Revelation 11 // The Last Seven Years

okay Revelation chapter 11 let's pray before we get into it and Lord again we love you we thank you for your word we thank you so much for the fact that you speak to us clearly about things that are to come and Lord as were again talking about some of those things tonight we pray that you would be speaking to our hearts that you'd use this study and God that you just give us a real fire I like that song that Jamie was singing light a fire down in our souls Lord we we really want to be ready for you we want to be ready when you come to call us out of here and or that's really kind of the point of going through the book of Revelation revelation of Jesus Christ and just a reminder that the end is coming quickly like you said in your word and so we just pray that you bless the study and that you do this all in Jesus name Amen okay that clocks wrong that clocks wrong okay we trust this one now this is like relativity halation I've been reading books on relativity lately you can't synchronize clocks whatever it's it's Steve geeking out up here so I understand that you think I'm weird and I don't care okay Chapter eleven that's starting in verse 1 it says then I was given a reed like a measuring rod and the angel stood saying rise and measure the temple of God the altar and those who worship there but leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it's been given to the Gentiles and they will tread the holy city under foot for 42 months and I will get power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy 1260 days clothed in sackcloth these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the god of the earth and we'll stop right there last week we got into this when we were talking a little bit about the temple complex obviously once again for this prophecy to be fulfilled Jerusalem has to be in the hands of the Jews and that was not true until 1967 another thing that you have with Bible prophecy is the fact that the Bible talks about the city of Jerusalem specifically is going to be a cup of trembling in a hand of anybody who tries to come up against it and it goes on in the passage and it says even though all the nations are gathered against it this is out a Zechariah chapter 12 verses basically one through three and so it talks about all the nations being gathered against it it talks about the the fact that it's going to be a cup of trembling it's literally kind of like a cup of drunkenness you got somebody who's so drunk he can't hold his cup anymore that kind of that kind of situation and the Bible talks about in that passage of God's going to fight for Jerusalem so it's really interesting that we're living in times were the people of Israel are not only in the land but they're in the they're in control of the city of Jerusalem since 1967 Jesus said in Luke chapter 21 that that wasn't going to happen until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled and so there's this whole prophetic scenario we're the Gentile control of the world is going to take place for a certain period of time and one of the basically basically the harbingers of the fact that that time is over is that the city of Jerusalem comes under the control of the people of Israel and that again happened in 1967 except for the Temple Mount when they took the city of Jerusalem in 1967 they wanted to try to prevent another war with the Arabs and they knew that if they took control of the Temple Mount itself and kept that under Israeli control that all the Arabs in the world we're gonna want to come down on them and so basically they they took it and they put it into the control of a group of Arab religious figures that had been prominent in Jordan and Jordan was the the country that basically was in control that basically they were in control of the West Bank before 1967 you know I don't know how familiar a lot of you guys especially younger ones are with Israeli politics many people have this idea that the Palestinians and the Israelis are the issue in the in the Land of Israel there were no Palestinians before it before Israel became a nation in fact Yasser Arafat was the head of the PLO the Palestinian Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat was an Egyptian it wasn't there was no Palestinians and so before World War one Israel was under Turkish control and you had a number of Arabs that would move through the area depending on migrant populations that kind of stuff but it was all under the Turkish Empire during World War one the Turks picked the wrong side in World War one they sided with the Germans and so when Germany lost then Palestine along with Syria and Iraq and even Egypt places like that were put under control of different countries and Britain got the mandate for Palestine they also got the mandate for Iraq I believe in any case Lebanon I believe Syria were under the control of the French and so what was divided Middle East was divided up in that way there weren't these countries before World War one and so the whole idea of a Palestinian state with a Palestinian people is is something that's foreign to history just didn't it just didn't exist there was no such thing and so when Israel took control of Jerusalem and what we what news outlets and what the Palestinians call the West Bank the West Bank was Jordanian territory it was under the control of Jordan and so it was given over to Jordan not to Palestine not to anybody else the Gaza Strip before Israel took control of the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt and so again there were no Palestinians it didn't exist and so when you look at the the situation that you have after 67 Israel gains control of the West Bank what people call the West Bank the Jews call it Judea and Samaria and taking control of Eastern Jerusalem but they allowed the what's called the walk it's waq F it's a real religious group of Muslim clerics they allowed them to continue to be in control of the Temple Mount which they were in control of before that point under the Jordanians and so the Temple Mount is under the control of the Arabs as specifically the the Muslims because you have Christian Arabs but they were its specifically under the control of the Muslims and it always has been and so when you look at the prophecy in Luke chapter 21 where Jesus talks about Jerusalem is going to be trodden under by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled he may be speaking about the fact that all of Jerusalem needs to be in the hands of the Jews and ultimately the Jews are in control of the Temple Mount they determine who's in charge of it but it needs to be in the control of the Jews and that's going to signal the end of the period of time where the Gentiles are basically ruling and it would bring in the last seven years and then the rule of the Messiah and so again you have that so when you're looking at this passage like we talked about last week the book of Revelation was written in ninety eighty and in 90 AD where was the temple that was destroyed there was no temple and so this is a flat-out prophecy of the fact that the temple is gonna be rebuilt and it's something that we're looking forward to at this point one of the things I didn't talk to you about last week in swine one of the reasons I wanted to start here again was this whole thing with a measuring rod he's given a reed as a measuring rod and the angel says rise and measure the temple of God the altar and those who worship there this comes straight out of the Book of Ezekiel and when God is measuring the people of Israel and the temple and the the worshipers there the idea of measuring is the idea of taking an account of these people measuring them up you've heard this you have two guys who are facing off against each other and what they're doing is they're measuring each other up and what they're doing is deciding whether or not they're going to go to blows or or that kind of stuff in this case it's God measuring these people to see what sort they heart to see what kind of people they are and the reason that you have that situation is because the temple the next temple that's going to be built is going to be built by a group of people who do not believe that Jesus is Messiah who are not worshipping God