THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION // Session 18: The Central Role of Martyrdom in the Book of Revelation

[Music] greetings welcome back to the maranatha global bible study in the book of revelation today we're looking at the fifth seal revelation chapter 6 verses 9 through 11. entitling this session the central role of martyrdom in the book of revelation the central role of martyrdom in the book of revelation it's one of the more underdeveloped themes um in in contemporary preaching and teaching on the book of revelation typically people end up focusing on the uh events let's say the geopolitical events of the book of revelation the war dynamics but little attention or not enough attention i should say has been given to the central place of martyrdom in the logic of the storyline of the book of revelation and in biblical eschatology in general the issue of martyrdom in a final persecution of the saints is one of the most if not the most prominent theme in biblical eschatology so it's a very significant subject that i think we need to uh i don't want to say i'm excited to look into because it is heavy and it is um it's not something i'm like i enjoy talking about death uh i don't have a romantic view of martyrdom i have uh friends i know people who have been killed for their faith it's not romantic it's not fun it's not it's there's a wisdom in it there is a glory in it there is power in it there is a necessity to it but we don't romanticize it it's not something that you know we we we don't want to make a caricature of this thing and turn it into something that it's not um it's it's like the cross of christ the cross of messiah who bled it's horrific it's it's you don't want to look at it you know and it's a naked man being nailed to a tree and bleeding out from a tree naked like it's horrific no one you don't you want to avert your gaze and yet there's beauty in it there's significance in it there's power in it there's meaning in it it's not uh it's not meaningless we don't romanticize the cross of jesus and we don't romanticize the cross that the saints have are always called to carry but particularly this eschatological season of martyrdom that will will eclipse all other seasons of martyrdom it's a very important thing i'm i'm feeling trembling about this session more so than a lot of other sessions because this one touches all of us in ways that i think are going to be very it's going to touch us intimately and deeply if we or our children are alive in the generation that these events take place and i believe that we're at the beginning of that generation now i don't know how far out we are but my conviction is based on the reading the commands of jesus concerning the signs of the times and my understanding of the biblical signs of the times i believe we're living in the beginning of the generation that will culminate in these events and ultimately the return of the lord to jerusalem so with that said before we jump into this if you appreciate these messages if you appreciate the maranatha message specifically if you appreciate the 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taken from the earth world war breaks out the third seal comes in the form of a black horse the black horse comes with economic catastrophe which breaks out in food shortage starvation and famine the fourth seal is a pale horse or a horse that looks like a rotting corpse technically it's a grayish green horse and the rider is death and hell and this is a quarter of the earth's population is killed through famine through sword through pestilence plague beasts of the earth animals it's it's the carnage the wake of a global war and a global catastrophe um all of these sessions if you haven't been tracking with us are available on the app and on youtube you can go watch all these sessions we're going word by word verse by verse through these judgment events today we're jumping into we're done with the horses so the four horses the first four seals are four riders and four horses we're done with that now we're jumping into the fifth seal um this is one of i think one of the most significant songs in the film ballads of the revelation to me personally as i wrote all the songs and we were seeing and this is the one that i felt the most um i wanna say maybe the most but it was one of the most impacting songs for me of the film because of this cry how long until you avenge the blood of the righteous and the scene was very you know very intense very graphic we filmed it basically poor blood fake blood all over names of martyrs throughout human history throughout church history and uh where it was in the scene you know looking to the lord and marking our faces with the blood of the martyr saying do you see this do you see this we've had lots of people ask what's the deal with the blood in the film why why did you guys make such a point of blood and ballads of the revelation because the book of revelation is so stained in blood all throughout the book of revelation is just blood blood blood there's a lot of blood in the book of revelation we felt like we want to do that in a in a tasteful way bring it to life but we also want to do it in a way that's going to be um carry with a prophetic uh significance that that will mean something we felt like you know what when you mark your head it's identifying with something you know so he said let's so in in the film if you haven't seen it yet make sure you go watch it but in the film i wash my face in the blood of the martyrs and the blood of the saints and i look to the lord as if to say do you see how long until you avenge the blood and throughout the rest of the film from that song on all the songs i'm marked with the blood of the martyr so as to say throughout the duration of the book of revelation lord we cry out to avenge the blood of the righteous which is what this seal judgment event