The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Sermon Notes
“The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse”
Before we get into today’s message I want to give you a quick reminder that next Sunday’s Easter, and we’ll be starting our Easter celebration off with an Easter Egg Hunt and breakfast at 9:50. Then at 10:30 we’ll continue our Easter celebration with an incredible worship service we’ve planned, and I’ll be preaching on how the resurrection of Jesus can give us hope, peace, joy for our lives today. I’ll be preaching on Matthew 28, and how the resurrection of Jesus can turn graves into gardens. On your seats are some invite cards, and we want you to invite as many people as you can by sharing those cards on social media, texting some friends, or just inviting them in person. We want you to invite as many people as you can, because it’s invitations that leads to transformations. So let’s invite, let’s pray for those we invite, and let’s have an incredible Easter celebration next Sunday.
Now today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Revelation, and it’s a series about finding peace in a world of chaos. The text we’re studying today is about finding peace when it comes to sin and evil. It can help us find peace when it comes to sin and evil, because it teaches us that sin and evil have an expiration date. The sin and evil affecting your life, have an expiration date...The sin and evil affecting your friends and family, have an expiration date...The sin and evil affecting our world, have an expiration date...This is something that both skeptics and believers should want, because we know sin and evil doesn’t ever help our lives, relationships, and world. We know having more sin and evil doesn’t ever make our lives, relationships, and world better, it only makes them worse. I mean if we had to choose, we’d much rather live in a world without sin and evil instead of with it. We’d much rather live in a world where sin and evil don’t exist. The good news is, that world is coming. Today’s text teaches us that world is coming, because sin and evil have an expiration date. Let’s turn to Revelation ch 6 and get into it. You’ll find Revelation in the back of the bible, it’s the very last book of the bible, and we’ll be in Revelation 6:1-8. Title of the message is The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, and the big idea is that sin and evil have an expiration date...Sin and evil have an expiration date...
Here’s your context. The book of revelation is about the 2nd coming of Jesus, and what will happen at the end of history when Jesus finally returns. We divided the entire book into four major sections based on four major visions John the author receives from Jesus, and right now we’re in the 2nd vision, which is about Jesus and the Cosmos. It’s about Jesus ruling over the entire cosmos, and his justice being poured out against sin and evil. In today’s text Jesus is giving John a little glimpse of some of the future tribulations that are coming at the end of history. As we study this text we’ll learn about some of the future tribulations that are coming, through the four horsemen of the apocalypse. But we’ll also learn sin and evil have an expiration date, so let’s check it out.
Revelation 6:1-8 states, “Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals...” The bible often refers to Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb, who sacrificed his life for our lives. He sacrificed his life on the cross, for the forgiveness of our sins. So the Lamb John’s seeing here is a reference to Jesus, and he’s seeing Jesus opening seven seals that releases seven different tribulations. The first four seals releases tribulations from the four horsemen of the apocalypse. These four horsemen are symbolic of the forces Jesus will use to expose and judge the sinful depravity of humanity. It'll be a very scary time, but not a hopeless time, because Jesus is in control of these four horsemen. He’s the one who opens the seal, who sends these four horsemen, so he’s the one in control of them and their tribulations. I’ll explain why Jesus sends these tribulations later, but for now just know he’s the one in control, and when these four horsemen come, it’ll be the beginning of the end of history.
Again vs. 1, “Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ 2 I looked, and there was a white horse. Its rider held a bow; a crown was given to him, and he went out as a conqueror in order to conquer.” What John’s seeing here is a white horse being released. It’s the 1stof the four horsemen, and there are several theories on who this 1st white horseman is. Most scholars I read believe it's either the Antichrist, or it’s political and military global leaders. But it doesn’t have to be either/or, because Ephesians 6 teaches our battles aren’t just against flesh and blood, they’re also against the spiritual forces of evil. So this 1st white horseman is most likely symbolic of both. It’s most likely the Antichrist, a counterfeit Christ, who’s using political and military global leaders to conquer. The text says they’ll seek to conquer, but it won’t be through physical war. The text never mentions close physical hand to hand combat, instead it mentions a bow which is used from a distance. The implication is they’ll conquer not from a close physical war, but from a distance. It’ll be a cold war victory, with deceptive peace treaties. John MacArthur states, “The world’s desperate desire for international peace will serve as bait. The longing for security and safety will play into the hands of the Antichrist, Satan’s ruler, and he will convince the world he can provide it.”
So this 1st white horseman will conquer by bringing deceptive peace treaties, and we’ve already seen smaller deceptive peace treaties like this happening throughout history. For example, after WWI Britain and France were deceived into believing Hitler was a man of peace. As a result they didn’t do anything when Hitler violated the Versailles Peace Treaty, and in 1938 the British Prime Minister met with Hitler to sign another peace treaty that stated “Peace with honor...Peace for our time.” But Hitler broke that deceptive peace treaty too, when he invaded Poland in 1939, and it led to WWII. The point is if Hitler can get people to trust his deceptive peace treaties, then the Antichrist will be able to do it at a greater global level than Hitler. When this 1st white horseman comes, the Antichrist will bring greater global deceptive peace treaties than Hitler. But like Hitler, he’ll eventually break those global deceptive peace treaties, when the 2nd horseman comes.
