"Revelation 11-12" with Special Guest Don Stewart

[Applause] so those of you that um don't know uh brother don stewart so he has a wonderful uh ministry uh called educating uh our world he has several resources and they're all free and it is a wonderful website so when you leave here go to educating our world and he has topics you know who's god holy spirit it's just a wonderful uh website and again it's all free for your download i used to uh be the host of a pastor's perspective and now he's the host of his channel and it's a great uh uh great ministry that's uh ministering to literally the world millions of people and it's uh doing very well and again his wonderful brother loves jesus and i'm excited to be here to uh listen and before we get going so sure craziness going on right we on here one two okay good you can hear me okay so craziness going on right now squared is what we say henry craziness squared i think that would be the best way of putting it right uh who to thunk it right so what is your encouragement to uh to followers of jesus you know obviously maybe for some the election hasn't gone thus far uh the way that uh many would like it um it's difficult to trust uh what sources do you trust today so for the believer what do we how do we navigate the time that we're in right now it's a great question we have to remember we're running a marathon not a sprint and the bible says and that's how actually i'm going to close this that we we win in the end and that's all we need to know okay we're going to win in the end because we're in jesus christ now how we get to the end is a whole different thing we're not we're not actually running a marathon we're running a gauntlet aren't we henry you know we've got you know fighting our way through but you know the good news is the lord's promised to be with us never to leave us a forsaken so we'll be fine and so i just want to encourage people to keep moving forward it's going to be all right it's going to be fine we win right we win we win amen to that enjoy yourself all right lord thank you for my brother bless him give us ears to hear we ask in jesus name amen okay thank you henry it's nice to be back and it's good to see everybody here not only in person but those online i know my wife is having a watch party now we have a couple of websites educating our world uh dot com is my website with the material on it that's that's a website where you can get all 59 of my books there download them for free if you would print them all out you're welcome to do it it'll be about 13 000 pages but have at it if you want to do that we answer about 2 000 questions on 11 different topics and we got four more books coming right now in fact henry has encouraged me to do something that i hadn't planned to do right away but i seem to need to do it because when he asked me to come and speak on two and a half chapters the book of revelation in 45 minutes i about keeled over because i had actually taught on this i looked at my my notes a few years ago and i did those three chapters it took me nine hours and i got 50 pages of material so i thought well i'm going to talk really fast to get done with this but i'm not going to have to he said look get done what you can get done and that'll be fine so what i'm going to do though i'm going to put the revelation it's pretty much done what i have online that'll be another free download there but i'm gonna have to do it now as i was thinking there in two additions one would be the additions for uh shall we say you know the regular people but i do have an egghead edition too unfortunately right now i'm going to have to clean it up because the my commentary on revelation it's in greek hebrew latin german and english and so i'm going to have to probably make maybe an egghead edition for people want to read that sort of thing it's very technical that's just for me i don't explain it technically to the audience it's just for me when i'm going through it so i want to uh for my own notification but i might do that too just for the why not and so but uh for the most part it'll be uh you know for uh normal people to read i'm not one of those normal people that do it uh that way so anyway uh just thankful that we're here so what we're gonna do today again just to let you know we do have uh on his channel i have a program called breaking news it's on monday through friday at 10 to 11 a.m pacific time his channel dot com where we look at the events that are taking place right now in real time and how they fit with last days bible prophecy we're thinking about changing the title next year and one of the things i'd like to call it is bible prophecy in the news even though it's called breaking news all the stories i do have something to do with the last days bible prophecy i always have more stories every day than i can even begin to get to because so much is going on in our world and so it's exciting also too the program world news briefing i used to do with pastor chuck smith we're doing that again now and that plays at six o'clock pacific time every thursday we recorded earlier that day tom hughes who many of you know tom is going to be has been my co-host we have other people coming on so that gives you the events of what are taking place there and again the website download it for free his channel now is on parlor too uh broadcasting 24 7. many people are leaving twitter and leaving facebook to go to other social media uh such as rumble or me we and parlor is one that's it's kind of gone crazy there uh we're i'm my wife is there's a learning curve there so we're learning the ropes of that and i'll have an account there probably soon also but uh so much going on so much to do it's again like i said never ever a dull moment god is good and so many great things are happening all right now henry said something interesting to me it reminds me of when i was in australia when speaking at a church and i asked the guy how long do you want me to speak for and he said an hour and 50 minutes i said you're kidding said no and i did actually now henry said you can speak up to an hour and 20 minutes if you want to now i know the mind can only take what the seat can endure it's okay we won't do that i'll probably just go approximately an hour but i understand you know if you know you get an answer or something like that you get up i won't take it personally unless you don't like what i say then but i didn't bother me anyway so what we're going to do we're going to pick up where henry left off last week on revelation chapter 11 and verse 15. and then from there what we're going to do is see how far we can get like i said this is something i taught in the future took me three hours to get each chapter done but i'm not going to take that long obviously i want to get through 11 and through part of 12 if we can so if you have your bibles would you turn there with me to first of all we'll just summarize the 11th chapter of revelation um basically as as we read at the beginning we're told that uh john was told he was given a read like a measuring rod and he says rise up and he was told to rise up and measure the temple of god and the altar and the ones worshiping in it and the outer court of the temple is cast outside do not measure it's been given to the gentiles and they will trample the holy city for um it's basically three and a half years 1 260 days and i shall give to my two and these talks about the two witnesses they're going to prophesy you know for this time 1260 days being clothed with sackcloth all right the two witnesses begin um here in revelation chapter 11 just so you know many of the events that are in these two chapters already cover in a couple of my books and again you can download them for free on educationalworld.com just go to the site says download books i've got a book on the final antichrist it's about 400 pages long and so there's a lot of material on the antichrist the false prophet i have another one on the jews jerusalem of the coming temple which we deal with here in chapter 11 which there in great detail you get that for free uh in verse 19 we're going to see of chapter 11. the ark of the covenant shows up in heaven i've written an entire book on in search of the lost ark the quest for the ark of the covenant so you've gotta there's plenty of material there um you know to go into more detail right now on these particular issues so anyway what happens is the temple is measured and these two witnesses come on the scene