Jesus & the Book of Revelation

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. You can open your Bibles to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 21.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 21. For those of you guys that are new to the Bible, new to the faith, that is the first book in your

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New Testament. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 21. We're in verse number 18 to start with.

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This is part two of our message on this text. So two messages on this question about faith.

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Faith that actually can take mountains and throw them into the sea. That text now we're going to spend these two weeks on to make sure that we're faithful with the word of God.

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What did the early followers of Jesus understand when Jesus said this to them?

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Was it what we hear regularly, the popular messages on this by faith healers and word of faith practitioners?

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Those who would say that this is about talking to financial mountains and relationship mountains and all those sorts of things.

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How did the early followers of Jesus understand this? We're going to unpack this now. Message number two.

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Now we are in the Kingdom of God series. It's an exposition of the gospel according to Matthew. We've been going from the very beginning to where we are now, unpacking it verse by verse, sometimes word for word.

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And we're getting, as I've been saying, as you're opening your Bibles and landing with us here, we've been getting to this climax now.

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You're going to begin to see this. I want to encourage you to look for this before we read the text here. I want to encourage you to pay close attention to the warnings throughout the gospel according to Matthew.

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The threats really from John the Baptist, from the Lord Jesus. Threats that go all the way back really to the beginning.

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The kinds of threats that we see about coming judgment that we often miss. We get mellow -headed at times.

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Things like Jesus saying to his disciples that they won't finish going through the cities of Israel before the

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Son of Man comes in judgment. That they're not even going to finish ultimately what they're doing before Jesus returns in judgment.

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And as we get here to Matthew 21 and through 24, you're going to see now this climax, a fever pitch now of warnings from the

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Lord Jesus as he enters into Jerusalem to come and die for the sins of his people. You're going to see this hit now a pitch, a peak, a climax.

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And so here we go. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 21, starting in verse 18.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. In the morning as he was returning to the city, he became hungry and seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it, but only leaves.

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And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once.

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When the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, how did the fig tree wither at once?

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And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen.

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And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive it if you have faith. Thus far as the reading of God's word, let's pray together as a church.

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Lord, we come before you humbly, Lord. First, grateful for this gift that we are holding in our hands right now, the gift of your word.

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We remember, Lord, right now, we remember the believers around the world who are being persecuted for their faith.

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Believers right now in China, that Lord, because of your gospel and because of you, Lord, are experiencing jail, prison.

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They're held captive. They're being persecuted. We remember the believers around the world that do not have the gift of your word right now in their hands.

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And so we pray for them. And Lord, we submit ourselves to you with full gratitude and praise for the fact that we have this gift to be able to examine your word, to study your word, to listen to you.

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Lord, we believe you, Lord Jesus, when you say, have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

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We believe you that this is you speaking to us. And so, God, we pray that you'd get the pastor out of the way.

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I pray that you would allow everyone to forget me, to forget, Lord, my legacy, to forget my words, and to remember yours.

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We pray that your words would change us today. Lord, I pray that I decrease and Christ increases, and you'd bless with the teaching of the power of your spirit today, in Jesus' name.

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Amen. So I told you last week how excited I am about this, right? Is it showing? Because I am so excited.

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Matthew chapter 21, this section, as we move through these next couple of chapters, you're going to see promises from the

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Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, the Son of God, the Messiah himself, promises to the first century generation of impending judgment, soon to come judgment.

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You see things coming out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus, like these are the days of vengeance, in order that all that has been written might be fulfilled.

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You're going to see Jesus saying to the Jews in his day, the covenant breakers in his day, the religious leaders, really, in his day, that all the blood of the righteous, from Abel down to this last prophet, are going to be upon, he says, this generation.

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Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you, he says, how often

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I wanted to gather your children like a hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing.

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You see Jesus with the indictment here, throughout these next couple of chapters, upon the covenant breakers.

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You see it, and it's tragic, really, that oftentimes, because of bad eschatology, because eschatology comes from Greek words that essentially mean the study of last things, because of bad

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Christian eschatologies, oftentimes, we hand deliver arguments to the unbelievers on a plate to use against Jesus.

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We take texts that Jesus says, specifically to his generation, and we say, well, no, that didn't happen.

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It's future to us. There's really no reason to do that. The second century Christians weren't doing that with those texts.

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They were using it as arguments against the Jews to say, you've missed your Messiah. He made these promises, and they happened.

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But we say, no, these are future to us. And so we hand deliver arguments to the atheists, who will say, well, that makes

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Jesus a false prophet, because he said it was going to happen in their day. It's tragic, also, in terms of how hashtag eschatology matters.

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It's tragic that we lose, in our evangelism to Orthodox Jews, another critical aspect of our ministry, in terms of giving them the

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Word of God. Give you an example of this, how important this is. Come with me now. This is so, so powerful. Remember the early

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Christians, the ones who gave us the New Testament, the inspired apostles? They didn't have the

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New Testament. So just really think about that powerful point for a minute. When Jesus came and lived his perfect life, and died for sinners, and he was buried and rose again, and he ascended and was seated at Pentecost, those early

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Christians, as they were ministering to others with the gospel, they were not walking around with the gospel according to Matthew, or the gospel according to John, or Mark, or Philippians, or the book of Revelation, or Corinthians, or Colossians, or any of it.

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Those early Christians were ministering to Jews in their day, and to others, ultimately, later.

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They were ministering with what? The Old Testament, the

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Torah, and the Tanakh. As a matter of fact, the Lord Jesus, after he rises again from the dead, he's on the road to Emmaus, and it is the most amazing

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Bible study in the history of the world, I guarantee you. This is where the

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Messiah himself, God in the flesh, the God who gave us this

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Theanostos revelation, the breathed -out revelation from God, he comes to these disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they're so sad, and they thought

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Jesus was the Messiah, and I guess he wasn't, and we were so upset, and we're distraught, and here they are walking with the resurrected king, right next to them, and then

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Jesus says to them that they are slow, right? They're not believing everything the scriptures had said was going to take place, and then it says that they got the most epic

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Bible study in history, that Jesus the Messiah, God in the flesh, the incarnate one, took them through the

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Old Testament scriptures, all the scriptures that talked about him. I don't know how long that Bible study was, but stop complaining about the length of my messages, all right?

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Because I assure you that was much longer. That was old school Puritan style. That's people falling out of windows asleep style, right?

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That's kids squirming around and, you know, begging for mercy kind of message. It was a long one,

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I assure you, but here's what's amazing. Those early Christians were using the Old Testament.

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My question to you is this. Here's my challenge to you as a believer. Can you do that? Can you do that?

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Can you take somebody through the Old Testament without touching the new, and demonstrate that Jesus is the promised

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Messiah? Can you do it? Can you show somebody all the details necessary to know Jesus as Savior and Lord and Messiah and King without touching your

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New Testament? And if you say, is that really possible? That's precisely what they did in the first century.

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Before they got this New Testament revelation completed and done, I would argue before 70

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AD, before they got it, they were using the Old Testament scriptures. Example, Acts chapter 9.

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The apostle Paul goes after he comes to Christ, he takes a beeline to Damascus, goes to the synagogue, and it says that he argues with the

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Hellenistic Jews proving that Jesus is Messiah. How'd he do it? He didn't have

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Matthew, John, Mark, Luke. He didn't have any of that. He hadn't written the New Testament books yet.

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He just got saved. He just came to Christ. So how did he argue with first century Jews proving that Jesus was the

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Messiah? Or how about Acts chapter 18? Apollos, who was awesome. We know very little about Apollos, but he was clearly an amazing person in the first century.

