Table Talk

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: TT

Program Code: TT000406A


00:00 [Music]
00:00 [Music]
00:10 [Music]
00:21 >>TY: Hey, guys, I wanna begin by asking you another
00:22 kind of impromptu question, what is the most incredible,
00:28 or I don't know, the most fun experience you've ever had in
00:34 nature.
00:36 Some experience where you encountered something in
00:38 nature where it just blew your mind, took you to a whole
00:43 different place, you were like, oh, this is amazing.
00:45 >>JEFFREY: Swimming with whale sharks off the coast of
00:48 Mexico.
00:49 >>TY: That's for you.
00:50 >>JEFFREY: Number one.
00:51 >>TY: Swimming with whale sharks off the coast...
00:53 >>JEFFREY: Beat that.
00:54 >>DAVID: Well, I don't know if I can beat that, but I will
00:56 say, for me, I don't' have one, but I'll give you one of
00:58 my favorites.
00:59 Seeing a pair of resplendent quetzals in the jungles of
01:02 Costa Rica.
01:03 >>JEFFREY: A what?
01:04 >>DAVID: Considered one of the most beautiful birds in the
01:06 world, resplendent quetzal, look it up.
01:09 Beat that.
01:10 >>JAMES: Hm.
01:11 >>TY: James?
01:12 >>JAMES: Going for a canoe ride down the river, it was
01:15 just awesome, beautiful.
01:16 >>DAVID: Which river?
01:17 >>JAMES: It was the inlet off the redwoods in California.
01:21 Yeah.
01:22 >>TY: Wow, wow, wow.
01:24 >>DAVID: So, obviously, this is a setup, Ty's gonna be
01:26 like, oh, that's nothing.
01:27 >>TY: That's nothing.
01:28 >>JEFFREY: I jumped into a volcano once.
01:31 >>JAMES: The dolphins on the coast of Hawaii, sorry to pop
01:34 that balloon.
01:35 >>TY: For me, and honestly, there's nothing, there's
01:37 another experience that comes close, but for me, the best
01:40 experience I've ever had in nature was swimming with about
01:43 60 dolphins off the coast of, I think it was Kawaii, and it
01:50 was amazing.
01:51 They were with me, I was with them, I guess you would say,
01:55 and they circled me when I tried to go the opposite
01:58 direction as if to say, hey, we're going this way, come on,
02:01 this is the way we're going.
02:02 It was amazing.
02:03 It was an amazing experience.
02:04 >>DAVID: I've only ever swum with about 2,000 dolphins.
02:07 >>TY: Is that true?
02:08 >>DAVID: Off the coast of New Zealand, it's absolutely true,
02:10 I've done it many times.
02:11 True story.
02:12 >>TY: I've only done it once.
02:13 >>JEFFREY: That kinda backfired on you, Ty.
02:15 >>JAMES: Ty didn't even know if they were dolphins or
02:17 sharks when he jumped in.
02:19 >>DAVID: Are you serious?
02:20 >>TY: I didn't know, but very quickly, I discovered they
02:23 were dolphins.
02:24 >>DAVID: A shark's tail goes like this, a shark's tail is
02:27 oriented vertically, so when their dorsal fin, it moves
02:30 side to side.
02:31 Dolphins, their tail is oriented horizontally, so they
02:35 move up and down.
02:36 >>TY: Yeah, it was just very brief though.
02:39 >>JAMES: Isn't the tail just a little bit different, too?
02:41 >>DAVID: He didn't see the dolphin tail.
02:43 >>JAMES: I mean the fin.
02:45 >>DAVID: Yeah, the fin is a slightly different shape, but
02:46 when you're out paddling in the water...
02:47 >>JEFFREY: I think he was going somewhere or something.
02:51 >>TY: I was going somewhere with it.
02:52 And where I was going with it is we have been looking at the
02:56 book of Revelation, we've come to chapter 12, we've gotten
02:59 through verse 6, and now, the church of God is in the
03:04 wilderness, but the experience that they're having in the
03:06 wilderness is not a positive one.
03:08 It's a positive experience in that it's a refuge for them,
03:13 but it's a negative experience in that they are pressed into
03:18 the wilderness, forced into the wilderness because they're
03:22 under persecution.
03:23 So, let's just look at chapter 12 of Revelation.
03:25 >>DAVID: So, the tie in is, I'm missing the tie in.
03:27 >>JEFFREY: The wilderness.
03:28 >>TY: Oh, there's no connection.
03:29 >>JEFFREY: The church in the wilderness.
