REVELATION 10-12 REVELATION REFRESHER SERIES PART 52021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Revelation 10-12 Revelation Refresher Series Part 5

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Well, as we get back into the Revelation Refresher series here in chapters 10 through 13 tonight, I want to

kind of recap a little bit to get us back up to speed as we're looking at the book of Revelation. It's a great book because it has the promise of blessing, and the Lord has also helped us to understand it a little bit by giving us an outline in Revelation chapter 1 verse 19, where he tells John to write the things which he has seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The past things, the present things, and then the future things. And

And we saw that chapter 1 was the things that were of the past, the vision that he had already seen of Jesus. And then chapters 2 and 3 are the things of the present. And as we read these things today, that's still present today, that we are in the age of the church. And so those letters to the seven churches are really the most important chapters of Revelation to us today because we are living in that age. And those are the words of Jesus to us.

But then we also have the things that will take place, the future events. And that's what the majority of Revelation is about, chapters 4 through 22. And so we're spending some time looking at these future events. We've been looking at them now for a couple weeks. As we continue on in chapters 10 through 13, we'll see some more future things and a lot of gaps to fill in as we look at these chapters.

I want to give a little bit of an outline to help set the time frame and understanding of these things and when they're taking place. And so there's kind of four blocks of time that you can be thinking about.

We have the church age, and again, specifically the letters to the churches in chapters 2 and 3 really address the church age. But the church age began at the day of Pentecost and will continue until the rapture of the church. And so that is the time where God is working specifically within the church to

and pouring out the Holy Spirit upon the church to accomplish the mission of the church to make disciples. And so we are living in that time now. It will come to a close at the rapture, and then at some point after that, then we'll enter into the tribulation period. And this is a defined period. It's a seven-year time frame. It's recorded in the book of Revelation in chapters 5 through 18.

And so we've spent some time looking at the tribulation. We'll spend a lot more time looking at the tribulation tonight and next week as well.

Well, then the next block of time comes, and that's the millennium. That's also a defined time frame. That is 1,000 years where Jesus will rule and reign upon the earth. And we'll get into that in Revelation chapters 19 and 20. And then the final block of time is eternity. And so that is forever and ever and everlasting and everlasting. And we'll get a little bit of a preview of that in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.

And so the majority of Revelation is there in that middle period, the tribulation period, really focused on those events that will take place during that time when the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth. It really begins with the opening of that scroll with seven seals that we saw in Revelation chapter 5.

And without going through and, you know, talking about all of these seals again, just showing a quick glimpse of the seven seals and the different events that are taking place as the Lord is opening each seal and the tribulation is unfolding and the wrath of God is being poured out upon the earth. And we looked at that with a little bit of depth and got to see some of the challenging things that will be happening upon the earth.

Well, with the opening of the seventh seal comes forth seven trumpets. And so in a similar fashion, there's seven trumpets now. And as the angel sounds each trumpet, there is devastation and judgment being unleashed upon the earth. And that's what we saw two weeks ago now when we looked at those chapters and saw the different things that were happening as the angels were sounding.

and the kind of trying to imagine a little bit, it's hard to imagine, but to think through, uh, you know, what that would be like to experience those events here on earth during that tribulation period. So, uh,

Those are the things that we've covered so far in the tribulation period. But as we go forward tonight, we're still working through the tribulation period. Still to come, next week, we'll look at the bold judgments. Still to come is the battle of Armageddon. And then the end of the tribulation is the return of Jesus Christ. And so we'll get to those things in the coming weeks.

But tonight, as we look at chapters 10 through 13, we're kind of in what is called the parenthetical chapters, where it's kind of like the Lord says, okay, pause.

And I don't know if you've ever had to do this. If you've ever had to watch a movie with Richard Bueno, you have to pause the movie and kind of explain some things. Because he'll be like, well, who is that again? And where did they come from? And why did they say that? And I don't get it. And so you have to pause. OK, let me back up. Let me give the back story. Let me remind you of the things that happened earlier in the movie. And then so you kind of get all caught up. And then you hit play again. You go further. Oh, pause again. OK, so here's what's happening in this scene, right? And then you have to pause.

And we find in the book of Revelation, there's a lot of sequences of events that are happening. But then there's also these parenthetical thoughts where the Lord hits pause and explains some background information. And chapters 10 through 13 really focus on that.

that the majority of the content here is the Lord hitting pause and giving us some background in regards to this tribulation period. And so we're going to be focusing a lot on the tribulation. And so if you would kind of zoom in, you know, on that block of time, the tribulation period, Revelation chapters 5 through 18, we understand that the tribulation period is seven years long.

And we can't get into all of the details about that, but if you want to understand the seven-year time period and where that comes from, you want to dig into the 70 weeks of Daniel from Daniel chapter 9, where the Lord tells Daniel the prophet that there are 70 weeks determined for the people of Israel. And then as he goes through unfolding that prophecy, the majority of those weeks have been fulfilled.

That is, 483 years of the 490 years have been fulfilled at the coming of Jesus Christ, when Jesus was cut off as the Messiah. And so Daniel chapter 9, verse 24 through 26, give us those first 69 weeks. Now, when he talks about weeks, he's talking about a group of seven years.

So it's 70 groups of seven years or 490 years. And again, 483 of those have been fulfilled, but there is one remaining. And so that last week of Daniel, that last seven-year period, is what we refer to as the tribulation period.