and they have a three and a half year ministry about three and a half years and basically they're indestructible they come to the city of jerusalem now the identity of the two witnesses there's a lot of talk on that again you look at their final antichrist book we give various solutions there they could be either two people that are just alive at that time or two people from the past most likely if they are probably moses and elijah we don't know but they are human beings and they're testifying for 1260 days or three and a half years during the time of this great tribulation period and then they're killed the bible says that they're they're basically indestructible but then when their ministry is done the final antichrist he kills them he's and what's really fascinating here is when he does that their bodies lie in state for three and a half days in the city of jerusalem and they're not buried they're just lying there and the whole world the whole world is is basically having a party having a celebration they send gifts to one another because of these two prophets who have just you know told the truth but the world didn't want to hear the truth for three and a half years they've been telling the truth and now they're celebrating and rejoicing now one of the interesting things about this and we deal with this another book i've written called 25 signs we're near the end one of the interesting things here is the exponential one of our signs is the exponential increase of technology at the time of the end because there are three passages in scripture that assume a world that you and i are living in right now that did not happen in the first century because what we read in revelation chapter 11 these two witnesses their bodies are lying in state and the whole world sees them at once they send gifts to one another at once and i remember reading one commentator from the 19th century and i love what he said he says i have no idea how this can happen none whatsoever but i have no right to change god's word to change what it means and he said basically said i'll just leave it to someday this can be a reality now that's faith isn't it now we have no we don't worry at all do we we know how that can happen with modern technology literally people are watching me right now around the world we've got people you know almost every time we do a watch party from australia new zealand south africa um uk uh germany uh wherever because of the technology that's there all right well it'll be there also and it's not gonna be any less at the time that we see that so in revelation chapter 11 there's the assumption that people can see worldwide uh even even regionally how for three and a half days could the word get out in the first century regionally where people could send gifts back and forth it couldn't so there had to be something in place in you know that would make this a reality and that's true now we won't get to 13 henry i'll give that the next week or two revelation 13 same thing going on uh no one can buy or sell worldwide without this the final antichrist and his cohort the false prophet giving the okay you know the proverbial 666 on the right hand and the forehead there the mark of the beast they can't sell or buy without that so here be the question can you imagine the first century someone reading that and thinking how in the world could that be monitored worldwide you have to have someone standing next to people whenever they do a financial transaction it'd be impossible to monitor it's only possible today because the modern technology tim cook said the next generation of young people will not know what cash is every transaction will be digital and i'm sure you and i know that now more and more everything's done digitally and it's just you know money getting rid of money is something that's going to it is it's in the process of taking place many of the banks you know are looking forward to the day they can get rid of money and just do digital transaction because money is expensive to deal with and plus with all the stuff we've got going on with the chinese communist party coronavirus handling money is a problem also too because of you know the virus supposedly can hang on money um well we'll see about that but anyway bottom line is we've we've got here though in revelation chapter 11 this amazing thing going on where these two witnesses are being seen you know by the entire world as their bodies lie in state but then that doesn't last for long does it uh what happens is after three and a half days their bodies come back to life the people as you can imagine are rather shocked by something like that a great fear upon fell upon all those that beheld that and then they ascend they ascend into heaven are taken up into heaven and at that time there was a earthquake in jerusalem about a tenth of the city the people die you know great shaking there and uh there's fear falling on the people now and then it says this uh the second woe has passed uh the and the third will was about to come behold the third woe is coming quickly so what we're dealing with here now are these three woes we see in the book of revelation now in in chapter 11 verse 15 to pick up where henry left off we've got the sound of a trumpet now and many voices are heard in heaven this is the seventh trumpet of the seven trumpets there in revelation and they heard great voices or great sounds in the sky are in the heavens saying uh this is a very famous line the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our lord and of his christ and he shall reign forever and ever somebody ought to make a song with those words shouldn't they anyway um and so you'll hear this pronouncement in heaven that the kingdom is now here well again it's it's it's the kingdom has begun should we keep going through the book of revelation we find it eventually taking place um when he comes back in revelation 19 there's 24 elders here who are face down worshiping the lord on their thrones and then verse 19 i love this it says the temple was of god was opened in in the heavens and the ark of the covenant of his covenant appeared of the ark of the covenant the lord appeared in his temple and there came about lightnings and peals of thunder and noise lightnings peals of thunder and great hail what's going on right here voices lightning voices thunders and a great hail was taking place at this particular time now this is to me is interesting because chapter 12 actually begins with chapter 11 19 and this is important to understand the chapter divisions were not there in the original bible it wasn't until 1224 where the bishop of archbishop of canterbury decided to divide the scripture up into chapters because make it easier to read you know to find different spots in scripture the originals aren't in chapters or in verses uh there's you know a couple places where when they divided the chapters they made a you know not not didn't do a great job again the chapter division isn't uh supernatural or anything like that matthew 16 28 is the the big problem where it talks about jesus said there'd be some standing here which will not you know not die until they see the kingdom of god coming and then chapter 17 talks about a few days later and it's the whole story of the transfiguration well that's that that is the whole idea the transfiguration shows they won't die till they see the lord jesus moses and elijah well the same thing here revelation 11 19 where it talks about the ark the covenant scene in heaven is basically the beginning of chapter 12. so we'll start with it and uh as we go through it today and see how far we get during the time that uh i take the ark of the covenant again written a whole book on the subject i'll very much summarize what's going on but what's important about that it's the most sacred object that was ever built in the history of humanity it contained the ten commandments the second set of tablets that moses brought down from mount sinai remember he destroyed the first set two sets of the the the tablets are in the the ark of the covenant what's interesting about that in exodus 25 before the tabernacle was built the ark was constructed first that the orders to construct the ark were first because everything in the tabernacle and later the temple was built in reference to the ark because the ark was the center of everything it was the place where the tablets of god were where the presence of god was in a unique sense there now god wasn't stuck in you