is all about so verse 9 let's read it and then we'll go through it when he opened the fifth seal who is he it's jesus the lamb of god jesus is opening the seal not the devil not the antichrist but jesus is opening this seal when he opened the seal i saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of god and for the witness they had borne so these he sees i saw the souls of people who'd been killed slain murdered cut down life snatched away from them because of the word of god and the testimony the witness that they bore concerning the word of god in other words he sees martyrs those who had been killed because of the testimony of scripture meaning they would it's not as though they died in a random catastrophe associated with the great tribulation in general does that make sense meaning it's not as though he's not seeing souls under the altar of people who died in a great earthquake in the great tribulation or people who died in a nuclear exchange in the great tribulation it's not souls under the altar who had been slain because their town was overrun by antichrist forces on their way to jerusalem that's not what this means he seized the souls of those who had been slain because of the gospel because of the word because of their witness their proclamation because of the witness that they had born it means what it's the the pro the witness that they bear when you bear witness what you're saying is i saw this and you should see this this is what i saw so it's bearing witness of the gospel message verse 10 they cried out with a loud voice o sovereign lord holy and true how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell in the earth and they were given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and brothers should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been what okay what's the judgment event in here dalton where's the judgment event the judgment event the first four seals you know jesus tears the seal and a rider goes forth what's the judgment event here the judgment event here is that the lord has decreed has ordained the mounting blood guilt on the nations of the earth through the slaying and the murdering of the saints on the earth in that generation at a qualitative quantitative sorry quantitative number one of the most staggering things about this judgment event is the fact that it's quantitative what do i mean by that the phrase here until the number of their fellow servants should be complete who were killed who were to be killed as they themselves had been killed meaning there's a group of people under the altar and they're saying how long and the lord says not yet not until the full number of martyrs comes in in other words to put in very crass language it's as if there's a checklist of numbers and once that once the quota is hit then he will avenge their blood but not a minute sooner now i put in those crafts terms to make a very important point one of the designs the intentions the purposes of the great tribulation the end of the age scenario one of the designs of it is to bring the church to maturity through a like similar experience that the messiah himself went through there will be a mutual experience and a mutual witness that the crucified church will bear concerning the crucified son now one of the greatest deceptions one of the greatest errors and false teachings i actually consider it a doctrine of demons meaning i think demons are behind this particular teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture this idea that the church will be taken out of the great tribulation and will not have to bear witness on the earth during the great tribulation what the tribul what the pre-tribulation teachers teach is that after revelation chapter 4 the church is never in the book of revelation again now i'm i'm being you you say dalton you're being mocking and insulting to people who believe pre-tribulation after i have very good friends who believe pre-tribulation rapture i love them the teaching is a disaster it is an absolute disaster the idea that the church is not in the book of revelation is one of the most unsubstantiated statements that we could possibly make about the book of revelation like if you can make a statement about the book of revelation make sure you don't make one about the church not being in it the whole message of the book of revelation is the church's role in it we're we're already we're only three events into the great tribulation and already one of the hallmark defining themes and events is the blood of the saints now what the pre-tribulation camp will teach is that well these are the tribulation saints these are those who got saved in the tribulation because of the testimony of the rapture guys that's totally inferred that's projected onto the text there is no passage in the entire word of god that says that the church will be taken out and when they're taken out the world is going to go oh wow i think i'll become a believer now and then go through mass martyrdom that's not how jesus prepared the disciples in matthew 24. the way jesus prepared the disciples in matthew 24 was by telling them guys you need to prepare the world is going to hate you they're going to put you to death there's going to be such persecution and such martyrdom such bloodletting in those days that if you're not prepared for it's going to completely take you off guard and as we go through the book of revelation and we will over the course of this year as we go through the book of revelation again and again and again you're going to see the centrality of this theme this dynamic this reality in the book of revelation namely the spilling of the blood of the saints i did a session on this i don't know six months ago or so in the maranatha session where we we went through the role the churches the church in the book of revelation it was standalone session you can find it on the app