Now what we know about the tribulation comes from a variety of different places. A lot of it is here in Revelation, but some of the key points are also found in other scriptures like Daniel chapter 9. And so one thing that we know is this seven-year period begins with a covenant that is made by the Antichrist with the people of Israel. Daniel chapter 9 verse 27 tells us, "...he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week."

And so this is the beginning of that final week of Daniel, there in Daniel 9, verse 27. That final seven-year period begins. A lot of times as Christians, we kind of correlate the rapture of the church with the beginning of the tribulation, and that's kind of true in a general sense. We believe that the rapture will take place before the tribulation period, but it's not

necessarily the trigger, and there could be some amount of time that happens between the rapture of the church and the beginning of the tribulation period. And so the Antichrist covenant, though, is that thing that begins that seven-year period. That's when the clock starts again, and those seven years begin to unfold when that covenant is made with Israel, or with the many, for one week or seven years.

Well, we also know there's a middle to this seven-year period. The tribulation has this middle point. In the middle of the week, it says in Daniel 9.27, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. So it begins with this covenant made by this man. We call him the Antichrist.

And then it has a middle point that is signified by him breaking that covenant. He brings an end to sacrifice and offering. And there's other things that happen along with this. And so we refer to this middle point as the abomination of desolation.

And it's that point where the Antichrist sets up an image of himself in the temple, proclaims himself to be God, and demands all of the world to worship him. And so that's the middle of the week, or the middle of the seven-year period, the abomination of desolation. And then we also know that the tribulation ends at Armageddon, until the consumption, or consum...

Yeah, consummation, which is determined, is poured out. All of this tribulation, all of this will unfold until the very end. It culminates with the nations of the earth gathering together in the Valley of Megiddo to battle. And then at that point, the Lord returns and wipes all of them out. And so the Battle of Armageddon is a battle between armies that were originally going to fight each other. But then when they see the Lord return, they try to fight against the Lord.

Now, as we look at these different elements of the tribulation period, the beginning, the middle, the end, there's some definite things, uh,

Then there's a lot of things that are not for sure in the mix and when exactly they're placed and the time frame of that. You know, when are the seven seals and what part of the tribulation, you know, do they go into? How far do they extend into the tribulation? And the seven trumpets and all of that. And so what I want to do tonight is share with you a little bit of a timeline from my perspective.

It may not be the right perspective because I'm not always right, but it's easier a little bit to share from my perspective than to try to share all the different perspectives. And so if you want to think about these things more or differently, if you want to discuss them more or talk about them, there's plenty of opportunity for us. We can do that.

But I'm just going to kind of be a little bit, you know, from my perspective, sharing the timing of these things as we look at chapters 10 through 13 to help us kind of place and understand what it is that's happening here. So my perspective as far as where we have been so far in the book of Revelation and now to chapter 10 is I would suggest that we are right at that point in the middle of the tribulation period.

So that the opening of the first seal, where the Antichrist comes forth, that is the beginning. That's the Antichrist's covenant. And then all the way up until the sixth trumpet, that is the first three and a half years of the tribulation period. And so my suggestion is that all of the seals and the first six trumpets all line up within that first three and a half year tribulation period.

And then the seventh trumpet is sounded for the final three and a half years. And from that comes the seven bowl judgments and all of the things that we'll look at in more detail next week.

And so here we are in chapters 10 through 13, kind of taking a break, hitting pause, looking at some parenthetical thoughts right in the middle of the tribulation period. And so these chapters bring us up to speed on some background info and help us understand these things. And so we'll be referring back to this timeline to kind of plug in the different elements as the Lord gives us insight on those as we work our way through the chapters.

So let's dig into the chapters that we have before us tonight. First of all, Revelation chapter 10. The key verse is verse 10. It says,

Here we see in Revelation chapter 10, John continues to see these visions of the Lord that he is revealing to him. And so he sees a mighty angel with a little book there in verses 1 through 7. And then he's instructed to, and so he takes the little book and he eats it in verses 8 through 11. And so what is going on here in chapter 10?

Looking at verse 1, he says, As you look at this angel, some consider this angel to be Jesus.

And if that is the case, it is a possibility, then it's probably picturing the second coming of Jesus as he comes to claim the earth as his own, as he has purchased it with his blood and opened the scroll with seven seals. And so it could be that it's Jesus returning to earth and it pictures him in that way. But

As it says, another mighty angel, the word another literally means another of the same kind. And so it seems to be more likely that it's, like it says, another angel. Not the Lord himself, but an angel. And so it's still a scene that is happening there in the midst of the tribulation period.

This angel is mighty and strong and valiant. And we see these kinds of words used of angels in Revelation chapter 5 verse 2, we see a strong angel. In Revelation chapter 18, we see a mighty angel. And so it seems that there is, you know, these specific angels that are mighty and strong that are working in the midst of the tribulation period during this time.

