back to indexWed Bible Study - Revelation Lesson 13
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Heavenly Father, we ask, Lord, that you would bless the time that we have together, that 00:00:12.240 |
the study of the end times would cause us to be sober, help us to study in faith, that 00:00:18.600 |
all of these things, Lord God, that we eagerly wait with anticipation. 00:00:23.160 |
Even though we may not understand the various details of all the visions that John is seeing, 00:00:29.240 |
I pray that what you've intended to warn, to encourage, to strengthen your church through 00:00:37.960 |
So help us, Lord God, not to simply put in our time, but that your word would speak to 00:00:43.080 |
us and through your Holy Spirit, Lord God, that you would guide and lead. 00:00:57.920 |
The first one only covers a couple of verses, and then the second one, the two witnesses. 00:01:01.800 |
The first one begins with the commandment to go measure the temple, right? 00:01:08.240 |
And so the image of measuring is used in the scripture in various ways. 00:01:16.160 |
Sometimes the imagery is used as a plumb line. 00:01:18.400 |
Some of you guys may remember in the book of Amos where God tells Israel that on the 00:01:24.000 |
surface they look like they are right, but God places a plumb line to see if they were 00:01:28.280 |
really right with God because they were deceiving themselves. 00:01:32.200 |
God clearly saw them that their worship was tainted, but according to the law of God, 00:01:36.840 |
the word of God, they were not right with him. 00:01:39.760 |
And so God was using the plumb line to reveal to them how far they've strayed away from 00:01:44.320 |
And so that imagery is used in the book of Amos and also in 2 Kings. 00:01:51.280 |
Sometimes the imagery is used to measure those who are righteous, so Zacharias 2, 1 through 00:01:56.240 |
5, again, where there's measuring going on for the purpose of not revealing sin, but 00:02:06.640 |
We're going to see that measuring again in the book of Revelation in much more detail 00:02:11.160 |
when it's talking about the new Jerusalem, right? 00:02:15.960 |
It's going to have an elaborate, detailed description. 00:02:19.400 |
So the whole debate in the book of Revelation, in particular chapter 21, is that is that 00:02:25.480 |
a description of heaven or is that a description of the millennial kingdom? 00:02:31.160 |
Depending on how you interpret that is going to have a huge effect on how you see the other 00:02:46.720 |
Why does God in this text ask John to take measurements of the temple, the detailed measurement 00:02:53.280 |
of the temple, and tell him not to measure the outer court? 00:02:57.120 |
Well, we see a similar thing that happens in Ezekiel. 00:03:08.360 |
I'm not going to read all of it, but he says, "While the man was standing beside me, I heard 00:03:13.680 |
And he said to me, 'Son of man, this is the place of the throne and the place of the soles 00:03:17.360 |
of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. 00:03:21.080 |
And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, 00:03:25.440 |
by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places.'" 00:03:30.400 |
But basically, after he reminds the nation of Israel that the temple is God's house, 00:03:38.400 |
and then he says, "You've been defiling my house by disobeying and going after other 00:03:44.320 |
idols," and then he tells him in the next passage to go take all these measurements 00:03:48.200 |
of the temple, of all the different articles, right? 00:03:51.800 |
So again, it kind of correlates with what he's doing here. 00:03:55.720 |
So why would you ever take measurements of your house? 00:04:01.360 |
Okay, those of you guys who have your own house or your condo, when would you take measurements 00:04:10.640 |
Just to tell your friends how big your house is? 00:04:20.800 |
Rebuilding, it's for the purpose of building or modeling, right? 00:04:24.320 |
So the imagery that we see of God telling them to take measurements, it's not that God 00:04:30.520 |
is remodeling, but it is to signify his presence, that he's restoring the temple, right? 00:04:40.600 |
So the measurement of the temple signifies renovation, restoration of God's presence 00:04:46.880 |
So basically what he's saying, remember, where are we in the seven-year tribulation right 00:05:02.960 |
Three and a half years into it, and he says, remember, time, times, and a half of times, 00:05:10.840 |
So he's right at the half mark, and up to this point, up to this point, God says he's 00:05:25.620 |
So meaning, he was not going to delay in fulfilling the promise to his people, and he's no longer 00:05:31.700 |
going to delay in bringing judgment upon mankind. 00:05:35.160 |
Up to this point, he's been warning the nations. 00:05:38.440 |
He was bringing judgments, remember, a fourth of the nature, a third of the people, and 00:05:43.400 |
then this fire and all this stuff is coming, but all of it, in the midst of all of that, 00:05:51.000 |
So even in the midst of all of this intense judgment, God is allowing them time to repent. 00:05:57.040 |
Then last week, right, last week, God responds and says, it will no longer delay, meaning 00:06:04.480 |
the rest of the judgment is going to come swiftly, and restoration of his people are 00:06:10.000 |
So the measurement of the temple is God's promise that he's fulfilling, that he's going 00:06:16.400 |
