Revelation Review: Chap 1-8

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Tonight we're going to start the review of the book of the Revelation, which is also known as the

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Apocalypse. So Revelation is the last book in the

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Bible, if you didn't know that. And its title is from the first word, Apocalypse, which means to unveil, to disclose or to reveal.

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So now so many people, it's funny, they don't want to go near the book of Revelation because they think it's written in code and nobody can really know it.

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But the whole purpose of the book is to reveal to us the whole purpose of Jesus coming into the world.

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In fact, that's the next thing. Revelation 1 .1 gives us the theme of the book. It's a revelation of, from and about Jesus Christ.

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So the whole book of Revelation centers on Jesus. And again, that's our hermeneutic from Genesis to Revelation.

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We know that Jesus is at the center of it all. In fact, in the book of John, he told,

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I think one of the Pharisees, he says, if you would have believed, you should listen to Moses because Moses spoke about me.

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It all is a revelation of Jesus. And now we're going to get to see in this last book, how this is going to play out in history.

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Revelation is apocalyptic literature, though actually a combination of three literary types.

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And the first one is apocalyptic, and it's real important that we know what apocalyptic literature is because it's not like a regular narrative.

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Apocalyptic literature is a heightened or intensified form of prophecy, which uses cryptic and richly symbolic language to portray the dramatic end time vindication and victory of God and his people.

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So I think it's in the first paragraph in the book of the Revelation, it says, these things are signified.

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That word signified is kind of like signified. He's going to be speaking to us in signs and symbols, not signs and symbols that we don't know.

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It's signs and symbols that we should know if we're rooted and grounded in our Scriptures, in the

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Old Testament Scriptures. Remember, he was writing to the early Christians, most of which were

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Jewish, most of which were very well acquainted with the Old Testament. So a lot of the things that are going to be written in the book of Revelation are going to come from the

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Old Testament. And we're going to see in a little while, this is very, very, very similar to Matthew 24, the

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Olivet Discourse, which we had gone through during COVID when we were on the Zoom meetings.

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Okay. All right. So first, Revelation is apocalyptic. It's a richly symbolic language.

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It's also prophecy, which is God's direct word of proclamation to his people through his servants, both foretelling and foretelling.

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So these are things that were told to us in the Scriptures already, and some things that were not revealed to us that are to come, that will be revealed as time progresses.

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So we have apocalyptic literature, prophetic literature. And finally, it's also an epistle, which is a letter addressing needs of particular churches.

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Okay. You guys know, in the first two chapters of the book of Revelation, he addresses the seven churches in Laodicea and all the other cities.

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This is very similar to Paul's letters to the churches, which is known as an epistle, a letter.

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Epistle is basically just another word for a letter. And in those letters is where we see the didactic or the teaching portion of the

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Scriptures, who Jesus is, what the plan of salvation is. Paul gets into some really specific particulars.

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We're not going to get into particulars with the book of Revelation because it's not meant to be like that, but it's still an epistle to those seven churches.

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Revelation points to a future hope and calls for present faithfulness and perseverance.

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The audience that John was addressing is about to go through some very serious tribulation, some very serious trouble.

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And again, this is going to depend on the dating of the book, which I'm going to go through in a minute or two.

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But if this is written before 70 A .D., 70 A .D., as you know, was the destruction of the

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Jewish temple. Jesus says not one stone will be left upon another. And come 70 A .D.,

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that's exactly what happened. The Romans came in, they wrecked the temple, destroyed it.

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The Jews, the Christians who stayed in the city against Jesus's advice were pummeled and so were the

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Jews. It ended up being the Roman -Jewish war and a million Jews were killed.

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If you were a Christian at that point in time, the persecution would then turn to you after the Romans defeat the

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Jews. Now Nero starts persecuting the Christians. So they had to persevere through the state.

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They were being warned here that they must persevere to the end. Let's move forward.

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All right, who's the author? Four times the author identifies himself as John in Revelation 1 .1

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.4 .9 .22 .8. Early Christian traditions attribute the gospel, the three letters, and the book of Revelation to the

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Apostle John. Revelation is the only one claiming to be written by someone named John.

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Though the author does not claim to be the Apostle John, it seems unlikely that any other first -century

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Christian leader would have had the authority or was associated closely enough with the churches of Asia Minor to have referred to himself simply as John.

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So if... He's John the Divine, right? Yes. From the church in Manhattan, that big church?

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Yeah, the church in Manhattan came after John, but yeah, a couple of years after, you know.

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So, basically, if you were to write a letter and say, it's John, I mean, everybody knew it was the

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Apostle John. He didn't need to say, oh, I'm the Apostle, and this is what I did, and these are my credentials.

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You say, John, they knew who it was. Plus, there's language very similar in the

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Revelation with the book of John. There's certain words that only he uses, and they're found in both books.

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Okay. One of the things that Bass makes a point of in his commentary is that if it was someone other than John who had written the book of John, it most likely was often in the prophets where it says,

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Amos, the son of... So, his point is, if it needed to be known, it would have been the divine.

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Perfect. Yeah. So, what was the setting? What was John's circumstance when he wrote the book?

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The author's situation was one of suffering. He was a, and this is quoting right from the book of Revelation, he was a brother and a partner in the tribulation, which is in Jesus, and because of his testimony to Jesus, he was exiled to the island of Patmos.

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So, John starts off saying that he's our brother or partner in the tribulation.

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Now, so many people are waiting for this future tribulation to come.

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John says, I was in the tribulation with my other brothers, with the other

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Christians at the time. In fact, there's a couple of verses. This is one I want you to know. Where is it?

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Come on. There it is. First Thessalonians 1 .6. You also became imitators of us and of the

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Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

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So, these people weren't waiting for a future tribulation to come.

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They were in the midst of it. Right? Now, it's my position and the position of the commentary that we're using,

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Bruce Gore, that tribulation started with the destruction of the temple and is going to continue throughout the church age.

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We're always going to be going through tribulation. Jesus in John chapter 16 says, you will have trouble.

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Right? A lot of the health, wealth, and prosperity guys are always claiming promises. They never claim that one. They don't have to.

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You know why? They're going to have trouble whether they claim it or not. There's nobody who escapes this life without trouble.

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Right? Am I right? Okay. Yeah. We're all going through something.

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I know it. All right. Here's another verse. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32 and 33.

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But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations.

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Okay? Hebrews chapter 10 leads into 11. That's the faith hall of fame. And he talks about some serious things happened to some of the

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Christians that they were sorting to. You know, it was very, very difficult for those Christians to bear up under that type of persecution.

