This sermon by Dan Kent introduces the pale green horse of death in Revelation 6, and provides a way of understanding what God is trying to communicate through this and other terrifying images. Dan challenges us to embrace faithfulness when circumstances push us to prioritize fear.
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Crowns Not Crutches
• Dan Kent
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In this sermon, Dan Kent wraps up the current sub-series entitled “The Wrath of the Lamb” which has focused on chapter six of Revelation. In it, Dan explores the meaning of the fourth horse which rides forth when the lamb broke the fourth seal. This horse is pale green, which is the color of rotting flesh — of sickness and death. This horse builds on the first three: the horse of ascent, the horse of division, and the horse of economic woe.
Then with the fifth seal, we read about the martyrs calling out for God to bring justice. With the sixth seal, there is a total collapse of all things. Up until the sixth seal, those with power were able to navigate their way through the troubles, but with this collapse, the powerful had to run and hide from the calamity.
This is a terrifying spectacle, yet the command not to be afraid is important to the message of this book (see Revelation 1:17; 2:10). What do we do with this? It cannot be that God will protect Christians from the woe, because the text makes it clear that they are also experiencing it. Believers must go through the events of history and respond differently. Even, at times, suffering more than others.
The point is not to be controlled by fear as we attain a different perspective on what is happening in the world. The terrifying events are not actually ultimate because there is a deeper reality going on beneath them. Of course, if our focus lies on trying to experience the “best life now,” any calamity will undermine our hopes. Fear will pervade our very being. All suffering will only be seen as an event in the physical reality and will therefore be viewed as a loss.
Instead of a “best life now” mentality, we are called to put faithfulness at the center. When we do this, the challenges we face are an opportunity to learn something new, to know Christ in a deeper way, and to grow into maturity. Death is not the ultimate nemesis; unfaithfulness is. We are told not to be afraid because the situations we face in this life will not actually destroy us in any ultimate way. This is the reason that the New Testament teaches us to see trials as opportunities (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-5).
Therefore, we must stop prioritizing fear. We cannot stop the emotion of fear, but we can quit giving it a central place in our minds. We can choose to stop screaming and thereby making the fear worse. In its place, we must prioritize faithfulness. We can trust the Good Shepherd to take care of us in the midst of the trials, bringing us through the troubles and into a place where we could never go on our own.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Faithfulness, Fear, Judgment
Sermon Series: The Wrath of the Lamb
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Focus Scripture:
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Revelation 6:7-8
When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out, “Come!” I looked, and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him; they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and pestilence and by the wild animals of the earth.
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Uh…Haven’t people followed the destructive horse riders IN faithful obedience to God at the same time??
That’s what I’m seeing in our country right now: honestly faithful God followers that are frequently choosing many wrong ways or toxic tribes in Jesus’s name, some church leaders supporting or allowing people in such power that never reflect God (instead of dissenting) in Jesus’s name, Christian voters who focus on issues or character (instead of both) in Jesus’s name, and few still partaking in direct decimation to trigger Christ’s return, wholeheartedly doing the will of God.