know in a tent there and solomon knew that when he dedicated the temple you don't live here lord he said the heavens and heavens can't contain you but it represented god's uh you know god's presence there now the ark had a an atonement cover on the top full gold mercy seat it's called in some of the old english translations where you had two characters cherubim facing one another and it represented you know the mercy of god the atonement cover where you know this is where the blood of the um the sacrifice was spread there by the high priest once a year first offered for himself and then for the people there and it spoke of the sacrifice jesus christ would offer on calvary's cross and so the ark was you know front and center with the tabernacle that led the way in the wilderness wanderings uh eventually it was brought to a more permanent place for about 400 years in shiloh when they were there then eventually brought to jerusalem and in the temple there and ii chronicles 35 3 is the last reference we have in scripture to the ark of the covenant because king josiah was told the people in 621 bc to put the ark back into the temple and they did interesting the the hebrew doesn't say you know the hebrew doesn't say they did the english translations didn't say they did but what's interesting the greek translation of the hebrew scriptures the septuagint said yeah the people did obey and put it back we assume they did but the septuagint actually says that in greek anyway that's the last reference we have of the ark of the covenant 2600 years ago and what happened to it we don't know the most sacred object god's ever you know asked to be constructed containing the ten commandments representing the presence of god it it disappeared there's various theories as to what happened some believe it was destroyed by the babylonians when they burned the city in the temple at 587 bc others believe it was hidden by jeremiah somewhere in second maccabees one to eight one of the apocryphal books written between the testaments talks about the ark actually taken by jeremiah and hidden in an arab mount nebo remember nebo was the place where moses you know they overlooked the promised land and where he was actually buried somewhere in that area that is one theory about there are a number of theories now to make a short story long i'm going to stop on the ark now because i could talk all day on it i believe i think there's certain and i think this verse speaks about i think it still exists i really do and i think it's going to be found because what we have here now remember what's going on here this is in jerusalem this is during the great tribulation period the two witnesses have been witnessing for three and a half years the antichrist finally is able to kill these two individuals and then you've got all these things going on you know the the seven trumpet blows you know and then you have the 24 elders worshiping the lord the ark appears in heaven this isn't the ark that's here on earth this is in heaven there is a temple at tabernacle as we're told in hebrews that moses was told to construct the one on earth based on the pattern of one in heaven so the real ark is up there in heaven now the one on earth that was constructed is a is built after that pattern so my question would be why in the world right now would this come up would they see the ark of the covenant in heaven uh why would you know out of nowhere that seems to take place now i believe because of jeremiah 3 16 it says there'll come a day when the ark won't be spoken of any longer they're still talking about they're still looking for it believe me i believe it does exist i believe it's somewhere under the temple mount in the city of jerusalem and i believe someday someday it will be found and brought up now again i can't prove that it's just a theory but the idea is that the ark was uh the the temple of is open of god in the heavens and the ark of his cove the covenant the lord appears in his temple and they've got all these sounds the lightning the voices the thunder and the great hail uh something's going on here that just doesn't get mentioned out of nowhere so that's what i think because maybe the ark had been brought back and placed in this third temple because remember there's a temple there as we're gonna as i don't henry's already talked about it which the antichrist probably helps build a third temple in the uh city of jerusalem and it's this final seven year period that the last half of it starts when this third temple is defiled and we've got that and you know jesus talked about the abomination that causes desolation in matthew 24 15 that's the last three and a half year period before the lord comes back called the great tribulation matthew 24 21. so anyway um maybe it's possible and i i've thought this for a number of years when i wrote the book on the temple in the ark that it seemingly the ark had been found and it's looked like it's almost like you know like like this object of worship like a talisman like a good luck charm you know and like people just like people you know think well if i touch the ark you know or something like this one poor guy didn't he died but you know if i i get near it uh somehow i'll bring me good luck and maybe there'll be a superstitious view of that like remember raiders the lost ark they thought it was something that could take on armies kill armies that's why a great movie by the way that's what best of all time that hitler wanted it to win the win the war unfortunately he didn't get the ark and he lost the war but the bottom line is uh it's mentioned here in revelation 11 19 for a purpose but this opens the door now to revelation chapter 12. okay and what the great sign in heaven said a great sign appeared in the heaven a woman clothed in the sun and the moon underneath her feet and upon her head were a crown of 12 stars and she was pregnant crying out with birth pangs and she was tormented um being tortured or tormented here to uh give birth okay the great sign in heaven this is revelation chapter 12. i got a fabulous story to tell you on this one all right so about three years ago a little over three years ago jack hibbs approached me and he said i want to do this thing don called happening now because there's these people saying that the great sign in heaven is going to appear september 23rd 2017. in other words revelation 12 1 is going to be fulfilled okay um with the great sign in heaven and i don't know if you saw this at the time they actually you know there were people around the world were looking forward to this because some character had figured out you know some way there's going to be some type of you know astronomical you know conjunction there in the sky never happened before and ever afterwards this has got to be the great sign in heaven and the god guys got it all calculated it's going to be the time either the rapture of the church comes or the second coming of christ you know and so people were believing this and it was literally going around the world and if you watch their website they actually had a trailer there it's almost like a trailer for a new movie and coming september 23rd i mean seriously that's how it was 2017 so jack says let's talk about it and so we did and we said you know uh it reminded me back i was 2011. a similar thing had been uh promoted by i don't remember harold camping of family radio he'd figured that crisis kind of i think it's september 25th 2011 at that particular time and it was the day of the rapture of the church and he had it all figured out anyway i was up in northern california that daz interviewed by the local nbc station you know at that time and they said what do you think i said i'm going to make a prediction jesus christ will not come back september 25th 2011. and i was right he didn't come back that day okay well i made the same prediction with jack i said i'm going to make a prediction september 23rd 2017 is not going to be the day of the rapture or the return of christ i'm two for two i was right on both of them but all these people were saying ah he's coming back this day this is the great sign in heaven no there are no signs in this age it's the signs in the sky and the heavens are only for the final seven year period the great tribulation the church age we're not to look for any signs in the sky they are not there for us this blood moon nonsense and all this other stuff it's not for this particular age yes there will be signs in the sky signs