenant—a reminder not of the faithfulness of the church, but the infinite faithfulness of our God in heaven. Jesus did send us out alone. In the Great Commission, he promised, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt 28:20). So until Christ returns, what should we be doing? The church must carry on her prophetic work of sharing the gospel and making disciples of all nations. There are still more who need to be saved. So let’s get to work. Let us pray.