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We see Apollos, and it says that he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly. There's that open air outreach and public square evangelism happening for you.

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Just mark that. Hashtag it, right? Acts chapter 18. Apollos vigorously refuted the Jews publicly doing what?

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Proving that Jesus is the Messiah. Can you do it? Can we do it as a church?

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Can we use the Old Testament revelation, the same God, same word, same revelation? Can we take somebody through the

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Old Testament and show Jesus as the Messiah? Now I mentioned tragedy, right? It's a tragedy that we have bad eschatologies that rob us of the ability to communicate to modern day

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Jews a central aspect of what God said was going to happen with the coming of the

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Messiah. And what is that? I said last week that there are two things promised in the

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Old Testament in terms of the ministry of the Messiah. One was salvation. Everyone say it with me.

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Salvation. Now I know it's always uncomfortable when the pastor says everyone talk to your neighbor or shout out loud, but I want to make sure that this is in us as a church.

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There are two critical aspects. One is salvation. Number two is judgment.

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Salvation upon the people of God and judgment upon the covenant breakers. Now we lose the power of this revelation of these texts when we have bad eschatologies that take those clear verses about the coming of the

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Messiah and we project them future to us. Eschatology matters.

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Now here I'm going to say as a caveat, please hear me on this, eschatology proper essential

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Christian eschatology ought not divide us as Christians.

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While eschatology is critical and it's important and it matters, there are key areas of essentials like for example,

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Jesus is coming back. Amen? All Christians believe that. Another aspect that's critical in eschatology is there's going to be a final judgment.

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Amen? No matter where you're at, no matter what spectrum of Christian eschatology you're at, we all agree on that.

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He is coming back. He is coming as judge and there is going to be a final physical resurrection.

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We are not going to be living in heaven for all eternity with gas gassy clouds and fat babies with harps.

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Like that's not the heaven described in the scriptures. You will see God and stand before him in your resurrected body.

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Jesus is the second Adam. Amen? Yes. Now we often think about the second Adam, Jesus.

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Oh, he's the second Adam. We think about it in terms of only salvation like I inherited original sin from the first Adam.

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He fell. There's condemnation and judgment and the second Adam gives me gift of eternal life and righteousness and we stop there.

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But notice the theme of Christ's second Adam is that Jesus accomplishes what

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Adam fails to do, right? And one of the things that Jesus is doing is what Adam failed to do in terms of actually spreading the image of God, the kingdom of God, multiplying, being fruitful and essentially cultivating this garden.

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He's making all things what? New. Jesus is doing all of that and Jesus was raised physically, not as a spirit.

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So you and I are actually going to be in the same kind of resurrected body as Jesus for all eternity.

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Powerful stuff, right? Isn't that amazing? That's the future we have to look forward to and all Christians affirm the future coming of Christ, the future judgment of Christ and the future physical resurrection of our bodies.

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We're all together on that, but we do have disagreements on some other important areas.

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Now, I'm not saying that eschatology is not important enough to fight for but I am saying that when we hold together with the essentials as Christians, we need to not divide.

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So whether you are pre -millennial, amillennial or post -millennial, we need to stay together as believers holding together the essential truths in one hand and holding the other person's hand tightly in the other.

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Get it? But we still need to fight over this issue in terms of Christian loving fights, right?

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Not food fights, but loving fights. Now, again, tragedy. It's a tragedy when we lose some pretty powerful aspects of the promised coming of Jesus, the

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Messiah. Now, watch this. I told you the next couple chapters, chapters 21 -24, you're going to hit a climax in terms of Jesus' promise of coming judgment upon that generation, upon them.

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Now, you can look at the ministry of Jesus simply as a novelty. You could say, oh, this is surprising.

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Well, this is interesting. We didn't expect any of this, right? The coming of Jesus maybe is a plan B in the plan of God.

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Not according to the Bible, not according to the early church. They weren't arguing that Jesus the

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Messiah is a plan B or a novelty. They were saying, you guys should know this.

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This is everything that was said about Jesus and they would point people to the specific passages that God identified the

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Messiah with. All the details. Who he is. God in the flesh.

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A son, a child given to us. El Gibor, the mighty God, the father of eternity.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace there'll be no end. The one coming from Bethlehem.

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His going -forths are from old, yea, even from everlasting. He'll be crushed for our iniquities. He'll be pierced through for the transgressors.

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He will justify the many as he'll bear their iniquities. The Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

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All those texts that give you all of those promises about Jesus. It's all the identity of Jesus wrapped up, but we see now

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Jesus now is going to Jerusalem and he's promising judgment upon them. He comes preaching salvation and he comes preaching judgment.

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And wouldn't you know it? That's what the Old Testament promised about the Messiah. Salvation and what?

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Salvation upon the people of God and judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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And I want us to just quickly go back to those texts in case some of you guys missed last week's message.

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And there's language here. We need to know together. So let's just go to it quickly. Malachi, last book of your

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Old Testament. Chapter 3. It's important to know this text. Malachi chapter 3.

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We've now been here a couple times. But here's the promise. Malachi chapter 3 verse 1.

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It's the last book of your Old Testament. It's right before Matthew. Here's the promise hundreds of years before Jesus comes.

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And think about this by way of timeline. Put it together in your mind as a timeline.

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Mark it down on your paper right now as a timeline. Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the

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Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

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The one you're seeking, he's coming to his temple. Wow. God's coming to his temple.

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But who comes first? The messenger comes first. And then the one you're seeking, the Lord whom you seek, is gonna come to his temple.

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Don't you love how Jesus fulfilled that? Exactly. Jesus says John the

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Baptist is the Elijah to come who was promised, the one who called Israel to repentance. And then all of a sudden

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Jesus shows up, the Lord, his temple, and he comes to his temple. He cleanses his temple.

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All of that is powerful. But here's what it says. The messenger of the covenant whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the

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Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears?

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Here it is. Listen, for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he'll purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver and they'll bring offerings in righteousness to the

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Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

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What is that? What is that? Salvation. God's gonna purify his people.

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He's gonna make them right. They're gonna offer offerings in righteousness. Praise God, right?

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And we get that aspect of Jesus' ministry. He came to bring salvation, but there's one other part of this.

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Again, timeline it. Messenger, the Lord whom you seek comes to his temple. What's he do?

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There's no break here. Salvation is the one thing. Next is judgment upon a very, listen, listen, this is so important to get, a very precise group of people.

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This is not a general judgment. The language used here is the same kind of language we would see in Deuteronomy chapter 28, the chapter about the cursings and the blessings of the covenant.

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And here's what it says. Then I will draw near to you for judgment.

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I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the

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Lord of hosts. Encourage you, mark it down, go read Isaiah chapters 1 and 2, and you'll see that this is precisely what

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God was saying to his people there, in terms of their unfaithfulness to him and their breaking of the covenant.

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Same language. Next, move over to Malachi 4. I told you I'm gonna go a little fast here, but I want to review this, okay?

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Malachi 4, it says this, for behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

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The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

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But for you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when

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I act, says the Lord of hosts. Now watch this language. Watch this language. Remember the law of my servant

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Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Who's he talking to?

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Who's he talking to? This is God warning them about judgment, but he's speaking to a specific group.

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Remember the law of Moses. Who's he talking to? Israel. Remember my statutes.

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Why? Here it is. Behold, I send you Elijah the Prophet before the great and awesome day of the

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Lord comes. He'll turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

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So we have salvation and judgment, but we have a specific, listen closely, warning to those who are part of God's covenant.

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Remember my law. I'm sending you Elijah the Prophet to call people to repentance.

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And now open up your New Testament, Matthew chapter 3. And what do you see?