Vs. 3, “When Jesus opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come!’ 4 Then another horse went out, a fiery red one, and its rider was allowed to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another. And a large sword was given to him.” What John’s seeing here is a fiery red horse being released. It’s the 2nd of the four horsemen, and most scholars believe the red is symbolic of bloodshed from global war. If you notice John says this 2nd horseman is being released to take away peace from the earth, and they have a sword, which is used for close physical hand to hand combat. So the 1st horseman will bring deceptive peace, but this 2nd horseman will take away that deceptive peace, bringing physical global war and bloodshed. Just like WWII started after Hitler broke his deceptive peace treaty, there will be an even greater WW that’ll be started after the Antichrist breaks his deceptive peace treaty. The Antichrist will be just as skillful at war, as he is at deceiving people. It’s the point in history when things will start going from bad to worse, until Jesus finally returns as the true Christ, the true Prince of Peace.
So this 2nd fiery red horseman will bring global war and bloodshed unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. I think Albert Einstein realized this when he talked about the despair he had over his letter to Roosevelt, his scientific research, and his E=mc² formula. He was in despair over how those things helped contribute to the first atomic bomb. One of his friends saw he was in despair over this and asked Einstein if he thought we’d ever have peace in our world. Einstein said, “No...As long as there will be man, there will be wars.” Einstein was in despair because he knew that our corrupt human hearts and minds would lead to creating greater destructive weapons than the atomic bomb. In the words of WWII General Omar Bradley, “With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have many men of science; but few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom, but rejected the Sermon on the Mount...Ours is a world of nuclear giants, and ethical infants.” Einstein and Bradley were right, because here we are 80 yrs later, and we’ve already created nuclear bombs 80 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. They knew our corrupt human hearts and minds would lead to even greater destructive weapons than the first atomic bomb. When we study history what we find is every generation creates greater destructive weapons for war than the generation before it. What we find is every generation is getting closer and closer to the things Jesus is telling us will happen in Revelation 6, which is that there will be a global war unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. When this 2nd fiery red horseman comes, the Antichrist will use the most destructive weapons we’ve created, to cause global war and bloodshed unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
Vs. 5, “When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and there was a black horse. Its rider held a set of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard something like a voice among the four living creatures say, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but don’t harm the oil and the wine.’” What John’s seeing here is a black horse being released. It’s the 3rd of the four horsemen, and most scholars believe the black is symbolic of famine. It makes sense because when there’s a major global war, inflation and famine tends to follow. When there’s a major global war countries use their militaries to cut off trade routes, they stop trading with each other, stop importing and exporting, which creates supply shortages causing prices to increase. We’re feeling a little of this now with the inflated gas and grocery prices from the Russia Ukrainian War and the Israeli Hamas War. But at the end of history it’ll be a much greater global war than those wars, creating greater global economic and agricultural issues leading to greater global inflation and famine. If you notice the text mentions scales and a denarius for a quart of wheat. It’s talking about scales used for measuring the price of grain, and a denarius for a quart of wheat is more than 10 times its normal price. A denarius was the average salary a person made per day, and quart of wheat could feed roughly one person per day. So people are basically working an entire day, just to buy enough food to survive the day. If they have family they’ll have to buy barley which is cheaper, but it’ll still be barely enough for their family to survive the day. We’ve seen similar things like this happen in the United States during The Great Depression, in Europe during the aftermath of World War II, and even today in many war-torn third-world countries, where people are literally starving to death because they don’t have enough food to survive. When this 3rd black horseman comes, there will be a global war leading to a greater global famine than The Great Depression, or any other famine in history.
Vs. 7, “When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ 8 And I looked, and there was a pale green horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following after him. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.”What John’s seeing here is a pale green horse being released. It’s the 4th of the four horsemen, and most scholars believe the pale green is symbolic of death. In fact the original Greek word for pale green is chlōros, and it’s where we get the English word chlorophyll and chlorine from. So this is a pale yellowish or greyish green horse, like the color of a dead corpse. The name of this 4th horseman is Death. It’s the grim reaper, the angel of death, and he'll be released to kill over a fourth of the earth. Again this makes sense, because what comes after a global war and famine, is death. But the text also says there will be plagues, like the Bubonic Plague that wiped out 1/4 to 1/3 of Europe’s population. If we had to face global war, famine, and plagues all at the same time, we could easily lose over a fourth of the earth’s population to death. Especially with the nuclear weapons we have, and the transportation we have that can spread plagues and viruses like COVID quicker than ever before in history. When this 4th pale green horseman comes, many lives will be lost from global wars, famines, and plagues. In Matthew 24 Jesus warns us about all these things. He says in Matthew 24:8, “All these events, are the beginning of labor pains.” They’re the beginning of labor pains, meaning more tribulations are coming. The four horsemen are just the beginning, and more tribulations are coming which we’ll study after Easter. But for now let me address three important questions regarding this text.