Well, many people wonder, too, what is the little book? In verse 2, it says,

And ultimately, we don't really know what the little book is. Some people suggest that it's the title deed to the earth, the scroll of seven seals that the Lord was opening back in chapter five. Now he's handed off to this angel, perhaps. But it's a different word for the book, you know, than the scroll. And so it doesn't necessarily line up that way. I think the thing that makes the most sense to me is that it's the rest of the message that John will be delivering to the people.

in verses 8 through 11, we'll see that it's connected to his prophecies that are yet to come. Well, this angel now, as he's there with one foot on earth and one foot in the sea, it says in verse 4 that the seven thunders thundered, and when they uttered their voices, John says, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered and do not write them. I think this is interesting to consider because

The thunders that thundered, John understood what the seven thunders declared. He's about to write them down. He's about to record, just like he has been doing this whole time, right? The Lord told him, hey, record all of these things so that you can pass it along to my people so that they can know what it is that is to come. And so he's doing his diligence, right? And he's writing down those things. Now he hears the declaration of the seven thunders, and he starts to write it down,

But the Lord says to him, don't write it down. Seal it up and do not write those things down. Part of me wonders, okay, if we're not going to get to know what the seven thunders uttered,

Why did you include this verse? You know, it could have just ended at verse 3, you know, that we heard seven thunders, and that was it. But why point out that, you know, I was going to write it down, but now I'm not going to write it down because the Lord instructed me not to. It's like, you know, you ever start telling a story and you realize, I shouldn't be telling that story. Okay, and you say, never mind. But then it's like too far. You're already into the story, and everybody's like, well, you got to tell us now. You started telling us the story. But

John is obedient and he doesn't write it down. So we don't know what those seven thunders were. And, you know, that causes me to think about this. It's important for us to consider this. We don't know everything, right? You don't know everything. I don't know everything. And maybe it would be worthwhile just to, if you're with somebody else, you know, in the room watching this or listening to this, just let them know, you know, tell them,

I don't know everything. It would be good for us to remember and remind ourselves we don't have all the answers. You know, sometimes in all of the discussions and even, you know, battles that rage in politics and social media and all of those things, oftentimes we're approaching those conversations as if we have the answers, as if we know what needs to be done and, you know, all of the solutions to the things. And passages like this are good, healthy reminders for us. We don't know everything.

everything. We couldn't handle knowing everything. God knows everything, and we need to understand that that is enough. And so we're going to have lots of questions. We're going to have some opinions and speculations, but we do not know. We cannot give the final answer on everything. And studying the book of Revelation is not about having all of the answers.

It's really like the rest of the Bible. It's getting to know the one who has all the answers. It's not about me having all the answers. It's about me drawing near to the Lord who does have all the answers. Pastor David Guzik says,

And so may I remind you as we work through these things, as I share my perspective on some of these things, it's not in, you know, this is the answer, this is the way, and none of our really approaches to these things should be in that way. But there needs to be a humility. Where the Bible is not clear, sure, we can speculate, we can kind of consider, we can kind of imagine how those things will unfold, but we don't know everything. If you only believe...

what you understand, you need to know that your God is your mind. Your God is your understanding and your intelligence. And if you will not believe what you do not understand, then you're not in a place of really worshiping God. You're in a place of worshiping yourself, your mind, your understanding. The reality is you and I were on a need-to-know basis.

And there are just many things that we don't need to know. Can you live with that? Can you live with the Lord knows it's in his hands and my job is to stay close to him and to draw near to him. So we don't know what the seven thunders uttered, but then we do know what goes on next. It says in verse five, the angel whom I saw standing on the sea in the land raised up his hand to heaven and

I've referred to often 2 Peter 3.9, how the Lord is not slack concerning his promises.

but he's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. In the context of judgment, God is slow in executing or fulfilling those promises. But it's not a slow because he's lazy or sluggish. It's a long-suffering to give as many people the opportunity to repent as possible. Well, now here in chapter 10, we're at the point where now there is no delay.

There's not going to be the withholding any longer. There's not going to be, you know, the holding back any longer. Now, people are going to have to make a choice. And again, here at the middle point of the tribulation period, the choice that people will have to make is take the mark and

And forever be condemned or refuse the mark and be martyred and be put to death as a result. There's no more delay now. You have to make a choice right now. That's what's going to be happening here on earth at this point in the tribulation period. In verse 7, it goes on to say,

When he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as he declared to his servants, the prophets. And so, again, it seems like this seventh trumpet is that final stretch, that final part of the tribulation period, referred to as the Great Tribulation, where now this is the end. This is the time where people must make a choice. There is no more delay.

And so here we, again, consider this to be the middle point of the tribulation period. And so up to this point, the seven seals have been opened. The six trumpets have sounded. When the seventh trumpet sounds, that signals that last half of the tribulation period and that time for decision. There is no more delay. This is the final chance for people to turn and be right with the Lord.

Well, the final part of chapter 10 in verses 8 through 11, he takes then the book and eats it. In verse 8, the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me and said, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth. And so verse 9, he says, I went to the angel. I said, give me the little book. He said, take it and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth. It's going to taste sweet while you eat it, but then in your stomach, it will be bitter.

And then in verse 11, he says to me, you must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.

And so this is where I get the indication that perhaps this book is the message that John is to deliver. Perhaps the remainder of the book of Revelation that we're getting into, or perhaps other prophecies that the Lord was going to have him deliver as he was delivered from Patmos, that he would have to bring forth to the nations, to the peoples around him. The prophet Ezekiel had some similar experiences where the Lord gave him

words to share prophecies in the form of eat this book and then he received the words of the Lord to then be able to deliver them to others around him and so perhaps that is what John is experiencing here well that wraps up chapter 10 so now we move on to Revelation chapter 11 the key verse is verse 15

Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And so as we continue on here in Revelation chapter 11, again, it seems to be parenthetical here. There's kind of a break in the sequence, and we're kind of covering different aspects of the tribulation in this time. And so in verses 1 and 2, he says, I was given a reed to measure the temple.