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Okay? So, it's my position and again, the position of Bruce Gore, the guy who we're listening to in this study, that tribulation began with, the great tribulation began with the destruction of the temple.

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The Jews really were the ones who went through the great tribulation. And why was it great?

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Because Israel was promised to bring forth the Messiah. Jesus comes forward doing signs, wonders and miracles, testifying to his office of Messiah and they rejected him.

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Right? They said, we have no king but Caesar. Let his blood be upon our heads and our children's heads.

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Oh my goodness. Right? Jesus, the centerpiece of history, was brought into the world through the

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Jewish race and they rejected him. They were promised the Messiah. They were given all these prophecies.

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They should have known it was him. Right? And some of the Pharisees did know he was the

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Messiah and rejected him anyway. That is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. To know that Jesus is

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Messiah and reject him in the midst of it. Okay? So it's very, very serious. That's why it's called the great tribulation.

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And there'll be no tribulation like that evermore. Because there's nothing worse than rejecting the very

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Messiah who you knew was the Messiah and was brought into the world. Judgment.

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Absolutely. Okay. Let's move on. Okay. When was this written?

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Some claim that Revelation was written in the late 1st century. Early tradition dated the book during the reign of the

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Roman Emperor Domitian, A .D. 81 -96. That's what a lot of modern scholarship says.

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My position and the position of Bruce Gork is that's not true. Right. It was written between 65 and 70.

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An alternative, and I put in parentheses a better view, dates it shortly after the reign of Nero between 54 and 68.

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Scholars who favor the time of Nero argue that the repeated references to persecution in the book, and you see how many of them there are, fit better during his reign when persecutions clearly took place.

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The allusion to the temple in chapter 11 verse 1 seems to imply it is still standing, requiring a pre -70 date.

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Now think about this. Jesus prophesies to all the disciples that not one stone is going to be left on another and that the temple is going to be destroyed.

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I leave to you your house desolate. If we take a late dating of the book, the temple is now destroyed in fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy.

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And you know how many times John references that and makes mention of it? None. None. He doesn't even mention the fact that the temple, which was the center of Jewish life for as long as they could remember, it's where they had their sacrifices.

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This, in fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy, is destroyed. It's the end of the new covenant, there's no more temple sacrifices, and John doesn't even make a mention of it.

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I highly doubt that that was the case. In addition to the fact that in the book of Revelation, he's told to measure the temple.

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Now how do you measure the temple if the temple's not standing? It's a little difficult, no?

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Plus, in I think it's chapter 17, he talks about six kings. One of them specifically is

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Nero, and he says, and the number of the beast will be 666.

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Now what was Nero's nickname? What was

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Nero's nickname? I just said it. The Beast. That was his nickname.

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Okay, so here comes John and says, the number of the beast, it will be 666.

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Now there's something called gamatria, where they take the numbers and they take the letters of the person's name and they figure out the number.

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When you do the number 666, it translates to Neron Kaiser, which is

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Nero, Emperor Nero. What is it called again? Gamatria. Gamatria.

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It was kind of like a common thing back then. They would take the letters of the person's name, and there was a number associated with each one of those letters, and it spells out

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Neron Kaiser. Now, there's some people who disagree with that, but the simple fact of the matter is it does work out that way.

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Other people look at it and say, oh, it spells Ronald Reagan, and they come up with all these crazy things they really do.

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But it is what it is. That's okay. So, that's why I and many, many other people look at it and say this had to be written prior to the destruction of the temple, because John would have mentioned that, and the book itself calls us to measure the temple.

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So it's kind of an easy argument. Also, if you didn't already say, I might have missed it, but John brings out a lot of details with regard to the worship in the temple.

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Excellent. Excellent point. What does it come out to? 666? I know you said Neron, but what was the other?

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Neron Kaiser. Kaiser. Kaiser is another word for Emperor. Caesar.

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That type of thing. Emperor Neron. Okay. So, there's a couple of different interpretive approaches to Revelation, and again, when

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I go through these, I'll tell you the one that we hold to. It can usually be broken out into four different categories.

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The first one is a preterist view. The word preter in Latin means past.

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Okay. So the preterist view is saying basically that these things happened in the past. And it focuses on the events that happened when the book was written, which would all have been known by the first readers.

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There's no need to look for any detailed revelation in this book about our own times.

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So in other words, if this book was written to the believers before 70

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AD, it would have application to us, but it would have been about events that they would have known.

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He's not writing the book to the early church about events that would happen 2 ,000 years later.

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There would be no need for them to know that, and that would not encourage them in the midst of the persecution that they were facing.

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That's not going to help them. Now, some people say, well, if it was written to just them, we don't need it.

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And my question to you is this, was the Old Testament written to us? Were they events that happened in the past that we can learn from?

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Yes. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 10, it says these things were written for your benefit, for your information to learn from.

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So I take a preterist view, so does Bruce Gore, and so does most people at our church, because this was written to the early

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Christian audience for them, but we can glean from it. There's still principles in there, like the four

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Gospels, that we can read and learn things from. But not a heretical preterist view.

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Not a hyper -preterist view, meaning that every single jot and tittle of Revelation is in the past, and there's nothing else for us, a hyper -preterist view.

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Thank you for bringing that up. A hyper -preterist view would actually say that Jesus came back, and that's it.

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There is no future coming, second coming of the Messiah, which we would vehemently disagree with.

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And the reason I mention that is because a lot of hyper -preterists call themselves preterists.

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Yes. They hijack the word. They say they call themselves preterists, really they're hyper -preterists.

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It's the same thing with Calvinism. Some people call themselves Calvinists, and then you have other people who are hyper -Calvinists who believe, you know, you don't even have to evangelize.

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God's going to save them no matter what. And again, that's a misunderstanding of the view.

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The next view is the historic view, which sees Revelation as one long outline of history from the first century to today.

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So they would say, starting in chapter 2, going through to chapter 22, would be when it started, and it's going to continue out all through history until that very end.

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And it's basically the whole historical record of what happened after Jesus destroyed the temple to now.

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We can see some historical things happening in the book of Revelation, but it was back then. It's not one long outline of history.

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Could I add something? Please, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, typically, they also see that they are playing out the last church in history as it falls out in Revelation.

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They see it, they don't see it happening in parallel. They see it happening one after the other after the other.

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Yeah, good point. When we look at the book of Revelation, we see the same scene happening over and over again from different angles.