#1 Why would Jesus send these tribulations? = Remember Jesus is the one who opens the seals and sends these tribulations with the four horsemen, but why would he do that? He does it to put an end to sin and evil, which we already admitted is something we want! We don’t want sin and evil to continue forever, instead we want it to have an expiration date, and this is the beginning of that expiration date! If he doesn’t put an end to it, then heaven won’t be heaven it’ll be hell. If sin and evil can continue destroying our lives, relationships, and world, then heaven won’t be heaven it’ll be hell. So the loving thing for Jesus to do is to die for our sins on the cross to give us a way out of hell, but also to put an end to sin and evil so heaven doesn’t become hell. Jesus loves us enough to die for us on the cross, but he also loves us enough to put an expiration date on sin and evil in the world. These tribulations are the beginning of that expiration date.
#2 Where is the grace of Jesus in these tribulations? = We’re always talking about how gracious Jesus is, but where’s the grace of Jesus in these tribulations? He’s being gracious by limiting how much destruction these four horsemen can cause. If you notice they’re able to bring famine, but they’re limited. They can’t touch the oil and wine that’s used for cooking and purifying things. They’re able to take some lives through wars, famine, and plagues, but they’re limited. They can take a ¼ of the lives, but they can’t take everyone’s lives. Jesus is repeatedly showing grace in these tribulations by limiting the amount of destruction. Instead of wiping out everyone, he’s still giving some of the survivors a chance to repent and turn to him. He’s even showing grace by giving sin and evil have an expiration date, so we don’t have to worry about sin and evil forever.
#3 Will believers still be alive during these tribulations? = Will believers, will Christians still be alive during these tribulations, or will we be rescued before these tribulations? There are 4 primary views when it comes to this question. The 1st is the Pre-tribulation View, which believes Christians will be taken to heaven pre-tribulation, before these tribulations happen, so we don’t have to go through this suffering. They believe Jesus will return two times, first to rescue the church, and second to rescue Israel and skeptics who come to faith during the tribulations. The 2nd is the Mid-tribulation View, which believes Christians will be taken to heaven mid-tribulation, in the middle of the tribulations. Like the pre-tribulation view, they believe Jesus will return twice, but his first return will be in the middle of the tribulations. The 3rd is the Post-tribulation View, which believes Christians will be taken to heaven post-tribulation, after the tribulations happen. They believe we’ll suffer from these tribulations, but Jesus will rescue us in his second coming. The 4th is the Pan-tribulation View, which believes it’ll all pan out in the end. We can’t be 100% certain if it’s pre, mid, or post-trib, but we can be 100% certain it’ll all pan out in the end with Jesus.
Now the reality is there are strong cases for each of these views, but I believe the strongest case is the post-tribulation view. The reason I say that is because the pre and mid-trib views teach Jesus will return twice, but there isn’t a single place in the bible that teaches that. There are a few verses people will use for this view, but it’s a stretch to say those verses clearly teach he’s coming back twice. It also creates issues when interpreting texts like Matthew 24 or Revelation 6 where Jesus is warning us about these future tribulations. Why would he warn us about these tribulations, if he’s going to rescue us from them? He’s warning us not to rescue us from these tribulations, it’s to prep us for these tribulations. So what’s the answer? Will Christians still be alive during these tribulations or not? The answer is, we don’t know. We aren’t 100% sure. So my stance is that I’m hoping it’s pre-trib, I’m hoping Jesus takes us before these tribulations. But I’m really a post-trib with a pan-trib faith. I believe the bible teaches we’ll most likely be here during these tribulations, but either way it’ll all pan out in the end with Jesus, which is something all these views agree on.
The big idea of the message is sin and evil have an expiration date...Sin and evil have an expiration date, which is good news for our lives, relationships, and world. We’d much rather live in a world where sin and evil have an expiration date, and the good news is that world is coming for those who put their faith in Jesus. Throughout revelation we’ll see many survivors come to faith in Jesus through these tribulations. It takes these tribulations to wake them up, and if you’re a skeptic Jesus is warning you about these tribulations because he wants you to wake up too! He wants you to repent of your sins, believe he died on the cross for your sins, and turn to him now, so you’ll get to enjoy eternal life with him later, where sin and evil will have an expiration date for your life too. If you’re a believer he’s warning you about these future tribulations to prep you, but also so you’ll find hope in knowing the world you want is coming. Find hope in knowing the world you want without sin and evil destroying our lives, relationships, and world is coming. It’s because sin and evil have an expiration date, and Revelation 6 is the beginning of that expiration date.