07 - A Woman And A Dragon 2009
Revelation Revealed - UPDATED 2009 • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Revelations 10
1 “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face shone like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire.”
As there was an interlude between the 6th and 7th seals, Chapter 10 is an interlude between the sounding of the 6th and 7th trumpets. Chapters 10 and 11 are not only the middle of the book, but the middle of the 7 year Tribulation.
Many believe that the “Mighty Angel” in verse 1 is Christ Himself. His features closely parallel the description of the Glorified Christ of Chapter 1.
2 And in his hand was a small scroll that had been opened. He stood with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. 3 And he gave a great shout like the roar of a lion. And when he shouted, the seven thunders answered.
4 When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Keep secret what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down.”
While we do not know what the 7 thunders said, it likely had to do with the horrendous future times of planet earth.
Time No Longer
5 Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven. 6 He swore an oath in the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. He said, “There shall be time no longer.” 7 When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.”
“7” is the Bible number for completion. As we draw near the blowing of the 7th trumpet there is a growing sense that all things in God’s timetable are about to be completed.
The angel in informing John that time is about to be consummated, that the end-time days, here designated the “days of the voice of the seventh angel” indicates that the last half of the Tribulation will quickly occur.
The Little Book
8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” 9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” 10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
In the Angel’s hand is a mysterious little book. This book contains the events about to be described. John is to literally ingest it, absorbing the information contained in the book into his mind and being. Sweet are the promises and plans of God, but often the judgments and justice of God, also predicted, are bitter in results.
What John is about to see taking place on earth is bitter indeed.
And clearly, verse 11 is a prediction that John’s Revelation would go to the entire world, as indeed it has!
The Rebuilt Temple
Rev. 11
As we come to Chapter 11 it’s important to note that from Chapters 11-14, John pauses in the chronological sequence of things and zooms in on some key events going on in the Tribulation.
It’s like going 60 mph down a highway with sights and towns zipping by and someone says, “Slow down and get off, let’s drive around the streets of this town and see the sights.”
John is slowing down and allowing us to see come close-up highlights of the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation.
First, he focuses on the TEMPLE, which is crucial to end-time events.
1 Then I was given a measuring stick, and I was told, “Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers. 2 But do not measure the outer courtyard, for it has been turned over to the nations. They will trample the holy city for 42 months.”
Background
When Abraham was told by God to offer Isaac, he went to the top of Mount Moriah. There, the drama of Isaac being spared took place.
Later, Solomon ordered his engineers to literally cut the top off of Mount Moriah. In an amazing engineering feat they accomplished it. They then built a wall around it and filled it with dirt like a big sandbox. On top of this they built Solomon’s temple.
When the Jews were taken into Babylonian captivity, the Temple was destroyed in 587 BC.
Construction of a new temple was begun in 537 BC; after a hiatus, work resumed 520 BC, with completion occurring in 516 BCE and dedication in 515.
Five centuries later, this Second Temple was renovated by Herod the Great in about 20 BC, also known as Herod's Temple.
It was subsequently destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD per Jesus’ prediction in Matthew 24: 1-2. The Jewish people were scattered at this time to the four corners of the earth, a people without a country, according to Moses’ prediction:
Deut. 28: 65-68 “There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the Lord will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair. 66 Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive. 67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were night!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ For you will be terrified by the awful horrors you see around you.”
IN the meantime, Islam was born around 700 A.D. Islam claims that Mohammad rode into Jerusalem and one day ascended into heaven on a horse from that very spot.
The believers in Mohammad, the Muslims, eventually built a structure on that very spot and called it the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock has stood on the site of the Temple since the late 7th Century A. D.
Now, God had promised through His prophets that the Jewish people would one day be restored to their homeland. Against all odds, in 1948, after being relentlessly persecuted, despised, scattered and homeless, Israel became a nation again.
And in 1967 in the famous 6-day war, they took Jerusalem again.
All of this now brings us to Rev.11: 1-2:
1 “Then I was given a measuring stick, and I was told, “Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers.”
Catch this: This verse predicts that they will build the temple again right where it used to be! This presupposes that the old Jewish sacrifices and temple worship will also be reinstituted. John is told to “count the number of worshippers.”
But, though temple worship is Jerusalem is to be restored, it will be interrupted once more by the invasion of Gentiles.
2 But do not measure the outer courtyard, for it has been turned over to the nations. They will trample the holy city for 42 months.”
And who will these invaders be? The forces of Antichrist, who will dominate the Middle East and Jerusalem for 42 months, a period of 3 ½ years.
At the beginning of the Tribulation, Antichrist will make a peace treaty with Israel. "'The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven.” Daniel 9:27
No doubt about it, a peace pact between Arabs and Jews will finally be realized, but at the hands of Antichrist!
At the end of the 3 ½ years, the Antichrist will stop all of it and commit what scripture calls “the abomination of desolation.” Daniel predicted this:
Daniel 9:27 "'The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven (seven years), but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration (abomination of desolation), until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.”
What is the “Abomination of desolation”? In 167 B.C. a Greek ruler by the name of Antiochus Epiphanies set up an altar to Zeus over the altar of burnt offerings in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He also sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is known as the abomination of desolation.
Jesus spoke about this very thing: “The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about—the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the Holy Place.” (Reader, pay attention!)—Matt. 24:15
But in Matthew 24:15, Jesus was speaking some 200 years after the abomination of desolation described above had already occurred. So, Jesus must have been prophesying that some time in the future another abomination of desolation would occur in a Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Revelation 13:14 describes him making some kind of image which all are forced to worship. Turning the temple of the living God into a place of worship for the Antichrist is truly an “abomination.”
For the first 3 ½ years, the new world leader will maintain warm and friendly relations with Israel, guaranteeing their integrity and autonomy. He will be a world-wide hero. Finally, the Arab-Israeli will have been solved!
But then he will break his treaty, invade Jerusalem, slay two witnesses we will study next time, and continue his evil domination for the final 42 months.