All right, here we are, Revelation and
Daniel, Daniel/Revelation. We're at lesson number nine. I'd want you to open your
Bibles to chapter 12 of Revelation. That's where we'll be reading at the appropriate time, and we'll be throwing up the slides as well. So, we know that Revelation is the vision that John the Apostle has concerning the
church's struggle with Rome, which took place in the first century. The theme of
the book is the revelation of Christ, a more perfect vision in His glorified
state. The idea is that the Gospels give us a vision of Christ in His
humbled state. In other words, He's a man. He has to eat, He's hungry, He gets tired,
even is frustrated by the disbelief of His followers at times. And for a
few moments, a few glorified moments, we see Him performing a miracle,
certainly His resurrection, but those are moments of glory that go
through the Gospels, but when we get to the book of Revelation, John shows us His exalted state, no humility here. He's not being attacked by man. No limits, if you wish. He is in His glorified state. So let's
take a look at the scene. We need to keep the story in order,
because there's so many symbols and so much figurative language, we kind
of lose the story at times. So far we've seen the glorious vision of
Christ as He speaks to John at the very beginning of the book. Then we hear
Christ's instructions to the seven churches, in order to be faithful. That's
part of vision one, that John describes, beginning in chapter one, goes
all the way to Chapter three. Then we watched as John describes the
theme of God and the scene as Christ begins a display of His power, the power
that's at His command, that will be used to destroy the enemy. Remember, I talked to
you about the idea that it was like the parade, military parades. A little bit like a military
parade, one thing after another, demonstrating all the powers that the Lord is going to use against His enemy. Then we've also heard the prophecy,
as to the events that will take place that will lead to the ultimate victory of
the church. And so, the events will take place in the following
manner: the church will grow rapidly; then there will be a period of persecution
where the church, it will seem, has lost; then it will survive this persecution
and ultimately be victorious as the enemy is defeated. So that's the story
that John is telling here with many of his visions. Now all the information,
these images, these symbols, have been presented in the second vision. And that
lasts from chapter four all the way over to chapter 11. So as we begin studying
today, we're going to look at the third vision as John describes the actual
struggle. So we had the, kind of, the preliminary, if you wish; the parade,
the power, the things that are going to happen. Now he describes the actual
struggle itself. And first he introduces Christ and then there is the viewing of
His power. Now there's going to be kind of a play-by-play of the struggle itself.
Now we need to remember that when John is writing this particular book, the
persecution by Rome has already begun. I mean, it's not something that's
happening in the future, it's something that they're actually experiencing in the now. And so, what he is writing informs the church of the first century
concerning their immediate and future struggle. So in this way it is prophecy.
Some times people talk about Revelation in the sense that
it's all prophecy, it's only about the future, the end of the world, but
there is some reference, if you will, to the things that will take place at the
end of the world, but as far as John is concerned, and the people in the
first century, these things were happening now. And the
prophecy contained in the book simply referred to something that would
happen in the not-too-distant future: the ultimate destruction of the Roman
Empire. And even though it only happened a few hundred years after
John was writing, it was still a major prophecy. And that's what I'm
trying to get across in this lesson, that yes, it's prophecy, but it's prophecy
concerning the immediate struggle that they were experiencing at that time and
how it would end in the near future. Now, we read it today and we see that
that prophecy was fulfilled. I mean, Rome did fall, the church did
survive, however, the book prophesizes that this cycle of evil and
struggle will continue, and one day Jesus will return to put an end to this and
open the new heavens and the new earth. So he's talking about what's happening to
them as they were experiencing it. He also makes a prophecy in the short term
that the Roman Empire will ultimately be destroyed. And he also demonstrates an
ongoing cycle that will take place throughout history - the cycle of evil,
different empires, different philosophies, ideas, that will continue until
the end of time, when at the very end of time Jesus will
return and put an end to that cycle once and for all. And so, in this
sense, it's prophecy for us today. Our encouragement is that if
the former prophecies were fulfilled concerning Rome, well then we can have
confidence that the prophecies for the end of the world will also be fulfilled, things that we look forward to in our day. So let's take a look at vision
number three, that would be in Chapter 12. Now the bulk of the vision is the actual
description of the struggle between Satan and his earthly embodiment, which
was Rome, and the Lord Jesus and His earthly embodiment, which is the church.