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It'd be very much like if you watched a football game, and they show you the instant replay, and one instant replay is from behind the quarterback, and then another instant replay is from the sideline, another instant replay is from the defense's position.

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They're all watching the same play unfold from different angles, and that's what we see in Revelation.

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We see it, I think it's seven scenes, the seven trumpets, the seven scrolls.

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Each one of these scenes is playing out, and then the vision that John gets is from a different angle each time.

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The historic view doesn't see it like that. They see it linearly, playing out linearly from the beginning all the way to the end.

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I don't agree with that view, but we'll go through it later. The futurist view ignores all possible historical illusions and teaches that the book refers only to the end times.

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So everything written to those first churches is really not for them, it's for a church somewhere in the future.

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Now, since the book of Revelation, every church, every period of time after that that reads it says, oh, we're the last church, we're the end times church, this is it,

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Jesus is coming back, look at all the wars, look at everything that's happened, earthquakes, famines, it's coming on us, and they've been saying that since the first century, second century, third century, fourth century, all the way up until today.

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What they don't realize is, no, that happened already in the first century, and we're going to get to that in a little while, and I'll show you how it did happen, actually.

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The last view is called the symbolic view, and it sees symbols in every passage, and they can be interpreted without any reference to world history.

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The symbolic view is also known as the idealist view. They see these symbols happening throughout history.

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Now, I agree that the book of Revelation is very symbolic, but again, it pertains to the people who he wrote it to.

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Very important. Very important. Any questions? We're good? Okay. Let's move on.

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All right, so I'm going to read to you the first three verses of the book of Revelation. And it's starting at chapter 1, verse 1.

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The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place, he made it known by sending his angel to his servant

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John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

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Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

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So now, is there anything that stands out to you when you read that to give us a clue as to who it was written to?

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Soon take place. Wow, look at that. Must soon take place.

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Oh, my goodness. What a clue, right? When should this have taken place? Soon. Thank you.

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Soon. So the people who this was read to would have expected something is going to soon take place.

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For the time is near. For the time is near. To those who hear. Oh, I missed that one.

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That's okay. No, no, no. But I had to do that because I did them in order. For the time is near. So now, if I was writing a letter to you, anybody in here, and I said, listen, this is going to happen soon.

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Um, listen to what I'm telling you. Do what I tell you, because the time is near. Would you read that and say, oh, my goodness, my great, great, great, great grandchildren are really going to benefit from this.

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It's like, no, that's written to you. And it's warning you that what is happening, what he's going to describe in the book of Revelation is going to happen quickly.

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Unless. Unless this is fake news. Unless it's fake news.

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Unless he really didn't mean that it was going to soon take place. And it's, it's, you know, maybe we got to recount these votes.

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I didn't mean that. All right. So the time, it must soon take place. It was written for those who, who, who were hearing it being read to them.

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Okay. For the time is near. Let's read verse seven. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see even see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, on account of him.

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Even so. Amen. What's the clue in there that would tell you when this stuff should have happened?

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Bing, bing, bing. Even those who pierced him. Where was

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Jesus pierced? Calvary on the cross, right? Who were the people who put them on the cross?

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Okay. Well, not everybody. Okay. Aside from everyone who put

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Jesus on the cross? You said it first, Joe. The Romans. Who else? The Jews.

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Who else? Pilot. One more. We're almost there.

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Who? No. Well, yes. But who? What are the king? Herod. All right.

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That's exactly who, who, who Peter says in Acts chapter two. He says, Herod, Pontius Pilate, the

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Jews and the Romans all put him on. All did what your hand predestined to take place. Those were the four people groups that put him up there.

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Okay. So it's the king of the Jews at the time, Herod, the king of the Romans, Pilate, the

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Jews and, and the Roman citizens, they all put him on the cross. So he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him.

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Even those who pierced him. The people who put the nails through Jesus's hands and his feet would have understood that that was them.

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They're going to see something. Now, what does it mean? He's coming on the clouds. Judgment.

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Why? Okay. Yes.

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The term coming on the clouds in the old Testament was a term of judgment. If you read

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Isaiah 19 chapter one, he talks about, he's going to visit the Egyptians on the cloud.

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Now, does that mean Jesus is riding the cloud? No, no.

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It means the term clouds. Anytime you see the term clouds in the old Testament, it was a sign of judgment, sign of judgment upon whoever it is that he's talking to.

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Okay. So again, this is what it means. What John means when it says these are symbols and signs.

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It's not something that we can't know. It's something that the early Jews would have understood instantly.

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He's coming on the clouds. That's judgment language. So they would have known that's judgment.

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It doesn't mean he's physically coming back. Although we're going to, at the end of the book of revelation, we're going to see that Jesus is going to come back physically.

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Okay. So they would have understood it's judgment language. And even those who pierced them would see this.

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Now, what happened in 70 AD that they would have recognized as judgment? The destruction of the temple.

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Why would they have recognized that? Because Jesus told them that's exactly what's going to happen in judgment upon you guys.

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He was speaking directly to the Pharisees. He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you whitewashed tombs.

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You know, you strain it in that and you swallow a camel. All those woes in Matthew chapter 23 are the opposite of the

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Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5. Blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. And blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted.

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Every blessed that Jesus speaks in Matthew chapter 5 is met with a woe in Matthew chapter 23.

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For every blessed that Jesus issues, there's a corresponding woe to the scribes and Pharisees.

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And that is not good. When Jesus says, woe to you, you don't want to hear that. And it's very clear too.

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It's not, if you line them up, it's obvious. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

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All right, let's, let's continue on. Okay, here's Revelation 22 .6.

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And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.

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Okay, so here you have, in the beginning of the book of Revelation, he's telling them, look, this is going to happen soon.

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The time is near. And in case you forgot, by the time we get to the end of the book of Revelation, he's reminding you, this is what must soon take place.

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Very, very important. Again, Revelation 22. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

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Got it? So it must soon take place. The time is near. Now, where again, would we hear something about scrolls being opened?

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And a time? Where? Daniel, thank you. Daniel 8 .26.

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The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true. But seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.

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Seal up the vision, which corresponds to the scrolls that Jesus is now opening in the book of Revelation.

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And he says, it's many days from now. Does anybody know how long it took?

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Many days. From the time that Daniel wrote that to the time that the scrolls were open?

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I'll tell you, the sealing of the vision spanned 800 years before it was opened by John and to be explained.