The temple, meaning the church, the church which is going to experience intense persecution, 00:06:22.680 |
God's going to purify the church, and in the midst of that, the judgment is going to be 00:06:28.520 |
So remember, is the second half more intense or the first half more intense? 00:06:36.840 |
The real intense judgment we haven't studied yet. 00:06:41.700 |
So up to this point, God's, you can call it discipline more than judgment, but here and 00:06:47.060 |
now, God's going to bring the judgment upon mankind. 00:06:49.480 |
So that's what the measuring of the temple represents, that he's going to strengthen 00:06:53.560 |
the church while the judgment upon mankind is going to intensify. 00:06:58.940 |
He said, though there's going to be intense tribulation, the church will be protected 00:07:04.360 |
during a 42 weeks reign of terror by the beast, right? 00:07:10.040 |
And again, that's recorded in Revelation chapter 13, 5. 00:07:17.920 |
The outer court is going to be overtaken by the nations and trampled on for 42 weeks. 00:07:30.760 |
And the significance of that, the outer court of the temple being trampled on, that signifies 00:07:36.720 |
the temple is going to be corrupted by false worshipers. 00:07:40.560 |
And God's going to restore the true church, but he's going to allow the fake church, the 00:07:48.380 |
So if you remember, remember Matthew 24, 24, one of the qualities that God says is going 00:08:03.960 |
Deception that even the elect may be deceived if that was possible. 00:08:10.040 |
Meaning that that's how severe the delusion is going to be. 00:08:14.200 |
False prophets, divisions in the church where God's going to purify the church. 00:08:19.400 |
It may come through false prophecies, false leaders, and then divisions in the church. 00:08:26.260 |
And then, you know, when typically if there is anything that comes into the church that 00:08:31.380 |
divides the church, it doesn't divide with one evil and one good. 00:08:35.640 |
It's usually both sides thinking that they're good, right? 00:08:39.120 |
And so he said the deception is going to come so strongly, right? 00:08:44.280 |
If possible, even the elect will be deceived. 00:08:47.360 |
Again, long run, of course, the elect is not going to be deceived, but it's to convey how 00:08:54.840 |
And God is going to allow that in the church at the end. 00:08:58.400 |
He's going to strengthen the real church, right? 00:09:02.080 |
The real worshippers of God, but those who are superficially worshipping, meaning that 00:09:06.960 |
maybe the non-Christians, the false worshippers, he's going to allow the church, a portion 00:09:17.140 |
This is going to happen during a period of 42 months, 1,260 days. 00:09:22.600 |
It is referring to a time of intense distress, tribulation, persecution, and destruction. 00:09:29.880 |
So we're at the halfway mark, and it's going to get worse, but at the tail end of that, 00:09:37.540 |
And so that's what the measurement of the temple signifies, right? 00:09:46.200 |
And whenever God draws near, always two things happen, right? 00:09:51.960 |
The righteous are comforted, and the sinners are punished, always. 00:09:57.840 |
Because that's what happens when revival comes. 00:10:00.320 |
Revival doesn't come and encourage everybody. 00:10:12.520 |
And so that's how it's described at the end times before the intense judgment comes. 00:10:17.000 |
God's going to bring revival in the church, but revival to true believers, right? 00:10:22.840 |
And the superficial or maybe false believers who are following false prophets are going 00:10:28.040 |
to be identified at that time, and they're going to be judged by it. 00:10:30.640 |
And so that's going to set up for the next scene where the two witnesses are going to 00:10:36.640 |
Now, the identity of the two witnesses, no one knows this for sure. 00:10:42.320 |
And I've read all the arguments behind what they believe, and depending on which view 00:10:47.440 |
But none of it seemed like to me a slam dunk. 00:10:51.460 |
But some of the suggestions, some have suggested that they are symbolic of the church, right? 00:10:59.000 |
And basically them going out, proclaiming the gospel, and there's going to be a revival, 00:11:06.540 |
And then at the tail end of that, the beast is going to come and slaughter the church, 00:11:12.000 |
And after three days, again, all of these things are symbolic. 00:11:15.340 |
And after the three days, God's going to resurrect the church, and there's going to be a rapture, 00:11:20.560 |
Again, this is one of the suggestions of what these two witnesses represent. 00:11:26.920 |
Another suggests that they might be Moses and Elijah. 00:11:32.360 |
And the reasoning behind why they think it's Moses and Elijah is because of the powers 00:11:37.720 |
The powers that are described that what these two witnesses are able to do are very similar 00:11:43.840 |
to the powers that, again, Moses, God used Moses to present when he was delivering the 00:11:50.960 |
nation of Israel, or Elijah, and a lot of the powers he had. 00:11:54.160 |
So that's where they think maybe that it might be Moses and Elijah. 00:11:58.720 |
Another reason why is, remember at the transfiguration, right, Moses and Elijah shows up. 00:12:03.600 |
So they think that maybe it's Moses and Elijah. 00:12:10.580 |