So John's going to describe the war between these two, jumping from
images of Satan and Rome and Jesus and the church. And he'll also
describe the tactics that each used to destroy the other. So let's read chapter 12
beginning in verse one, it says, "A great "sign appeared in the heaven: a woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon under "her feet, and on her head a crown of
twelve stars; and she was with child; and "she cried out, being in labor and in
pain to give birth." So here we have the introduction of the woman. And the woman,
of course, is the ideal of God's people in both the Old Testament and the New
Testament. And she gives birth to the child. Of course, it's not
too hard to figure out who the child is. The child is Christ, the product of God's
people in the Old Testament and New Testament brought about by a long and
painful history. So it says the woman is in labor. Well, throughout history the Jewish nation, it was in labor, if you wish. It had all
kinds of persecutions and failings, wars, they were
overrun, they were put into exile. The long period of labor throughout history
to get to a point where the Christ was actually born. So John kind of compresses
this whole idea and just gives it one word: labor, until the child is born. Then he
says in verse three, "Then another sign "appeared in heaven: and behold, a great
red dragon having seven heads and ten "horns, and on his heads were seven
diadems." So the red dragon represents Satan. The seven heads: world domination. The
ten horns: complete destructive power. The seven crowns: not victory, but
symbolizing rule. Remember the numbers that we've talked about. Number seven: a number that is complete. Number ten: a mature, dominating number. Always
using these numbers to demonstrate the extent of the power, the extent of the
domination, the extent of the corruption. We keep reading, verse four, it
says, "And his tail swept away a third of "the stars of heaven
and threw them to the "earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman who was about to give birth, "so that when she gave birth he might devour
her child. And she gave birth to a son, a "male child, who is to rule all the
nations with a rod of iron; and her "child was caught up to God and His
throne. Then the woman fled into the "wilderness where she had a place
prepared by God, so that there she would "be nourished for 1,260 days." And so again, a
lot of symbolism here. The sweeping of the stars represents the killing of
God's people, including the attempt to destroy the Christ child. I mean, this
child is prepared to rule with an iron, the idea of an iron rule.
Meaning, a rule that can't be broken. A rule with all the power that it
requires. And it says the wilderness. The wilderness of course is the earth, not
heaven. And the 1,260 days we know represents a short time. You remember,
even Daniel talked about a long time. So the 1,260 days represents a
short time. Now we're not going to read verses 12 to 17, going to skip over that.