in the heavens but only during this last final seven year period before the return of christ and also too something that we just read here it said the second woe was past behold the third woe was coming quickly um i i try you know i'm trying to be nice to these people that are saying this sort of thing but i said this is the third woe so the first and second will have to already have taken place before you get to the third one okay well we just re we just went over chapter 11 of revelation where the second will was all right you know the two witnesses three and a half years final antichrist kills them their bodies are seen worldwide gifts are given they ascend into heaven uh you know and then they there's lightnings thunders the ark seen in heaven let me tell you something that hasn't happened yet we wouldn't have missed that so how could revelation 12 happen if revelation 11 hadn't happened because they're chronologically next to each other anyway um it was was no brainer just one other quick thing i was speaking at calvary east anaheim right before that doing a i did a class on on sundays for him for a while and somehow we got this question came up about the great sign in heaven and they said and i said well i guess look it's not gonna it's not talking about what this guy is you know saying it is it's not there anyway afterwards some guy comes up and started rebuking me how dare you say that this guy's a good brother he's got it all figured out how dare you say you know it's about 10 days away christ is not coming back the rapture didn't coming happen in 10 days how can you say that i said real simple it's not true and so he he's going on and on so i finally said this okay i tell you what i said how about you and i getting together september 24th the day after and discussing this oh did he get mad at me he walked out in a huff uh how dare you say that funny i never saw the guy again anyway i'm surprised but anyway the great sign in heaven all right what we have here in this chapter this is the and henry will deal with it he's got i'm going to give him a lot of work to do here because there's so much i'm going to add there's i'm going to make five observations here uh from this beginning in revelation chapter 12. first of all this chapter is the interpretive key to the book of revelation in many ways this chapter represents the most pivotal part of the of the entire book and it's going to serve as the interpretive key for the rest of the book of revelation so it's imperative we understand the characters that are now revealed to us in chapter 12 of book of the book of revelation so the second observation is we must correctly identify persons and signs for a proper understanding again if we're going to get it right the rest and i know henry well the rest of the book of revelation we must have a proper understanding of these personages that are told us all right and the third observation is this we will then discover the forces behind the conflict now this is what's really interesting god gave john the knowledge of forces and persons behind the climax of the anti-god hostility in the world so he could understand the coming bowl judgments which the seventh trumpet judgment contained so we're going to see the evil forces that are working behind the scenes right now and it's going to be revealed to us in uh chapter 12 here and in and as these characters are revealed to us now what's really interesting here as solomon said there's nothing new under the sun a fourth observation we're going to realize that the future struggle is an outworking of a past conflict it's merely the outworking of a conflict that's happened from the very beginning between god and satan lasted throughout history since satan's fall literally nothing new under the sun so um and then the fifth observation will be will be introduced and we'll talk about this to seven prominent persian personages in chapters 12 to 13 who will dominate the great tribulation period but let me talk about this fourth one for a second i also wrote a book on satan um three books on the unseen world angels you know the good angels the first one and the second one is evil angels demons and the occult and the third one is about satan again you can get them all for free at educationalworld.com um the idea is in there's a world out there that is just as real as the world the the the visible world the invisible world just is real okay but we can't see it we only see it by the eye of faith but god reveals it and one of the things he's revealed we have an adversary the devil in fact the word satan means the adversary that's what the word means the adversary and the bible tells us about a personal being who was an anointed cherub who was the most um highest creation of god he's not an angel he's a cherub the cherubs were the highest creation the angels are down here kind of like the worker bees you've got cherubim seraphim who are high more higher in station in god's initial creation well there was one who made the stupidest move in the history of the universe you know five times in isaiah chapter 14. so i'm going to be like god i will the son of the most high i will be like this i'll be like that and we have him describe it as isaiah 14 ezekiel 28 this conflict has been going on from the very beginning so what revelation 12 is going to tell us it's going to take us in the to the past the back and give us a basis for the you know the conflict that's already happened and then take us into the future so one of the important things what we need to understand the future struggle that's going to take place as we read in revelation 12 and following it's just an outworking of a past conflict and let me say something also too what you and i are experiencing right now and all the spiritual battles that we're facing in the world it's it's an outworking of this same spiritual battle that's been going on the beginning since the fall of humanity in genesis chapter 3 it's a struggle of good versus evil this is precisely what's going on right here in revelation chapter 12. so we need to understand that now what's also okay so we'll move on to observation five we will be introduced to seven prominent percentages in chapters 12 and 13 who will dominate the great tribulation so there's going to be seven different personages that are going to show up now in these next two chapters they're going to dominate the rest of the book of revelation and the great actually the great tribulation period who are they there's the woman as we're going to see the woman represents the nation israel the dragon's an easy one that's the devil right the devil's satan the old serpent the male child is the lord jesus michael the archangel is michael the archangel the chiefs of angels we're going to be introduced to him the remnant are going to be the believers still at that time also you've got the remnant of the nation israel that's there at that time which a lot of them will believe so the remnant particularly here in chapter 12 will be the jews who are supernaturally protected during this time by the lord and then the first beast which is uh has been already mentioned in revelation 11 7 he's mentioned here again in chapter 12 and particularly in chapter 13 is where he's developed here the first and second beast and the second beast of course will be um uh introduced to us in revelation chapter 13. the the beast again let's just for a second talk about that uh it's there's two people they're human beings okay uh the final antichrist he is the the first one the first beast the second one is called the false prophet now these are two human beings that will be given allowed to exercise great power doing during particularly the second half of the great tribulation about three and a half years uh fascinating subject you know more things apart from the lord jesus the second most documented character in the whole scripture either you know in prefigurement or his his time on earth is this final antichrist i didn't know that until i was writing the book on the subject that's why my book ended up 400 pages all the types of antichrist in the old testament when you go back to nimrod and in genesis chapter uh what is it 11 there 10 and 11 where he's a mighty warrior against the lord then you've got the pharaoh of egypt you've got saul you've got goliath you've got you know others there you've got antiochus iv alexander the great all these people are types of the of the final antichrist who's coming on the