Can somebody take an educated guess why some people would think that this might be Enoch 00:12:17.520 |
So remember, the witnesses die, and then they come back to life. 00:12:23.920 |
God puts his breath in them, they come back to life. 00:12:26.000 |
And so they think that must be signifying those two people who didn't die, right? 00:12:31.520 |
Enoch is caught up, and he goes up to heaven. 00:12:36.980 |
But again, none of these are just suggestions. 00:12:40.960 |
Again, to me, when I was reading through all of this and the reasoning behind that, none 00:12:47.800 |
But we know, at least in character, they were wearing sackcloth, signifying a call to repentance. 00:12:57.760 |
It's very similar to the garb that John the Baptist wore. 00:13:02.800 |
The description of John the Baptist's garment wasn't sackcloth. 00:13:05.920 |
It says it was camel hair, but it was similar to sackcloth. 00:13:09.680 |
And it signified very plain clothing, a prophet that is detached from the world and basically 00:13:18.680 |
And that was the central call of John the Baptist, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven 00:13:23.280 |
So if you look at these two messengers, it doesn't tell us specifically what they were 00:13:31.040 |
But whatever it was that they were preaching, it made the people angry. 00:13:36.080 |
And we're going to get to that in a little bit. 00:13:38.760 |
So it looks like, when you put two and two together, that the primary message, and considering 00:13:43.600 |
the context, that it's a preparation for Christ to come, that he's preaching the repentance. 00:13:50.960 |
So it's kind of like playing the same role as John the Baptist. 00:13:53.840 |
He's preparing for the coming of Christ, and his message is to allow them to repent. 00:13:57.960 |
So even up to this point, even up to this point, God is pleading with the world to repent. 00:14:07.800 |
And he's given a final warning that any, and this spectacular miracle is going to happen. 00:14:13.600 |
These two people are going to come back to life. 00:14:16.880 |
And even then, the people who refuse to repent won't repent. 00:14:21.320 |
But that seems to be the main message that they're going to be bringing. 00:14:26.720 |
They are called two olive trees and two lampstands. 00:14:32.820 |
We already know that the lampstand represents that they are lightbearers for God. 00:14:39.560 |
In the beginning of Revelation, who else is called lampstand? 00:14:52.240 |
And Jesus says that we are the light of the world, right? 00:14:55.120 |
So we are light collectively, we are light individually. 00:14:58.140 |
And so these two witnesses said they're lampstands for God, they are lightbearers. 00:15:11.140 |
If they are the lamp, what does the olive tree represent? 00:15:27.980 |
So to say that they are lampstand and they're olive tree, meaning that there is an eternal 00:15:32.800 |
supply of oil, that this is not a temporary position that they have, right? 00:15:50.960 |
It says that during the time of their 42 weeks of ministry, they're going to be protected 00:16:01.280 |
They said that they're going to have power over waters, turn them into blood and strike 00:16:05.160 |
the earth with every kind of plagues as often as they desire. 00:16:08.280 |
So again, that's part of the reason why I don't think that this is the church, right? 00:16:12.800 |
Because the way it's described, they have supernatural powers. 00:16:16.480 |
And these aren't just ordinary prophets or apostles. 00:16:22.280 |
Elijah is the only one that we can think of that had this kind of power, right? 00:16:30.480 |
But these two witnesses, we don't know exactly what their identity is, but they weren't ordinary 00:16:42.720 |
So again, we don't know exactly who they are, but during their ministry, there's going to 00:16:47.240 |
be a lot of miracles that's going to take place and no one's going to be able to oppose 00:17:00.080 |
And their powers that are described are very similar to the power of Elijah that we see 00:17:08.640 |
And again, partially that's the reason why some people suggest that this is… one of 00:17:22.640 |
Whoever these two people are, whether it's symbolic, it represents something, it basically 00:17:27.560 |
says at the end, before the Antichrist comes, there's going to be a period of intense evangelism, 00:17:35.840 |
Whether that's three and a half years or whether that's a longer period, if we believe that 00:17:40.880 |
this is something that's going to come in the future, that God is going to purify the 00:17:44.040 |
church and basically He's going to purify the church, maybe it's going to come through 00:17:51.920 |
And the people who've been kind of holding on to God superficially, you know, as soon 00:17:56.760 |
as the tree gets shaken, the fake fruits are going to fall out, right? 00:18:03.160 |
And then through the fire, the real Christians, the true believers who are holding on, that 00:18:11.640 |
And that's exactly… if you talk to the pastors in India, that's exactly what they say. 00:18:15.600 |
Right now, I mean, you can go online and read about persecution around the world and India 00:18:20.640 |
is almost like… they're going up on this ladder, almost on a monthly basis. 00:18:25.920 |
I don't know if you heard, I read an article just about three days ago, a pastor was coming 00:18:30.260 |
out of his church and two young men on their scooter just came by and shot them point blank, 00:18:37.360 |