or on youtube we just went through all the statements in the book of revelation where the church is described the posture the experience the witness what the church is doing in the book of revelation i am i want to say this humbly but i want to say clearly i i am so against the idea this silly baseless idea that the church is not in the book of revelation beloved if you've been taught that you need to reconsider that if you're teaching that you need to repent of teaching it because it's leading people astray and i know that that there are many many good people who hold this view just because they heard a good man teaching it i believe good men and good women teach this doctrine the pre-tribulation rapture but it is an absolute catastrophe it's a disastrous teaching that you need to walk away from because it's setting you up for massive disillusionment massive offense and it's setting you up to leave yourself and your family and the people around you to get them off the hook for obeying jesus commands in the time of the great tribulation which requires us to follow him even unto death now this i i i hate saying doing like product placement stuff especially about this but i wrote a book called unto death if you haven't read it you should get a copy of it you can get it on our app or on the website you can order the book i believe it's on amazon as well or wherever you buy books get the book unto death it's a very simple short book but it goes into the significance and the centrality of this whole issue of martyrdom of following jesus unto death and i think we've we've we've so lost this message of endurance in in pop culture christianity we've so lost this central um message the central reality the central hope that our hope is not in this age it's not surviving this age our hope is in the age to come our hope is that we are safe and secure now through the blood of jesus through his cross because of his cross i can bear one with joy and with freedom and with life in my eyes and with no fear again i'm not romanticizing persecution or death or martyrdom i've gone through it with people who've experienced it with loved ones and family members it's tragic it's horrible it's awful you don't want to look at it you wish it didn't happen and yet you can see the power of it unless a seed falls to the ground it cannot bear fruit so jesus said in john chapter 12 there's a dynamic of the logic of death burial and resurrection in the ways of the lord and when we live and operate and read the scripture and live our little you know polite christian lives disconnected from this call to live our lives even unto death following him even unto death we're missing out on the heart of the gospel itself and people have said over the years you know why is such an emphasis on death and martyrdom guys the emphasis is not on death it's on life that call to martyrdom is the call to love jesus more than you love anything in life and to treasure him above anything that you would lose in death it's basically the call to treasure jesus it's to say i value him more than i value my life it's like if you can put it individual terms you take every good thing in life in existence and put it into a giant box and you say burn the box give me jesus instead you can keep it the world life can keep it because there's profound continuity between this age and the next age for those who are in christ and bought with the blood of the lamb i don't worry about this life ending there is no ending of this life i have eternal life in the lord now so if someone takes my life tomorrow for the gospel that's a good thing ultimately for me i get rewarded for it and i get the thing that i want the most anyway which is him i'm not clinging and clawing to this life and beloved i think that's the power of the fifth seal i want to ask you this are you clinging and clawing at life desperately because of the fear of death because of the fear of losing and leaving behind what this life has to offer beloved there is joys in this life this life is something to be treasured and valued above all else because god gave us this life but this age this life this experience is not our hope this is not the whole shebang this is nothing compared to endless ages and that's the power of the fifth seal jesus is saying this john pay attention look we'll look at what's happening under the altar the altar there's a location in heaven in unseen realms where there's souls of people who've been killed saying god when are you gonna avenge our blood and the lord is saying back to them not yet not yet not yet why lord why not now why don't not avenge our blood and the lord says because much more blood must be shed to a certain point and again this is not tribulation saints of people who weren't believers before the tribulation now for sure some of them are going to be people who be be became followers of jesus who were born again who pass from death to life in the tribulation who end up being killed in the great tribulation that is for sure true but this is not made up of people who weren't believers before the rapture happened the rapture happens when jesus comes back that's what paul said very clearly in second thessalonians second second excuse me second thessalonians 2 jesus paul said concerning the day of the lord and our gathering together to him that singular day will not come until the antichrist comes the church at the end of the age will face the antichrist we are not going to be raptured out of it this is the central message of paul's exhortation to the thessalonians prepare to face the antichrist do not prepare to be whisked away so that you don't have to face him we will face the antichrist we will face the great tribulation and through the great tribulation we will give the greatest witness that the church has ever given in our finest hour and the most difficult season of human history god is not so cruel