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The first person coming in now and heralding the gospel to Israel is

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John the Baptist. And the first word out of his mouth is, who knows?

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Repent! Repent for the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, is at hand.

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And then John the Baptist is indicting the covenant breakers of his day to turn from their sin.

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Here, Jesus says, is Elijah who was to come, calling them, the messenger who comes before the

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Lord, and he's calling them to repentance because God's judgment is coming. Here we go. Watch this.

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I want you to pay attention to some important things today, because we are going to the book of Revelation. And there is a way to actually begin looking at the book of Revelation.

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That is unfaithful. We are abusing the Word of God when we take clear biblical imagery and symbols and we begin to try to get creative with it.

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What do you think it means? I don't know. What do you think it means? I don't know. Maybe locusts? Maybe it's a microchip in the hands.

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That's what it is. Do you know right now in some foreign countries, they're sticking the microchip in the hand and everyone's doing their transactions.

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It's finally here! The mark of the beast! Do you realize that's not in any way what the

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Bible is referring to when it talks about a mark in your head and your hands? Here's the problem. As Christians, we have such a bad understanding of the

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Old Testament that we actually have the audacity to take our modern inventions and situations and foist them upon the

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Word of God and call that interpreting Scripture. Jews never would have understood the mark in the head and the hand as a microchip or physical thing or even a literal mark in their head or their hands.

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They would have understood it in terms of Deuteronomy chapter 6, what they were saying in their morning and evening prayers.

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Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

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And what's God say? You should talk about this when you're on the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. You shall put it like a mark on your head and your hands.

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Literally? Supposed to walk around like drawing things on their heads, right? Like Yahweh, right?

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On their hand like this and they're walking. Every Jew is walking around with like marker on their head and their hand.

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It's just a thing like in Israel. Everyone just got it. Oh, it's just constantly dripping down their face, right? Like Tammy Faye Baker.

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Just all everyone. Right? Is that what they understood? No, they understood the symbol, the meaning.

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For them, a mark on the head or the hand showed God's ownership, your forehead. He owns you, you belong to him.

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On your hand, your right hand represented what you did, your labor, your actions, your activity.

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You shall put this obedience and allegiance to Yahweh like a mark on your head. He owns you and on your hand.

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He is in the front of everything that you're doing. It's your allegiance to Yahweh. Did you get that symbol?

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See how it works in the Old Testament. God lays down the symbol. What does it mean? And we interpret in the

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New Testament. Now quickly, did you see what was said there in Malachi 4? Quick thing, go to it real fast.

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Malachi 4, look at it. Day is coming, burning like an oven. Look at the wording here.

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God uses this prophetic hyperbole often in the

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Old Testament. And here's how it, burning like an oven. You ever been near a really hot oven?

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What do we do with our children, real small kids? You ever had a small child in diapers, sort of running around the house?

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I, I like, I get terrified with small children in diapers walking around, like I'm constantly afraid of them sticking things in the socket or putting things in their mouths.

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Last night, my grandson tried to eat my bracelet. It was a scary situation, right? He was like screaming at me because I wouldn't let him eat my bracelet, right?

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Such a sinner. Already, it's showing, right? But little kids will walk around and they get around the oven.

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You ever have this as moms and dads? They get around the oven and it's going and like they'll literally start swinging on it or something, right?

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And you know the danger of the burning hot oven. It will hurt them. It will destroy them.

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And so the language that God uses here is language that meets us. We know what it means.

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The day is burning like an oven and all evildoers will be stubble.

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The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts. It will not leave you root nor branch.

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But if you fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

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You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall and you shall tread down the wicked. There'll be ashes under the soles of your feet.

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Now question, literally? Literally, the people of God are gonna go out and we're gonna start stepping on the heads of unbelievers until they're ashes under our feet?

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Are we literally, when this is accomplished, all of us gonna jump out like stalls, like calves?

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Like how exactly does a calf leap from the stall? Isn't it kind of wobbly and weird? I don't know. Like maybe we need to start practicing it, right?

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Do we recognize the symbol, the imagery? God is using prophetic hyperbole to actually communicate a message to us.

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The symbol meets us where we're at. I'll give you another one. We did this last week, but I gave you some symbols like lamb.

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What comes to your mind biblically because of what God has said when you hear a lamb? Sacrifice.

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Substitute. What about when you hear blood? That's where the life is. Life is in the blood.

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What about when you hear or you see a rainbow? That's God's promise. That's his covenant.

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He put the rainbow there. No matter what somebody does in the 21st century to distort the meaning of the rainbow, God's already told us the meaning of the rainbow.

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The symbol is laid down by God. It's meant to communicate something that God says. He speaks to the meaning of the rainbow.

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So scripture is filled with these kinds of symbols and we need to interpret the Bible the way that God calls us to interpret the

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Bible. He lays down the symbol and we base our understanding of the symbol upon what God has said about the thing and then we can go and say, oh, this is what he's saying to us.

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Very important in terms of Jesus using imagery like if you say to this mountain be cast into the sea.

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Is that literal? Jesus is telling us to speak to our relationship mountains, our financial mountains and maybe it's good to pray as Osteen says.

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Maybe it's good to pray but really what you need to do is speak to your mountains. Say to it, be lifted up and cast into the sea and then it will.

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You got marriage difficulties? Well, speak to the mountain as a couple and then cast it into the sea. A literal sea?

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Literally speak to this mountain? How did the early disciples and followers of Jesus understand him when he said say to this mountain?

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We need to actually understand the Old Testament. So Malachi 3, Malachi 4, promise of coming judgment.

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One note to make, go to Pentecost later. We did this last week.

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Just check out the Apostle Peter. Look what he says when they see this amazing moment of the

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Holy Spirit being poured out and all these signs and the ability to communicate the gospel in all these languages because everybody's coming from around the

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Empire to this moment in Jerusalem and they're hearing the gospel proclaimed in their own language and Peter says this, they're not drunk as you suspect.

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It's only the third hour of the day. He says this, this is what was spoken by the

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Prophet Joel. Now watch, very important. Peter said this is what

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Joel was talking about. It's not future to us. Peter already said it was fulfilled in their day.

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This is what Joel was talking about. In the last days I'll pour out my spirit.

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Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. And then he says what?

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He says then blood and fire and pillars of smoke. So what is he saying?

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There's going to be the outpouring of the Spirit of God, all these miraculous signs and wonders and then what?

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Blood, fire, pillars of smoke, judgment is going to come upon them.

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Now that is not for us today. That was for the first century generation that heard it.

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How do I know that? Because I have the inspired apostles interpretation. He said this, what you see is what

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Joel was talking about and he quotes it. Now notice the language again. Do you hear it? Fire, pillars of smoke.

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This is how God talks. God uses this graphic prophetic hyperbole to actually speak to his coming judgment.

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I'm going to show you some here and really interesting in a moment. But consider this for a moment. God often in the

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Old Testament uses this cosmic deconstruction language to speak to his soon coming judgment upon Babylon, upon Egypt, upon pagan nations and oftentimes even about his own people.

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He uses this imagery to provoke thought and understanding of what he's getting at.

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I'll give you two examples. Let's do two examples right now. Keep a finger in Matthew and go with me now to Isaiah.

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The scroll of Isaiah was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls in the late 1940s by a little shepherd boy named

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Mohammed. We have an entire scroll of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls and I want you to see how

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God spoke to his people. Go to Isaiah 19, Isaiah 19. Now this is hopefully will be immediately recognizable to all of us.

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Isaiah chapter 19, verse 1. An oracle concerning Egypt.

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Now pause, help me here. Who? Egypt. An oracle concerning Egypt.