So this type of stuff is increasing in India all the time, you know. 00:18:40.880 |
So when we talk to the pastors, I say, you know, how do you deal with all of this? 00:18:44.120 |
And they said, it's been good for the church. 00:18:47.040 |
You know, I say it's been good for the church because only serious Christians come to church. 00:18:52.520 |
So you can imagine what the fellowship is like, right? 00:18:55.260 |
When every single person that's there are being tested with their life, that whether 00:19:01.280 |
So the Bible describes at the end times that the persecution is going to be so intense 00:19:07.200 |
that it's going to be a gathering of true believers. 00:19:09.320 |
But once they're the gathering of true believers are together, there's revival, right? 00:19:17.320 |
So whether it's going to be two literal people or the two prophets or if it's symbolic of 00:19:21.360 |
the church, however you interpret that, it basically is saying that revival is coming, 00:19:27.200 |
But again, revival is not coming for everybody. 00:19:28.720 |
He said the outer court is not going to be measured. 00:19:31.440 |
He's going to allow that part of the church to be trampled on, right? 00:19:42.280 |
So after accomplishing the ministry to proclaim repentance for preparation of the coming of 00:19:47.040 |
the King, they are immediately killed by the beast that arise from the abyss. 00:20:00.080 |
Satan is described in Revelations 12, 3 and 9 as the dragon. 00:20:06.280 |
So the beast is getting power from Satan, from the dragon. 00:20:13.240 |
So if he's not the beast, if he's not Satan himself and he's getting power from the beast, 00:20:24.480 |
He's not Satan himself, but he is a high servant of the beast. 00:20:34.640 |
Antichrist that Paul mentions in 2 Thessalonians, right? 00:20:40.200 |
That he's the antichrist, the man of lawlessness is going to come. 00:20:49.660 |
And according to Revelations 13, 1 through 8. 00:20:51.640 |
So there's going to be a more detailed description of who the beast is and his activity in Revelation 00:21:00.800 |
So when we get there, we'll go into more deep description. 00:21:06.920 |
It doesn't say political, but again, when we get there, we'll talk about it more. 00:21:11.240 |
But it basically describes how the 10 horns are going to unify. 00:21:16.180 |
And then out of the 10, the 3 are going to go overpower the others, right? 00:21:20.460 |
And so I've heard so many interpretations of that. 00:21:23.680 |
I remember, I'm assuming most of you guys don't remember, but years ago when the European 00:21:29.000 |
Union was coming together, I don't know, how long was that? 00:21:40.980 |
But I remember when the European Union was coming together and they're going to combine 00:21:43.860 |
their currency and there was a lot of end time prophets who were saying that that was 00:21:48.240 |
a 10 nation federation, you know, and then they were trying to connect the dots. 00:21:53.360 |
I don't know if that's true or not, you know, but a lot of that was coming from this, from 00:22:02.360 |
But I'm not going to get too deep into that because when we get into that, I'll talk a 00:22:06.920 |
little bit more about that when we get to chapter 13 and on. 00:22:10.880 |
But his activity seems like a political activity. 00:22:13.360 |
He's going to gather the authorities, the kingdoms of the earth, and he's going to bring 00:22:21.380 |
So there's going to be a period of Antichrist rule where Christians are going to be under 00:22:29.520 |
So again, that's when the persecution obviously is going to increase. 00:22:36.800 |
I'll mention briefly here, okay, but I'll get into deep a little bit later. 00:22:44.040 |
It's going to come up later, but I think the Antichrist is going to be a religious/political 00:22:49.840 |
figure because he's going to be so beloved that he's not going to force people in fear 00:23:00.140 |
He's going to have people give allegiance to him because they want to, and he's going 00:23:04.280 |
to have a religious overtone to who he is, right? 00:23:10.640 |
So there's been a lot of guesses about, you know, during the Reformation period that that 00:23:22.240 |
I think it's going to be, because he's going to come in as an angel of light representing 00:23:28.360 |
So I think the only way, so this religious figure is going to unify all the nominal Christians, 00:23:35.600 |
nominal Muslims, nominal Hindus, and nominal Buddhists. 00:23:42.760 |
All the nominal groups are going to be gathered together under one umbrella, and then the 00:23:48.080 |
one who ends up coming out as a leader of that federation eventually is going to be 00:23:54.720 |
Don't go quote me and saying that he's saying crazy things, right? 00:23:59.240 |
The reason why I think that is because when I look at the scripture that it's going to 00:24:04.280 |
be a religious figure, he's going to have political power, people are going to give 00:24:07.280 |
them allegiance, and the only person that can do that is, again, a religious figure. 00:24:12.680 |
Considering it's an angel of light, I think he's going to have the name Christian on it, 00:24:17.640 |
If you look at the political environment now, because of all the terrorism that's taking 00:24:21.720 |
place, any extreme group, whether you are a Muslim or a Christian, is being lumped up. 00:24:30.440 |