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If 800 years refers to many days from now, how can soon, must soon take place, and near, be over 2 ,000 years and counting and yet be considered literal?

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Good point. Right? So if we read Daniel, who's a prophet, and he says, seal up the scroll.

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This is for many, many days from now. And that was only 800 years.

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How can people read the book of Revelation, see that it must soon take place, the time is near, and say it hasn't happened yet, and it's been over 2 ,000 years?

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The Bible interprets the Bible. Right? What's that? Explicit to the

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Bible. That's what it is. And I forget the technical term for it. I should know that. Say again?

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Hermeneutics is the way we do it. It'll come to me. I don't know if it's going to come soon or later.

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But many days from now, I'll let you know. All right.

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So are you convinced? Are you convinced that the author intended to convey to the readers that this was something that would soon take place?

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I think it's pretty clear. You need to jump through some major hoops to say this wasn't happening soon.

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So that needs to be kept in the forefront of our mind, or else we're going to miss the whole point of the book of Revelation.

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And again, the Olivet Discourse spells it all out. Absolutely. In fact, we're going to get to that.

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I'm going to show some parallels, which is really unique and incredible. I just want to do a quick outline of the book of Revelation up to chapter 8.

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So he's addressing the early church. John sees a vision on the island of Patmos.

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Okay, he says, I was in the Spirit. And that's another term, as you're reading through the book of Revelation, four times he says,

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I was in the Spirit. Each time he says he is in the Spirit, that's another vision that he receives.

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So he receives four visions that make up the book of Revelation. So he's on the island of Patmos on what day?

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The Lord's Day. And he gets a vision. Jesus tells John in that vision to write to the seven churches.

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And that comprises the letters that he wrote to them in chapters one through three. He writes to the seven churches.

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Why seven churches? Seven is a big number. Seven is complete. So this is a letter meant for the completed church, the church as a whole.

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Okay, all the churches need to hear this. It wasn't, it was specifically to those seven. Okay. But again, there's principles in those letters to those churches that we need to understand.

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It's relevant for today. Relevant for today. Absolutely. For all time. Right? Right. Okay. So John is at the throne.

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Okay. In the vision, in the second vision in Revelation chapter four. And he sees a vision of a throne.

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And who's on the throne? God. Right. He sees

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God on the throne and who said it? The son of man. Okay.

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The lamb. All right. And in Revelation chapter five, they bow down and may worship him who is seated on the throne and the lamb.

33:47

That's a big deal. Why is that a big deal? Only God should be worshipped.

33:56

And they're bowing down and worshipping the lamb. When your Jehovah's Witness friend knocks on the door, say, let's read

34:02

Revelation chapter five, where they're worshipping God on the throne and the lamb. How can

34:08

Jesus receive worship if he's not God? But that's a different.

34:13

Well, that's also another time. If you really think about it, the time setting, because the ascension of the

34:22

Lord came after his crucifixion, but wasn't some later time period.

34:27

So the Lord is being, he's being shown in his heavenly places.

34:34

Yes, exactly. So Jesus has ascended into heaven. He seated on the throne with the father.

34:39

Okay. Again, that's a big deal. Okay. So John's writing the letter to the seven churches. John is at the throne in the vision.

34:46

He's looking at the throne. He sees the vision and he sees Jesus on the throne. And then what does he see?

34:52

The lamb takes the scroll. Anybody want to take a shot at what the scroll is or what it represents?

35:01

It's a list of judgments against Israel. And what does that represent?

35:10

What is it actually? That's what it'll turn into.

35:16

That's what it'll turn into. But what was commonly written on a scroll? A will, right?

35:24

Or covenant. All right. So here's the covenant that God has with the

35:30

Israelites. And now he's going to read it. Okay. And everywhere that Israel failed,

35:37

Jesus succeeds. But where the Israelites failed, that's where they're going to receive the punishment.

35:42

They rejected their Messiah. Remember, we have covenant blessings and covenant curses, right?

35:50

If you reject the Messiah, you're going to fall under the covenant curses. The sanctions.

35:58

Yeah, exactly. It is. That's exactly right. Some of the commentators call it a gap because it's a legal document against Israel for breaking those covenants.

36:09

And in fact, I think it states that it's written on both sides. Yes. Which means it was quite extensive.

36:15

Yes, there's a lot of covenant blessings and a lot of covenant curses. And that's what Jesus is going to do.

36:21

And what happens if you remember in Revelation 5, heaven goes silent for a half hour. There's an interesting point about that too.

36:28

No, no, please, yeah, come on. One of the commentators, and I don't remember who

36:34

I think it was, Clark, makes comment that that was the period of time that typically the high priest would prepare and then go into the holy of holies.

36:48

Yeah, Chilton. David Chilton says that the whole book of Revelation is really a worship service.

36:56

And it pictures the high priest going into the holy of holies. Jesus is now on the throne.

37:02

He's in the holy of holies. And now he's going to open the scroll and read the covenant curses and the covenant blessings.

37:09

Now, this also tells us, again, symbolically, that there's time in heaven.

37:17

Specifically, chapter 5 says there was silence for a half an hour.

37:24

That means time. There's a time element in heaven. Okay, we're going to continue forward.

37:30

Okay, Revelation chapter 5. I'm not sure what verse, but if you scan it real quick, you'll find it.

37:40

Then we're going to, next is the battle of the lamb and the beast. This is from Revelation chapter 6 through 18.

37:47

So from that, after chapter 5, where Jesus ascends into heaven, now becomes the destruction of the temple, where he sets the

38:01

Romans against the Jews to destroy the temple. And that scene is going to be played out several times over from chapter 6 through 18.

38:09

So we're going to be watching the same battle over and over from a different perspective. And we're going to glean different things from every time he explains that battle.

38:17

Okay, we're going to get to the seven seals. Jesus breaks open every one of those seals. Why seven?

38:23

Because it's a perfect covenant. Okay, again, the seals represent the covenant, seven of them.

38:30

The lamb opens six seals. The 144 are sealed in Revelation chapter 7.

38:38

Okay, that represents the new covenant. Now, why 144 ,000?

38:44

Everybody thinks it's a literal number. The Jehovah's Witnesses think that the 144 ,000 represent the elect, and there's only 144 ,000 people elected to salvation, or who are going to live in the heavenly realms.

38:57

144 ,000, it's not even the number 144 ,000 in the Greek. It's 12 ,000 times 12 ,000.

39:06

Okay, what does the number 1 ,000 represent in the scriptures? What does it represent?