in the way that he called them - and it looks like it's going to be built under the influence of the Anti Christ and so there's a lot of stuff to measure there and so that's kind of an interesting aspect of that whole thing so Jerusalem is the center of Bible prophecy it's the centers it's the center stage politically in the last days it has to be Jew in Jewish hands and the temple needs to be rebuilt the Bible talks about the that the Antichrist is most likely in volved in the rebuilding and where you get that from is the Book of Daniel once you turn over there with me real quick Daniel chapter 19 Daniel chapter 9 and if you were here this morning we were in Izzi in Ezekiel and Daniel is one book to the right of Ezekiel so in Daniel chapter 9 there is this prophecy about the history of Israel leading up until the coming of the Messiah I'm going to give you the short version in the prophecy the Lord through an angel lets Daniel know that there are 70 weeks of years that are determined for the people of Israel which is 490 years seventy times seven is 490 that's where you get that that from the first part of that prophecy is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus and so from the point that the angel gives in this passage to the coming of the Messiah is going to be 483 years is what Daniels saying here and I'm giving you a short version there's a bunch of stuff that goes on and goes along with this but if you look in Daniel 9:24 he's a seventy weeks are determined for your people and the people of Daniel or the Jews and for your holy city what's Daniels holy city Jerusalem so this prophecy can is something that is concerning the Jews and the City of Jerusalem to finish the transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy see the first couple of issues there to finish the transgression when was the the transgression finished at the cross it was at the cross transgression was finished at the cross to make an end of sins when was that done yeah it's at the cross once again at the cross to make reconciliation for iniquity when was that done at the cross okay but to bring in everlasting righteousness when is that going to be done second coming right to seal up vision and prophecy when is that going to be done yeah and again it's the second coming if you know first Corinthians chapter 13 and to anoint the most holy that's either the most holy one or the most holy place in either instance it's talking about either the coming of Jesus and him being anointed as the as the Messiah or the Bible talks about the fact that when Jesus comes there's going to be a temple that he builds and it's the subject of prophecy in the Book of Ezekiel it's a subject of prophecy in the book of Zechariah and there's a literal temple that's going to be rebuilt in one of the things that the Jews are looking for is for their Messiah to build it the problem is that the next temple that gets built isn't built by Messiah it's by it's built by Antichrist it's the one after that that's built by the Messiah okay and so this prophecy has a scope and the scope points to the cross and the the scope points to the second coming and so 483 years the first 69 years get you to the cross he says verse 25 know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build jerusalem until messiah the prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks so you had seven and sixty-two what do you get 69 69 times seven is 483 that's where you get 483 years so there shall be seven weeks in sixty-two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in trouble sometimes and so there is a command to restore the city and to rebuild the wall and we know the beginning of day date of that it's in 445 BC and so what you do with that is do is start doing the math and you get 483 years out from that and you come to the to the first coming of Jesus and so you have that it says verse 26 he's divided up into seven weeks and in sixty-two weeks and he says after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself is that division so if you look up again in verse 25 in the middle of the verse there shall be seven weeks that's the first seven weeks and then sixty-two weeks added on to that that he brings you up to 69 and after the sixty-two weeks it says in verse 26 Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and cut off means executed for a capital crime and so Jesus was executed for a capital crime after that four hundred and eighty three year period it also says the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary that's another thing that took place after the cross thirty thirty eight years after Jesus dies on the cross the city and the sanctuary are destroyed okay and so this is after the 483 years and if you're doing the math now you do 483 plus 38 and you're well past 490 right you guys get that so the the whole scope of the prophecy is only 490 years and after the 483 years that's the first 69 sevens after the 483 years Jesus the Bible says is cut off the Messiah is cut off but not for himself and the city in the sanctuary are destroyed well those two events right there are 38 years apart and so now you only have seven years left so now we're way outside the scope of 490 years and then the next thing that he says is the end of it shall be a flood with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined and in this in this passage and in other passages the term for desolations is talking about the desolations of the nation of israel the desolation of the nation of israel lasted for eighteen hundred years okay so now we're way outside the scope of the last seven years and so let's go it goes 483 years you only got seven years left Messiah gets cut off the city and the sanctuary are destroyed and then there's a desolation of the nation of Israel and that whole thing lasts 1,800 years and so how does that work and the way that works is we're in what's called a parentheses you have this all through the Old Testament you have it in the New Testament to the idea that the church is something that's kind of in-between the history of the nation of Israel God does his stuff with Israel brings them up to the coming of the Messiah they reject Jesus as Messiah Jesus dies on the cross and then Jesus stops basically Israeli history and moves on and does a new thing called the church where we have Jews and Gentiles who come in and he does that for a period of time and that's an unknown period of time we don't know how long that is and when the church is all done then we start up with the last seven years again and that's what you have in the next verse verse 27 it says then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week well that's the last seven right there he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate or the decilitre is how that can be translated and so then there's a last seven-year period and in this seven-year period there is a guy who makes a covenant with many it says in the in the Hebrew there's an article in front of that the article is the so it what it says in Hebrew is he will make a covenant with the many for one week or for one seven-year period but in the middle of the week he's going to bring an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing wings of abominations shall be one who makes desolate that's the that's the abomination of desolation it happens in the middle of the last seven-year period that is speaking about the history of Israel so that's again this is a short version and I know I just threw out a huge number a bunch of numbers I know that that can get confusing I've done whole Studies on this where I took my time and went through it and if you want to know more about that you can do it but let me let me sum this up Israeli history was defined defined in the Book of Daniel as having another four ninety years basically well God does is he goes okay you got 483 from the time of Daniel you've got 483 years until the coming of the Messiah but when Messiah comes there are three things are going to be taking place that have nothing to do with this 490 years the three things that take place or the cutting off of Messiah for other people's sins and the destruction of the city and the sanctuary and the desolation of the nation of Israel and