scene now what's interesting about this character he's going to be a gentile he's not jewish okay he's a gentile he's going to be a political leader and he is the one that the second beast is going to cause the people to worship we'll find that out henry will tell you that in chapter 13. the first beast is the political leader the second beast it will be more likely a religious leader could be jewish actually and he will turn people or he could be the pope uh you know pope is actually assuming you're trying out auditioning for the job the way he's acting right now we don't know if he's going to be that but bottom line is he's seemingly going to be a religious leader because he's going to be the one that points people to this first beast and so the first beast was already mentioned as the one who killed these two witnesses in revelation 11 7. he'll be revealed to us all the more there in revelation chapter 13 along with the second beast and that's where we get the 666 going on also so anyway it's a great sign all right revelation 12 1. don't miss this word great sign there are other signs given we're going to see another sign shows up but it's not a great sign latin word magnum sign it's an absolute importance we identify the three figures on these three opening figures here in chapter 12. okay john interestingly enough john uses the word sign to describe something miraculous and that points to some deeper spiritual significance connected to an event or object here he calls this a great sign in heaven this is a good sign because it's talking about you know uh it's it's representing the uh you know of christ it's going to talk about him his birth and the such life now what's interesting here uh something again i didn't know till i wrote this book on the subject the greek word for sign and science doesn't appear does not appear in the first 11 chapters the book of revelation but the word from is mentioned seven times and the next chapter is 12-19 no the word sign first 11 not mentioned once mentioned seven times uh in these next uh chapters interestingly the gospel of john uses the word sign in the singular also seven times same writer interesting isn't it that you've got the seven hopping up happening again only one there in revelation there's there's three signs in heaven revelation 12 1 which we just read we've got a second sign coming up revelation 12 3 and 15 1 all right and so uh three of the signs are in heaven uh there then and that's in these verses and four of the signs are on earth now what's interesting here of the seven signs that john mentions and we'll get that you know the rest of the book of revelation only one of them is good and this is the only good one it's called a great sign it's a good sign the others are omens of evil and judgments of god and these signs will explain and amplify the previous material in other words the beast who was introduced to us in revelation 11 7. now god's going to start you know through john start describing more and more about him he's going to be more fully described in chapter 13 and advanced to the drama and the final acts okay now we already said lightning voices thunder earthquake revelation 11 19 actually began the um this uh this chapter 12 the seven prominent personages that we need to look at here and and that's what's going to be revealed to us so the great sign appears in heaven some now a sign obviously signifies or represents something else whenever you say someone says this is a sign all right the obvious question is a sign of what you know it's sort of like uh when people interpret the bible you know unfortunately god has made his word very clear to us but many people like what we're dealing with here spiritualize this book henry's talked about this spiritualize these chapters and they say these chapters are symbolic if anybody ever says that to you your response is symbolic of what because behind the symbol there's always some reality so it's got to symbolize something i'm reminded the late john wolverd uh from dallas theological seminary wonderful wonderful wonderful man of god he was talking one time when he i think was this was the chapter of the book of revelation one of the chapters he was dealing with and he wanted to see what people believed it represented i believe it's chapter 12 that didn't take the bible literally in other words it you know it didn't take it literally but took everything symbolically and he said he read 59 different commentaries from those that believed it was symbolic but he also found there were 59 different answers given by each commentator of what it meant now that's not real encouraging is it if someone says what's a symbolic well symbolic of what and they just make something up uh here we go this what we have here the sign is symbolic but we're going to see from past parts of scripture the understanding of what these signs are i like it the way javer and magee puts it the book of revelation is kind of like the the central train station we don't have trains that much any much more in america we used to have it going they're still there in europe of course if you if you've lived there or visited there everything revolves around the train we did the airplanes here after the war in america they did the you know the trains there in europe and it's kind of like jay vernon put it this way it's like all these different lines come into the central train station and that is the book of revelation but unless you know where they've come from unless you know the previous 65 books revelation is not going to make a whole lot of sense because you have to know where they're all coming from and that's what we see here so what we're going to see what we've learned previously in scripture is going to help explain to us what these things are all about and so the signs we find uh there in the book of revelation there okay so it's a great sign in heaven this is not a a easy sign it's a great sign there is a woman clothed with the sun and the moon is underneath her feet and upon her head was a crown with 12 stars all right the two characters the male child of the dragon are sort of easy to identify what the woman signifies has puzzled interpreters many answers have been given in the past one person said an outstanding and very intellectual minister years ago made this statement if you tell me your interpretation of the woman in the 12th chapter of revelation then i will tell you the interpretation of prophecy and that's true if you get the woman's identification right then you're going to have you're going to understand what's going on that's why this chapter is so important again the male child is pretty easy with jesus the you know the serpent the dragon that's that's rather easy too but the the woman now that's something that's uh very controversial um well we'll cut to the chase it's it's israel others have said it's the church but um you know um the church didn't give birth to jesus jesus is the male child child he gave birth to the church and it's not the virgin mary that is a very popular interpretation by the way no because mary is not described as we're going to see the way the um the uh what we have here uh the woman is described in revelation chapter 12. israel is the ethnic offspring of abraham in old testament imagery the woman symbolizes the nation israel in many passages isaiah 54 jeremiah 3 20 ezekiel 16 etc etc the woman symbolizes the nation of israel but particularly remember it's the second dream of joseph the patriarch remember he had this the woman wears a crown with the sun the moon and the stars and god pictures israel and its early symbolic representation as that uh this represented the the twelves you know the sons of jacob the twelve tribes of israel genesis 37 9-11 so the sun corresponded to jacob the moon to rachel the 12 stars are israel's 12 sons and of course remember what the dream said jacob joseph said they're all going to bow down to him so what the woman represents here is israel or as we said it's faithful remnant so this is a huge player now the faithful remnant because israel is going to come to the forefront here in this last part of the book of revelation we don't want to miss that the faithful remnant is the physical descendants of abraham isaac and jacob now what's really interesting about this another aside i have to take here that miraculously israel the people the descendants of israel are back in the land today after almost 2 000 years of being you know in exile what's