and so weird as to pull his bride out to just let the world suffer without a witness beloved he's designed the great tribulation so that we would bear witness and the bearing witness look what it's going to do they're going to slay you for the word of god for bearing witness now time we don't have enough time to go through all the passages in the old in the new testament to talk about the role of martyrdom at the end of the age we don't have enough time but i do want to go through some of them there's more time we can take some comment do some more commentary here on individual phrases and words in revelation 6 9-11 but i want to reserve some time we may come back to it but i want to reserve some time to color in the context from other passages that speak about martyrdom and persecution at the end of the age we're going to skip ahead real quick to revelation chapter seven here's a very important one very important one in chapter nine sorry revelation chapter seven verses nine through fourteen okay so we're skipping ahead but it's it's we'll come back and fill in the gaps between here we just i'm going to bounce ahead for a moment after this verse 9 i looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number which is significant because everything in the book of revelation john numbers it i saw four of those seven of those i saw three of those it's 144 000 of those saw 12 of those and then he goes i can't count that a thing i can't count i have no idea i have no idea how how many people are there from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes let's skip ahead to verse 13. then one of the elders addressed me saying who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come so if an elder is asking that look the elders are like the most in the know dudes ever right they're around the father they're around the sun they're in the presence of god they know everything so when they come to john they go hey john who are these clothed in white robes where'd they come from they're not asking for so that john could educate them they're asking so that john and that we would pay attention our ears of what i need to know the answer to this question because they're asking it for a very particular reason verse 14 he says sir you know and he said to me these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb this revelation chapter 7 is looking at the impact of mass martyrdom from revelation chapter 6 in a parenthetical way what i mean by that the book of revelation is structured chronologically and parenthetically you know what a parenthesis is like when you're writing you you so like you know a statement statement statement and then oh by the way parentheses this is a parenthesis in between the chronology of the judgment events first seal second seal third seal fourth seal fifth seal the impact of the fifth seal is mass martyrdom the full number of martyrs coming in now john sees it in a different way now it's not souls under the altar now it's a massive collective gathering of worship in awe before the face of the lord and they're worshiping him and he's saying who where i don't know where they come from and the elder says a very very pointed intentional phrase these are the ones who come up out of the great tribulation beloved we're not going to be coming out of the world in rapture before the great tribulation we're going to be coming out of the great tribulation in martyrdom and getting white robes this is very very powerful which means also not only is it very powerful because we're going to face the tribulation we're going to face martyrdom the gospel is going to take root in every tribe every nation and every language right now there are there are still massive amounts of unreached people groups ethno-linguistic people groups who have never heard the gospel revelation chapter 7 tells us that every single nation tribe and tongue will have a remnant will have a witness which means this witness will be born among these nations before and during the great tribulation i it's my personal conviction i can't back this up from scripture because there's no verse that says one way or the other but it's my conviction that the great commission to go make disciples of all nations matthew 28 i do not believe that that's going to take place before the great tribulation begins meaning the great tribulation is actually going to be the context setting event events that set the theater and the stage for the going forth of the gospel to every tribe tongue and nation and when it goes forth it's going to separate wheat and terrors now it's the same thing we read the exact same thing in matthew chapter 24. they'll deliver you up the tribulation and put you to death it says in verse 9. you will be hated by all nations for my namesake all ethne means every ethno ethno-linguistic people group on the earth is going to hate believers which means every ethno-linguistic people group on the planet is going to have believers you can't kill them and hate them if you don't have them right they're going to have them it says many will fall away betray one another they'll hate one another false prophets lawlessness will be increased love of many will grow cold but the one who endures to the end will be saved verse 14 and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all ethnic all nations and then the end will come meaning this the context of the delivering of you up to death is giving an end time global witness to the nations of the earth that will bring in and result in a great harvest of souls now later on in revelation chapter 14 we see that there's a great harvest that takes place there's a sickle a sickles thrust forth and there's a harvest of souls for judgment and souls for redemption and we see in revelation chapter seven sorry i'm so itchy from the allergies the allergies in israel right now it's springtime just killing me my nose is so