after the desolation of the nation of Israel there's going to be one last seven-year period that's that's that last seven to equal 490 years and in that last seven-year period there's going to be a guy who rises up has a covenant with the many talking about the Jews and in the middle of that seven-year period he's going to defile that covenant he's going to defile the the sanctuary which again if you have the the city and the sanctuary destroyed in verse 26 how do you have an end to sacrifice and offering in verse 27 if you don't have a rebuilt temple because the only place that they that they offer sacrifices is in the temple to get that okay so that's basically an overview of Israeli history and the seven-year period that is being spoken about in this passage is what we're reading about in the book of Revelation and so one of the things like I said before that has to take place the city in the sanctuary were destroyed and the sanctuary has to be rebuilt and the reason it has to be rebuilt is because this event has to take place which is the defiling of the sanctuary in the middle of a seven-year period and it takes place under the influence of a guy that's called in this passage he he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week but in the middle of the week he shall bring it off and to sacrifice and offering and you have this thing in ancient literature interpreting ancient literature they were they were stingy about their words basically because writing materials were expensive and so they expect you to go back in the document find out who that he is and it's called the nearest antecedent fancy words for find out who he's talking about and so all we got to do is go back in the previous verse and see who's being spoken about so in verse 26 it says after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself so Messiah here is an option for the he but then it goes on and says and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city in the sanctuary well there's another option for the he and that's the prince who is to come okay and then we go on and it says the end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined so who is the nearest antecedent in that passage it's the prince of the people who is who is to come okay that's the nearest antsy and a student so the prince the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the scene in the sanctuary so who destroyed the city in the sanctuary the Romans and so what we're talking about when you get to the he in chapter 27 is a Roman prince that's who we're talking about and that's one of the things that again you have with the Antichrist when you get to the New Testament Old Testament - but you have a revival of the old Roman Empire and in this revival of the old Roman Empire there's a guy who rises up and again we're going to talk about this when when we get to the pertinent chapters chapter 13 especially there's a guy who rises up who comes out of the old Roman Empire and he's considered to be a king in that in that Empire and he is the one who comes along and fancies himself as the Messiah becomes a world dictator and it looks like he's involved with the rebuilding of the Jewish temple okay and so all of that to get to that point to that statement that I just made this guy is going to be involved it looks like with the rebuilding of the Jewish temple and like I said before one of the things that you have with Jews nowadays is they don't know they don't have a way to basically figure out who Messiah is going to be at this point back in New Testament times they had gauges basically for who Messiah could be so the Bible talks about the fact that for example Messiah is the son of David he has to be in the kingly line of David the problem that we have nowadays is all the genealogies that could identify where a Jewish man came from were destroyed in the destruction of the seconds of the Second Temple and so they can no longer go to any G genealogies and find out if a messiah is from the line of David and so when you when you look at what they are gauging a messiah by they specifically will tell you that the Messiah is going to rebuild our temple like I was telling you before and so some of you are gonna go to Israel with us when we go next year by the way that's in the in the fall of next year Donn announced it and we haven't talked about it and so we're gonna be going to Israel in the fall of next year in any case when you go to Israel one of the things that can happen is you can talk to Jews in the land and you can ask them the question well how are you gonna know who Messiah is and they will all to a person say he's going to rebuild our temple well again if this is the guy who's involved in the rebuilding of the temple there's some how where he violates the covenant and the Covenant is violated by the end of the sacrifice and offering and that's all temple related so it looks like he's involved with in some way with the rebuilding of the Jewish temple and so some guy comes along and he is Pro Jewish as far as these guys are concerned he helps them rebuild their temple he brings peace he's going to have to bring peace to Israel at that point and people are going to apparently proclaim him as Messiah jesus said he's a false Christ and the word false in Greek is pseudo you know what that means pseudo Christ false Christ in Greek can mean somebody who's not the Christ that's absolutely true in either instance but pseudo Christ means somebody who's pretending also to be the Christ to be the Messiah and so that's a situation that you have with this guy and so the Antichrist apparently is involved in the rebuilding of the temple and then after the temples rebuilt it says in 2nd Thessalonians 2 when we talked about this earlier when we talked about him that he goes into the temple again he walks into the temple and he sits down in the Holy of Holies and proclaims himself to be God and demands worship where's Messiah going to come from as far as the tribe that he's from if he's from David's lineage what tribe is he from Judah who is a priestly tribe Levi do people from Judah go into the Holy of Holies no they do not that's why you never see Jesus in the Holy of Holies you never see Jesus going into the temple precincts as far as going into the area where you you have the the priests working in the area where they're doing sacrifices the area where they're at the at the brazen altar he's not going in and offering incense he's not doing anything that a priest would do because Messiah comes from the tribe of Judah and so Messiah would never do that Messiah set up the rules and he said only one only the ones who come from the tribe of Levi are the ones who work in the temple and so the fact that this dude claims to be a messiah and then walks into the temple precincts walks in through the gate of the of the temple itself goes inside goes inside the Holy of Holies and apparently he just walks in I don't know if it's on the day of atonement or what but he walks into the Holy of Holies and he sits down there's no place to sit in the temple and the reason there was no place to sit is because the only seat in the temple was on the Ark of the Covenant it was called the lid it was called the mercy seat and it represented the throne of God priests didn't sit in the temple and so he goes in and sits down and again I don't know if he brings in a chair or if that's an indication that the Ark of the Covenant is there but he goes in he sits down in he sits down on the Ark of the Covenant that's that's mighty blasphemy that's that's radical blasphemy in any case he goes in and does that and he defiles the temple and at that point the Jews realized that they've got a false messiah on their hands and that's when persecution begins for the Jewish nation and for Christians in general and so last week we were talking about the preparations for the rebuilding of the temple one of the things that that I spoke to you about was the fact that there's an area off to the north side of the temple that is a big open area in fact I put a slide up you won't put that slide up might see that area that I've got circled in red that's that's the area that always talking about and if you look up just a little bit above my red arrow there you