Then verses 3 through 6, we see two witnesses that will prophesy for 1,260 days. Then in verses 7 through 10, we see the beast will kill those two witnesses. And then verses 11 through 14, the witnesses resurrect and life enters them after three and a half days.

And then the final verses we looked at a couple weeks ago, verses 15 through 17, the seventh trumpet sounds and the temple in heaven is opened. And so the Lord unpauses for a moment, sounds the seventh trumpet, hits pause again, and then continues on into chapter 12, which we'll see in just a few moments. But still considering here, Revelation chapter 11, first of all, in verses one and two, John is given a rod to measure God.

And of course that stands out and is significant because right now the children of Israel does not have a temple. There is no temple in Israel right now. And so here we have an indication that the temple will be rebuilt.

And that is, of course, what many Jews today are looking forward to. And they are believing that their Messiah, they'll know he's the Messiah because he'll be the one who enables them to rebuild their temple. There are multiple groups in Israel right now preparing for the rebuilding of the temple. They've been preparing for years, training priests, training Levites, preparing some of the instruments and all of that. And

even have plans drawn up, and they're ready to go as soon as they have opportunity. But there's some challenges to that because of the occupation of Israel and the structures that are there on the Temple Mount. Now, the original temple, of course, was built by Solomon. That was destroyed by Babylon when Israel went into captivity for the 70 years. Then Zerubbabel...

instructed by the Lord, came back and rebuilt the temple. It was much less glorious than the first one that Solomon built. And so later on, King Herod came on the scene and then expanded and beautified the temple. But that temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. And so this temple being referred to here is what we would refer to as the Third Temple.

It's a temple that is not right now, but at some point in the future will be rebuilt, either leading up to the tribulation period or possibly even beginning at the tribulation period. Many of those groups who are working on the building of the temple and preparation for it suggest that they could rebuild the temple within about two years or so.

And so it could be that the first half of the tribulation, there is this building project that is the temple happening there in Jerusalem.

And so the third temple will be rebuilt, and so John here is given a rod to measure that temple. Now, just a quick look at the geography, if that helps you a little bit. I guess that's not really geography, but here's a picture taken from the Mount of Olives. So you're looking across the Kidron Valley at Jerusalem, and what you see right there at the bottom is the Temple Mount.

And there's that wall that goes across the bottom there. That is a retainer wall that holds the foundation of the Temple Mount and keeps that flat part flat on top of there. And then there's two structures on there that are really significant as far as what is keeping Israel from building the Temple today. So the one with the gold dome, the Dome of the Rock, is

there in the middle, and then it's a little bit harder to see, but on this side here, let's see, yeah, let's see if I can do it, there, there, there, right there, right underneath that, that's

uh, Al-Aqsa, uh, mosque. And that's another, uh, Islamic structure. And so, uh, if Israel was to, you know, try to, uh, remove those things or, uh, you know, be around those things, then it would be, you know, probably World War III. So there's this, you know, political conflict, this religious conflict, uh, there, this great tension on the temple mount. Uh, but what is suggested by many is that Israel could rebuild a temple without touching those structures, uh,

if they build it in front of the east gate. And so here's a little bit zoomed in view. There on the right-hand side, the inverted picture is very disorienting. But so anyways, there on your right, I think, those gates, they're sealed right now. That's the east gate.

And it's believed by many that at one time, when the temple actually stood on the Temple Mount, that it wasn't right in the middle, but actually it was right there, so that you could go in the east gate, and from there go directly into the temple. And if you remember, the temple...

had this entrance that would come. This is a diagram of the tabernacle, but it was the same layout where you would go through the outer court and then you could keep going straight into the sanctuary. You keep going straight into the Holy of Holies. And so many people believe that going through the East Gate, it was a straight line into the sanctuary and then into the Holy of Holies. And so that's a possibility. And if that was the case, then Israel would be able to rebuild their temple without any

interfering with the other structures that are there on the Temple Mount. And so that's a possibility of the negotiation that the Antichrist could do, could to enable the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, to rebuild their temple. So interesting possibility. We don't know any of this for certain, but interesting things to consider. And so he measures the temple and

But he says in verse 2, leave out the court, which is outside the temple, don't measure it, because it's been given to the Gentiles, and they will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. Now we're going to be seeing a reference to different time frames throughout the chapters tonight, and so I want to take a moment and consider those. Because really in each of these, we're looking at half of the tribulation period.

So we often refer to the three and a half years of each half of the tribulation period. The Bible doesn't say three and a half years literally in that way, but instead the Bible refers to 42 months. And so you find that in Revelation chapter 11 verse 2, where we are right now. You find that in Revelation chapter 13 verse 5.

Now, the calculation of these months and days is based on a 360-day year, which is different than us, right? We have a 365-day year. But the prophetic calendar, as you look out throughout the scriptures, has always been based on a 360-day year. And there's a lot of really smart people who could explain why that is. I'm not going to get into that tonight. But just looking at these terms that are used. So you have 42 months.

which is, you know, if you add that all up for 360-day year, that's three and a half years. Another term that's used is 1260 days. Now that's the same as 42 months, which is the same as three and a half years, again with a 360-day year. And so it's referred to as 1260 days in Revelation 11, verse 3, and Revelation 12, verse 6.

Well, then we also have the reference to time, times, and a half-time.