Any fundamentalist in any group, whether you are a Hindu or a Jewish or Christian or Islam, 00:24:40.640 |
So there's a nominal Christian, nominal Christianity, nominal fringe groups are becoming the central, 00:24:48.200 |
There are more and more churches that are coming together and declaring unification 00:24:56.040 |
So what we consider universalism, all roads lead to God, it just happens that your road, 00:25:02.600 |
Christian road leads to God, the Hindu road leads to God. 00:25:05.160 |
So that type of thinking and that type of heresy is growing in our generation because 00:25:11.720 |
So at some point, right, and if you haven't noticed, at some point, being an evangelical 00:25:17.400 |
Christian, you're going to be equated, your faith is going to be equated with the extreme 00:25:24.820 |
And based on that, if you haven't noticed, that's already happening in Europe, it's 00:25:29.020 |
already happening in Canada, they could actually take your children away in Canada. 00:25:34.280 |
I don't know if you guys have been reading the article, they passed an ordinance that 00:25:37.400 |
if you teach things that are contrary to the belief of the state, right, about the liberal 00:25:44.880 |
agenda that they have, they actually have the right to take your children away. 00:25:47.760 |
So you can't teach what you believe inside your own home, right? 00:25:51.820 |
So I think that's going to eventually spread all over the world. 00:25:54.020 |
And so what's unifying the world right now is a reaction against Islam, the extreme, 00:26:01.060 |
But a reaction against that is also causing a reaction against anything, what they consider 00:26:07.140 |
Now this is all, you know, this is all just kind of piecing things together and we'll 00:26:12.060 |
talk about that more when we get to the later chapters. 00:26:14.780 |
But I believe at the end time when Antichrist actually comes, that he's going to be a religious 00:26:20.160 |
figure that's going to have all the nominal groups under his umbrella. 00:26:24.580 |
And then he's going to eventually reveal himself as who he is. 00:26:29.760 |
Right now if you look at the world events, that's exactly what's happening. 00:26:39.660 |
In Luke 8.31 it describes that as a place of punishment. 00:26:52.700 |
So again, this is not hell, but it's described as a place of punishment where the demons, 00:26:58.540 |
certain types of demons are held in captivity until a period when God allows them to be 00:27:05.420 |
Hell is an eternal state that once they get in, that that's going to be a place of punishment 00:27:13.500 |
So these two witnesses have so much power, so that anybody who opposes them, they have 00:27:18.260 |
the authority to basically extinguish them, to kill them. 00:27:22.920 |
But at the end of their 42 weeks, the beast comes out of the abyss and they overpower 00:27:31.620 |
So as strong as these, powerful as these two witnesses were, are, the Antichrist is going 00:27:40.980 |
So that kind of gives you a picture of how powerful the Antichrist is. 00:27:44.420 |
So again, we are warned in Jude chapter nine, where the Archangel Michael's contending 00:27:49.340 |
with the devil, with disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce blasphemous 00:27:55.500 |
In other words, he says, not to be arrogant, to think that somehow we're going to battle 00:28:02.940 |
And I think the mistake that we make is one, we make the devil too big. 00:28:08.580 |
A lot of that coming from movies that we watch. 00:28:13.540 |
The demons and all these demonic figures overpowering the priests and the church and they're cowarding 00:28:20.720 |
and feared and nothing can get in their way except for a little cross or something. 00:28:26.260 |
And they kind of over exaggerate the power of Satan over the cross, over Christ. 00:28:33.500 |
But the other mistake that we can make is to make him too little. 00:28:39.500 |
You know, I had friends a long time ago, back in college, where the charismatic movement 00:28:46.980 |
And I remember they dedicated their summer to go after demonic powers. 00:28:54.700 |
They were kind of the charismatic group and they said they were going to take a mission 00:28:58.160 |
trip to Utah and they're going to go head to head with the demons. 00:29:01.620 |
And I remember they were asking people for prayer. 00:29:03.260 |
I remember hearing the whole time, I was like, "What the heck are you two doing?" 00:29:09.300 |
And they were going and asking, telling people, you know, they called themselves like, I forgot 00:29:13.020 |
what it was, but we called them Ghostbusters. 00:29:16.500 |
Because that's basically how they were selling themselves. 00:29:19.660 |
But basically we were warned if we make too much of him where we think that what God tells 00:29:25.100 |
us he was in us is greater than he was who is outside of us. 00:29:33.300 |
But at the same time, if we don't respect his power, then we don't understand the kind 00:29:42.980 |
That we can somehow think that if we're clever and if we just unite together, right, and 00:29:49.180 |
if we just did the right things and had the right people that somehow we can win this 00:29:54.940 |
And that's another severe mistake that the church can make. 00:29:58.540 |
This is not a battle that you and I can win by being strong. 00:30:02.820 |