39:21

Say again? Allegiant. Allegiant, okay. I forget where it is.

39:28

I think it's in one of the Psalms. It says, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, right? He's gracious to a thousand generations.

39:38

What's he trying to convey when he says the term thousand? Long period of time, right?

39:44

He's not saying that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and only a thousand hills.

39:50

That's it, a thousand and one. He doesn't own that cow. No, that's not mine. Just the ones on a thousand hills.

39:56

No, that's not what he's saying. He's talking about a large number. Yes? Yeah, 70 times 7, right.

40:10

Well, believe it or not, yes, that one actually has a double meaning.

40:18

And no, it's okay. When Peter says, how many times should I forgive him? Seven times 70.

40:24

Okay, wow, that's a big number. But ironically, seven times 70 is 490.

40:30

That's the exact amount of years it took for them to, for the whole period from the

40:39

Old Testament to the destruction of the temple took. It was 490 years, which is amazing.

40:47

That's amazing. But again, it has a dual meaning, because how many times should we forgive somebody?

40:54

As many times as they ask, right? Somebody keeps screwing up and listen,

41:00

I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah, well, love covers a multitude of sins.

41:10

If it's a minor infraction, yes. But if it's a serious infraction, love says that you're supposed to go to your brother and explain to him what they did, and give him an opportunity.

41:22

Because if we love the person, you're going to them to tell them the offense that was taken for their benefit, so that they can ask for forgiveness, not just from you, but from God.

41:35

Because it's directly against God, secondarily against you. Right. If it's a minor thing, oh, somebody didn't say hello to you.

41:42

Oh, your brother, you offended me. You didn't say hello. Oh, I repent. No, that's not what it's talking about. But somebody borrows $1 ,000 from you.

41:50

And he goes on and doesn't pay you back. Like, hey, no big deal. You got to go to that person and say, listen, you borrowed 1 ,000.

41:57

You told me you're going to pay me back. Right. What are you doing? Now that person either has to repent, you know, and ask for forgiveness or start paying you back.

42:07

You know, if it's something serious, you know, again, it's not because,

42:13

I mean, you do want the money back, but it's for that person's benefit. Because they're sinning against you.

42:19

They shook your hand, so to speak, and said, listen, I need the money cut. I'll pay you back. And then they're not paying you back.

42:24

They're going to be held accountable to God for that. Right. So it's for their benefit. What if they don't ask for forgiveness after you've seen before them?

42:34

That's not the right thing. That's, that's, well, you don't forgive them.

42:40

You go back with two or three witnesses. And you try to explain to this person, listen, you asked for the money.

42:48

You agreed to pay it back. There were witnesses involved. You need to pay it back.

42:53

I'm not paying it back with two or three witnesses. Now you got to bring it to leadership. Leadership has to get involved.

43:00

Talk to this person. If they don't agree, if they don't agree, yes, I do all the money and I should pay it back.

43:05

I'm sorry. Then they get excommunicated. They get moved out of the congregation. They get moved out of the means of grace.

43:13

By which they're sanctified. And that should scare them. Yes, this is within the church.

43:20

Well, I mean, again, we hold people in the church to a higher standard than people outside the church.

43:29

Okay, we can't judge people outside the church. When I say judge,

43:35

I'm talking about discipline. Okay, we can judge them in the sense that look, you're acting like an unbeliever.

43:41

You need to repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness of your sins. Is that a judgment? Yes, we make judgments all the time.

43:48

The problem is in today's day and age, the term judge is taboo. Don't judge me.

43:55

Well, isn't that a judgment? Aren't you judging me by telling me not to judge you? That's a whole other issue.

44:02

Okay. Our legal, the basis of our law today is based on that whole premise.

44:10

Yeah. That's why you have witnesses. That's why you have judges. That's why you have judges, yeah. Judge, don't judge me.

44:17

Yeah. They're going to come up with a different name for them soon. I guarantee you. I guarantee you.

44:22

If you can't call the Washington Redskins Redskins anymore, you know, we're not going to be able to call judge, judges.

44:29

You know, maybe we can call them therapy dogs. Right, all right. Boy, do we get off base.

44:35

All right, Jerry, stop. Really? You're always pulling us, pulling us away.

44:42

All right, so 144 ,000. I think we were talking about the term 1000. So it's 12 times 1000.

44:49

12 is representative of the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles, right?

44:57

Right. Showing the unity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Okay. That's why there's 12 and 12.

45:04

So 12 times 1000, 12 ,000 times 12 ,000. So what's being conveyed here is going to be a lot of people that are saved by God, saved and sealed.

45:17

It's not going to be just a few. Okay, or a literal 144 ,000. It's 12 ,000 times 12 ,000.

45:24

It's a lot of people. Okay. So what you're saying is that there's going to be a lot of people saved out of the tribulation.

45:30

From all of history, there's going to be a lot of people saved through the tribulation, but this is going to be throughout all history.

45:39

Okay. So those are the ones that are going to be sealed with God's Holy Spirit.

45:45

It's not going to end. Now that's a super long time view. It's going to be something that we can learn.

45:51

If people are still being saved today, we understand that when the Holy Spirit indwells somebody, what is that called in Ephesians?

45:57

They're sealed. They're given that deposit, a guarantee of a future inheritance.

46:02

Right. So it definitely applies to them and they needed to hear that because they're going to go through much different tribulation than we will.

46:12

Because that was severe. I mean, it doesn't mean that we're not going to go through as severe as that, but they needed to hear that at that time.

46:23

Stop it. I told you, you got to be Biden your time. All right. You better move on quick.

46:30

Finally, the lamb opens the seventh seal in chapter eight and that represents the new covenant.

46:37

Thank goodness for the new covenant because the old covenant came to an end at the destruction of the temple.

46:43

Why? Because there was now no longer any means by which a Jew could have their sins forgiven.

46:50

Without the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness of sin. There was no way for them to sacrifice an animal at the temple for the forgiveness of their sins.

46:59

Jesus is now the lamb, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, right? He's the sacrificial lamb.

47:04

You need to trust in that sacrifice. Okay. It's going to represent both.

47:13

Okay. So the seventh one is the perfect. Okay. That's going to represent the new covenant.

47:20

Okay. All right. Now what we're going to do, I'm going to give you a brief synopsis of each chapter up to chapter eight.

47:27

So everybody will be on the same page. All right. Chapter one. Jesus appears to John to give exhortation to the seven churches.