Just the idea in verses seven to 17, John is going to describe the scene in which we
see satan's four-step attack, in order to destroy Jesus and His church. So the
first step, he tries to attack the child. In other words, attempts to keep Him from
being born or surviving once he is born. And we see that all the way through the
Bible, don't we? I mean, every attempt that Satan makes is to try to
destroy God's people, to seduce kings to not believe or to disobey, the temptation in
the Garden of Jesus. All of these throughout history are
the attacks against the birth of the child in one way or another. The second
attack is the throne in heaven. Satan begins a spiritual war in an effort to
keep Christ from bringing His blood to the throne, so that he can continue to accuse man of sin, but John describes
that the Lamb eventually does come to the throne to bring the blood of the
sacrifice, and the gospel is being spread, thus taking away his power and having
him thrown down. So the war is in two spheres. The war is here on earth, of
course, that we know more about, because we can read it historically. But the war is
also in the spiritual places. Paul talks about that in Ephesians,
that our battle is not flesh and blood, but our battle is against the spirits and
the dominions, and the powers and the rulers that live in the spiritual world. So
here John, through his vision, gives us an idea about the battle that is
taking place there. And the essence of the battle is Satan's attempt to stop
either the sacrifice, or Christ being born or making a sacrifice or to stop, in
heaven, him from bringing the sacrifice to the throne of God. A third attack is
the attack of the woman. The woman is given wings, we read about. Wings
are a symbol of protection. Satan sends rivers of
wickedness, but the earth, he says, the earth drinks it up. And the
idea there is that lies and wickedness, false religion, all these things are
sent to target the church. The woman represents the church also. But she
resists these, she remains faithful, but the world, meaning non-believers, they
drink in the things to their own destruction. The woman
symbolically gives birth to Christians and is afforded protection. The
woman is, at the same time, spiritual Israel or God's people throughout
history. So that symbol of the woman pertains to many different facets of
God's people throughout history, but always the same idea: God's people,
Satan sending things to attack God's people. And God's people, if they're
faithful, they resist these things, but those who are unbelievers, they fall
victim to these types of attacks. And so an attack against God's people to stop
them from multiplying. And one of the attacks that the church was
experiencing at that time was the persecution by Rome. Remember, Rome was
trying to destroy the church, but we know that that attack fails and the
wickedness sent does not affect the church, but it does affect the rest of
the world. And then the fourth attack that Satan makes, the fourth attack that
he makes is, he attacks individuals within the church. Now in this he is
successful because individuals have free choice. Some are destroyed,
some Christians fall away, some Christians lose their faith. And so,
we go to chapter 13, and in chapter 13 the description of the struggle
continues as agents are brought in to help defeat the seed or the offering of
the woman. So you see what's happening, right? John, in his vision, is telling
this story, describes the great creature Satan, the red dragon with all
his power. He describes the various ways that the dragon has attacked the church, Christ, to try to stop the work of the redemption of
Christ through the cross. Okay, he talks about that. And then in chapter 13 new
characters come on to the stage, the red - the devil, the red dragon, he
brings in some replacements. Replacement soldiers, some new
individuals in the scenario. And here John's vision gets much more specific as
to the description of the embodiment of Satan, namely the Roman Empire. And so in
this chapter he begins symbolically to describe the enemy, which is Rome,
which is the embodiment of Satan. So in verses one to 10 of chapter 13, again,
we're not going to read that passage. I'm just going to paraphrase it for
you. And I do remind you to read ahead. I've said before, we're not
going to have time to read all of the verses, so make sure you read ahead, so
that when I get to those particular sections, you're familiar with the
material that's in the book. So in verses one to 10 he describes the first
beast, all right. So the red dragon brings in
reinforcements. And one of those reinforcements, an ally of Satan in the
war against the church. So the first beast is red, has ten horns, seven heads, ten
crowns, looks something like Satan in the previous chapter, but here is the
embodiment of Satan. So the first creature that is described
by John is Satan himself. The second creature, the beast, is an
embodiment of Satan on the earth. And so the embodiment of Satan on the earth as
John is describing now in chapter 13 is Rome itself. And so the beast
represents Rome. So let's take a look at the description. Red, of course, is evil and
violence. Ten horns: the absolute temporal power that Rome had. Ten crowns refer to
the absolute temporal rulership, Rome ruled supreme. There were no challengers
to its rulership at that time in the world. Seven heads could be either the
seven mountains around Rome, it could also refer to seven kings or seven emperors. Any of the imagery fits. Now in chapter 13, John says that one of
the heads was wounded and then came back to life. And sometimes we,
today, we wonder, what does that mean? But the people who lived at that time, they
knew what that meant. You see, at that time there was a rumor that went around
called Nero's resurrection. And let me explain that to you. There were actually
eight emperor's from Augustus in 14 AD to Domitian in 96 AD, when this book was
probably written. However, one of them is like a resurrection of the previous one, as
I said, there was a rumor in Rome that Nero would resurrect and come back. And
when future persecutions began after Nero's death, it was said that
it was Nero's spirit dwelling and guiding the present emperor in the
persecution, thus seven real emperors and one in the spirit of a past emperor. And so
today we have to get that, we have to kind of understand that, read
between the lines so to speak, but in the first century they were familiar with the
idea. They got it. They understood what John was referring to.