hardly ever understood or often misunderstood when they come back they're going to come back in two different parts in two different times this is what people make the mistake when they hear about the final regathering of the nation israel into the promised land they they believe it's going to happen you know that certain passages are talking about that well it is but it's going to come in two stages as it were my book 25 signs were near the end we talk about this the first stage has already happened they come back in unbelief of jesus they are back in the land today 70 odd years modern state of israel in unbelief of jesus that's stage one they come on their own ezekiel 37 talks about that the vision of the dry bones they come back but there's no life in the bones can these bones live you know god asks ezekiel ezekiel says you know lord so they come back in two phases the first they come back bones you know they stand up and they got no life in them the spiritual life only comes at the second time when they come to faith in christ when god then gathers from around the world at the second coming of christ all those from the descendants of abraham isaac and jacob who have believed in him so again the remnant here specifically speaking of the nation of israel but particularly those believers so that's who the woman represents we need to understand that there the image is also mixed with she's called a bride in the old testament but also the wife of the lord you've got the and again the dream of joseph the second dream basically has this you know this corresponding you know corresponds to the mother rachel father jacob and then the 12 sons of jacob so these are the lead-ins now this is very important again context context context these are the lead-ins the measuring of the temple okay that will be the temple still in the future i didn't mention this at the beginning it wasn't the temple in john's day because the temple in john's day had been destroyed some 20 years earlier in a.d 70. it's a future temple that will be built all right the ark of the covenant the two witnesses this is all jewish very jewish there so there is still a plan and program for the jewish people in the future the descendants of abraham isaac and jacob that's why we must understand who the woman is and who the remnant is if not going to be hopelessly confused in the rest of these chapters and his people have been over the years so we got that for us so anyway these are the lead-ins all right now so basically uh the latin says she's in utero that means she's uh it's funny the greek says having a tummy having a stomach that's why that's an idiom for being pregnant there i remember when you first learned translation there she goes she's got a got a stomach well okay that means she's pregnant there she's crying out uh to give birth pangs and they're crying out with birth pangs being tormented to give birth and what we see of course there are many again back to the old testament many figurative references to israel as a travailing woman in the old testament isaiah 26 17-19 is one there's a number of those so anyway the image here would have been very clear to the early jewish readers a woman travailing about to give birth the you know the the 12th the crown the 12 stars you know in the crown the idea is this is very much jewish here okay so we have to understand that isaiah 66 7-9 same thing here and so on and on so in jewish tradition again zion or the city of jerusalem has often appeared as a mother too so again in john's vision the woman was about to give birth and cried out in labor pains being tormented or tortured here and in verse 3 it says another sign and notice this another sign appeared in the heavens but what's missing the word great the first sign was a great one this one ain't so great because it's a bad sign this is literally born under a bad sign well this is it here right now behold a great red dragon all right having seven heads and and ten horns and upon his heads were two or seven um diadems or seven crowns another sign appeared in heaven okay what's missing the word great this one's not so great at all now what's interesting here just as a quick aside again i i hate to do this take more time but it's important in your bible translations new king james i think the esv they do something that's very good unfortunately some of the other ones do not this little word behold here do you know i'll just ask you don't have to say out loud in revelation 12 3 your translation may or may not say the word behold some translators think it is not relevant but actually it is tremendously relevant because the linguists have come to understand that in the uh time of the lord in the first century here this word behold was like a it's like someone shouted out whenever you see this word that means either a new character or a new theme is going to take place so pay attention to it so in your bible translations where it says behold immediately so ah some got a new character somebody's gonna be introduced that's an important character let's pay attention so we've got that here in uh in verse 3 of chapter 12. another sign appeared you know behold you know uh another sign appeared to have this is the the um the uh great uh uh red dragon you know okay here he's great and he's red okay the dragon and i don't get into that it comes from a word greek probably means to look at to to observe it's an alternative form of that in other words it's something that's fascinating to look at some fascinating like creature or english word dragon a serpent it's another name for satan of course now remember this is not a great sign but there's a great dragon there okay the sign isn't great because it's ominous it's not good it's a great dragon it's the second sign that john saw god identif god identified in verse 9 here and also in chapter 20 and verse 2 it's satan or the devil okay so we don't have to wonder who the dragon is okay that's that's a no-brainer because he's identified here in the context okay in every instance in the book of revelation it refers to satan the adversary when you get the word dragon it's symbolic of that and the dragon symbolize of course a powerful aggressive deadly foe red color what is red to remind you of bloodshed right so bloodshed here having seven heads and ten horns they may represent the seven nations and the ten rulers henry will get to when you get to chapter 17 and verse 12. or anyway okay there's there's uh again there are going to be ten rule or kings that are going to rule under the authority the final antichrist when he rises to preeminence he's going to subdue three of them leaving only seven left now it's an interesting aside here i'm sorry i have to keep doing this but one of the things if you watch us on breaking news we've talked about um you know every day how the news fits what's going on in the world today the europe one of the seemingly casualties of the chinese communist party coronavirus with the breaking up the eu the european union there's something like 27 countries in it right now uh eventually it has to come to ten because there's a ten nation confederation the last days that will rise in the old roman empire and it's fascinating how you know what the the virus has done uh there's you know this european union was supposed to be one for all and all for one but when italy got hit real hard first there was a reason italy got hit real hard with the virus they asked help from the other members it's like italy who are you never heard of you you know they're supposed to help each other they would close their borders to do them so bottom line was wait a minute now i thought we're supposed to be this great union so seemingly there's been a number of stories we've done that the eu will fall apart and like humpty dumpty be put back together again but only in a a 10 nation confederation here and so uh that's why you get the ten horns represent the ten kings at the time of the end most likely coming or henry's going to deal with all that coming up so i won't take the time of doing it right now the diadem there the crowns the royal crowns picture political authority these seven rulers during the great tribulation twelve stars again the woman um here um again some people think it's just symbolic of the dragon's military strength the mighty strike no no it's it's uh you know it's speaking of these ten kings gonna be there anyway uh the lord what's interesting here too notice he's called the antichrist in