47:34

Christ coming with the clouds is not referring to the second coming, but to the

47:39

Daniel chapter seven coming of the son of man up to the ancient of days. In other words,

47:45

Christ's enthronement in heaven. Okay. The first enemy to be put under his, under the feet of the enthroned king is apostate

47:54

Jerusalem, the one who pierced him. And that comes out of Psalm 110. I just gave it away.

48:00

But what is the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament? Psalm 110.

48:07

Very good. Very good, babe. Psalm 110. And what is that quote? Okay, good.

48:13

Say it again, Pauly. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for my feet.

48:21

Right. That is the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. Jeff Durbin, you know him, apologia.

48:28

He says that's God's favorite verse. Why? Because he says it over and over again in the New Testament.

48:33

The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Okay. So this is

48:40

Jesus coming up. When we read in Matthew chapter 24 and Revelation, Jesus is coming.

48:49

All right. We read it from Daniel's perspective. Daniel said, he saw the son of man coming up to the ancient of days.

48:58

The ancient of days is God the father. Jesus coming to the ancient of days. He wasn't coming down.

49:04

He was going up. He was ascending. So from the viewpoint of Daniel in the throne room with the ancient of days, he saw the son of man coming, but he was ascending, not descent.

49:16

That's a big deal, right? It's a big difference between coming up to God, the father or going back down.

49:24

Right. Okay. So that's what we're talking about in chapter one, chapter. Yeah. Did you mention

49:31

Acts one? I didn't. Okay. Acts one is where it says, men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?

49:40

This is Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven and will come in just the same way as you as you have watched him go into heaven.

49:51

Act one. There we go. Acts one, 11. No problem. Okay. Chapter two and three.

49:57

Jesus has John write seven letters to the seven churches in Asia near the island of Patmos, where John was.

50:03

Each church experiences hardships and persecutions of one kind or another. Jesus through John exhorts them to remain faithful because his enthronement is near his kingly coronation.

50:14

That's Psalm two and his coming eschatological conquest is about to begin. So once he ascends into heaven, he is ruling and reigning until when he makes all his enemies a footstool for his feet and it's going to begin with the

50:28

Jews who rejected him. And the last enemy is death. The last enemy is death. So he's going to rule and reign starts with the

50:33

Jews. Okay. And then go. It's going to go throughout time until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

50:39

And the last enemy is death. Once death is conquered. Okay. Then there's going to be the resurrection of the just and the unjust.

50:46

We're going to get rewards. And then the people on the right are going to be brought into heaven. The people on the left are going to be cast into the lake of fire.

50:54

But we want, I got to go left. Stop it. Oh, Anthony, go upstairs and get my, my plug quickly.

51:05

It's wrapped around. Then hurry up. It's going to go off in the computer room.

51:13

Chapter four. John is taken again in a vision to heaven. He sees the throne of God, the four living creatures, the cherubim and seraphim and the 24 elders who symbolically represent the whole church.

51:26

Okay. Remember, we have the 12 tribes, the 12 apostles again, showing the unity between the old and the new testament.

51:35

Okay. 12 is, is the magic number there. 12 tribes and 12 apostles show the unity, the old and new covenant.

51:44

Okay. Chapter five. John sees God holding the scroll of apostate Israel's divorce.

51:50

This does not exhaust the meaning of the scroll. However, as the scroll also represents the new covenant.

51:56

Okay. So the, the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles, it's showing the end of the old covenant and the beginning of the new.

52:04

Okay. That's, that's what's in the scrolls. It is sealed with seven seals, which was recognized in first century

52:12

Judea as being the will of a deceased person. The divorce decree of apostate

52:17

Israel and the scroll of the new covenant is the will of Jesus Christ himself, who ascends to heaven and is worthy to take the scroll and open it.

52:30

Can I pull yours out? Oh, yeah, of course. No, mine's more important. Thank you, buddy.

52:46

Here we go. Hold on, hold on.

52:52

We're not done. There you go. Had to catch up itself. All right. We all ready?

53:00

Okay. Here we go. Okay. Chapter six. John sees the first six seals of the scroll broken open.

53:07

Each seal draws a parallel to the prophecies of Christ in the Olivet discourse and to the covenant curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.

53:15

This is why it's so important to read the old Testament. You know, I had one guy a while back as he's preaching, he says he was talking about the old testament.

53:26

He says, I don't read the old testament. I'm not part of that covenant. And I just wanted to fall off my chair and scream.

53:34

I'm like, are you kidding me? You don't read the old testament because you're not part of that covenant. You put your part of a new covenant.

53:39

How do you know it's new? If you don't read the old covenant. Oh, boy. Anyway, these seals herald the overarching series of events that take place in the first century, culminating in the war of Rome upon Judea.

53:55

Chapter seven. John sees the faithful remnant of Israel symbolically represented as a group of 144 ,000.

54:02

The 12 tribes of Israel are named but rearranged for symbolic purposes. Judah is placed at the first of the list because Jesus is the

54:10

Lion of Judah. Dan is removed from the list because Genesis 49 calls him a serpent, who is the enemy of the church and the revelation.

54:18

Who might that represent? There you go, right? Dan is removed from the list.

54:24

See how everything's symbolic, right? Judas is removed. Dan is replaced by Manasseh.

54:30

Similar to how Judas was replaced by Matthias. They're sealed with the seal of God to show that they are protected from the destruction during the

54:39

Jewish -Roman war. John sees the fruit of this divine protection. The great multitude no one can number symbolically representing the entirety of God's elect across all history.

54:55

Okay, sorry. That's okay. All right, so we see that again, this corresponds. Dan is replaced by Manasseh.

55:03

Okay, and there was another tribe that was added. Manasseh split into...

55:09

Dan split into Manasseh and Ephraim. Oh, Ephraim. Ephraim.

55:15

Why is that important? Because now that would make 13 tribes, right? Why is that important?

55:24

Huh? Right, right. And who replaced Manasseh? Matthias. So that would make 12.

55:30

Who's missing? The Apostle Paul. He makes 13. Ah, the tribe is split.

55:38

Then you have Manasseh and Ephraim. So we sneak an extra guy in there. So it's not just 12.

55:43

It's actually 13. Paul ends up being the 13th Apostle, even though there's only 12.

55:49

I don't know how that all works out. No, no, no. It's okay.

55:54

Good thought though. He was the Apostle to the Gentiles. He was the Apostle to the Gentiles.