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Here is an oracle God has for Egypt. This is a warning for Egypt about judgment. Here it is.

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Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud. And comes to Egypt and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence and the heart of the

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Egyptians will melt within them. All right, let's pause there for a second. Oracle against Egypt, pagan nation.

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Here's God warning them and he says, behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud.

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Question, do any of us understand the Lord here to be speaking literally?

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God is into surfing on clouds? Were they to actually anticipate that Yahweh was going to come into Egypt riding on a cloud like a surfboard?

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Were they supposed to see that? What about the promise in the Old Testament that nobody can see

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God and live? They were supposed to see God riding on the cloud? Or how about this, all the idols of Egypt will tremble in his presence and the heart of the

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Egyptians will melt within them. Are we to understand God here speaking that the Egyptians, literally, their hearts are going to melt into their bellies?

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Do you get it? The language is prophetic, dramatic, prophetic, hyperbole.

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It's judgment language that God uses. Now question, did God judge Egypt? Yes. Did he destroy

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Egypt? Yes. How about Babylon? Yes. Was it literally God riding on a cloud?

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No, but did he literally destroy them as promised? Yes. How about this one?

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Move backwards now to Isaiah chapter 13. Isaiah chapter 13.

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Now start here at the beginning, verse 1. The Oracle concerning Babylon, which

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Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. Who's this about? You can talk

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Babylon, right? We had Egypt, Oracle against Egypt, swift cloud, hearts melted within them, and then we have

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Babylon. So this is an Oracle about Babylon, an ancient pagan nation.

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And it says this, on a bare hill raise a signal, cry aloud to them, wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles.

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I myself have commanded my consecrated ones and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones.

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Now move down to verse 6. Wail, for the day of the

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Lord is near, as destruction from the Almighty, it will come.

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Quick note here. There are many days of the Lord in the Old Testament. The day of the

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Lord is the day of his judgments. Could be many of them. The day of the Lord for Babylon, day of the

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Lord for Egypt, day of the Lord for Edom. The day of the Lord doesn't necessarily relate to the final day of judgment of human history.

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The day of the Lord is the day of judgment of God upon people. And here's what it says. I love this.

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Watch this. Therefore all hands will be feeble and every human heart will melt.

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There it is again. God loves this language of melting hearts. And you watch this. You know, have you ever been so terrified that you feel like you're, something happened in your heart, it feels like it drops, right, into your stomach, right?

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It just drops down. That's what it's supposed to evoke. That fear, that moment of total human fear.

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Some of you guys feel that way on that slingshot ride that shoots you up, right? That's where your heart like melts and it goes out the bottom, right?

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It goes all the way out. That was supposed to be a joke. And then some of you guys feel that on roller coasters.

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Some of you guys feel that, like my daughter, Sailor, and Zoe. They're like two peas in a pod.

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I think they actually were twins. We just maybe lost Zoe. They were at home recently.

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They're like, we're fine. We can stay at home by ourselves. I mean, these are like teenagers, right? And we get a call when we're out that these grown girls are hiding, are hiding in Sailor's bedroom.

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Hiding because they thought that somebody broke in the house because they heard a noise. Right? And amazingly,

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I told them where my gun is, in case, I live in South Phoenix, okay? So I told them where my gun is and I said, if anything ever happens,

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I always review with them. What do you do with the gun? How do you handle it? What should you do to protect yourself? Like, where do you aim? All that stuff.

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Protect my girls. Get a gun, dads. Okay, and they know where it's at. They heard a noise while in the living room and what they do, their heart like wax melted within them and they ran away from the gun into the bedroom and hid there for like two hours and were swearing that there was somebody walking around in the house, right?

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For two hours, just walking around in the house. And what they do, I said, what are you gonna do? You ran away from the weapon, right?

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They were so terrified. I wasn't even thinking, right? So scared. They ran in the room. I said, what are you doing now to protect yourself?

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And they're like, well, we have a comb. We have a towel. Like, you know, they were just random items that couldn't save them, right?

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But it was because they're so terrified, like they're freaked out and they just run, just fear, right?

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And there's that heart, well, melted like wax within them. They will be, verse 8, dismayed.

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Pangs and agony will seize them. They'll be in anguish like a woman in labor. They'll look aghast at one another.

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Their faces will be aflame. Here it is. Behold, mark this down.

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The day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and destroy its sinners from it.

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For, verse 10, I hope you're with me because this is big. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light.

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The sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light.

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I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. Did you catch that?

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The stars are not going to give their light. The sun darkened.

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Question, have you heard this anywhere else before? Who else talked like that?

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Jesus? Actually, Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, when he tells the

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Jews that their temple is going to be torn apart and not one stone left upon another, the disciples are freaking out.

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Matthew 24, they see Jesus now just lay the law down to the Jewish Pharisees in Matthew 23.

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Woe to you. Woe to you. Woe to you who swear falsely. Jesus says to them, those who swear falsely, woe to you.

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Woe to you. All the blood upon this generation. These are the days of vengeance. These are the days of wrath. He leaves the temple.

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He says, behold, your temple is left to you desolate. He goes the same direction that Yahweh went in the

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Old Testament when he departed from the temple to destroy it. He went to the Mount of Olives and Jesus takes the same course.

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He sits on the Mount of Olives. The disciples are freaking out and they're like, when shall these things be? What's the sign of your coming?

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And the end of the age. Not the world, the age.

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You're going to destroy the temple? That means the Old Covenant's gone. That means we're in for the age of the

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Messiah, the age of the New Covenant. And Jesus tells them, here's what you're going to look for. All these things are going to happen upon this generation.

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And then he actually tells them about the stars falling to the earth, the moon and the sun not giving light, turned to blood, that kind of language.

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But here's the thing to question. Here it is. Ready? In Isaiah chapter 13, when God said this to Egypt or Babylon, when he said it to Babylon, is that literal?

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The sun and the moon, the stars, the constellations not giving their light.

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Is that literal language or is that judgment language? It's judgment language.

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Here's the question. Was Babylon judged as a record of history? Were they destroyed?

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Ended. Yes. So this is the language that God uses to describe judgment.

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So there you go. Laying that down. Go back to Matthew chapter 21. Let's go quickly here and then right into Revelation.

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Matthew chapter 21. Now we understand the background. Now we understand the language. A very important aspect here is to look at some of what took place here.

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So I'm going to go quickly today again, review. As you're in 21, take a finger and move to 20 verse 17.

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Just a reminder. Jesus now makes a promise to go to Jerusalem to die for the sins of his people.

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It says in 2017, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside and on the way he said to them, see we are going up to Jerusalem and the

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Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes and they'll condemn him to death and deliver him over to the

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Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and he'll be raised the third day. So there's

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Jesus now telling his disciples, I'm going to Jerusalem now and they're going to crucify me.

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Now as Jesus comes into Jerusalem, chapter 21, verse 1, we've already looked at this.

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Jesus comes in for the triumphal entry, the famous moment where here's a son of David, the promised

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Messiah coming in as Zechariah said, humble, mounted on a donkey.

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That beautiful moment prophesied in the Old Testament, but we did something last week. I told you about something that Matthew does in the narrative and I want to just remind you in case you weren't here for it.

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It is up on YouTube so you can look at it later. There is a story that Matthew is telling here. He's not just describing events.

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He's telling the events and the story and he's using a really interesting device to do it.

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And I told you last week the first place Jesus is here in verse 1 of 21 is

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Bethphage, which means what? Anyone remember? House of figs, right?

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House of figs. Bethphage, house of figs, to the mount of what? Figs and olives, right?