can see a black spot that's a dome that's called the dome of the spirits or the dome of the tablets and what's interesting there is there's a piece of bedrock that comes up underneath the pavement from underneath the pavement there's a bunch of bedrock under that pavement and in that one spot it's the only spot on the whole temple plaza where there's a where there's a bedrock stone that comes up and hits the the pavement of the plaza and some people think that that may be where the Holy of Holies actually was it's interesting that the little dome that's above it is called the dome of the spirits or the dome of the tablets what was inside the Ark of the Covenant yeah tablets and so that's a really interesting thing put up the next slide that is a picture of what the temple itself might look like if they if they place the temple in that area and so you can see that the Dome of the rock is still there and they've just used an area off to the right of the Dome of the rock to rebuild the temple and you'd be able to do that when you look at the the temple precincts there see the wall that's that's all around that that wall is a temple Court and so you have an inner court you have an outer court there is a court that went around the outside of that and that was called the court of the Gentiles and so the only ones who could go into these inner courts were Jews but on the outer the outer part in the large plaza there the Gentiles were allowed to come that's called the court of the Gentiles okay so back over to Revelation chapter 11 keep that picture up there check this out verse one it says again then I was given a reed like a measuring rod the angel stood saying rise and measure the temple of God the altar and those who worship there but leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it's been given to the Gentiles and they will tread the holy city under foot for 42 months and so the area where the Dome of the rock is and much of the rest of the Temple Mount area if they built it right there would be in that area called the court of the Gentiles and so what's cool about this is the Jews can build their temple they don't have to destroy the Dome of the rock and there is automatically a wall between them and the Dome of the rock that wall that's around the outside of the temple precincts right there was a wall that was built in the Senate the Second Temple period they would always have a wall there and so it's there with the Gentile area the Dome of the rock sitting on the outside now the thing that's stopping that from taking place right now is they don't know where the original second temple was and so that's up in the air they have to do archaeology and one of the problems is that the Muslims who are in control of the Temple Mount don't want Jews up there doing any archaeology and so they have a huge fits every time that they think that something is going on that might locate the site of the Second Temple because the tradition the Jewish tradition is that the Second Temple was on the spot where the Dome of the rock is and so the Jewish nation for the most part believes that that's where it was and they want to destroy the Dome of the rock and rebuild their temple there well they get up there and they do the archaeology and found out find out that the temple the second temple was off to the right and that becomes a moot point and you can have both of them up there with the Gentile area being in the court of the Gentiles and again you have no problem great compromise for a master politician who wants to rule the world and again that's what the Antichrist is all about and so you have that so one of the things that you need to watch out for when you're looking at your newspapers and you're looking at Israeli news stories is what the Israelis are doing with the rebuilding of the temple and so you see a you see an emphasis on this in Israel and a number of different places and I'm not going to go through and do the do the YouTube video but we saw a youtube video last week that is a promotion of the rebuilding of the temple telling the Jewish people that it's time to do this and so there there is an uptick there's an uprise in the attitude of Jews whether they're religious or whether they're secular for the rebuilding of their temple it's very interesting what's going on right now you'll hear about the red heifer every once in a while you'll hear about the Jews looking for a red heifer and what that has to do with is the beginning of Jewish sacrifices needs to have a heifer and a heifer is a female cow a young female cow without any white hairs without any black hairs in it has to be completely red and they would sacrifice this animal and as a whole burnt offering and then they would take the ashes from a red heifer and they would use that in certain ceremonies to begin sacrifices in the temple again and so they are actively breeding to get a red heifer they have they have ranchers in Israel who are doing this right now they've got all the temple implements built they've got all the temple garb for the Levitical priests they've already got the the priests robes put together they have all of this stuff done they put millions of dollars into this 27 million up to this point to get ready for the rebuilding of the temple and so these people are on it and so it's just it's just a matter of time it's a there's going to be a situation that comes up where they go go I have no doubt that they probably already have stones quarry for this you hear you hear rumors of this every once in a while and I've never been able to chase anything down that was for sure but these guys are on top of this stuff and so I have no doubt that that kind of stuff is going to go on so this is going to be a rebuilding of the temple and again we can see that in this passage so watch for it it's very cool thing then yeah yeah go ahead Joe that's why it's placed there actually it's something that I was talking about last time let me point it out in in Jewish literature and also in the histories Josephus specifically it says that the if you look in the in the picture of the temple that the big black thing on the front door or the front of the temple there is the is the entrance to the temple if you look in front of that there's a wall there there's another gate there it's called the nikah I believe it's the Nicanor gate and then you have another gate in the in the wall that's all the way to the front here and then you have the final gate that is on the outside wall of the city that outside wall of the city was built by a Muslim Prince named Sulaiman but he built it right on top of the previous wall of the city of Jerusalem one of the things that happened in the late 60s is there was a guy who was a photographer and he was walking around out in front of the eastern gate that's like gate down on the bottom that I pointed to and if you look at all the the jumble that's in front of the eastern gate that's a Muslim Cemetery and so he's walking through this Muslim cemetery and when he gets in front of the east gate he falls through a tomb he falls down into a tomb and when he falls down there he's a honks - actually a bunch of bones that's in the tomb and he takes a picture and he takes a picture of the wall that's in front of him and you see the arches of a previous gate that eastern gate is built right over the top of the eastern gate that was there at the type of time of Jesus and that's been confirmed and so when you're when you're talking about the placement of the temple one of the things that we have clear in history is that boasts both Josephus and a number of the of the Jewish writings that we have say that you could look out from the out from the inside of the temple itself look out through the gate that's in front of the temple all the way through the outer gate and see the Mount of Olives if we were if we were in Jerusalem and at this view we would be standing on the Mount of Olives and so that's that's one of the reasons that some of the Jews believe that the temple was in that place I think that's a I think that's a good placement I think I think that that there's a there's a lot to commend that theory and what's going to have to happen is there's gonna have to be some archaeology to prove it because