The Trumpet, The Beast and the Child

The Revelation of King Jesus • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago

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prepare yourselves for the coming of Jesus, for He has gone to prepare a place for us so that all those who believe in Him will go to be with Him when the pass on. In the mean time Satan comes to try and deceive and destroy but we must stand firm on our faith in Jesus. We must allow our trials to pull us closer to Jesus.

Notes

Transcript

Intro

the Cuban government imprisoned Noble Alexander, a youth pastor, for twenty-two years. For refusing to renounce Christ. Alexander was the son of Cristobal J. H. and Beryl D. (Harris) Alexander, immigrants from Trinidad and Jamaica, respectively. He was born on February 12, 1934 in San German, in Oriente Province, in eastern Cuba.

he had launched a youth revival series in Matanza. After the first night of these meetings while driving home to his wife and son in nearby Mariano, Alexander was stopped less than a block from his home by two officers of the Dirección General De Inteligencia (DGI), the Cuban secret intelligence agency, who took him to DGI headquarters for questioning.

He was immediately booked. he suffered food poisoning for eating maggot-ridden gruel. He lost consciousness being dunked in an icy lake while bound. He passed out three times from the pain of being whipped with electrical cables. He sustained gunshot wounds in his hand, leg, and thigh. He spent ninety days “inside a coffinlike box where he could barely move” for having a Bible; for refusing to work on the Sabbath he was “dunked into a cesspool of rotting debris and putrid excrement for three hours.” His hardest suffering was that his Christian wife divorced him while he was in prison; this brought him so much despair that he did not remarry until twenty-eight years later. “No one can be truly certain of his faith and endurance until he is forced to test them,” Alexander warns

Alexander continued his resistance in prison and, while still incarcerated, was secretly ordained in 1979 by Pastor Pedro de Armas, who was also held as a religious prisoner. After moving prisons and having his Bible confiscated, Alexander developed a close bond with fellow prisoner Tom White, an American who was imprisoned for distributing religious tracts in Cuba. White was permitted to have a Bible in that prison, and he secretly sent Bible pages to Alexander, who then used them to teach dozens of other cellmates. Dozens of prisoners accepted Alexander’s teachings and became Christians to in prison.

We seem to have a continuing theme here. In the next few chapters we are going to go through this same idea of having a Christ focused mindset no matter what is going on in our lives. The nations rage and plot and scheme but our God is still in control. How is it thought hat we can hope to stand firm through something like this?

We are called to take a stand, to conquer for Jesus is how we get through these times that we read about here. But we conquer through the sharing of the message of Jesus, by telling others of the gospel by which we are saved.

The eternal kingdom of God. Main verses. 11:17-18. (Psalm 2:1-3)

I like to read reviews of books before I read the book itself. I go to an app called goodreads, where many people review books that they have read. But the problem is there are sometimes spoilers in the reviews. It is annoying, but thankfully people will insert something like “spoiler alert don't read further”. I don't want to know the end before I read the book. But unlike a book that keeps you in suspense the end of time is revealed in the bible, spoiler alert.

Why must we prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus? because the end has been written, the end of times is revealed. And thought the journey there may be somewhat difficult we must prepare ourselves. Like a test where all the answers are given ahead of time, we know the end, all that is let is to prepare ourselves. This is what we learn in the final trumpet. Not a judgement in itself but rather a strong reminder.

Revelation 11:15–16 CSB

The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. The twenty-four elders, who were seated before God on their thrones, fell facedown and worshiped God,

The final triumph of the Lord God is revealed.

the final triumph of God, our eternal hope has been revealed to us. The theme is the K of G which is eternal. the end is written, spoiler alert, announced well before the end actually happens is Jesus saying I win! Our response to the Announcement of the victory of Jesus is to fall down and worship Him!

to fall face down in worship of the Lord God is something that involves submission and humility. It is giving u of yourself and giving yourself to God. This worship is not just singing, there is more to it then that. it is living, it is in the way we relate to God in our everyday lives.

Revelation 11:17–18 CSB

saying, We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, but your wrath has come. The time has come for the dead to be judged and to give the reward to your servants the prophets, to the saints, and to those who fear your name, both small and great, and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.

Anticipatory

These verses anticipate the coming of the Lord Jesus to reign on earth. it had not happened yet, they say Thanks to God, for he has begun to reigns in His mighty power. Remember this is something we can anticipate. Even in a time when the world is against us, Satan is trying to lead us astray we have hope in the fact that Jesus is going to reign in all of His mighty power.

even though the nations rage and scheme. Yet they rage and scheme in vain because we know that there time has come to and end.

They will be judged for their sin and the righteous rewarded for their faith, those who fear the God. We look forward to the millennial kingdom and the reign of Jesus it is something that we anticipate.

this passage is a synopsis of the remaining chapters of revelation.

Revelation 11:19 CSB

Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and severe hail.