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And then Jesus now comes into Jerusalem and what are they spreading out before Jesus? Branches from the trees, spreading them out on the road.

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So we have figs, olives and leaves being presented to Jesus.

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Now they're saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the

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Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Here they are coming to this

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Messiah as he's entering and they're saying, Hosanna, we're acknowledging you.

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They have a profession of religion, but all they present to the Messiah are leaves.

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And then it says the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet

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Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. What's Nazareth? Branch.

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So let's review again. What do you have happening in the narrative right now for Matthew? You have figs, olives, branch, branches, and then it says in verse 17, after he overturns the tables of the money changers, he comes in for the second cleansing of the temple as the priest had to do,

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Leviticus 14. It says this, 17. And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

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What does Bethany mean? House of dates. So again, quick review. What's Matthew doing here?

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Jesus, the priest and the king and the judge now says,

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I'm going to Jerusalem. So he comes now to his temple and what's he looking for?

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One, fruit. Two, disease and corruption.

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What does he find when he comes for that second cleansing of the temple as the priest had to do,

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Leviticus 14? Two cleansings of the temple. He comes in, he examines the temple.

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What did the priest have to do in the Old Testament if he found disease the second time? Take the house apart down to the foundation.

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It's completely done. Jesus comes into the temple. He sees disease and corruption. He starts to cleanse the temple.

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But what does he do now? He goes house of figs, olives, branches, house of dates.

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He's getting hungry. He's coming to look to the covenant people of God and he's looking for fruit.

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He sees disease and corruption and what is he presented with as he comes into the city? Leaves.

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And what is he looking for? Fruit. And so now Matthew tells you that here's the king coming in and examining sickness and disease and now he's looking for fruit.

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He comes hungry. God comes to his people and he wants to see that they are not diseased and corrupt and he wants to see them with fruit.

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And so Jesus now cleanses the temple. He comes now to the tree in the morning, verse 18. He was returning to the city.

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He became hungry. Wouldn't you know it? With all the talk of dates and figs and olives and branches, he's hungry.

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And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it,

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May no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once. Now, Dr.

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White, quick thing, Dr. White is blessing us as a church. February 7th, he's going to teach you some amazing things at our

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Bible study about the synoptic Gospels and how you can actually put all these stories together in this scripture to understand what

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God is saying there. Encourage you, just a side note about this text in the synoptics, but it says this,

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Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain.

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Okay, question. Do we read the Bible? And the first thing we do as Christians is read ourselves into the text.

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How do you read the Bible? Faithfully. Context, who is the author, who is the audience, what's the language being used, how does this work with other scripture in the

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Bible? We don't first take ourselves and force ourselves into the text.

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Yes, we want to read the Word of God and get its proper application, but we should never actually just force ourselves into the text.

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We have to ask the question, why, why would this have meant anything to these disciples? What were they thinking when they heard

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Jesus saying this? They know what Jesus is doing. He's coming to Jerusalem as the priest, as the judge.

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They know the story. They know this biblical language. They know that Jesus has just cleansed the temple.

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They know he's condemning the covenant breakers in his day. And now Jesus actually comes to the tree.

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There's no fruit. He curses it. It withers and he says, say to this mountain, question, where were they?

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Jerusalem. Which mountain is Jesus talking about? Mount Zion, where the temple is, the people of God are there.

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This is a general term of this place. Jesus says, you'll be able to say to this mountain, be cast into the sea.

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Would they have understood Jesus to be telling them to actually literally pray that mountains are thrown into the sea?

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Or to pray for their financial mountains and marriage mountains? What was

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Jesus just doing in the same chapter? Work with me here. Think about this. One, what did he cleanse?

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The temple. What did he say to the fig tree? So what's the context?

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Israel, your corruption. Israel, your lack of fruit. Israel, the covenant breakers in Israel, the religious leaders who are persecuting him.

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And you're going to see it in the next chapters. And Jesus says, you'll be able to say, people of God, to this mountain, be lifted up and cast into the sea and God will do it.

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What's Jesus doing there? He's telling them, his people, their prayers will be heard by the

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Father. They're in precatory prayers. For the ones who are persecuting Jesus and the disciples, the

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Father will hear the prayers of his people and he will act to remove this mountain to get it out of the way.

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For the purposes of the new covenant, the people of God, the kingdom of God, the old covenant

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Jews are about to be judged for their covenant breaking. If you pray and ask the

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Father to remove this mountain and cast it into the sea, he'll do it for you. Now, I believe that could be demonstrated clearly from the text, but I'm going to show you more and I think

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I'll actually be able to seal it for you by the end of the message. But quickly, I want you to see a couple things in terms of language, very important, and I believe this is so exciting.

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First thing I want you to see is this language Jesus uses. We talked about it last week. Go with me to two texts in Luke.

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First thing is go to Luke chapter 19. Luke 19. Now, where Luke puts this in the

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Synoptic Gospel, he puts this and he's the one that mentions it. Out of the synoptics, it's

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Luke mentioning this in this detail. In Luke 19 .41, Luke puts this part of Jesus addressing

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Jerusalem right after the triumphal entry. Luke mentions that Jesus said this.

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Luke 21, 19 .41, and when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.

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Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, saying, the time of your visitation.

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You hearing that? Here's Jesus coming into Jerusalem, triumphal entry, and then he weeps over his city.

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He weeps over it. You didn't know the day of his visitation. They are going to come and they're going to surround you. They're going to destroy you.

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Not one stone left upon another. Are you catching now the climax? Are you seeing now salvation and judgment met in this

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Messiah coming in to judge the covenant breakers and bring salvation to the people of God, warning

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Jerusalem, you're about to be judged. You're about to be judged. The message was repent.

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You're about to be judged. This is all going to fall on this generation before you all die.

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But then there's one more. And this I told you about last week. Now listen, I want to be just really honest here and transparent.

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I always, and I mentioned this last week, I always found this so fascinating, and it mixed me up.

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Like, I thought it was fascinating and just kind of strange that it's a part of the

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Gospels. I thought it was weird, but I always knew there's something to that. But why would

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Jesus do that? It didn't make a lot of sense to me until you put it in the context of the whole story.

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I told you that Jesus said very few things on the way to the cross and on the cross.

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There's limited sayings of Jesus. I mean, literally, like, short. Like, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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I thirst. Right? Those sorts of things. Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother.

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Like, limited things. But in Luke chapter 23, Jesus is going to the cross, verse 26, and I want you to catch the language.

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Because you're gonna see it in Revelation in a second. And as they led him away, verse 26 of chapter 23, they seized one

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Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

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So here's Jesus, our Savior. He was so destroyed physically that he,

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God as a man, could not even carry the cross. He was so destroyed, his face punched, his head smashed, crown of thorns, beard pulled from his face, spit upon, whipped with a cat o' nine tails to the degree that he probably, you could maybe even see, organs exposed.

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He was torn to shreds that badly. And he's doing the death march and they actually commandeer a man from the audience,

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Simon. He carries the cross. Now think about the state that Jesus is in. What would you be doing if you were in that much pain?

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Could you even think? Could you even be coherent? Would you be able to utter a sentence?

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Like, what would you be like? What would it be like for us? But this is why I think it's peculiar. Because in the state that Jesus is in, he can't even carry his cross in the death march.

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He can't even make it to Golgotha. And he actually stops to speak to the daughters of Jerusalem.

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And here's what he says. Verse 27, There followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

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But turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me.

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Don't. Don't weep for me. He says, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

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For behold, the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.

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Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us.

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And to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?

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So here's Jesus saying, they're gonna say to the mountains, fall on us. To the hills, cover us. Jesus is telling them, don't weep for me.