56:00

Okay, chapter 8. John sees the seventh seal broke open. The new covenant now is fully established and God's wrath upon the now -divorced apostate

56:08

Old Covenant Israel is fully poured out. John's visions start over to show him the event leading up to the

56:15

Jewish -Roman War from another perspective via seven trumpets. The first four trumpets are blown, depicting the destruction that took place in Judea through plagues, famines, false teachings, etc.

56:26

There's an interesting association with the seven trumpets also. What happened when they marched around Jericho?

56:33

Absolutely. Seven times. Right? Absolutely. Excellent. Okay, so the

56:41

Book of Revelation and its relationship to the Olivet Discourse. Now, when I say Olivet Discourse, I'm talking about Matthew chapter 24.

56:49

Okay, we had done that when we were going through the COVID on the Zoom. It's up on the YouTube channel if you wanted to go through all that to get all the particulars because it's actually really good.

56:59

So in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, all depicting the same event that Jesus is talking about.

57:08

We have what's known as Christ's Olivet Discourse. It's called Olivet Discourse because he was on the Mount of Olives.

57:14

Okay? Here, Christ deals with God's coming judgment on Israel, Jerusalem, and the

57:19

Temple. Many theologians have convincingly argued that the Olivet Discourse is sometimes called the

57:25

Little Apocalypse. It's the brief version of the Book of Revelation. And we're going to see why.

57:32

Milton Terry says, the things thus destined to come to pass soon after the composition of this book,

57:37

Revelation, were in substance the same as those which Jesus discoursed on the Mount of Olives.

57:43

In other words, what Jesus said on the Mount of Olives, that's exactly what Revelation is talking about.

57:49

Nor should it be assumed that this view is modern or contemporary. This is something somebody just didn't, you know, pop out of thin air with.

57:55

For it was utilized as early as the fourth century when Church Father Eusebius used

58:01

Josephus' history of the Jewish War to illustrate the fulfilling of the Olivet Prophecy.

58:07

Now, do you know how many people say that Jesus lied or Jesus' prophecy didn't come true?

58:14

When he says, you will see me coming on the clouds and they didn't actually see him come physically.

58:21

They say, see, he said he was coming and nobody saw it. What they don't understand is that that's apocalyptic literature hearkening back to the

58:29

Old Testament, coming on the clouds was a term of judgment, okay? Again, if John was writing the book of Revelation after the destruction of the temple, seeing that Jesus' prophecy was fulfilled to the nth degree, in perfect detail, he would have put that in the book of Revelation.

58:48

That would have been a perfect way to show people, look, what Jesus said happened in exact detail, okay?

58:58

That's why, again, we hold, I hold anyway, to Revelation being written before the destruction of the temple.

59:04

And that verse, if I could just interject, is one of the key verses of Revelation.

59:11

It's because it's his coming, it's his taking his place. Right. And that's what it's all about.

59:18

Absolutely. Jesus being enthroned. Right. Ruling and reigning until? The enemies are made his footstool.

59:26

Remember that verse. Jesus is ruling and reigning until his enemies are being made a footstool for his feet.

59:32

And it's a judgment of those who murdered him, basically. Absolutely. Absolutely.

59:37

Okay. Let's see in the book of Revelation where this happens and how it lines up to the

59:43

Isle of the Discourse. In the book of Revelation, in chapters two, three, it deals with false apostles, persecution, lawlessness.

59:50

He says their love will grow cold and their command to persevere through it.

59:57

In the Isle of the Discourse, Matthew 24, verses three through five and nine through 13, what does it deal with?

01:00:03

It says false Christs and false prophets will come and tell you, here he is, but don't go out and see them.

01:00:10

They're lying. It says that they'll be persecuted. There is going to be lawlessness. Their love is going to grow cold and they're called to persevere.

01:00:20

It's exactly what the book of Revelation is saying. Those are parallel. So the book of Revelation is showing what

01:00:28

Jesus said is going to happen. Okay. In Revelation chapter four through seven, the seven seals deals with wars, famines, earthquakes.

01:00:38

Remember Jesus says there'll be wars and rumors of wars. There's going to be famine, pestilence, earthquakes, those kinds of things.

01:00:45

This is exactly what Jesus says in the Isle of the Discourse. He deals with wars, famines, and earthquakes.

01:00:52

And all of those things, again, if you go through back into the YouTube channel,

01:00:57

Reform Rookie, you can go through the Isle of the Discourse. We did eight sessions on that. And we go through detail on those wars that took place and the famines and how

01:01:06

Jewish women were eating their own children. That's how bad things got as far as food was concerned.

01:01:16

Okay. All right. In Revelation chapter eight through 14, the seven trumpets tells us the church's witness to the world, her flight into the wilderness, the great tribulation and the false prophet.

01:01:30

Again, this is foretold by Jesus. It tells us the church's witness to the world, her flight, leave.

01:01:37

When you see the army surrounding Jerusalem, run to the mountains, run to the hills.

01:01:43

All right. The great tribulation is about to happen and false prophets will arise. Okay. Think about this.

01:01:50

If the Revelation was about the end of time or if the Isle of the

01:01:56

Discourse was about the end of days, right, with Jesus' final coming, are we going to be able to flee to the mountains?

01:02:05

No, it's a worldwide judgment. Where are you fleeing to? You're not able to flee to the mountains, right?

01:02:13

This was specific to that area. When you see, look it up, it's Luke chapter 21.

01:02:18

When you see Jerusalem surround, when you see the armies surrounding Jerusalem, get out of the city, run to the hills, go.

01:02:28

If this is Jesus' final coming back to the world in worldwide judgment, you can't flee anywhere, right?

01:02:38

Okay. What would that mean to us on Long Island? What mountains are we fleeing to? We have to move upstate.

01:02:43

We have to move upstate, quick. Hey, stop that, you're calling me.

01:02:50

You know, Bobby's making fun of us. Anyway. Okay. So if it's worldwide judgment, there's nowhere we can flee.

01:02:58

Okay. Again, the hearers of Jesus' audience, right, when he told them, when you see the army surrounding

01:03:06

Jerusalem, they would have understood exactly what he meant. And many of them did. They left and they were saved, right?

01:03:13

They didn't have to go through the persecution. That's right.

01:03:22

Right into the city walls. Excellent point.

01:03:32

There was a pause. Yes. God in his mercy had a pause. In fact, it's the same thing that happened when the

01:03:39

Assyrians were coming to destroy the Israelites. There was a 40 -day pause that stopped the

01:03:48

Assyrians from coming into Israel. And so, in fact, they repented.