itchy i apologize for all the the sniffling and scratching we see from the book of revelation over and over again that this dynamic of martyrdom not only is it going to be the hallmark of the great tribulation it's also going to be the provocation for the great final declaration of the gospel and not just declaration and here's the important part and i'm setting all that up to say this the church at the end of the age is not just going to declare the gospel to every nation they're going to demonstrate the gospel to every nation through the laying down of their lives in the great tribulation i believe that the great tribulation is god's great missions strategy i believe it's the climax of his plan to bring a remnant out of every tribe tongue and nation we know that because it says in revelation chapter 5 we hear this song worthy are you lord to take the scroll into lucid seals for you were slain and by your blood you purchased a remnant from every tribe tongue and nations and you and they will reign on the earth now that song is sung before the tribulation begins he tears the seal the tribulation begins right the tribulation is causing is setting in motion the final great harvest at the end of the age now the great harvest at the end of the age is not going to look like your traditional revival if you've been you know thinking revival is going to look like you know everyone coming to church for example it's not going to look like that at all like at all at all at all it's going to look like mass discipleship happening across the world in the context of blood meaning it's going to look probably a lot more like iran afghanistan syria saudi arabia than it is going to look like you know new jersey it's going to look a lot more like what it looks like in parts of india right now than it does in sydney australia the great harvest of souls is probably not going to look like western church models and structures and forms growing and becoming bigger it probably looks like western church models and forms and structures actually collapsing and waves of discipleship going forth and reverberating through the nations without buildings without centralized leadership structures i'm so excited about what takes place which is why i'm so aggravated by the pre-tribulation teaching because it's setting people to just tol setting up people to totally disengage from the greatest moment in church history it's very very dangerous look at revelation 12 verse 10. so it's a famous verse you know the verse but let's read it again in this context and ask the lord for increased revelation on this the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our god now this happens at the beginning of the tribulation satan is evicted from his place of authority and influence at the beginning of the tribulation he's he comes down having great wrath it says because he knows his time is short verse 11 they the saints conquer him by the blood of the lamb by the word of their testimony and for they love their lives they love not their lives even unto death we give our lives away in the days of the rage of satan and this is how we overcome him revelation 13 which is very interesting that you compare and contrast revelation 12 revelation 13. in revelation 12 it says the saints are conquering satan and and the beast and in revelation 13 it says that the beast and satan are conquering or overcoming the saints wait which one is it i thought we were overcoming him now it says he's overcoming us which is it yes both here's how we overcome him by him overcoming us in devoting many to destruction daniel chapter 8 says that the antichrist goes forth in great fury devoting many to destruction in daniel chapter 7 it says that the saints will be given into his hands for a period of time to be shattered and broken by the passages go on and on daniel chapter 11 the same thing we see that many will fall in those days by the sword by captivity by plundering but they are going to turn many to righteousness i mean the the amount of passages both in the old testament and in the new testament that talk about the the violence at the end of the age it's just there's there's too many passages to even talk about in one session because there just are so many and that's really what i want you to feel as we're looking at the fifth seal i mean this is like a chosen event in god's program at the end of the age is for martyrdom to dominate the world scene you know we get to passages like in in revelation 17 and 18 we see that the saints are being beheaded it says the blood of the saints that the judgment is going to fall in the heart of babylon on the beast because she shed the blood of the saints it's not just the antichrist who's spilling the blood of the saints the heart that babylon is spilling the blood of the saints as well so everywhere we turn in the book of revelation we're seeing the blood of the saints being spilled being poured out being spilled being poured out this blood blood blood blood blood we've so sanitized the gospel call and so sanitized the story of god to where it looks like all of us sitting in cushy chairs and nicely lit rooms where everyone loves us and we feel at home and we belong and we're safe and valued and everything is right with the world guys that is an americanized sanitized unbiblicized version of the gospel the central call of the gospel is that jesus was slain to buy you with his blood and now if you follow him it's likely that the consequences of you following him if you follow him as he commanded you to could and likely would result in your death in like kind of his death this is just something that we need to get over the embarrassment of this i think there's a lot of people in pulpits right now that are embarrassed by jesus's demands on all of us to give our lives and lose our lives and lay our lives down and so we turn it into something else about something