And so this is another way to say three and a half years. You have the time, which is one year, the times, which is two years, and then a half time, which is a half a year. And so you add up one plus two plus a half, and you get three and a half years. And that's referred to primarily in Daniel, Daniel chapter 7, Daniel chapter 12, but we also see it referenced in Revelation chapter 12. And so all of these things are used to talk about portions of the tribulation period that

And we're looking at, you know, one half of the tribulation or the other half, the beginning half or the latter half, the first half or the last half. And so as we look at this, we see the temple, he says, don't measure the outside because they're going to trample the holy city underfoot for 42 months.

So there's going to be three and a half years of trampling. And so, you know, it prompts us to consider when is that? Which part of the tribulation period is the Lord referring to?

And so here you have three and a half years, as I kind of build out this timeline a little bit, the three and a half years recorded in Revelation 6-9, and then you have the three and a half years in Revelation 15-18.

And so the temple and the sacrifices will be taking place in the first half of the tribulation. It's why we believe the Antichrist will make a covenant which will enable the children of Israel to begin their sacrifices again.

And then Daniel 9.27 says, So there will be a period of rebuilding the temple, and there'll be a period of sacrifices that happen during the same time, which will likely correspond with that first half of the tribulation period. And so...

He's measuring that, but then after that, well, then there's going to be those 42 months of trampling upon the city of Israel. All right, so that's the first couple verses of chapter 11. I need to pick up the pace a little bit here. Then verses 3 through 6, now we're introduced to two witnesses.

In verse 3 it says, And so now we have two witnesses that are introduced for a specific amount of time. It's 1260 days, which is the same as 42 months, which is the same as three and a half years.

So we're looking at the temple, now we're looking at these two witnesses. They have the same time frame reference to them, but where they fall in the tribulation period is not necessarily very clear, and so we'll talk about that. But who are these two witnesses?

It seems pretty clear that one of them is Elijah, because it was prophesied that Elijah would come before the Lord, that he, before the second coming of Jesus, the return of Jesus, that Elijah, the prophet, would come. And even you remember Jesus having that discussion with his disciples, and

And they said, we thought Elijah was going to come, but here you are, and we haven't seen Elijah. And Jesus said, well, if you can accept it, John the Baptist, you know, came in the spirit of Elijah. And so there was a first coming of Jesus and, in a sense, a first coming of Elijah. But before the second coming of Jesus, there will be the coming of Elijah, and Jesus affirms that to his disciples. And so it's...

We're pretty confident that Elijah is one of these witnesses. He fits well within this ministry that is described here. But the second witness, we don't really know. Many suggest Enoch as the second, because Enoch in Genesis chapter 5 tells us that he walked with God and then was not, for God took him.

So he didn't have a natural death like everybody else has had. He was just gone. The Lord took him. And so perhaps Enoch, like Elijah, who was caught up in a chariot of fire, remember? So perhaps Enoch and Elijah are the two witnesses that come back during this tribulation period to announce the coming of the Lord and call people to repentance. Another strong candidate for this second witness is Moses.

who would be kind of a nice completion of the law and the prophets being represented by Moses and Elijah. Even as you see that in Matthew chapter 17 on the Mount of Transfiguration, it's Moses and Elijah that appear with Jesus there. And so many people believe that it is Moses. And so it could be Moses and Elijah.

It could be Enoch and Elijah, or it could be someone else that we haven't thought about in Elijah, or it could be two people that we don't know anything about in either way. So what we do know is there's two of them, and they're witnesses for the Lord for three and a half years during the tribulation period. In verse 5, it talks about how powerful they are. It says, "...if anyone wants to harm them, 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 day of their prophecy. And they have power over waters to turn them to blood, to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire.

And so some of the powers that are described here really fit well within the ministry of Elijah as well as within the ministry of Moses. And so again, it's one of the reasons why many people believe this will be Moses and Elijah. So these guys, they're going to be delivering an unpopular message and people will want to kill them. People will try to kill them, but they will be protected.

They will be able to defend themselves against these attacks as people try to take them out in the midst of the tribulation and all of the troubles that the world is going through. They will fight against God. They will fight against God's messengers. And these messengers will be used by the Lord to bring more tribulation to those who attack them.

Well, they're ministering for three and a half years, but finally they're put to death. In verses 7 through 10, it tells us that the beast kills them. Notice what it says in verse 7. When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.

Now, the beast, we're going to talk more about as we get into chapter 13. So, leaving the details of that aside, we're looking at that and understanding this is the Antichrist that comes on the scene, and he finally puts an end to these guys' ministry. But I always like to consider and point out in verse 7, when they finish their testimony, that even the Antichrist, with all the power of Satan...

was powerless to stop these guys, to put them to death while they had their ministry. But when their testimony was over, when their ministry was completed, then they're able to be killed, and only then. And again, we see that God is on the throne and managing and controlling these things, setting the limits and the boundaries as these things unfold. Well, it says in verse 8 that their dead bodies are going to lie in the streets of the great city of

which is spiritually called Sodom, and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. These guys are going to be killed in Jerusalem. That's where Jesus was crucified, just outside the gate of Jerusalem. And so that great city, Jerusalem, it's called Sodom as a reminder of their immorality. It's called Egypt as a reminder of their idolatry. But it's the city of Jerusalem where that battle will take place. These two witnesses will be killed.