It's the only way that we can engage in this battle is to put on the spiritual armor. 00:30:13.420 |
As powerful as these two witnesses were, the Antichrist comes up and he overpowers them 00:30:32.460 |
Again, you probably see images, right, the terrorists in certain parts of Middle East, 00:30:40.660 |
they will kill the American soldiers or the people that they captured and they'll kill 00:31:00.660 |
You mess with us, this is what's going to happen to you. 00:31:03.020 |
And it shows an extreme hatred toward those people that they killed. 00:31:06.780 |
So terrorists, exactly, they're trying to instill terror upon people. 00:31:10.080 |
You mess with us, this is the power that we have. 00:31:13.700 |
And again, it's to publicly display the kind of hatred that they have toward the people 00:31:21.620 |
And so the fact that these two witnesses are killed and these two people, these witnesses 00:31:30.060 |
And they're pleading with the world for repentance and the hatred that they garner for speaking 00:31:38.200 |
the truth was so, again, was so intense that even after they killed, nobody buries them. 00:31:48.220 |
The big city, most scholars believe, is talking about Jerusalem. 00:31:56.500 |
And there's going to be another intense spiritual battle that's going to take place. 00:32:01.020 |
There was an intense battle that took place in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified and 00:32:07.740 |
And again, at the end time before Christ comes, there's going to be a great spiritual battle. 00:32:13.860 |
And again, this is, again, reiterating what I said. 00:32:18.020 |
The fact that the nations gaze at their bodies without burying them, right, it signifies 00:32:23.380 |
the intensity of the hatred that they had toward the two witnesses. 00:32:28.620 |
And again, the reason why they had this hatred toward the two witnesses is because they hated 00:32:39.060 |
The two witnesses are brought back to life by God. 00:32:53.820 |
And as they are called up by a loud voice, a great earthquake hits the city, killing 00:32:59.780 |
Again, we see the prophecies in Ezekiel 38, 19 and Zechariah 14, 4. 00:33:06.540 |
So, all of these things that we see in Revelation, there are pieces of these revelations in Ezekiel, 00:33:15.140 |
in Lamentations, some in Isaiah, a lot of it in the book of Daniel, in Zechariah. 00:33:23.140 |
So, after you study the book of Revelation, go back and study the major prophets and the 00:33:30.300 |
You're going to see how much of that language is in the book of Revelation. 00:33:33.820 |
I could just sit here and just quote the Old Testament. 00:33:37.660 |
Just, but then we'll just sit here and I'm just kind of like 15 verses behind every verse 00:33:41.700 |
But you're going to see how the book of Revelation is a compilation of all the prophecies that 00:33:46.060 |
were made in the Old Testament and how it's coming together here in the New Testament. 00:33:50.420 |
So, all of this, I'm just mentioning a few verses, but all of these, you'll see parallels 00:33:59.140 |
And it says that when this earthquake comes and these two witnesses are risen, it says 00:34:04.860 |
that they were struck with fear and they gave glory to God. 00:34:11.980 |
The world was struck with fear and they gave glory. 00:34:13.820 |
Does that mean that the whole world repents and come to Christ? 00:34:27.620 |
Giving glory to God here is not signifying repentance, but a forced acknowledgement of 00:34:35.020 |
Remember, when the first judgment comes and they see the judgment of God coming, what 00:34:42.220 |
The people run up to the hills and they hide beneath the rocks instead of repenting. 00:34:50.980 |
So, if they would have come to repentance, they would have come to repentance already. 00:34:54.420 |
Even after all of this, they would cling to idols and they're going to give their allegiance 00:35:05.980 |
And we're going to see that as we continue to study. 00:35:11.380 |
So, when the seventh trumpet is blown instead of revelation, a great plague or disaster, 00:35:20.460 |
we hear voices in heaven declaring the eternal sovereignty of God and His Christ. 00:35:24.300 |
So, there's a period of intense revival in the church. 00:35:29.220 |
These two witnesses come and they begin to preach the gospel and warn people and bring 00:35:34.900 |
There's a battle that happens with the Antichrist and then he comes into power. 00:35:42.620 |
And then the seventh trumpet is blown and immediately we don't see the next judgment. 00:35:48.460 |
It's almost kind of like you're taking a break from all this disaster that's happening and 00:35:53.140 |
kind of, you know, it's almost like the world is in absolute chaos. 00:35:58.420 |
Earthquakes, famines, persecution, and it's just going nuts, right? 00:36:04.860 |
That's what we've seen for three and a half years and it's going to get even more intense. 00:36:08.300 |
But before he gets to the real intense persecution of the bold judgments, he gets a glimpse again. 00:36:17.020 |
He goes back and he gets a glimpse of heaven. 00:36:23.460 |
As chaotic as it is, as out of control and as rebellious as the world is, the scene up 00:36:34.580 |
So contrast the scene in heaven that we are shown with the scene that we see on earth. 00:36:42.700 |
Earth is burning, the sea is turning into blood, a third of mankind is dying, people 00:36:50.500 |
are in rebellion, they're killing the prophets of God. 00:36:53.100 |