The K of G has come and God will be faithful to do what he has promised with His people. As the ark of the covenant was a sign of the faithfulness of the Lord through their wilderness journey and battles, so this sign of the new covenant was the sign of God to Israel of God’s loyal love through their trials and the attack of the beast.

The world belongs to the Lord God and He will right the wrongs of the world one day. God will reward both great and small Just as he will punish both great and small. we have our spoiler alert, in the end Jesus will win, He will reign. Our response as always is to humble ourselves before Him and declare His praises to all those around us so they to may know who Jesus is before it is to late.

12:1-15 - The signs of the end.

The following is symbolic of stuff that is going to happen. Follow along in your bibles. We know it is symbolic of stuff because John is told they are signs. That is a supernatural act designed to communicate a message. The following chapters picks up the theme of the persecution of the people of God at the hands of Satan (chapters 12-14) we have the image of a women, a child and a dragon. along with angels.

The women

Revelation 12:1–2 CSB

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in labor and agony as she was about to give birth.

The woman is more then just a mere women but signifies something. There is a lot of talk about what this means, maybe it is Mary the mother of Jesus is one view. The women though represents at first the believing Israel and then the messianic community as a whole.

It is out of the faithful Israel that the messiah came. In the same chapter the women goes from signifying the believing Israel to the church as a whole.

but not only does she signify Israel and then the church, but she is in Labor. Labor pains to signify our waiting for the messiah to come again. How tribulation is going to come, it hurts and is not fun at the time. I have never personally experienced labor pains, but I get the idea. It looks forward to I time when we will see our child and then the pain is forgotten at the sight of the newborn baby.

Like this we struggle, we toil we go through tribulation but looking forward to the coming messiah when all our pain will be forgotten at His glorious face.

The Dragon

Revelation 12:3–4 CSB

Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven crowns. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she did give birth it might devour her child.

Satan who was given authority for a time to mislead, to destroy, to persecute and steal. The seven horns representing the universal power given to Satan for a time. Satan and His emissaries, what this is saying is, going to be given destructive power over the earth. The crowns are not victory crowns but rather crowns of authority which are given for a short time.

Be prepared because Satan is given authority for a time to mislead, to destroy. To twist the word of God. but our hope comes in the next sign.

The Child

Revelation 12:5–6 CSB

She gave birth to a Son, a male who is going to rule all nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, to be nourished there for 1,260 days.

Jesus, the messiah who will rule with an iron rod. Jesus the son of God is going to receive the nations as His Kingdom. And as a shepherd guards his flock against enemies so Christ will rule the nations and one day strike all those who oppress and persecute His children.

The desert signifies not a evil wasteland but a spiritual refuge where God will provide the strength for His children to withstand. The length of 3.5 years signifies the great tribulation. God has prepared a place for us, a spiritual refuge. Satan has been able to touch our physical bodies but we are being protected spiritually. Though tested we can rest assured that this is only temporary and as his children He will come again and bring us to Himself.

The Battle

for the last bit we are just going to overview. We are reminded in Verse 7-10 that Satan was sent to earth along with his minions and we are promised He is here trying to deceive, to steal, to destroy so we must be on guard.

the main point can be read in vs 11-12

Revelation 12:11–12 CSB

They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great fury, because he knows his time is short.

we need not fear whatever Satan is going to throw at us, the salvation and power of God has come. Satan may be here to deceive and lead astray but we have the power and victory in Jesus. We conquer not by our own strength but through the blood of the lamb. We conquer not through anger but through the word of our testimony of the gospel Of Jesus. Rejoice for ours is the victory in Jesus.

So What?

We do not know what kind of impact we might have on the world around us. We face trials, we face horrible times but we must remember that the end has already been written. Our God is in control. Therefore we go out to battle Satan not without fists and anger but with the word of God. We win the battle by sharing the message of the gospel.

We do not know the impact we might have. Even in the midst of death and persecution. Imagine the impact we might have when people see us loving God and sharing the gospel in the midst of our pain and hardships. Maybe we can also ask God to use us like that as we also pray for healing.

God’s Kingdom Come

Lijke an expectant mother the labor is hard and painful but we go through it with anticipation knowing the result it will bring. Then all the pain suddenly is forgotten. We expectantly wait, we go through the hardhsips because the Kingdom belongs to God, He wins it is only a matter of time.

be encouraged in our time of suffering for Satan's time is limited. But remember how are we keeping Jesus central in all that we do.

Hardships can actually strengthen the church if we allow them to. Prepare yourself, for Jesus is coming back for His bride, give thanks to the Lord God for His great power.

Conquerors through the gospel

we must always be ready to confront the hostility of the world, the work of Satan in the world. 12:11 reminds us how we are to do this though. Not through picketing and anger and fists. But we conquer by the word of our testimony, by the sharing of the gospel, by telling people about Jesus and what He has done for us. Our messiah is the dragon slayer.

Satan has been using many devices to try and decieve and destroy, porn, forgiveness, drugs, etc. which is why we need to keep Christ central in all we do.