01:03:53

That's what it was. Okay. And then there was a 40 -day pause before they came in and into Israel and did what they did.

01:04:03

Okay. Revelation 15 -22, the seven chalices, describes the darkening of the beast kingdom, the destruction of the harlot, the gathering of eagles over Jerusalem's corpse, and the gathering of the church into the kingdom.

01:04:16

Okay. The beast. Who's the beast? And who does he represent? Rome, right?

01:04:26

Okay. So the Romans, representative of the

01:04:32

Gentiles, the Gentiles are known as beasts, right? What did the Jews in the

01:04:38

New Testament call the Romans? Dogs, right? They weren't even allowed to have table fellowship. Okay.

01:04:44

The destruction of the harlot. Who's the harlot? Israel. What's a harlot?

01:04:49

A harlot is a prostitute. She goes with anybody who's willing to pay her.

01:04:55

An adulterer. That's exactly what the Jews did. They used Rome to protect them, okay, rather than trusting in their own king.

01:05:04

Okay. And what does Jesus say? Matthew 24 -28 -31. He describes the exact same events.

01:05:11

So this is a parallel. The Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, is called the little apocalypse for a reason.

01:05:18

Revelation is the full unfolding of it. Okay. That's the way

01:05:24

I've read it, is that's the heavenly happening of what's happening down on earth. Amen. Yeah.

01:05:31

It's, again, the shadow and the... Excellent. All right.

01:05:39

Okay. Both of, both the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Revelation teach a soon fulfillment.

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The urgency in time is similar between the two. Both teach a soon fulfillment of these prophecies.

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What does Jesus say? Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

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How many people look at that and say, that doesn't mean this generation. That means this generation reading it.

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So ever since the Book of Revelation, every generation that reads that thinks that they're the end times church.

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Why? Because this generation won't pass away. Meaning, meanwhile, it was written directly to a group of people who were told they're going to see this happen.

01:06:29

Right? Those who pierced him are going to see it happen. Okay. Next, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which

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God gave him to show to his bondservants, the things which, what, must soon take place.

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And he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant, John. Again, these are things that must soon take place.

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Not too difficult to understand. Okay. Both blend two key

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Old Testament passages. And this is, this is really fascinating. The two passages that they do, one is

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Zechariah 1210. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son.

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And they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. And then the next one is

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Daniel chapter seven. I kept looking in my visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming.

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And he came up, read that, he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

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This is not Jesus in heaven coming down. This is Jesus coming up to the ancient of days.

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And where is that quoted? Matthew 2430. And then the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky.

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And then all of the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the son of man coming, where up or down?

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Up on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Notice that Jesus' statement in Matthew combines these two passages.

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He conflates the two of them. They are used in such similar way in both places because they are dealing with the same instance in the

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New Testament. So both of these prophecies in the Old Testament were taking place as Jesus explained it to the disciples and as he ascended into heaven.

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Make sense? Excellent. Notice how Christ's statement in Revelation is doing the same thing.

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Revelation 1 .7. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.

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And all of the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So the same thing that he says in Matthew 24 is the very same thing he says in the book of Revelation pointing to those two verses,

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Zechariah 12 .10 and Daniel 7 .13. That's pretty amazing. I never saw that before.

01:09:00

I think that's like real important too, right? How these two things, Matthew 24 and the book of the

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Revelation are in relation to one another. Very important. Okay.

01:09:13

Both have a theme of judgment. The great tribulation is the central element in both the Olivet discourse and the book of Revelations.

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Warning of the coming judgment, the tribulation. For then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

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Now compare this verse in Matthew with the two in Revelation. Behold, I will throw her, that's

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Israel, on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.

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I said to him, my Lord, you know, and he said to me, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

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Okay. So there are some who are going to be thrown on a sickbed. Okay. And into great tribulation.

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And then there are going to be those who trust in Jesus. Okay. They have their robes washed and they're made white in the blood of the lamb.

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Got it? Next. Okay. Let's keep going. Both speak of the destruction of the temple, both in the

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Olivet discourse and Revelation. And he said to them, do you not see these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left out upon another, which will not be torn down.

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Then in Revelation 11, then they were giving me a measuring rod like a staff and someone said, get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it, leave out the court which is on the outside and the temple do not measure it for it has been given to the nations and they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months.

01:10:46

Right. That's why again, I think the book of Revelation was written prior to 70 AD because he's telling them to measure the city.

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Okay. And he said, it's going to be given to the nations, the Romans. Okay. Where they're going to tread under that city for 42 months.

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And that's exactly how long the Romans were used, needed to conquer that city and Jerusalem.

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You see the parallels between Matthew 24 and the Revelation? Very important.

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Revelation unveils the unseen spiritual war. This is kind of like a summary.

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Revelation unveils the unseen spiritual war in which the church is engaged, the cosmic conflict between God and his

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Christ on one hand and Satan and his evil allies, both demonic and human on the other. In this conflict,

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Jesus the lamb has already won the decisive victory through his sacrificial death, but his church continues to be assaulted by the dragon.

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In its death throws through persecution, false teaching, and the allure of material affluence and cultural approval.

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Is that not still true today? Right. By revealing the spiritual realities lying behind the church's trials and temptations during the time between Christ's first and second comings, and by dramatically affirming the certainty of Christ's triumph in the new heaven and earth, the visions granted to John both warn the church and fortify it to endure suffering and stay pure from defiling enticements to the present world order.

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Gospel faith makes people right with God and produces gospel faithfulness, which reaps gospel reward.

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The book of Revelation is a triumphant vision of God's final victory over all the forces of evil in the world.

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This final victory is secured because of the blood of the lamb that purifies God's people for his ultimate reign.

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Revelation is filled with the gracious purposes of God to strengthen his people. Ultimately, the book of Revelation ends with tremendous victory, where heaven comes down, a new

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Jerusalem, like a bride adorned for her groom, comes down out of heaven, lands on earth.

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This is why we pray, Lord, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The goal of the

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Christian life is not to get to heaven. It is to bring heaven to earth. Okay, that's why

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Jesus was called to do the great commission, which is very similar, identical to what

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Adam was called to do, to what Noah was called to do, to what Abraham was called to do, to be fruitful, multiply, and exercise dominion over the land he's given us.

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Hence, the reason that the Holy Spirit was given to us. Hence, because the earth has the power.

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Right, so this is what it's going to look like. We're going to bring heaven to earth. Basically, helper.

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So that ends our summary review. Thank you.