the Jews aren't going to place their temple there unless they find the foundations of the previous temple that's that's what they're waiting for in fact a lot of Jews won't go onto the Temple Mount because they're afraid to walk over the place where the Holy of Holies was and because they don't know exactly where it was they won't go anywhere on top of the Temple Mount itself and so again you have all that so good okay then you have the two witnesses and it says in verse three I'll get power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy 1260 days clothed in sackcloth you guys familiar with 1260 days you guys know what that's referring to that's three and a half years and what the what the book of Revelation is using is three hundred and sixty day years and so our calendars 365 and a quarter days for a year but the calendar that is used in the book of Revelation and also in the Book of Daniel if you're gonna go back and chase down that 490 year thing they're using 360 day years there why are they doing that and a lot of guys call that the prophetic year and there's probably some more implications to that it looks like there was a time when the year may have been 360 days it's the year that the Babylonians used we can get 360 degrees in a circle that comes from Babylon and when you're when you're looking at astronomy the heavens are divided up into 360 degrees that whole thing and it looks like at some point well we know for sure that all ancient calendars before about 700 BC were 360 days long and so something weirds going on there in any case that's that's another study altogether in the book of Revelation and in the rest of the Bible that deals with this period of time it's a 368 calendar that's used and so you have 2 or 3 and a half years and you can do the math to get that the Book of Revelation the Daniels seventieth week the last seven years is divided up into two to three and a half year periods and so the first three and a half years is leading up to the abomination of desolation and the last three and a half years are the events that are taking place after the abomination of desolation and so with the with the Ministry of the two witnesses it is also taking place during 1260 days three and a half years and so people go well which three and a half years is it is that the first three and a half or is it the last three and a half and let's just go on and believe that thought in your head because I have no idea well I have some ideas he goes on and says these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the god of the earth and if anyone wants to harm them it says fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies and if anyone wants to harm them he must be killed in this manner these have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire you know one of the one of the things that the that the Bible teaches and this was taught very clearly is that before the great and terrible day of the Lord the Bible teaches that Elijah is going to come and if you turn over to the book of Matthew and go one book to the left book of Malachi the very last lines in the book of Malachi Malachi deal with this and it says in verse four remember the law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the Great and dreadful day of the Lord and he will turn the hearts of the father's to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the earth with a curse you have the same thing taught by Jesus Jesus was dealing with the issue of John the Baptist at one point and people were wondering if John the Baptist was Elijah now one of the things that happened with John the Baptist is in if you read in the Gospel of John the Pharisees the Jews came to John and they said are you Elijah who is coming and he said no I'm not are you the Prophet no I'm not are you the Christ are you the Messiah and he goes no I'm not and they go who are you he says I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord and so he denies being the being the the coming of Elijah he denies being the Messiah obviously Jesus is the Messiah and he's preparing the way for him but Jesus talks about John and in a different manner if you turn over to Matthew chapter 17 this is worth looking at you guys in Matthew chapter 17 you have the Transfiguration and what happens in this gosh man if you if you don't know anything about this stuff man you're you're getting lost right now and I understand that but there's a there's a lot of stuff that goes along with this and I you know I just apologize Jesus at one point takes Peter James and John up onto a high mountain and the Bible says that he's transfigured before them and basically what happens is is Jesus starts shining through the Bible says in in John chapter 1 that when Messiah came he tabernacled among it says he dwelt among us and it literally says that the Word of God was made flesh talking about God Himself comes down to the earth and he's made flesh and he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory is that the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth and so that word dwelt means tabernacle it's the idea that that God comes down puts on a tent of flesh and he lives among us and what happens at the at the Transfiguration is Jesus takes these guys up and he's going to show them his real nature and his real nature has to do with his deity and so in verse 1 of that passage it says after six days Jesus took Peter James and John his brother led them up on a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them his face shone like a son and his clothes became as white as the light and that's something that we're familiar with in the book of Revelation because that's a vision of Jesus that John's sees in Revelation chapter 1 a face that's shining like the Sun and his brought in its brightness so the guy's seen it before so he's familiar with it and it doesn't behold Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him then Peter answered and said to Jesus Lord it's good for us to be here if you wish let us make here three Tabernacles one for you one for Moses one for Elijah while he was still speaking behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased hear him and when the disciples heard it they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid but Jesus came and touched them and said arise and do not be afraid and when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no one but Jesus only as they came down from the mountain Jesus commanded them saying tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead and so this is one of those passages it says you can't watch TV television to no one yet that okay just wanted to share that with you it's an important joke his disciples asked him saying why didn't do the scribes say that Elijah must come first and then Jesus goes on in this passage and so Jesus is on the Mount of the Transfiguration he shines like the Sun his clothes become as white as the light and Moses and Elijah are speaking with him in another gospel it says that they were speaking with him concerning his death in Jerusalem and so Moses and Elijah are there with him and then Peter says let's build three three tents basically one for you one for Moses and one for Elijah and what Peter is doing is equate ngey this with Moses and Elijah which sounds good if you don't know who Jesus is so we got a tent for Moses tent for Elijah they're comparable and then you have a tent for Jesus and you're trying to make him comparable with most Moses and Elijah Jesus made Moses and Elijah and that's why the father steps in at this point and you have a cloud that's shining you guys know what the cloud that shining is shiny clouds you know what that is it's a glory of God it's the Shekinah and so any Jew reading this would go that's the Shekinah that's the that's the presence of God and so you have the presence of the father that overshadows them and out of that cloud comes a voice saying this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased hear him and what the Lord is saying to Peter is stop talking stop it stop talking you need to listen at this point and lots of people talk when they don't know what to say and I think that's what Peter was doing so they see Moses Elijah they see Jesus