03:31 >>DAVID: So, nature, okay, got you.
03:33 Sorry, I was just trying to...
03:34 >>TY: David.
03:35 >>DAVID: I needed that synapse to fire, I'm sorry.
03:36 I got it now.
03:38 >>TY: There's really no connection, I just was curious
03:39 what your happiest experience in nature was.
03:43 >>DAVID: But I did not have the experience of them
03:45 circling me and saying, hey, no, we're going this way.
03:46 They just all streamed by me.
03:47 >>TY: So, my experience was better than yours.
03:49 >>DAVID: Well, it's a tie.
03:50 [Laughter]
03:54 >>TY: One time, I'll just throw this out, my second was
03:57 we built a fort in a tree just about 20 feet away from
04:02 nesting eagles.
04:05 And then, we just sat up there and waited and waited and
04:08 waited until they got comfortable with the fact that
04:10 we were there and then just straight over, we could just
04:14 watch what they were doing, for days.
04:16 >>DAVID: This is when you were younger.
04:18 >>TY: I was in my 20s.
04:19 >>DAVID: So, not like, as a child.
04:21 For some reason, when you said tree fort, I thought child.
04:24 >>TY: No, it was me and a photographer friend of mine,
04:27 who, we just saw these eagles, we thought, oh, there's a
04:29 tree, let's just go up there and build this fort and we'll
04:31 just watch.
04:32 Anyways, so.
04:34 >>DAVID: Well, the eagle thing works out great here because
04:36 you got the Revelation 12, the two wings of an eagle.
04:39 >>TY: So, let's break it down, we came through verse 1 and 5
04:45 and now we're in verse 6, somebody recap for us, though,
04:50 what we've come through so far in verses 1-5 in Revelation 12.
04:54 >>DAVID: Basically, you've got 3 figures that we've
04:56 identified so far, the woman, the child, and the dragon, and
04:59 we've identified the woman as the people of God, the child
05:02 that was caught up to the throne as Jesus, and the
05:04 dragon as that old serpent called the devil and Satan,
05:06 and it's just...
05:07 >>TY: And sometimes, though, the dragon manifests himself
05:09 in earthly systems like the Roman empire.
05:11 >>DAVID: The Roman empire, Herrod trying to kill the
05:14 children there in Bethlehem.
05:15 So, what we've seen up to this point is, there's a conflict.
05:18 And he was ready to pounce, to devour the child as soon as
05:21 the child was born, which happened.
05:23 Jesus died on a Roman instrument of torture, the
05:26 cross, and he was put in a tomb with a Roman seal.
05:29 >>JEFFREY: Even before then, at his birth, there was an
05:31 attempt at his life.
05:32 >>DAVID: I just preached on that recently in Matthew
05:35 chapters 1 and 2 and basically, the point that I
05:38 made was is, from the earliest moment of Jesus's life, he was
05:41 living the shadow of the cross.
05:42 There's just always this sense of peril that follows Jesus.
05:48 >>TY: That's where I'm going.
05:49 >>DAVID: Okay, great.
05:51 >>TY: No, Jesus is knowing, that's where I'm, that's where
05:55 Jesus knows he's going.
05:56 Yeah.
05:57 So, chronologically, through verses 1-5, we're up through
06:04 the crucifixion.
06:05 >>JAMES: Yeah, which, by the way, we just wanted to
06:07 mention, too, this is the beginning of the fourth
06:08 prophetic cycle.
06:10 So, again, we're going back to the life of Christ.
06:11 Viewers might be thinking, well, we're in the book of
06:13 Revelation now, we're in chapter 12, so we've moved way
06:16 down in history, we must be way down toward the end of
06:19 time somewhere.
06:20 No, we're actually starting all over again when it comes
06:22 to the understanding of history.
06:24 We're looking at historicism, so in the churches and seals
06:27 and the trumpets, we always go back to apostolic age.
06:30 And we see that same cycle begin here in Revelation 12,
06:33 because we have Christ being born of the woman, the Jewish
06:36 church, and then, being called up to heaven, so, we're in the
06:38 apostolic age right here and then, we're gonna go forward
06:40 from there as we move into the rest of chapter 12, we're
06:43 gonna go forward from there into that history that we've
06:45 covered, we've covered, we've covered.
06:47 >>DAVID: So, this is now a fourth journey.
06:48 >>JAMES: Yes, with different details.
06:49 >>DAVID: So, we've hiked it, we've walked it, we've flown
06:52 over it, we've bike ridden it.
06:54 What was, what else?
06:55 We've canoed it.