I mean, the world is on fire, it's absolute utter chaos, antichrist is coming into power, 00:36:59.340 |
people are giving allegiance to the antichrist, and then the seventh trumpet blows and he 00:37:03.860 |
gets a glimpse of heaven and what does he see in heaven? 00:37:10.380 |
Worship, even in the midst of all of that, God is still on his throne. 00:37:15.660 |
24 elders are bowed down, prostrated, worshiping this God. 00:37:21.020 |
So no matter how chaotic this is here, like what does that tell us? 00:37:25.860 |
God is still on his throne, he's still being worshipped. 00:37:30.140 |
And that's the scene that God shows John and us, right, before he goes back to what's happening 00:37:38.140 |
This 24 elders, again, we see them prostrated before God. 00:37:43.900 |
Again, remember the word prostrated, proskuneo, is the most common word for worship in the 00:37:53.660 |
The kind of thinking that we have of worship, we think of singing, we think of giving, we 00:37:58.340 |
think of gathering, but the most common word in the New Testament for worship is being 00:38:04.540 |
Like being in awe of something that is so beyond your imagination that you're just kind 00:38:11.420 |
of lost, right, in the presence of God's glory. 00:38:16.120 |
Every time we see a picture of worship in heaven, it's people who are affected by his 00:38:21.380 |
glory and that's the scene that we see of the 24 elders, right? 00:38:27.500 |
And the elders break out in prophecy, singing praise to the Father, and then he describes 00:38:35.580 |
the judgment that's going to come and the great white throne judgment, the end time 00:38:39.340 |
judgment that they are prophesying happens in Revelation chapter 20, 11 through 15, right? 00:38:46.460 |
Then after the great white throne judgment, we get into chapter 21, which is the millennium 00:39:05.720 |
And then it ends again, we get the vision takes us back to the temple and the temple 00:39:13.920 |
is filled with the cloud signifying that he has filled the temple, right? 00:39:18.800 |
He's taking all the measurements to renovate, to renew, to revive the church and in the 00:39:23.200 |
midst of all of this chaos that the revival comes, persecution happens, right? 00:39:29.080 |
Fear falls upon mankind, earthquake takes place, and then we see up in heaven, God is 00:39:38.040 |
And then the chapter ends with the restoration of the temple, right? 00:39:44.060 |
And he looks into the temple and he sees the Ark of the Covenant that's inside restored, 00:39:52.680 |
You guys ever – you guys watched the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark? 00:40:00.400 |
You watch Star Wars, you didn't watch Raiders of the Lost Ark? 00:40:04.120 |
You guys didn't watch Raiders of the Lost Ark? 00:40:13.040 |
Raiders – okay, I'm not even going to say it. 00:40:17.600 |
Basically that whole movie premise is going searching for the Ark of the Covenant, right? 00:40:23.020 |
And the Ark of the Covenant is actually – no one knows exactly where it is. 00:40:26.680 |
There's actually a documentary where they try to trace it back and they found this one 00:40:31.240 |
church and it's supposed to be in the basement but no one can get in there and the government 00:40:35.480 |
And there's a whole documentary but no one knows this for sure, right? 00:40:39.900 |
So the Ark of the Covenant symbolized the covenant that God made with the nation of 00:40:46.600 |
And it contains the tablets of God and Moses' rod and the manna and so all of it signifying 00:40:56.480 |
So when he says the Ark of the Covenant, he saw it back into the temple, means that God 00:41:00.320 |
remembers his covenant and he's restoring his promise that he made with his people. 00:41:06.320 |
And that's the scene that we're shown at the temple, that in the midst of all of this, 00:41:10.680 |
before the final day comes, that God's promises, all of it is going to be fulfilled, right? 00:41:18.800 |
And that's what it means for the Ark of the Covenant to be in the temple, that his house, 00:41:23.520 |
his presence among his people are going to be restored, right? 00:41:30.080 |
So again, as we wrap up and I'm going to give you opportunity to take some time in your 00:41:34.320 |
small group to discuss that as you're studying this, if even a portion of this makes sense, 00:41:47.160 |
Even if a portion of it, even let's say about 10% of this that you believe is going to happen, 00:41:55.000 |
I don't know how it would not affect you, right? 00:42:02.140 |
I don't know how this could not affect the way you view life, the way you view what's 00:42:14.220 |
And I think that was the intention for the book of Revelation, not for us to figure out 00:42:18.660 |
the details of how, when it's going to happen. 00:42:21.420 |
It's going to be seven years, it's going to be middle of the seven years or what the Antichrist 00:42:25.860 |
I think when it happens, you're going to remember a lot of things that you studied in the book 00:42:29.780 |
of Revelation and say, "Oh, I remember this." 00:42:32.100 |
Who knows, maybe two actual witnesses, two men are going to show up and they're going 00:42:35.780 |
to actually be doing this and say, "Yeah, those two men are mentioned in Revelation 00:42:40.300 |
And when it happens, it won't catch you off guard like thieves, like thieves coming in 00:42:46.940 |