transfigured before them they naturally begin thinking about the about the kingdom and everything that has to do with that and one of the questions that they have when they come down is why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first you're the Messiah why do the scribe say Elijah must come first and they're referring to Malachi chapter 4 and verse 11 jesus answered and said to them indeed Elijah is coming first and will restore all things and so we have it out of the mouth of Jesus that before he comes the second time that Elijah is going to come remember how Elijah died you guys remember how Elijah died yeah he didn't die as a trick question yeah chariot of fire took him off into heaven the guy never died and so Elijah is coming back first and so you got that right out of the mouth of Jesus okay but then he says this but I say to you that Elijah has come already and they did not know him but two-hit did to him whatever they wished likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer in their hands so now you know what's he talking about there Elijah is coming but then he goes Elijah has come so what's he talking about turn back over to Matthew chapter 11 Matthew chapter 11 let me give you a little bit of context here it says verse 2 when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ he sent two of his disciples and said to him are you the coming one or do we look for another and jesus answered and said to them go and tell John the things which you hear and see the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the Deaf hear the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them and blessed is he whose not offended because of me so John's in prison and John's getting a little depressed because it's becoming obvious what's going to happen to John in prison John's not a stupid man he knows who he's dealing with when he's dealing with eret remember Herod put him in prison right and so John knows he's about to be separated from his head at some point and so John's wandering because he thought that what he was going to do out do is go out and proclaim the coming of the Messiah the Messiah is gonna come he's gonna rule and reign he thought this just like most of the rest of the Jews did and so when Jesus doesn't come in as a conquering Messiah John's starting to wonder and John's going I'm about to die here and have I made a mistake and so he sends a couple of his disciples to talk to Jesus and just ask him the question you are you the guy or are we supposed to be looking for another one and what Jesus does is the answers in with Scripture he tells them he quotes from the book of Isaiah the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the Deaf hear the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them that's out of the book of Isaiah so he just quotes scripture and he goes John basically what he's saying is John what are you seeing are you seeing the works do you see what I'm doing and the works are something that was a proof that he was the Messiah and then he ends it up with and blessed is he whose not offended because of me he knows that John's in in danger of becoming offended because of Christ because it's not working out the way that he wants he wants it to have you noticed that about God that makes all kinds of cool promises to us and sometimes the promises don't come down in the way that we think that they should sometimes it's like I'm going through tough times and I didn't I don't know that I signed up for this you know and you're like I thought you know that this was supposed to be about joy and peace and and you know the power of the Spirit and and all of that and what I'm getting is trials and tribulations and I'm bummed out I read Psalms lots of people like that and God allows it and blessed are you if you're not offended because of him you're going to get joined peace and you're going to get all the things that God wants for you in this life that's going to happen in this life but for the rest of eternity that's what's going to be happening with you nothing but joy and peace it's gonna be awesome for the rest of eternity can you hack 70 years here because that's what you're given right according to Moses 70 years I only got ten left praise the Lord if I have to go past that I'm gonna be offended I'm just joking in any case as they departed Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John what did you go out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind what did you go out to see a man clothed in soft garments indeed those who were soft clothing are in King's houses what is he saying there so when I was a kid across the street from me was a big I don't even know what the bush is called but it's a you know when those big bushes that's got Reed's coming off it and it's got big old poofy things that that grow out of it and so we would go take those Reed's and we would cut them off get scissors or whatever and we cut those reeds off and they were real pointy on the end so we use them for swords and we go on and fight each other with these Reed's but they're reeds and so you know what happened to him yeah they folded you know and when he's talking about a reed blown about by the wind you gotta you gotta think of going down to the river you can tell where the winds blowing by just looking at the reeds along the side of the river right they bent and you know whatever way the winds blowing that's the that's the way that the reed bends a lot of people like that whichever way the winds blowing that's the way they bent whatever popular opinion is is what politicians are whatever popular opinion is that's the way that they Bend they go in that direction statesmen are different right so they so they Bend and what Jesus says here so what did you go out in the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind and John the Baptist was not a guy who bent John John the Baptist was a guy who stood firm and care what people thought and so obviously now to reach shaken by the wind would you go out to see a man clothed in soft garments indeed those who wear soft clothing are in King's houses you know what John the Baptist wore yea camels hair and it wasn't like a camel's hair suit you know it was like the camel skin go go go kill a camel you know skin it and wrap that around you that's what John the Baptist was wearing he goes on and says but what did you go out to see a prophet yes I say to you and more than a prophet for this is he of whom it is written behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you assuredly I say to you among those born of women there is not arisen one greater than John the Baptist but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he that's a pretty pregnant verse right there so you feel like you're least in the kingdom of heaven you ever feel that way everybody else you know it's like I'm I'm pretty much messed up and I'm pretty I'm pretty tweaked and I'm always failing and and that kind of stuff but you're in the kingdom of heaven you've given your life to Jesus right so you're in the kingdom of heaven and even if you're least in the kingdom of heaven Jesus says you're greater than John the Baptist how does that work here's how it works you actually have God living inside of you you're the Temple of the Holy Spirit the god of the universe dwells within you you have Jesus Christ Himself living inside of you you're something different than any anybody you have something different than anybody in the Old Testament Elisha Moses John the Baptist John the Baptist is still in Old Testament times even though we're in the Gospels it's before the cross and so the lease on the kingdom of heaven is greater than john and he says verse 12 and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers or allows violence and the violent take it by force and he says for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John and if you are willing to receive it he is Elijah and then he says who is to come he who has ears to hear let him hear ok so again what's that about because when you get to chapter 17 he says Elijah is coming and then he says he already came they did whatever they wanted to him by that time John's dead and here he says to these people that he's talking to if you're