So now, if we continue the action, the dragon gives rulership over to this
first beast, okay, who has existing power at the writing of the book. So this beast
resembles a composite of the four beasts in Daniel. And John shows it to be a
terrible beast, just like Daniel's fourth beast. Remember all the
four beasts that Daniel talked about? Remember I said, it was important that we
understood what that represented. Well, here we see a kind of a mirror image of
that in the book of Revelation. Again, don't get lost in all the symbols. The first creature is Satan, the dragon. He
brings in a reinforcement called the beast, looks somewhat like Satan, but
represents the Roman Empire. The beast, this is the work that the beast will do:
the beast will blaspheme God and receive worship itself as God. Now we understand,
historically, we understand that to mean emperor worship. And so, John says that
this beast will do damage for a while, three and a half years, he says. And it
has the authority to do so. In other words, God will permit - remember I've
told you in other lessons that nothing happens without God's permission.
Sometimes the things that are happening and wonderful and positive, and we
say oh we've received a blessing from God. Sometimes we have a car accident and
we break our arm. Well, God didn't send that, but He permitted it,
because nothing happens without God's permission. And so, what John is saying
here is this beast is going to do what he's going to do. No use hoping that it won't happen. He's saying
this beast is going to do what It's going to do. God will permit it for a time.
The beautiful thing about being a Christian, of course, is when we look at
these things, we understand that even the evil things that God will permit for a
time, those people will be judged. Now, if there was no judgment, if people did
whatever they did and there was no judgment of these things, then it
would be chaos and we would be sorely discouraged. But we know that God will
call every single individual into account for what they've done. That goes
from the simplest individual who has a small life and a family and does his
life quietly, to the greatest king or president that ever lived.
Everybody will be judged. So John is saying this beast is going to
do a lot of damage for a time, God permits it. But there's going to be a
judgment, okay. So the point is that there's no use resisting or losing hope,
the beast will do its damage, but only for a short while, all right.
So verses 11 to 18 John is going to introduce a second character or agent of Satan now is called forth, another recruit. And
this one is called the false prophet. Now the purpose of the false
prophet is to influence the people to give worship to the first beast, okay.
And so the description: this false prophet has horns like a lamb, and speaks
like a dragon. And so the lamb, the idea of the lamb represents religion. The idea
of dragon represents evil. And so, if you combine religion and the dragon
what you have is false religion, okay. So he tries to influence worship of the beast. In other words, the false prophet uses a
variety of tactics to get the people to worship not the devil now, not the first
creature, but the beast, all right. So he uses three different methods that John
will describe here. First, magic and sorcery, to seduce the people into
thinking that the beast has some power. Secondly, economic sanctions. The mark of the beast, those who worshiped received
a certain identification mark that allowed them to trade. That's a very
historical idea. Today if you want to build a shed in the back
of your house or an extension you have to go to City Hall, you have to get a
permit, and that's normal. That's how the government
raises tax money, and maintains a certain amount of
continuity, if you wish, in the building code. But in those days you had to have a
seal to do anything: to trade money, to have a business, to do any type of
bartering, trading, business, anything at all, you had to have the Imperial seal.