more like aren't you so valuable and so loved and you have a place to belong here and this is your home guys jesus didn't save you so that you could have a nice home church okay he saved you so that you would walk like him and look like him look i think having a nice home church is great but i think a lot of our home churches are going to collapse when the weight of this stuff comes bearing down on the nations in a way i think current church structures are just temporary realities that are not going to survive the day of the lord they're not going to survive this kind of pressure they're not going to survive the fifth seal what the lord is raising up in the earth right now is a fellowship that is conscious of the fifth seal before the fifth seal happens that we would live fifth seal lives now meaning have this mind you know in philippians 2 where paul says to the philippians guys have this mind of servanthood and he talks about this mentality if you have the mind you will live like this i want to i want to tell you have this mind of the saints in the fifth seal have this mind of the saints in revelation chapter 7 have the mind of the apostles who laid their lives down have the mind of daniel who went to the lion's den and survived but was not because he was exempt from it because the lord was his redeemer and his judge in the midst of it the lord is not going to take his church out go oh you're so i love you so much i can't i'm not gonna let you get hurt i'm gonna put you over here and i'm gonna brutalize the earth for 42 months without you guys of being a part of it because you guys you're you're too sensitive the lord is that's not how this thing is going to go down i remember uh sitting with uh someone i won't name uh a while back many years ago now actually and uh he was saying he was talking about the the pre-tribulation rapture not a believer and he said you know i that the whole idea of the pre-tribulation rapture at the end of the day is actually incredibly racist i said racist why is it racist he said so you mean to tell me that the church all the christians are going to get taken away and the jews are just going to get brutalized by the gentiles and then once it's over and they're beaten to a pulp enough then jesus is going to come back that's actually pretty anti-semitic if you think about it i thought well i don't really associate pre-trib with anti-semitism but it actually is profoundly not very gracious and generous towards the jewish people what it's saying is the lord loves us enough to take us out but not you enough to take you out oh chosen people this is the god's economy is not to spare his people from suffering it has never been that this whole idea that he would spare us from suffering is not biblical it's not in the scripture guys it doesn't say he'll spare you from suffering it doesn't say he'll spare you from death it doesn't spare you from the need to suffer long suffer long long suffering you know what long suffering is the fruit of the spirit long suffering to suffer long guys don't be don't don't let suffering destroy your soul because your soul is stronger than the suffering that you are called to endure the lord is doing 10 billion things through our suffering that we can't possibly imagine that in the age to come we're going to look back and go what beauty is there in that what magnificence in his wisdom it's stunning what he's done through us and in us and for us through the dark night of this present evil age just like it's it's obvious it's kind of captain obvious here to point this out but just like jesus's own death it's horrific the death of the very son of god it's absolutely horrific but it was absolutely necessary and it's absolutely magnificent and beautiful so too is our suffering there is a necessity to human suffering that god does not want to deliver you from and he's not going to deliver you from now i'll i'll wrap this up by talking about the complexity and there's no way that our little peanut minds can grasp the the grandeur and the bigness of all this but i do want to give a distinction here about what god wants and what god wills because there's so many examples in scripture where god will will a thing that he does not will to happen he said what does that mean meaning god doesn't want to do something he takes no pleasure in it but he wills it he decrees it he orchestrates it he administrates it you know it's like he says to ezekiel i don't take pleasure in the death of the wicked but in that same chapter he's talking about giving the decree the order that will bring about the death of the wicked so on one hand god's emotional will does not represent necessarily his decreed will or vice versa god is constantly decreeing things willing things that he doesn't emotionally will to happen the cross of jesus for example god did not will the cross to happen on an emotional level like this is so amazing and i love it and it's so fun and enjoyable and it brings me pleasure no he wills it he decrees it because of its strategic import its strategic necessity its value its significance its meaning but he doesn't will it the flood of noah god willed the flood of noah that the deeps would break open and that rain would fall from the heavens and that every man woman child beast and animal and every living thing would be snuffed out during the flood of noah yet he didn't emotionally does not will that he does not wish that he does not want that to happen and that's a very important paradigm to bring into the book of revelation because as it was in the days of noah so shall it be when the son of man comes god is going to will horrific events because of the strategic import of them because of the impact and the redemptive value of them he said how could there be redemptive value and so many saints being butchered i'm going to fight the antichrist you know i can see it now our youtube comment section