place of or instead of christ he's you know he's pictured as wearing crowns he's pictured in ii thessalonians 2 2 4 claiming to be god he is a parody of what jesus christ really is he's anti-mean in place of or instead and by the way something very interesting i was going to mention earlier even satan doesn't know to this day who the final antichrist is he does not know now i didn't realize that till i was writing a book on the subject and i read something from like 1962. the whole book i got it you know from used book from moody bible institute somebody wrote on the subject and it was brilliant in fact joe rosenberg is the only other person i've ever heard say this he said satan can't know who the antichrist is because he doesn't know when all this is going to take place god has include him in so he has to have an antichrist in every generation waiting in the wings waiting to come up there have been many in fact in jesus day first john 2 18 right after the time of christ john says many antichrists have already come the antichrist is coming who is he don't know you know there's going to be a final one that's one of my books called the final antichrist only god knows who it is and so the person doesn't even know who it is it's going to be some let's put it this way remember satan offered jesus you know all the kingdoms of the world during the temptation he said no well this character is going to be offered the same thing and he's going to say yes uh there and unfortunately it's for a short period of time he's going to be the ruler of the world but for a very short period of time well anyway okay now what we see satan now is trying to take out his vengeance to prevent the appearance of the messiah remember he killed all the male babies in egypt uh there at the time of the exodus uh what exodus 1 15 to 22. saul tried to kill david david of course it's david is the one you know who's who's you know who's uh he's the ancestor one of his descendants is going to be the messiah and we go on and on with this the slaughter of the innocents in matthew 2 16. satan from the beginning is trying to kill the male child so anyway this is where we get to verse 5 the activities are all carried out under the double motive of ambition to rule and be worshipped and hatred towards the one who is rightfully to rule that's why he's anti or instead of christ so anyway we're told in verse 5 that she gave birth to a son a male child who was about to to rule or shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron and notice interesting it says her child was taken up to god and to his throne what's interesting about this okay so the male child is born but he's not allowed to be killed not allowed to be killed so we have here is a picture of the ascension of jesus you know he came died rose again and ascended into heaven interesting here the word taken up in revelation 12 5 is the same greek word we uh have for the word rapture in first thessalonians 4 17 harpazo means snatched up he was snatched up into heaven so what we have here in verse 5 this is important to understand the birth of christ and his ascension both mention this verse okay the birth of christ as well as his ascension taking place so what it does this is a flashback now okay it's a flashback to the time of jesus and these are the events in uh in view here remember to explain to understand the present understand the future we have to understand the past satan failed to destroy jesus at his birth slaughter the innocents and because he failed to destroy him during his life and death he was taken up you know and you know ascended into heaven and satan you know wasn't able to touch him when jesus ascended he ascended victoriously into heaven and satan cannot persecute him there and he will rule the world with a rod of iron so the emphasis of this is on the whole review of satan's opposition to jesus and jesus victory over satan and the continuous antagonism antagonistic alert antagonistic goings-on between the two um okay i have a little thing called false doctrine alert here you may not have heard this believe it or not some charismatic sects have adopted a belief that in the last days god will raise up a male child company of believers often referred to as the manifested sons of god this faithful remnant of overcomers will reach such a state of perfection that their bodies will become immortal that is absolute nonsense but actually you know there's there's kooky doctrines out there uh no the faithful one is jesus so let's understand what's going on here as john is telling us about the great sign we've got the woman we've got the dragon we've got the male child okay the woman is is israel okay symbolic of israel about to give birth the dragon's simple no-brainer the devil the male child is jesus so what we have in verse five now is a flashback as when he tried to destroy you know jesus in the past he didn't god the son of the past so now he's angry so what is he going to do well if he can get rid of the nation israel if he can get rid of the offspring of abraham isaac and jacob then he's going to make null the promises of god so since he didn't do it in the past with jesus he couldn't do it there he figures okay i'm going to do it now during this period where i've got rule over the earth because remember this final seven year period is going to be like nothing else the world's ever seen the the the problems are going to go on the the uh it's called the great tribulation for a reason jesus said if he doesn't come back there would be no flesh that would be saved and so uh his he thinks how he's going to win this now is taking out the remnant the remnant of the descendants of abraham isaac and jacob and so that's how supposedly he's going to uh you know get a hold of all this and and and uh you know kind of thwart the promises of god okay so basically he's turning his attention now to israel and we've got the verse 26 there of chapter 12 the woman flees into the desert and he would get where uh there was a place prepared for her by god in other words he he may nourish her for um amount of time and this is again the um the time that a thousand 260 days the second half of the great tribulation period in other words god is going to supernaturally protect the remnant here at this time satan couldn't destroy jesus so he turns his attention to israel israel now flees in the wilderness where god protects her for three and a half years 1260 days second half of the tribulation here and it's an event that's still future be nourished they're going to be nourished there it's interesting it says this suggests that others perhaps gentiles but definitely god an angel will take care of the jews during this time now this is really interesting now if you've ever gone to israel sometimes there is an extension where you can go to jordan for a couple days sometimes you go to egypt sometimes to jordan one of the places if you go to jordan they take you to a place called petra which is a literally an amazing place and so i have a little question mark after petra here because a lot of people believe well this is for the israel's the the the nation's going to go hide it's going to be in petra there where they're going to be supernaturally you know basically protected by god um people dogmatically say it's a huge city there you've seen it many times in movies the it's it's actually mind-boggling what was done there was it was a whole long story about that and so a lot of people think well this is where they're going to be taken to the city of petra and kept for three and a half years and i remember a lot of so-called you know people have said because of this a lot of christian businessmen thinking they're going to be really smart they put tracks there and petra explain what's going on during that time listen that's not necessary because during the great tribulation period you have three distinct witnesses to all that's going on so there'll be nobody ignorant first revelation 7 144 000. they will be 12 000 of each tribe of israel telling the people what's going on what to expect in the world and then as we saw in revelation chapter 11 the two witnesses will be witnessing for three and a half years telling people what's about to happen in the world and if that's not enough henry will get to it revelation chapter 14 verse 6 there's an angel who traverses the earth and preaches the everlasting gospel and all the languages of the world says nobody's going to be ignorant during this time