And then it tells us in verse 9 and 10, it's going to be Christmas. The whole world is going to celebrate. They're going to be exchanging gifts. They're going to be celebrating and rejoicing the fact that these two prophets have died. It says in verse 10, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

We've seen a couple times already throughout the book of Revelation that the people of earth at that time, although they're experiencing the wrath of God, they refuse to repent. They know it's God. They know right from wrong. They just refuse to repent. And so here's two witnesses representing God calling people to repentance. When people don't like it and fight against them, they get judgment right away. And it's been bugging people for three and a half years that this witness ministry has continued.

And so when they are killed, it's going to be on the worldwide news. It's going to be on YouTube. It's going to be on TikTok. It's going to be on Instagram. It's going to be all over. Everybody sharing pictures of these two guys dead in the streets of Jerusalem. They're going to be celebrating and rejoicing that finally they don't have to listen to these messengers any longer. Well then, verses 11 through 14 tell us,

The celebration is short-lived because after three and a half days, these guys are resuscitated or they're resurrected. They stand up. After three and a half days, it says in verse 11, the breath of life from God entered them and they stood on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying, come up here. And they ascended to heaven in a cloud and their enemies saw them. And so these two witnesses come back to life and

and then ascend. You can imagine, like, all the cameras, right? It's like, you know, this news that has been going on for three days as this great celebration has been happening. But then, all of a sudden, you know, the news story changes. It's not these two guys dead in the street. They now stand up. And as all the cameras are on them, the whole world, it says, is terrified. They realize there's more, you know, to the ministry of these two witnesses than

And they're face to face again with the reality of God. And they're ascended into heaven in front of all of their enemies. It says,

Now, they gave glory to God. They recognized that is the work of God, but it's not saying that they repented and turned from their sin to God, but that they acknowledged that it is God who did this work. Now, verse 14 is important. It says, This kind of puts us in perspective in the timeframe of what we're talking about because the second woe was the sixth trumpet.

So going back a couple weeks, there was the seven trumpets, right? And before the fifth trumpet sounded, there was the announcement of the woes that were coming upon the earth, the next three trumpet blasts, so trumpet five, six, and seven. And so here, this puts the timing of this event after the sixth trumpet has sounded before the seventh trumpet has sounded, right?

And so again, let's consider the time frame a little bit here. So we have the beginning of the tribulation period with the covenant of the Antichrist. We have the middle of the tribulation period with the abomination of desolation. And then the end of the tribulation with Armageddon. Now these two witnesses witness for 1260 days.

And it's a little bit of a question of what is the time frame during this seven-year tribulation that the two witnesses are ministering? And so some place it at the latter half of the tribulation period. That's down here. So the two witnesses prophesy and minister for 1260 days. That would put their resurrection, you know, right at the end, right before the Battle of Armageddon.

Others would place the two witnesses not in a specific point, but just somewhere during the tribulation period. So it's 1260 days, but that doesn't have to mean that it lines up with one half or the other half, but it could be somewhere just during that time frame that these events take place. And so then after the 1260 days, that sixth trumpet has sounded, and now the seventh trumpet is about to sound.

Personally, I tend to think that these two witnesses are ministering during the first half of the tribulation period. That when they are killed, it corresponds with the abomination of desolation. The Antichrist in Jerusalem defeats them, enters into the temple, and then he's killed.

demands to be worshipped, you know, all of those things kind of line up and synchronize, and that is a possibility. Again, it's not for sure, it's not certain, but it lines up in my head in a way that makes sense to me. So this is what makes sense to me. Their death and resurrection then happens just after the middle of the tribulation, and

And for three and a half years at the beginning of the tribulation, there is this ministry of these two witnesses. And again, that takes us up through the end of the sixth trumpet and just before the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

Now, the rest of chapter 11 is that seventh trumpet sounding. And so again, it's kind of a continuation of the sequence. The Lord unpauses for a moment, sounds the trumpet, and then hits pause again and continues to give some background info as we head now into chapter 12. So here's Revelation chapter 12. The key verse is verse 12.

Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short time.

Here in chapter 12, he sees this great sign, and he's describing it for us. And there's, you know, all kinds of symbolism that is contained in this sign that he sees. First of all, in verses 1 through 6, he sees a woman with a child as well as a dragon.

Then in verses 7 through 12, there's a war that breaks out in heaven. And then in verses 13 through 17, the dragon persecutes the woman. So what is this sign? And we'll dig into it a little bit. First of all,

It is a great sign, he says in verse 1. We're told that right up front. This is a sign. So it's not meant to be exact, literally what takes place, but it's symbolically portraying the events that the Lord wants us to consider. It's a dramatization, you might consider, of those events. And so in this drama, there's three characters. There's the woman,

There's the dragon and there's the child. And there's lots of opinions about these different characters and their identity.

I would suggest to you that there is enough information in the text here in chapter 12 to clearly identify them. So we don't have to chase down all kinds of speculations, but that there's enough hints about these different symbols to give us an understanding of the identity of these characters. And so I'm not going to go through all the different opinions and options here,

Let's just first consider who is the woman. Well, the woman, I would suggest, is the nation of Israel. Because we see there, this great sign appeared in heaven in verse 1, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. So there's some specific elements to this symbol. It's this woman. She has

The sun, she has the moon, and she has 12 stars. Not 13, not 14, not 10, 12 stars. And we see this same combination of a sun, a moon, and 12 stars in the book of Genesis, chapter 37. If you're reading through the Bible in three years with us, we just read through this passage this past week.

Joseph dreams another dream and told it to his brothers. I've dreamed another dream, and this time the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars bowed down to me. But in that instance, Joseph is that 12th star.