So maybe God placed enough in the scripture about the end times so that when it happens, 00:42:54.280 |
you're going to know, right, if you've been paying attention. 00:42:57.460 |
But prior to that, everything that we see in the book of Revelation is for the purpose 00:43:03.400 |
of making an imprint, a deep imprint that the end is coming, that this is not a guess. 00:43:15.520 |
This is human history coming to an end, saying that this is where the end is going to happen. 00:43:22.660 |
So however it happens, whatever the timeline that it happens, the end is certain. 00:43:39.620 |
The end of the world as we, you and I know it, is certain. 00:43:42.540 |
We don't know exactly when, we don't know exactly how, but it's absolutely certain, 00:43:56.300 |
And so as I've been saying on Sunday, if we take our faith even somewhat seriously, 00:44:04.300 |
it should at least cause us to take a step back and cause us to examine, if this has 00:44:17.460 |
At the minimum, we should be asking that question, right? 00:44:21.300 |
Let me go over the discussion questions real quick. 00:44:24.780 |
The Lord prepares His coming by restoring His glory to the church. 00:44:28.180 |
In what way can we contribute to this restoration? 00:44:30.460 |
How can this be applied personally rather than thinking what others should be doing? 00:44:34.860 |
So again, don't discuss like, "Yeah, the church should be like this," or "Those people should 00:44:40.060 |
How can we contribute to the restoration of the church, revival? 00:44:44.420 |
Number two, we collectively, individually are called to be light of the world. 00:44:47.420 |
In what way are you actively shining your light? 00:44:51.700 |
Number three, what traits do you think the Antichrist will have to be able to recognize 00:44:57.460 |
Obviously, he's not going to be wearing a hat that says "Antichrist." 00:45:04.500 |
And if he's very powerful, which the Bible says he is, and he's very deceptive, meaning 00:45:10.140 |
a lot – he said even if – his deception is going to be so powerful that even the elect 00:45:19.340 |
In other words, it's not possible, meaning there's going to be a lot of people that you 00:45:23.340 |
thought were elect are going to be deceived and find out that they weren't elect. 00:45:27.820 |
The real elect are going to persevere, but that's how severe this delusion is going to 00:45:34.000 |
Even the people who withstood other stuff, that when the Antichrist comes and he deceives, 00:45:39.100 |
So how are you going to recognize that, right? 00:45:42.160 |
How would you be able to tell between false prophets and true prophets sent from God, 00:45:45.940 |
knowing that deception is often internal rather than external, right? 00:45:57.620 |
It's not simply because, "Oh, here's 15 marks of who is and who is not from God." 00:46:03.820 |
Typically, the way deception happens is we can be doing God's work for ungodly reasons. 00:46:12.540 |
We can stand up for truth, for pride, for self-ambition, right? 00:46:21.940 |
That's why the Scripture says that the Word of God is able to judge the thoughts and intentions 00:46:28.400 |
It doesn't just judge the thoughts and intentions of all the spirits. 00:46:31.700 |
It judges the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, right? 00:46:35.300 |
So if we're not regularly in the Word of God, we can be pursuing righteousness with a deceived 00:46:42.860 |
So I think it's important not only do we recognize external signs that the Scripture says, but 00:46:47.380 |
how do we make sure that we are not being deceived, right? 00:46:50.980 |
Because every single one of us is susceptible to that, and that's what we're warned. 00:46:57.860 |
Number four, our spiritual battle is directly linked to our prayer life. 00:47:01.540 |
Without prayer, we may have all the best intentions but still be very susceptible to deception. 00:47:06.060 |
In what practical way can you improve your discipline of prayer? 00:47:09.180 |
Ultimately, it's a spiritual battle, so if we're going to engage in the spiritual battle, 00:47:14.420 |
So let's take some time with our small groups and discuss the questions. 00:47:18.500 |
And again, I want to encourage you next week, the questions on there is mainly for the purpose 00:47:25.820 |
And then, yeah, and then, so if you have people who weren't able to come up today and they 00:47:31.740 |
missed and they feel kind of lost, next week will be a good time for them to come at all 00:47:36.580 |
Let me pray for us, and then I'll have you guys get into your group. 00:47:43.740 |
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for the opportunity for your church to come together. 00:47:50.180 |
I pray, Father God, for your continued grace. 00:47:54.580 |
Every single one of us, Lord God, we wrestle with being entangled, distracted. 00:47:59.420 |
Lord, eternal things, Lord, that at times when we're not sober, it just doesn't seem 00:48:07.220 |
But I pray that your word, that you would cause our hearts to be softened, our eyes 00:48:13.700 |
to be sharpened, and our ears to be open, Lord God, to your word. 00:48:18.220 |
And all the warnings and encouragements would continue to strengthen your church, that we 00:48:23.820 |
would wait eagerly, Lord God, and that we would not be caught off guard when the end 00:48:29.840 |
So I pray for our church, I pray for our discussion, that you would help us to be fruitful in all