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Weep for you and for your children. For it's coming. The judgment is coming. He says it's on the way to the cross.

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Are you hearing it? Salvation in the cross and judgment for the covenant breakers.

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Salvation and judgment. That was the promise of the Messiah from the Old Testament.

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Salvation and judgment. And in the New Testament, that is the message mingled together.

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That is the message brought together. Salvation for the people of God and judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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On the way to our salvation on that cross, he stops to remind the covenant breakers of what's about to come upon them.

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How do you like the Word of God now? Is that not amazing? That is powerful. Now, here we go.

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Jesus wept. He cleansed the temple and let's do it.

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Jesus says, say to this mountain, this one, this mountain, be lifted up, cast into the sea.

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Has that ever been used before? Should the Jewish disciples of Jesus understood what he was talking about when he said, say to this mountain, be lifted up, cast into the sea.

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To find out, we need to use our Old Testaments. Amen? We're gonna know our Bibles. And for that,

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I want you to go to one more text from the Old Testament, and that is Jeremiah 51. Old Testament.

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This will be our final text over there for the moment before we go to Revelation. Jeremiah 51.

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And here is an example of this kind of language used in the

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Old Testament. And who's it about? It's about Babylon. Jeremiah 51.

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Old Testament prophet Jeremiah speaks like this. Jeremiah 51 25.

01:00:06

He's talking to Babylon, proving it. Let's go to 24, just so you can see it with your own eyes.

01:00:12

I will repay, who? Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil they've done in Zion, declares the

01:00:23

Lord. Who's God talking to here? Babylon. He says this. Behold, I'm against you,

01:00:29

O destroying mountain. Who? Babylon.

01:00:35

What's it called, Babylon? A destroying what? Mountain. And behold,

01:00:41

I'm against you, O destroying mountain, declares the Lord, which destroys the whole earth. I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags and make you a burnt mountain.

01:00:53

I will make you a burnt mountain. No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone for a foundation, but you shall be a perpetual waste, declares the

01:01:05

Lord. And I'll skip ahead just quickly to verse 42 and just final word here. The sea has come up on Babylon.

01:01:12

She is covered with this tumultuous waves. Here is this mountain, destroying mountain,

01:01:18

Babylon. You are a burning mountain and I'm gonna put you out with the sea. That's the language

01:01:27

God used of Babylon. Burning mountain, destroying mountain. I will cover you with the sea.

01:01:33

Now question, does that literally happen? That's dramatic prophetic hyperbole.

01:01:42

God uses that language to describe his judgment and he's used it before about a pagan nation he was going to destroy.

01:01:51

And guess what? He did destroy it exactly as he promised to. It's done.

01:01:57

Anybody met any Babylonians lately, right? Like where are you a citizen? Where are you emigrating from?

01:02:02

Oh from ancient city of Babylon, right? I'm a Babylonian. Well, no things have changed a bit since then, right?

01:02:08

We have all kinds of kingdoms that have risen and fallen, right? You've got Babylon, Medo -Persian, you've got Greece and Rome and all these nations and kingdoms that are just gone and fallen as God promised.

01:02:19

Now here we are. I know it's a long way to get here, but we're now opening Revelation.

01:02:24

Go to Revelation chapter 6. Are you as excited as me to go to this?

01:02:32

Revelation chapter 6. Quick thing. I know I need to say as you get there to Revelation chapter 6.

01:02:41

We believe in a redemptive historical approach to the book of Revelation.

01:02:48

The book is about the redemption of God's people and we are to look at this book historically.

01:02:54

I mentioned to you guys to get Dr. Kenneth Gentry's book, Before Jerusalem Fell. I think it is an irrefutable display that the book of Revelation was certainly written before the fall of Jerusalem in 70

01:03:07

AD. I do not believe there's any way to argue with what he says both internally or externally, historically.

01:03:14

I believe Dr. Sproul, R .C. Sproul, he had the same eschatological view as us.

01:03:20

He was post -millennial. He was a partial preterist. We'll get into what all that means later. He made some good arguments in terms of the dating of the book of Revelation.

01:03:26

How should we look at its dating? Well, a couple things just briefly in terms of dating of the book of Revelation before the destruction of the

01:03:33

Jewish temple. One, if you read the first chapter and the last chapter of Revelation, what does it say in terms of timing?

01:03:41

Soon to take place. Behold, I am coming what? Quickly, right?

01:03:48

You see language like soon coming quickly. Every eye will see him including those who pierced him.

01:03:59

Including those who pierced him. Second point, John the Apostle is told in Revelation chapter 11, in Revelation chapter 11, go ahead and go there to see it, in Revelation 11,

01:04:10

John is told to go and measure the temple. He's told to go and measure the temple.

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Now, one of the things Dr. Sproul points out in terms of dating here is that if the temple was already destroyed when

01:04:30

John wrote the book of Revelation, it's highly suspicious that John never mentions that kind of catastrophic event or important event to Jewish history.

01:04:41

John is told here to go and measure the temple as though it were still standing in his day.

01:04:47

Final point here, and this is just a brief look, this is not the whole ball of wax, but if you look at the last chapter of Revelation, go ahead and go there now.

01:04:55

If you look at the last chapter of Revelation in terms of dating, here is what John is told.

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It says in verse 20, chapter 22 of verse, in verse 7, and behold,

01:05:13

I'm coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

01:05:19

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me to them to me.

01:05:26

But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book.

01:05:33

Worship God. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is what?

01:05:44

Now, a quick thing in terms of knowing our Old Testament, if you look at the last chapter of the book of Daniel, chapter 12, don't do it now, do it later,

01:05:51

Daniel is told about what he's told about 600 years before Christ to seal up the words of that prophecy because the time was for many days ahead.

01:06:04

So in Daniel, 600 years before Christ, he's told 600 years, seal up the book for it's for a long time from now.

01:06:13

John is told in Revelation, do not seal up the book. Don't seal this book up.

01:06:19

Why? Because the time is near. Do you see that? So there's just a blitz in terms of dating the book of Revelation back to chapter 6 now.

01:06:28

Here we go. Now, quick word on the book of Revelation in terms of how we should read it.

01:06:35

There are over 400 verses in the book of Revelation, over 400. Over half of the book of Revelation is a direct quotation from an

01:06:46

Old Testament prophet book or an allusion to an Old Testament prophet or verse or scripture.

01:06:53

So people have said by today's standards, John could very easily be accused of stealing.

01:07:03

He could very very easily be accused of copying somebody else's work because he's taking stuff from the

01:07:11

Old Testament and he is now bringing it into this book. Over half the book is direct quotations from the

01:07:17

Old Testament or allusions. Here we go. In Revelation chapter 6, now

01:07:22

I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, seven, a very highly symbolic number in the

01:07:30

Bible, seven days of creation, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like a thunder,

01:07:37

Come and I looked and behold a white horse and its rider had a bow and a crown was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer.

01:07:46

When he opened the second seal I heard the second living creature say come and out came another horse bright red.

01:07:52

Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that people should slay one another and he was given a great sword.

01:07:58

When he opened the third seal I heard the third living creature say come and I looked and behold a black horse and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine.

01:08:17

When he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say come and I looked and behold a pale horse and its rider's name was death and Hades followed him and they were given authority over a fourth of the earth.

01:08:33

Here it is. Mark it down. To kill with sword, with famine, with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

01:08:44

Now, if I've ever taught you this before don't say anything, but let's do it for everybody else in our body who's maybe new to this.

01:08:52

When I read that to you just now to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

01:08:58

Don't Google right now. Stop. Don't Google. Did any of you who haven't heard me teach on this before, did any of you recognize those four things?