willing to receive it he is Elijah who is to come but John himself said I'm not Elijah so what's happening there and here's what I think is happening there God made a promise to the Jews that before the Messiah came one of the things that was going to take place is that there was there was a prophet Elijah who was going to go around and turn the people of Israel back to the Lord back to their families - but back to the Lord and God always knew that the Jewish nation was going to deny Jesus as Messiah he always knew it sent him anyway but he always knew that but when Jesus came he was giving the people of Israel a real option of going into the kingdom basically when when you look at the at the Ministry of Jesus he starts off talking about the kingdom of God is near and well and we take the kingdom of God we make it this ghosty thing where where it's like you know God God rules and it's heaven and it's that is not what the Jews thought the kingdom of God is actually it's not what the Bible teaches that the kingdom of God is the kingdom of God is when Messiah comes to rule on the planet on the planet Earth and takes it over that's the kingdom of God that's what the Jews were waiting for that's what they were looking for a messiah who would conquer takeover and run the planet and that is what going to be taken place after the second coming and again when we get to the passages will deal with that and what Jesus was doing with the Jewish nation is giving them an absolutely real offer of we can do this now if you would like to we can do it now now I always knew that they weren't going to take it and that's kind of cheating you know but God gets too cheap because he can't help it he knows the end from the beginning there's nothing else he can do right so if it's a real offer and God knows that they're not going to take it and God knows how history is going to go and God knows that the real Elijah is going to be coming later if it's going to be a real offer he basically what he does is he uses John the Baptist as kind of a as a replacement for Elijah the first coming of Jesus with the opportunity and the real offer that if you will receive my son as your Messiah will do the kingdom thing right now and not only did he make the offer then he made it after the resurrection of Jesus in the book of Acts when you get to chapter four and he makes it again Peter talks about the fact that the times of restoration will come if you'll repent times of restoration is the kingdom age and so if you'll repent we can do this now and did they repent no they didn't repent and in this passage right here verse 14 he says if you were willing to receive it he is Elijah who is to come were they willing to receive it and the answer is no they didn't receive it they didn't receive Jesus as Messiah they didn't consider him to be the fulfillment of anything and what they did was reject him and kill him and it was all within God's plan that's how God was going to take care of the sin of the world but the offer being real doesn't in any way or actually the the fact that God knew that these people were not going to take the offer does not in any way take away the fact that God was giving them a real offer he does that with everybody you know sin is paid for already it's already been paid for and so you and I have taken advantage of that the Bible teaches that when Jesus went to the cross he paid for your sin he paid for my sin but it's not just yours and mine it's everyone's so everyone's sin is paid for is everyone going to receive the offer of forgiveness and the Bible is clear on the fact that that's not the case it does not mean that God didn't pay for their sin he did and the offer is absolutely real does God know who's going to come and who's not going to come yes absolutely he's going he knows exactly who's gonna come he knows who's not going to come and it doesn't change the fact that he actually paid for the sin of all those who are going to refuse to come and so when God gives an offer to people that he knows aren't going to come it doesn't mean that the offer isn't real it doesn't mean that the that the sin hasn't been paid for it doesn't mean that he's not handing them actually handing them a ticket to heaven if they would like it and he he could say exactly the same thing if you're willing to receive it he is the one who paid for your sin if you want to talk about it from the point of view of Jesus and so God makes real offers to people that real people don't take but they're real and so again you have this thing with Elijah and John the Baptist okay part of the reason that I did that with you is because of some of the things that you have in those passages specifically with the Transfiguration of Jesus when Jesus is transfigured before the apostles who's standing there with him Moses and Elijah you guys remember what these guys are famous for let's go back over to chapter 11 it says these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the god of the earth that's a that's a quote from Zechariah or an illusionist Zechariah chapter 4 and it says if anyone wants to harm them fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies it's the idea that they can call fire down on their enemies and destroy them so with a word that can destroy them with fire anybody in the Bible do that yeah hi joy did one of my favorite stories second Kings you know second Kings chapter one the son of Ahab has come into power and he's been and he's feeling a little bit cocky and he decides that he wants Elijah in his presence he wants they have a little talk with the man and so he says it sends a captive captain of 50 out to get him and so I just sitting on a hill and this captain of 50 comes up and he goes man of God come down the King wants you and Elisha goes well if I'm a man of God then let fire come down out of heaven and consume you in near 50 and so Elijah was until they're all consumed and and he sits there and so the King sends out another 50 guys and their captain captain comes up and you know same thing you know train you know military training you know it's exactly the same thing man of God come down King wants you and Elisha says again if I'm a man of God then let fire come down out of heaven and consume you and you're 50 and he was and so did you know these guys are consumed and so I don't even know if they were looking at the previous bones of the guys that are sitting there smoking when they came up but the third captain comes up and this guy has a clue and he comes walking up he says man of God you know will you please come down and you know he goes please you know just a messenger I'm paraphrasing right right here pulls out his cell phone these are my children you know that kind of thing starts showing pictures of his family and stuff and soul I just sees a little humility there and he goes I'll go with you and he comes down but Elisha is known for calling down fire from heaven and destroying people and you have the same thing in this situation it says if anyone who wants to harm them he must be killed in this manner verse 6 it says these have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy do you remember how Elijah's ministry starts first time you see Elijah he goes walking into the court of Ahab walks in and says it's not going to rain until I say so and he turns around and walks out and later on in the New Testament we find out it was three and a half years that it didn't rain isn't that a fair million number three and a half years it didn't rain and so that's again Elijah's ministry so two things that Elijah do does are the two things that these prophets are able to do it goes on and says oh by the way remember in Revelation chapter 7 where it says that the wind stops you stopped the wind on the planet and you don't have any rain because the way this whole thing works is you have evaporation over the oceans and the evaporation goes up and makes clouds but the clouds have to get over the continents and if you stopped the wind the clouds don't get on the continents and you don't have any rain you have stopped the hydrologic cycle and so it looks like there may be some connection in chapter 7 with these guys in chapter 11 and so they have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and