And it is him and his brothers that become the tribes of Israel that make up the nation of Israel. These are the sons of Jacob or the sons of Israel. And so this speaks to us then of the nation of Israel, the children of Israel, and gives us that insight. So this woman is the nation of Israel, and she's with child. In verse 2, it tells us,

She cries out in pain, labor pain, and she's about to give birth. And it's the picture of her, the nation of Israel, bringing forth the Messiah. Here we're seeing this dramatization portraying the events that happened already, as well as some of the things that will happen in the future. Verse 3, "...another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his head."

His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven. He threw them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who is ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born.

And so who is the dragon? I don't think this one's a great mystery. The dragon is Satan. He is Lucifer, the devil. In fact, it tells us in verse 9, the great dragon, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan. And so you see the picture here? Israel, as a nation, is going to bring forth the Messiah and

And Satan, the dragon, is endeavoring to destroy the Messiah before he has an opportunity to grow up and fulfill the ministry, the mission that God has given to him. And so the dragon is the devil at work to accomplish this work against the work of God and the plans of God in the Messiah.

The dragon is the inspiration behind the government that is set up by the Antichrist, and we'll see that in chapter 13. Now, a lot of the things here in chapter 12 and 13 of Revelation correspond with Daniel chapter 7 and Daniel chapter 12. And so if you want to get additional insights into these things, you can spend some time looking through and working on the book of Daniel. Well, it says, "...the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child."

And so you can kind of picture and think about, remember the Magi, the wise men, they came, they found Jesus, but they stopped by Herod, you know, on the way. And Herod said, hey, when you find him, come back and tell me. And then the Lord told him,

Magi to go back a different way. And so Herod said, all right, wipe out all the young boys in the region, two years old and younger. And Matthew chapter 2 records all of that. And so it pictures well, you know, that whole scene, this dragon seeking to devour the child as soon as it was born. So who is this child? Well, the child is the Messiah. The identity is given to us in verse 5.

It says she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and his throne.

There's not a mystery here. We know this child. The one who has been assigned to rule all nations is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Psalm chapter 2 talks about that. Ask of me and I will give the nations. And then, of course, after Jesus resurrected, he was ascended up into heaven.

And so it pictures there that scene of the Messiah coming on the scene to earth and the devil's work against the work of God and the work of Jesus. But then there's a time gap as you go from verse 5 to verse 6, up through verse 5, we see those things fulfilled clearly in the birth and ministry of Jesus. But then as is common in prophetic writings, there's a gap of time, and now in verse 6,

It says, And so we see that time period again.

1,260 days, which is the same as 42 months, which is the same as three and a half years. So I bet you know where I'm going here. We're going to look at the time frame a little bit, the timeline a little bit. And here we see, in the midst of this tribulation period, again, we have the two witnesses ministering for 1,260 days.

We have the temple and sacrifices happening at that time while the seals are being opened and the six trumpets are sounding. And then here, Israel being fed for 1260 days seems to fit well in that last half of the tribulation period. After the abomination of desolation, Jesus tells the people of Israel in Matthew chapter 24, hey, when you see the abomination of desolation,

In fact, maybe you should write that down. Matthew 24, verse 15 and 16. When you see the abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of back in Daniel 9,

Then run for the hills, get out of Judea, flee to the mountains. And so at that point in the tribulation, the people of Israel are instructed to run for their lives, and God's going to protect them in the wilderness. And so there's the abomination of desolation that takes place, and then they are protected in what many people believe is modern-day Jordan in the city of Petra.

And there's references perhaps to that in Isaiah chapter 16 verse 4 and some things to consider there. But all of that is a little bit of speculation, so I'm not going to get into those details. But the time frame fits, that there is the temple and the sacrifices as the Jewish people continue on, you know, with their desire to rebuild the temple and engage in those Levitical practices again. But that covenant's broken in the middle by the Antichrist.

And then the Antichrist demands to be worshipped. They have to flee for their lives. And so they're now in the wilderness being cared for, protected for the latter half of the tribulation period. And it's at that point that they realize that the Antichrist is the Antichrist and not their Messiah. And so there's going to be that transition that takes place at that point. Well, at that time in Revelation chapter 12, again, verses 7 through 12, war breaks out in heaven.

And Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and his angels.

The dragon and his angels did not prevail. Now the final battles are going to take place. Satan is kicked out of heaven at this point for good. And so he's coming down to earth now. And it tells us that he is just upset. He is, you know, going to be really disturbed and causing more problems now because of what has taken place. And his defeat is imminent.

Verse 12 is really interesting in light of that. It says, There's a great celebration in heaven. Rejoice. The devil's time, it's just about done. But the devil, knowing his time is about done, he goes down to earth with great wrath.

And as the tribulation period is the time of the wrath of God, it's appropriate that now the devil is unleashing his wrath upon the earth. And now, you know, it lines up with that third woe because here is woe to the inhabitants of the earth. And so this seems to line up with the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

that this event happens in the middle of the tribulation period. And so, again, looking at the timeline, it's at this point as the Antichrist sets himself up as God and demands to be worshipped, the abomination of desolation, that at that time it's a declaration of war by Satan against God. He's cast out of heaven. The

Michael and his angels fight with the devil. He's cast out, right? He's defeated. And so now he's stuck on earth and he's going to be, you know, wrecking havoc even more in the latter part of this tribulation period. And so woe to the inhabitants of the earth. And so this perhaps corresponds with that seventh trumpet, Satan is cast down.