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To kill wild with sword, with famine, with pestilence, and by wild beasts of the earth.

01:09:19

Ring any bells for anybody? Anybody? Now raise your hand if no, it didn't ring any bells.

01:09:26

You're in good company. Look at some of you guys. They're totally lying right now. Raise your hand if it rang no bells.

01:09:32

Raise your hand. Come on now. There you go. Now raise your hand if it did ring bells. Some of you guys aren't participating. Okay. Now this is really important.

01:09:40

Watch. John is a Jewish follower of Jesus. This book, listen, is saturated in the

01:09:48

Old Testament. All the symbolism, all the imagery, he is borrowing from the

01:09:54

Old Testament and he's pulling it into this revelation and he's using it, listen, with people who are familiar with the

01:10:01

Old Testament. So when you say to a 1st century Christian Jew, a

01:10:08

Jewish Christian, they know this. When you say to them, there's these seals and these horses and they're coming down and it is for what purpose?

01:10:17

To kill with sword, with famine, with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

01:10:24

Now a Jew who knows their Old Testament goes, Are you, are you serious?

01:10:31

That's coming? Because those are the four severe judgments God promises upon Jerusalem.

01:10:40

Go to your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 14. Keep a finger in Revelation.

01:10:49

John, a Jewish Christian, giving a revelation with Jewish language and biblical language to 1st century

01:10:57

Jewish Christians. He tells them about this scene he sees in heaven with these four horsemen and he tells them something very specific about the judgment and if you look at Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 21, you'll see what

01:11:16

God promised to Jerusalem. He says this, for thus says the Lord God, how much more when

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I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast.

01:11:35

So when we hear about the four horsemen of the apocalypse, are we supposed to be thinking about Clinton, George Bush, Obama, and Trump?

01:11:45

Believe it or not. That's what people do to this book. That's not what the original hearers of this prophecy and revelation would have understood.

01:11:53

When they have this imagery and symbolism of this worship scene in heaven and God gives them an image of these four horsemen with these four severe judgments, those 1st century

01:12:02

Jewish Christians are going, God's judgment upon Jerusalem is coming.

01:12:08

It's coming quickly. He's coming soon. Don't seal up the book. It's about to happen.

01:12:14

Four horsemen of the apocalypse are the four, are related to the four severe judgments upon who?

01:12:23

Keep going, Revelation 6. Now here it is, verse 9.

01:12:32

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.

01:12:39

They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

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How long, O Lord, is the way the prophets used to plead with God to vindicate them and to judge their enemies?

01:12:53

How long, O Lord, how long is pleading with God? Will you please act, God? Vindicate us,

01:12:59

God. Please come and judge. Protect us. Come and stand for us, God. Now you have the martyrs before the throne of God, and they're saying to God, how long,

01:13:09

O Lord, before you avenge our blood? Well, who are these people? Well, they're in John's story here.

01:13:16

These are martyrs that have been killed. John's referring to it. So who are the persecutors of these martyrs?

01:13:24

They're pleading with God, and here's what they say. Then they were, they say to God, avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth.

01:13:32

Then they were given each, each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

01:13:45

So, hey, watch. These Christian martyrs are before God's throne, and they're saying, how long,

01:13:51

O Lord, until you avenge our blood? That's, that, by the way, that's an imprecatory prayer.

01:13:58

That's a prayer. God, you act for your people, Father. You, Lord, judge our enemies. God, when are you gonna judge our enemies and avenge our blood?

01:14:06

And I love this. God gives them a white robe, and he says, rest a little longer, just a little longer.

01:14:15

Now, you have this question, ask this question, how'd they get there? Who killed them? Who killed them?

01:14:22

What's the theme throughout the New Testament in this context? Well, Jesus says, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her.

01:14:37

Well, that's what Jesus said to Jerusalem. But in the book of Revelation, the martyrs are specifically martyrs who are experiencing this very

01:14:45

Jewish persecution. I'll just give them to you fast. Just get the video later. Revelation 1, 9.

01:14:50

Revelation 2, 9 through 10. Revelation 3, 9 through 10. Revelation 6, 9 through 11.

01:14:57

11, 7 through 8. 11 through 13. 12, verse 10. 13, verse 10.

01:15:02

14, 11 through 13. 16, 5 through 6. 17, 6. 18, 20 and 24.

01:15:09

19, 2. 24 and onwards. The emphasis is on the martyrs.

01:15:15

Now, if you ask the question, well, like, who's doing this persecuting? Well, Jesus has words for the persecuted martyrs here in the book of Revelation, and what he says in the book of Revelation is specifically to Jewish persecution of Christians.

01:15:31

To see it, go to Revelation chapter 3. How'd those martyrs get there? Jesus says in Revelation chapter 3, verse 7, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the words of the

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Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

01:15:58

I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word, and have not denied my name.

01:16:09

Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are

01:16:14

Jews and are not but lie. Behold, I'll make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you because you kept my word about patience, endurance.

01:16:28

I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. I'm coming soon.

01:16:34

Jesus says here, those who say they're Jews, they're not. They lie. They're a synagogue of Satan.

01:16:40

So the emphasis in the book of Revelation is on the martyrs, and what you see throughout the book of Revelation is a specific persecution on the

01:16:49

Christian martyrs from, of course, the beast, we would say is Rome, and the

01:16:54

Jews who ultimately turned Rome toward the Christians to kill them.

01:17:00

And if you learn history, you learn that's precisely what happens. Now, go to Revelation 6, and I'll just make one more point here to 6.

01:17:09

Notice in Revelation chapter 6 that the promise is that they will be vindicated, they will be vindicated.

01:17:19

There will be these four severe judgments, but they're told to rest just a little while. So here's the scene before the throne of God.

01:17:26

You have this heavenly worship scene with these Christian martyrs who have been killed and slaughtered.

01:17:32

They're now before the throne, and they're saying to the Lord, how long before you avenge our blood? How long?

01:17:38

And there's a sweet moment of here's your white robe and rest just a little while longer.

01:17:43

I'm gonna act. So the Christians now are standing before the throne of God, and their prayers are rising up to God, and they're pleading for vindication.

01:17:51

They're pleading an imprecatory prayer that God would avenge the people, them, with the people that have killed them, and brought them before his throne.

01:18:01

So the scene continues on. Now go to Revelation 8. Same scene before the throne. Watch this.

01:18:10

Verse 1, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

01:18:18

Now, I confess to a little bit of hopefully righteous speculation here.

01:18:24

Commentaries are divided on this issue. Why was there silence in heaven for half an hour?

01:18:31

Watch. The scene is this. All these signs, four severe judgments are coming. The martyred

01:18:37

Christians in the first century, I believe, are before the throne of God. Please, God, avenge us. Please get them, the ones that killed us.

01:18:43

When are you gonna come? When are you gonna avenge us? And now all of a sudden, I love this, watch. That, that would be an awkward silence.

01:18:55

Can you imagine if I stood up here in the middle of talking, message is given, and all of a sudden I just stopped and stared at you for half an hour?

01:19:08

Awkward, right? Now in heaven, the scene is the Christians are praying to God, and then there's silence in heaven.

01:19:17

I'm fairly convinced, based upon what comes next, that that silence in heaven is for the prayers of the saints to be heard by God.

01:19:28

He is halting all that's taking place so that the focus is upon the prayers of the saints coming up to God.

01:19:35

And here's why I believe that. It says, silence in heaven for a half an hour.

01:19:41

Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer.

01:19:50

And he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne.

01:19:56

And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel.