so you know many well-meaning people said don why don't you film something so when we're all out of here people know what's going on i don't need to there could be a lot better people than me promoting this okay so i understand i understand the motivation of that i've been asked to i'll give you a little kind of money to do no no no no no no not necessary and so petra is it going to be petra we don't know now people assume it is nothing specifically says in scripture there's no passage that says this is the place it may be it may not be we simply don't know so anyway what we have here now is um you know they're going to be hidden excuse me protected here for this amount of time now what we got also here where are we at here um yeah oh boy okay we're just about out of time and we're just getting to the war in heaven here in verse so i got through six verses henry i was anyway just now i'll get through seven i'm supposed to get through two and a half chapters uh some got almost made it okay anyway uh well it's which there it says there became war in heaven uh michael and his angels made you know made war with the dragon and the dragon uh made and his angels made war fought and there was neither a place this is great verse well not for people on earth uh it was not able to find a place for him anywhere in heaven and the dragon was cast down to the earth here it goes the the old notice the old serpent the one called the devil and satan the one who deceives all the inhabited earth so if you ever wonder who this dragon is revelation 12 9 tells us and i heard a great voice in heaven saying i now have become salvation the power and the kingdom of our god and the authority of his christ because the accuser of the brethren has been cast down though the one who accuses them before god day and night well that's a good verse a good pass to end on i did that rather quickly okay satan is there's satan has believe it or not access to god right now limited access the book of job tells us that so notice his career he was first in the presence the cherub the anointed cherub probably in a unique position were in the presence of the lord where even others couldn't fear to tread they wouldn't allowed this anointed cherub like the numero uno creation of god when he brought in another will into the universe that's what sin is bringing a will different than god's will when he said i will five times he lost that position although in the book of job we're told he still has access into heaven here now in revelation 12 we're told no longer he's even going to have axis there he gets the left foot of fellowship down to the earth now he's booted down to the earth and the rest of his time he's going to have to work on the earth so notice his career from the presence of god to the you know to uh you know to where yes access but he's not there in the unique presence of god to boot it down to the earth when as henry will show you later in revelation when christ comes back he's taken and thrown in the bottomless pit for a thousand years then he's releasing the bottomless pit and thrown in the lake of fire forever and ever notice his career how it's going down down down down down all right he made that decision this is his career this is his future and even though he whether he wants to believe it or not that's where he's at so there is a literal devil but the good news gang is someday all of his works all of the things that he has done is going to stop there's going to be no more sin no more pain when you get to revelation 21 or the greatest five verses in the bible new jerusalem comes down from heaven and what happens there uh we will be his people he will be our god there's no more pain no more suffering nothing else during the um during that time of during eternity now this is the hope that we have that's why the book of revelation particularly you need that and every right on the money because talk about the hope that's there because again we want to look at the end game we're running the marathon we do win in the end and i'm going to close with the story here that's very very um apropos with all this and thank you for being patient i've gone about an hour here as such and you've been a very good audience i'm sorry that it took so long i did get through seven verses or so but anyway i'm sorry i can't help that uh maybe more a few more than that um billy graham um died recently at the age of 99 age of 99 and uh when billy died it was quite the um quite the shock we knew you know we knew it was going to go sometime my whole life i've known billy graham one of the things that brought me to the lord was uh actually billy graham when i was an unbeliever i um i was as heathened as he that as a person could be uh my mother prayed for my brother and myself we didn't pay any attention to it one night i came home drunk or stoned maybe both and she'd gone to bed and the tv was on it was billy graham i'm sitting there you know kind of out of it listening i thought hey this stuff's pretty good you know and i you know but you know i didn't but it was a number of things happened after that where a few months later i went into calvary chapel costa mesa in march 1970 and became a believer that night so billy's had a tremendous influence on my life and on so many others well right after he passed away my wife um we text now nobody calls anymore on the phone right we text back and forth anyway she texts me and she said you're never going to believe what i just saw i said what well now have you probably seen on the freeways they've got you know not the static billboards but the billboards that you know show up different things you know like two pizzas for a dollar you know or ten dollars and you know a used car for this and that and you know shows about 15 or 20 seconds and there's a flashing billboard that just been put up right outside where she works her place of employment's right there off the uh the 10 freeway in ontario area so anyway she says you can't believe it the billboard you know that's there that's flashing she said i just saw a picture of billy look we're used to seeing you know the pizza and the used car thing a picture of billy on the billboard she said yeah i said did it say anything she said yeah two words gone home gone home for the next three weeks billy graham would flash up on that billboard hundreds of thousands of people saw him he was still evangelizing people after he's gone reminding them that he's gone home that he's in the presence of the lord anyway a reporter many years ago asked billy graham is he an optimist or a pessimist and billy said i'm an optimist they said billy why with all the problems the world all the things going on why are you an optimist and billy said i'm an optimist because i've read the last chapter of the book of revelation and we win we do indeed all right let's pray heavenly father thank you that we do win in the end thank you that this war that's going on will kick satan out of heaven someday thank you that the male child did did indeed conquer the enemy thank you that you have a plan and program for this world and the future that you're going to bring to pass and thank you for your word to encourage us that all things will work together for good and at the end we do indeed win because we're in jesus christ thank you for these passages here that teach us so much about what's going to take place in the future so we can have confidence even in a world where everything is seemingly falling apart we really don't care in one sense because we know what to end it's all going to be okay so help us to be salt and light during this time to fight the good fight to trust you and keep our eyes on the prize and thank you again for the teaching you've given us in your word that all things will work out someday and as billy said we will indeed win in the end because we're in jesus christ thank you and praise you in your precious name lord jesus amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Beaumont

Views: 41,296

Rating: 4.8868294 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel Beaumont, CCBeaumont, Beaumont California, Calvary Chapel, Pastor Henry Lundy, Henry Lundy, Pastor Henry, Pastor Man, Word of God, Hope, Bible Study, Study, Bible, New Testament, Old Testament, Beaumont, Through the Bible, Jesus Saves, Don Stewart, Bible Prophecy, Revelation, Prophecy Update, Book of Revelation

Id: Qjz-TpLySfU

Length: 66min 57sec (4017 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020