And the last three and a half years of tribulation, Satan will be on earth, really upset, knowing his time is short, as the Lord continues to bring down these judgments upon the earth.

Well, the final part of chapter 12 is verse 13 through 17. And so as the devil is on the earth, he's really upset and he's persecuting the woman. He's persecuting the nation of Israel. Verse 13, when the dragon saw he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child and

But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. And so there is this divine protection of Israel by the Lord as Satan comes to attack the nation of Israel for this three and a half year time period. Again, it fits with that second half of the tribulation where Israel will be protected against the attacks of Satan at that time.

But not everybody will be protected. In verse 17, it says,

And so here, he's unable to destroy and wipe out Israel completely as he wants to, and so he goes and he attacks the rest of her offspring, other believers, those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ during the tribulation period. And so there will be this great, fiery, intense persecution against Christians from that point on. Now, again, it lines up with—and time has expired, so we're not going to get into chapter 13 tonight—

But right there in the middle of that tribulation period is when it will happen that the mark of the beast is required and people will have to make that choice. And so this persecution lines up with this time where you have to choose allegiance with the beast or

or allegiance to Jesus and to die as a result, to die as a result of your faithfulness to the Lord. And so this attack will come and this persecution will come by the enemy in this latter half of the tribulation period as he unleashes all of his fury against the inhabitants of the earth and the offspring of the woman.

Well, I wanted to get to chapter 13 tonight, but we're not going to do it, unfortunately. But that's okay, because now we can spend next week and really dive into. We're going to be looking at the Antichrist. We're going to be looking at the false prophet and covering some of the things that happen with them. And again, it corresponds with all of these things that are happening in the tribulation period and all these different points on the time frame of that seven-year tribulation period. Now,

Now, if I went through some things too fast and left you with some questions, we do have the opportunity to ask questions if you want to on the website. If you find the Revelation refresher series, there's menus and buttons on the website.

Or in FLEEP, you can find the conversation and ask the questions, and I'll be glad to address those in the service next week. But we'll plan to pick it up in chapter 13 and maybe go through chapter 14 and 15. We'll see what the Lord has for us. But I wanted to end with one verse from Revelation 12, verse 11.

In the midst of all this battle and the attacks of Satan and the dragon and, you know, all of these pictures, in Revelation chapter 12, verse 11, it says, talking about believers in heaven, it says, This is a really great verse to meditate on and consider in regards to our relationship with the Lord.

These people, we're talking about martyrs in heaven, they overcame the devil in three ways. First of all, the fact that they overcame...

in our mind, would mean that they didn't die. But the fact that they were in heaven means that they did die as a result of this persecution, but they still overcame. You know, sometimes we see the tragedy and we think that's, you know, not a victory. But from the Lord's perspective, they're in eternity. It's a victory. And so the victory has been accomplished. They overcame. They won the battle. And it was in three things, by the blood of the Lamb.

We win the battle against the devil. Here's what's necessary to overcome the devil. For them, for us, for all time, for all believers, it's the blood of the Lamb. The forgiveness and grace and mercy of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Believing in Him, we have salvation, we have forgiveness, and we have victory. We overcome the accusations of the enemy.

We overcome, you know, the true accusations of the enemy against us because we are sinful by the blood of the Lamb. They overcame by the word of their testimony, it goes on to say. Their testimony, I believe in Jesus and his finished work for me upon the cross. Jesus said, confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father in heaven. Be a testament to Jesus.

Be a testimony of Jesus Christ. And many people look at this and talk about the word, you know, the scriptures as a part of the word of the testimony. And perhaps, you know, there's some great things for us to consider there. The scriptures and the word of God and being a witness of the word of God to the world around us. To have victory, to overcome the devil. It's by the blood of the lamb. It's by the word of your testimony. And then finally, it's by not loving your life to the death.

Jesus said, if you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. There has to be a letting go of our life. There has to be a letting go of ourselves and our desires and our dreams and our wishes. And death, you know, is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Denial of Jesus.

Fulfilling of self is the worst thing that can happen to us. Living for Jesus and dying to self is the best thing that can happen for us. It is the way to have victory in all the attacks of the enemy. And so run back to the blood of the Lamb, the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. Hold fast to your testimony. Believe in Jesus and be steadfast in your testimony of him to the world around you.

And don't love your life to the death. Don't love your life so much that you're not willing to die. You're not willing to let things die. That you're not willing to let dreams die. That you're not willing to let people around you die. Don't love your life so much and be immersed with yourself. Be immersed with Jesus Christ. Be filled with and consumed with him and put him first. And if it costs you your life, you have victory. It's worth it. It's valuable.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the opportunity to have victory in the midst of a battle that we are hopeless to win on our own.

But Lord, through your mercy and grace, through your blood, Lord, we have this opportunity. As we look ahead, Lord, at these things of the tribulation period, Lord, we're so thankful that we can trust in you and rest in you and know that you will take care of us and you will guide us in the midst of whatever we face. Lord, the tribulation of our days and the things to come, Lord, we know that we can have this comfort, this hope in being in your presence. And so God, I pray that you would help us. Give us boldness and strength.

to believe you at your word, to hold fast to your mercy and grace, to be bold witnesses by the power of the Holy Spirit to the world around us. And Lord, that we would put you first, even if it costs us our reputation, our popularity, even if it costs us our very life. Lord, may we hold fast to you and represent you well. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

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