so you remember when we're going through chapter 8 and the waters turn to blood the oceans turn to blood and then later on when we get to the bowl judgments the fresh water is going to be turning to blood and so who turned water to blood yeah that's Moses that's a Moses thing and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire so who's the Prophet that's kind of you know that's connected with plagues yeah that's Moses ten plagues of Egypt one of them being the waters turned to blood and then you have this whole thing with Moses and Elijah appearing with Jesus on the Mount of the Transfiguration and that maybe you know you know kind of a time capsule in the sense of the disciples are getting a future picture of what's going to be happening with Jesus and two major players with Jesus Moses and Elijah another option for one of the two witnesses is Enoch in the Old Testament there's a guy named Enoch in Genesis chapter 5 about Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him and he is a guy who loved the Lord and Lord loved him and he was apparently a guy who was just totally given over to God and so finally one day God goes you know I like you come here come on up here and he just takes him and he goes to heaven there's only two guys that we know of in the in the Bible that did not die and one of them was Elijah and the other one was Enoch and so some guys say that maybe Enoch is one of these guys I kind of leaned towards Moses and Elijah because of the Transfiguration and because of the the of the plagues that are connected with these guys and so one of the one of the things that you have with Moses that's really interesting he did he did die and the Bible teaches that when Moses died that God himself buried him we have a appearance of God in the Old Testament who is he yeah it's Jesus no man has seen God at any time the only begotten son who's in the bosom of the Father he has revealed him and so in that passage in John chapter 1 verse 18 what John's telling you is that all these appearances in the Old Testament of Jesus Jesus walking in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve that was that was Jesus walking with him or God walking with a with him in the garden and then later on when God appears to Abraham and God appears to Samson's parents and God appears to Moses and God appeared you know he appears to people at different points and what John is telling you in the New Testament is that it's always been the job of Jesus to be the revealer of who God is and so theophanies those are appearances of God in the Old Testament were actually Chris dolphinese appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament so Jesus appears to Moses Moses recognizes him as God when Moses dies Jesus takes the body of Moses and he buries it himself that's pretty poignant that's kind of a cool thing Moses served God for four years and he served him faithfully and he didn't do it perfectly but he served him faithfully and God honored him by being the one who buried his body and so that's a cool thing but when you get to the New Testament there is a dispute over the body of Moses and this is in the book of Jude so Satan disputes with Michael over the body of Moses and the teaching that passage is all about how you deal with Satan and it says that Michael didn't bring a riot railing accusation against him but said the Lord rebuke you but what's interesting is that there's a fight over the body of Moses and why is that and the answer is I have no idea but there's something weird going on with Moses in the Old Testament Satan knows something's happening with Moses you want something done with the body and Michael is fighting against that whole thing and so it may have to do with the fact that Moses may be one of these guys that is resurrected and has one last ministry and where's the ministry at where is it at it's in Israel remember why Moses died yeah because he couldn't go in he couldn't go into Israel God said to him you're not going in Joshua's gonna take your place you're not gonna go in you can go up on this mountain with me and I'll show you the Land of Israel but you can't go in and Moses pleaded with him and said God please you know it goes no that's not what's gonna happen and so he does get in in the Bible because remember when he's on the Mount of the Transfiguration you know where that's at that's in Israel so he made it there then and it looks like if this is Moses that he actually makes it there in the last you know three and a half years basically of Israeli history and he gets to do ministry in the Land of Israel I think I think that's pretty neat too and so again that's that's kind of my take on that whole thing that it would be Moses and Elijah and we'll leave it there because I just looked at the clock so we'll pick it up actually not next week the week after next week we're going to be having Jeff Simon's come out and he's going to be doing a study on how to minister to the LGBTQ community and so that's gonna be a really cool thing we've had him come out a couple of different times and he's got a really good take on this he at the at the very same time that he's not willing to compromise what the Bible has to say about homosexuality he does let you know that homosexuals need to be people who are treated with love and respect and kindness so that they can come to Jesus I like that whole thing I don't need to compromise my principles to love people I don't have to compromise my principles to share with them the gospel I don't have to approve of a lifestyle to love people and so that's a cool thing he also talks about how to protect your kids in the culture that we're involved in because a lot of times they're you know your kids can be targets in in this kind of culture and so it's gonna be a really good study and so I just want to recommend that you guys come out and then we'll pick it up next week the next week after that okay good stuff huh yeah all kinds of stuff one of the cool things about the book of Revelation is you have to go all over the Bible to understand it and that's you know that's a little bit about of what we did tonight so that's cool let's pray thanks Lord again for your work in history thank you for your work in our lives lord thank you for the fact that you have a plan and it's intense and it's intricate and it's a plan you're not doing this on the spur of the moment you're not just reacting you always have a purpose you always have a plan you always have an agenda you always have a way that you're going and you know what you're doing in the Lord I think that a lot of times especially when we're new Christians we're worried about that whether or not you actually know what you're doing I remember all kinds of times when I was just having conniptions over the fact that you wanted me to do something and I thought that it was going to bring about a set of circumstances that we're not good and you've always known what you're doing and you you plan the best for us and the things that you have for us the the commandments that you have for us are not burdensome they turn our lives around and they make them something make a make us something new it's pretty cool lord thank you for your rule in our lives god I pray for these people that you would have the rule in their lives this week that they would be listening up to you that they would hear your voice and in all the situations that come up this week they could be good representatives of who you are they would love people the way that you love them they would speak to people the way that you would have them speak to them whether it's a word of kindness or a word of encouragement or even a word of rebuke Lord you're clear on many times on situations and what needs to be done in them and we just need to be listening up to you bless you Lord thank you so much for your work in our lives thank you so much for these people pray that you'd have your hand on them and bless their week in Jesus name Amen god bless you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

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Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: 6TpNciEPgpw

Length: 74min 40sec (4480 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 01 2019