here is going to be loaded with people saying ain't going to tread on me antichrist i'm going to take me down i'm going to fight beloved if you're aiming to fight the antichrist you are not walking in the footsteps of jesus you're not following him you're not obeying him you're actually lost if you're planning on fighting the antichrist to defend your life during the great tribulation you're lost you've been deceived you've deceived yourself into thinking that this is wisdom in god's path it's not the path that god has chosen and ordained and called the church at the end of the age 2 is one of filling up the full number of martyrs and you don't get to decide whether you are one of those numbers i don't get to decide now here's the thing martyrs get rewarded exorbitantly in the age to come so there is a payoff here that's pretty significant for martyrs but we don't go seeking martyrdom and we don't seek to avoid it either we seek jesus and here's the thing beloved if you're seeking jesus you're going to find yourself in positions that are going to put your life at risk if you're actually seeking him now if you're trying to protect your life and save your life and you're just thinking about how you're going to fight the antichrist which you're not anyway by the way good luck with that but even if you're trying to fight the antichrist and stockpile as much food as possible what you're doing is really is living a narcissistic self-centered uncrucified life that may be judged in the end to be no different than your reprobate neighbor who's openly rebelling against the lord and openly siding with the antichrist that's the crazy thing about this the fate of many who will fight the antichrist will be the same eternal fate as those who are fighting with him because they're not following jesus the main mandate on our lives at the end of the age is to overcome by the blood of the lamb the word of our testimony and not loving our lives unto death and this is where i'll give a shameless plug to our film sheep among wolves too if you've not yet seen it you need to go see it i say that to say this the church in the persecuted world today particularly the church in iran has a lot to teach us in the west about what it means to follow jesus what it means to be a part of the church what it means to live a life of obedience and godliness in an increasingly dark evil twisted depraved age we're gonna leave it there we are out of time but i wanna read one last verse and exhort you with this last verse from first corinthians chapter two verse one it's a verse that you're familiar with i imagine but it's a verse that i want to encourage you to read in context of the fifth seal and i when i came to you brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of god with lofty speech or wisdom i didn't come in eloquence i didn't come as a genius i decided to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified i want to know nothing but jesus and him crucified i was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling weakness fear and trembling is what characterizes the apostle the apostolic way fear trembling and weakness guys this whole martyrdom thing is not bravado and strength and i love death i love murder him i'll fight the antichrist i'm not fighting any crime no it's weakness it's fear it's trembling and my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom it's not plausible like it's not rational but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of god yet among the mature we impart wisdom so who's the mature among the mature we impart wisdom who's the mature although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away but we impart a secret a hidden wisdom of god which god decreed before the ages for our glory none of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had they would not have crucified the lord of glory what's the hidden wisdom that the mature feast on crucifixion the wisdom of death paul says i want to know nothing but christ and him crucified and i want to carry the witness of the crucified messiah in my body in my frame in my personality and every breath i want to display this hidden wisdom among the mature and provoke as many as possible into maturity what is maturity in terms of defined by the apostle paul this is maturity walking the way of the crucifixion of jesus it says the powers of this age the rulers of this age demons didn't understand it they didn't understand the secret wisdom because if they did they wouldn't have killed them because what he's what paul is saying is this the demons got duped they thought that by killing him they were usurping the purposes of god but they're actually fulfilling the purposes of god the fifth seal is not usurping the purposes of god it's fulfilling the purposes of god martyrdom suffering the crucifixion bloodletting it's not thwarting the purposes of god it's fulfilling it this is maturity this is wisdom guys thank you for watching this if you're watching this on youtube and you don't have the fai app make sure to go download it on all major app platforms and join us next week as we continue on joel richardson's gonna pick back up with a very consequential session the sixth seal guys bless you and maranatha

Channel: FAI STUDIOS

Views: 33,457

Rating: 4.9015207 out of 5

Keywords: Dalton Thomas, FAI, FAI Studios, end-times, end times, eschatology, Turkish antichrist, antichrist, Middle East beast, Joel Richardson, islamic antichrist, pretribulation rapture, rapture, Amir Tsarfati, Behold Israel ministries, frontier alliance international, sheep among wolves, return of Jesus, beast empire, revelation 13, harlot babylon, great tribulation, bible study, maranatha global bible study, Donald trump, make America great again, covid19, christian, mark of the beast

Id: Vd5W9DA2fcM

Length: 51min 32sec (3092 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021