And that was based on your faithful attendance to emperor worship. You had to
buy into emperor worship in order to get the seal. And I'll talk about that in a
second. And then the - so the third tactic was threats of violence. Those who
refused the emperor worship were put to death. Now, he talks about the false
prophet and that he can be recognized by his number and his number is 666. Alright,
we've seen that in so many movies and all kinds, 666, and it's all so mysterious,
but we've studied Jewish numerology, right. And we know that the
number six represents incompleteness. Something that is not complete. Number seven represents something that is complete. Number six is something that is
incomplete. So if you have six and six and six, three sixes in a row, you're
talking about something that is woefully incomplete and that will never be
complete, alright, a total imperfection. That's what number 666 means. Another interesting thing is that the Jews had a way of equating numbers to the alphabet,
and the number six, six, six, is the numerical equivalent to the word Nero
Caesar. And so John used this kind of riddle for his Jewish and Greek
Christian audience. They understood who 666 was, it was
referring to Nero, the false prophet, the emperor worship, if you wish.
So the false prophet also corresponds historically to what were called the Asiarchs. These were priests of the cult of emperor worship, who promoted this
practice throughout the provinces using occult and magic. So far in this vision
John has described the following things, okay, so we need to regroup and summarize
here. All right, number one, he describes God's power in defeating the enemy.
Number two, he describes the battle itself and the enemy itself: we see the
child is born, he's attacked by Satan in a variety of ways, he's taken to
heaven, we see the blood of Christ is operational, and the persecution of the
church begins, will only last three and a half years, which means a short time. We see
that Satan is cast out of heaven and begins to use two beasts to persecute
the seed, which is the offspring or Christians themselves. And then we
see that these will be or there will be, rather, a period of intense persecution.
And so the next chapter or in the next chapter John is going to describe the
defeat and the judgment of the beasts and Satan. So we go to chapter 14, alright. So now in chapter 14 is the
announcement of the final judgment and it's divided into three sections. Now the
final judgment right, I mean, we've had the play-by-play of the war, it's not some big
long, they did this, they did that. It's just short description of what
takes place: the attack of the church, some of the methodologies used to attack
the church, and the characters that Satan is using in that attack. And John goes
directly to the judgment now. He shows the judgment in three sections: the
144,000, the three angels, and the two sickles. You know what a sickle is? That very ancient device to harvest, all right. So we've seen the
action of Satan's attack. We've seen his forces. Now the judgment on him,
and these will be pronounced. In other words, we see God's
counter-attack. And so, let's read chapter 14 briefly, we'll read verses one to five. It
says, "Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb "was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him
144,000, having His name and the name of "His Father written under foreheads. And I
heard a voice from heaven, like the sound "of many waters and like the sound of loud
thunder, and the voice which I heard "was like the sound of harpists playing on
their harps. And they sang a new song "before the throne and before the four
living creatures and the elders; and no "one could learn the song except the
144,000 who had been purchased from the "earth. These are the ones who have not
been defiled with women, for they have "kept themselves chaste. These are the
ones who follow the Lamb wherever He "goes. These have been purchased from
among men as first fruits to God and to "the Lamb. And no lie was found in their
mouth, they are blameless." And so, we've already discussed 144,000 and the
significance of the 144,000, the 144,000, that perfect number of those
with whom God deals with, basically is what it means. The ones that He has
sealed. The ones that He has protected. The ones that He has counted. The ones
that He has measured are now shown to have survived the
persecution and the attacks of Satan. Remember in the Bible, the writers, a lot
of times, described the same thing in many different ways. So who are the
sealed? Who are the measured ones? Who are the protected ones? Who are the
144,000? Who are the saints? Well, we're always talking about the same
people. We're talking about Christians. We're talking about God's people. So it's true for the first century, as
well as every subsequent attack and persecution including death itself. God protects His own in one way or another, depending on the, not
depending, but in various situations throughout history. So those who are God's
in Christ will be saved. So who are the 144,000? Well, they're the saved. That's
who they are. They're the saved. They were the saved then and they are
the saved now today, and in the future. The 144,000 will always be the saved. And so, in verses six to 13 three angels appear. So the judgment, remember I said the
judgment is being pronounced. Well, the first aspect of the judgment is
there are some who are saved and obviously someone who's going to be lost. So who are they saved? Well, they're 144,000. He could have said, they are the saints. He could have said, they are the sealed. He could have said they are those that
I've measured and kept. He could have said it in a lot of different ways, but He
calls them the 144,000. That's us, we're the 144,000. So
the judgment is, some are saved. The ones God has saved, therefore, it doesn't say it,
but therefore, some are lost. Second judgment, the three angels. The first
angel brings the gospel and signifies judgment is at hand, it's
coming. God is going to judge. The second angel announces the fall of Babylon.