01:20:03

This is amazing. John sees this heavenly worship scene, the martyred saints before the throne of God.

01:20:09

They're pleading God, avenge us, get the people. When are you gonna get the people that killed us? When are you gonna act on our behalf,

01:20:15

God? And all of a sudden, silence in heaven, and then an angel comes in with this incense.

01:20:22

And the prayers of the saints are described like smoke coming up before God's throne. And what the, what this angel does is he takes this sweet, this incense, this sweet smell, and the angel mingles together this sweet smell with the prayers of the saints so that this sweet aroma comes up before God with silence in heaven.

01:20:42

All you have is the prayers of the saints reaching up to God's throne, while the angel mingles together this sweet smell with the prayers of the saints.

01:20:50

That's the heavenly scene that God gives to us. You ever think about your prayer life like that?

01:20:57

Do you? Do I? Or do you think that when you pray, you just, you're praying, and God's too busy?

01:21:05

He's not listening. He's not concerned with your prayers. He's not concerned with the prayers of Apologia Church, and we ask

01:21:11

God to bless us and our church plant and all the ministry we have. No, actually, this heavenly scene that God describes here is the kind of scene where God turns off the noise in heaven, and his angel mingles together a sweet smell with your prayers so that God receives your prayers, and it smells amazing to him.

01:21:32

But watch what happens. You're like, what about the mountain and the sea? What about that?

01:21:40

Well, keep reading. It says this. The prayers of the saints rose before God in the hand of the angel, then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

01:21:57

Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them, the first angel blew his trumpet, and there were followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

01:22:12

The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea.

01:22:24

So we know from the Old Testament, how did God describe his judgment upon Babylon? Burning mountain, cast into the sea.

01:22:31

What does Jesus say to say to Mount Zion? Be removed, mountain, and cast into the sea.

01:22:37

What are the early Christian martyrs doing before the throne of God? Avenge us, God! And that smoke comes up to God, then

01:22:44

God sends his angel, and then the angel rips up that mountain and throws it into the sea.

01:22:50

Everything that the Christians had been praying for is finally done. Did you know that in the book of Revelation, the emphasis is upon the harlot, the one who was wearing the priest's colors, purple and scarlet, who is drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus.

01:23:06

She has Babylon written on her head. She is killing the Christians, and it says she's riding the seven -headed ten -horned beast, which is

01:23:15

Rome. Rome was known as the Septimontium, the city of seven hills with ten imperial provinces.

01:23:21

The harlot is riding Rome You say, well, what is Jerusalem doing riding the beast?

01:23:28

Oh, I don't know. Pilate says, shall I crucify your king? What did

01:23:33

Israel or the Jews say to Pilate? We have no king but Caesar.

01:23:39

There's the harlot riding the beast, and then John says, don't worry, that beast is about to turn on her, make her desolate, and burn her with fire.

01:23:47

What happened within a few years of John riding this book? I believe within a couple short years, soon, quickly, not sealed up,

01:23:57

Rome turned on Jerusalem, sacked the city, surrounded it, burned it with fire, and took it apart stone off of stone.

01:24:07

It was literally a burning mountain. So I believe when we look at this in the context of all of Scripture, we have a clear understanding of what

01:24:16

God was saying here about praying the prayer for this mountain to be cast into the sea.

01:24:23

And so here's the so what? It's so amazing. God is sovereign. Amen?

01:24:29

Did it happen? Yes. God uses the prayers of his saints to affect the course of history.

01:24:37

Silence in heaven, smoke rising up to God, angels mingling with our prayers, incense before God, God responding to his people's prayers.

01:24:48

Do you ever think about this? God is completely sovereign over history. He's determined the end from the beginning, but he has determined in the midst of that your prayers and my prayers as the means to move history along.

01:25:01

Do you ever think about that? That God is using your prayers before him, before his throne like smoke.

01:25:06

He is using your prayers to get to his purposes in history. That God listens to your prayers like that.

01:25:14

That God listens to your prayers in such a way that says, if you have faith, you can say to this mountain, cast into the sea,

01:25:20

I'll do it for you. I'll do it. God listens to our prayers like that.

01:25:25

He hears us. God hears our prayers. He's listening. Our prayers rise up to God with a pleasing aroma.

01:25:31

God cares about our fruit. He comes to search for fruit. Our worship matters to God.

01:25:37

And so my question is this, as a church, when we think about our Lord as our prophet, priest, and king, do we have a godly fear of his sovereignty and control over history?

01:25:54

And do we have a godly fear of his holiness? When our king comes into our church, does he find corruption?

01:26:04

When he comes to look for fruit at Apologia Church, does he find fruit? Or does he find a mere profession of religion?

01:26:11

Does we only just put down leaves before him? Do we simply profess to worship him, to honor him?

01:26:17

Or when he comes to examine us, do we have fruit to present before him?

01:26:23

Brothers and sisters, it is my hope that when Jesus examines us, he doesn't find disease and corruption.

01:26:29

When he examines us, he finds fruit. And my hope is as a church, we would take our

01:26:36

Lord seriously. When he says there's a day in history where he is going to judge the world, the just and the unjust, do we believe him?

01:26:47

And do we have a godly fear about that? Because here's my, this is truly my final word here, I wanted to impress upon us, if the

01:26:55

Bible shows us that Jesus keeps his promises about history, that he always tells the truth.

01:27:03

He says to that generation, you're gonna be judged. Mountains are gonna fall on you. You're gonna be judged.

01:27:08

They didn't listen. They didn't believe him. Many of them didn't. But that day came and they were slaughtered.

01:27:14

They were destroyed. There's also a day in history appointed for judgment. And my question to you is this, do you know him?

01:27:21

Do you know the Savior? Have you turned from sin to put your faith in Jesus? Are you trusting in him as Savior?

01:27:29

Do you have his righteousness? Are you covered in that white robe?

01:27:34

Are you cleansed of all your sin? Are you free from all condemnation because you have this Savior as a gift?

01:27:41

Where are you out with Jesus today? Because that final day of judgment is coming. He's appointed a day and he always keeps his word.

01:27:49

And finally, brothers and sisters, we need to pray a whole lot more.

01:27:56

We need to change the way we view God in our prayers because according to this book, God loves to hear us and God uses our prayers to direct the course of history that he has ordained.

01:28:11

You're the means that God uses to get to the end goal that he has purposed for creation.

01:28:19

Does that change the way you pray? How about as a family tonight? When you pray together as a family tonight, married couples, kids, will you guys think differently about your prayer tonight as a family?

01:28:28

Is your prayer rising up to God? Angels smelling it up? Really, right?

01:28:34

Some of you moms here, crunchy moms, you have all these essential oils. You're like, I know what he was using. Let's pray.

01:28:46

Father, thank you. I pray Lord that whatever was said today

01:28:57

Lord from you would transform us, change us, bless us as a church.

01:29:03

Lord, I know I gave so much the last two weekends. I know that it's been a long service. It's been my desire to be faithful to you so that your people know your word.

01:29:13

So I pray Lord that what was given over the last two weeks would transform us. It would not just be a series, two sermons that we just hear a little bit of and we just walk away from.

01:29:25

I pray that it really changes us, transforms us. I pray for anyone in this room that doesn't know you today, truly know you.

01:29:31

I pray that you grant them eyes to see you now and hearts to trust in you. Grant faith to trust in Jesus.

01:29:37

I pray that you'd bring conviction over sin. And for those of us that know you, please help us to know how much you love to hear us.

01:29:45

Please help us to see the kind of power that you've given through the strength of your spirit to your church.

01:29:52

And I pray that, Lord, we would begin to pray with the confidence that the saints in heaven do.