Babylon, remember I said, some things are described in a variety of ways. Well,
this time Babylon is the word used to describe Rome. We know that Babylon was
the center for wickedness and idolatry and a world power in the ancient days,
hundreds of years before Rome. Now Rome is that world power - wicked and full of
idolatry and persecution for the church. And so, John calls Rome, Babylon. So the
second angel says the judgment is at hand. Third angel announces the
destruction of those who partake of the beast. Who are they? Well, they're not
144,000. Who are they? Well, they're Rome and the followers of Rome.
He talks about drinking the wine of wrath. Well, what do you think that could be?
Well, judgment, the outcome of following those who are evil. So
he contrasts between those who received the mark of the beast, all right, who
accept and embrace Rome, and he compares those who have received the sealing of the spirit, 144,000. One of
them is going to suffer judgment and then torment and suffering. The other
have been persecuted, but will now have joy and rest. Alright, verses 14 to 20, the third image, the image of the two sickles. This is the image of judgment after the destruction of the beast and
its followers. Jesus judges first and His judgment is to reap the harvest
of His followers, who will be with Him. And who do you think they are? Well,
they're the 144,000. We always go back to that same group that's been
described in a variety of ways. And then, the other angel of judgment comes and he
gathers those who are unbelievers and sinners and their judgment will be
suffering. Have we ever seen an image of judgment any different than this,
anywhere throughout the Bible? I mean, even though the imagery is
mysterious and it's heavenly, every image of
judgment is always the same: those who follow God or Christ, they're saved, they're described in a variety of ways, but their outcome is
always the same: joy, peace, love, eternal life; and those who didn't believe, those
who were wicked, well, their end is what? Well, it's judgment and suffering. So
it's no different here. The beast is destroyed, the followers are punished, the
earth is judged, with good rewarded and evil rejected and punished. All right, so
John describes the battle between Satan and his forces and Jesus and
His Church. In chapter 14 the final destruction and judgment is described. So
in the following chapters John is going to digress and he's going to give more
detail concerning the destruction of Rome, and the final dealing that God will
have with Satan himself, who started all of this. You ever watch
those movies, the girl is trapped and she's tied up
somewhere, and the hero he's coming to save his beloved, right? And he's fighting guys, the guards at the door, he dispatches them with two or three swipes
of the sword, and then he beats up the guy who's on the inside. He
keeps fighting his way through the crowd, and the war is going on, people fighting
all around. We know what's going to happen. How many times have we seen that
movie? And he finally gets to the chamber where his beloved is tied up and then the main guy, the main bad guy is
there and that's the climactic battle and we say, wow, where did they get the
idea for this? Well they, for a lot of it, they got it right here. Because that's
exactly what John is describing. The battles going back and forth and the small fry, the small bad guys are being dispatched and judged, and
then at the end the hero and the villain, the climactic
scene. Well that's exactly what's going to happen here. The beast is judged, the
false prophet is judged, the followers, the small fry, they'll be judged. So now there's only one guy left, that's Satan.
And there's only one guy left on the other side and that's Christ. And so, we get
the final battle between the two top guys, and John is going to describe that
himself in the next couple of chapters. So you hang on for that. As I've said to
you before, make sure you read ahead so that we can kind of go through the
material without having to read every chapter. So that's it for now. We'll see
you next time, as we study Daniel Revelation for Beginners.