06:56 >>JAMES: We're gonna canoe it this time.
06:57 >>DAVID: I actually know a guy.
06:58 >>JAMES: Lewis and Clarke.
06:59 >>DAVID: I don't know them, but I know a guy who canoed,
07:01 true story, from New York to San Francisco.
07:04 >>JAMES: You can do it.
07:05 >>DAVID: Yeah, you have to do a number of fairly lengthy
07:06 portages, but you can canoe across the United States.
07:09 >>JAMES: Amazing.
07:10 >>DAVID: That's amazing.
07:12 >>TY: Okay, so, verse 6.
07:16 Verse 6, then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she
07:22 had a place prepared for her by God, prepared by God.
07:26 So, now, where are we chronologically?
07:29 The crucifixion has occurred, New Testament Christianity.
07:33 >>JEFFREY: Not just crucifixion, ascension in
07:34 verse 5, caught up to the throne.
07:36 >>TY: Okay, so crucifixion, resurrection, ascension in
07:39 verse 5, and then, the first word of verse 6 is then.
07:42 Okay, so the New Testament church is thriving right here.
07:48 You might insert the whole book of Acts.
07:50 Is that true?
07:51 >>DAVID: Absolutely.
07:52 >>TY: So, the whole book of Acts can be inserted right
07:54 here between verses 5 and 6.
07:56 >>DAVID: Things are looking up.
07:57 >>TY: This are looking up, the church is flourishing.
07:59 And then.
08:00 >>DAVID: We should say, though, that even in the
08:02 apostolic period, John said there were many antichrists in
08:05 the world and Paul said, from among your own selves, Acts
08:07 20, men will arise, speaking perverse things.
08:09 The spirit of iniquity, the mystery of iniquity is already
08:12 at work.
08:14 So, there was the anticipation that even though things were
08:16 looking up and flourishing, as you said, that danger was very
08:20 much on the horizon.
08:22 And not just danger in terms of persecution, but
08:25 ultimately, in the post-Constantinian era, danger
08:29 in terms of coopting the Christian message for purposes.
08:33 So that's what's headed there.
08:36 And that's, verse 6, then, is the woman fleeing, I think
08:39 that's where you were going, into the wilderness.
08:40 Where is that at?
08:41 >>TY: Why is the woman fleeing into the wilderness, I guess,
08:43 is the question.
08:44 Well, obviously, she's fleeing into the wilderness because
08:46 what you're just describing.
08:48 There are antichrist forces that are developing, that are
08:53 growing, and persecution is developing.
08:58 And as persecution develops, verse 6 is basically telling
09:02 us that the church fled into the wilderness, away from
09:06 persecution.
09:07 And there is a providence element here because the place
09:10 in the wilderness is prepared by God.
09:13 In the sense that God providentially is preserving
09:17 his people by taking them underground.
09:20 And in the wilderness means that they are vanishing from
09:24 historical, obvious observation and sight, and
09:27 this is a very important point.
09:29 The church that we see visibly unfolding in the book of Acts,
09:34 with Christ, the disciples, in the book of Acts, that church
09:37 begins to vanish from historic observation in a sense, and
09:42 the thing that the historians are commenting on as
09:45 Christianity becomes the antichrist that's masquerading
09:51 as the Christian church.
09:53 >>DAVID: The Christian church has gone underground.
09:54 >>TY: So, the real thing has gone under and the thing that
09:56 historians are observing, the church, is really not the
09:59 thing.
10:00 >>JEFFREY: The parallel, it's, the time frame in the second
10:03 part of verse 6 is a continuation from the previous
10:06 chapter where we were at, which we didn't really get
10:08 into.
10:09 In verse 2, Revelation 11, 42 months, and then, in verse 3,
10:15 the witnesses that are prophesying in sack cloth for
10:20 1,260 days.
10:26 And you know, the reader clearly sees that that's
10:29 exactly the time frame in chapter 12, verse 6.
10:31 So, we asked.
10:32 >>TY: That went by really fast.
10:34 Yeah, what you're pointing out is that back in chapter 11,
10:40 back in chapter 11, there are two references to a period of
10:43 time.
10:45 1260 days, it's called, or 42 months, which is equivalent to
10:47 1260 days.
10:49 And then, that period of time now is showing up again in
10:51 chapter 12, verse 6.
10:54 >>JEFFREY: And in connection to the woman going into the
10:55 wilderness.
10:56 So, we ask, why is she going into the wilderness?
10:59 And the answer to that question is hinted at in
11:02 chapter 11.
11:03 Because it says that, for that very same chunk of time.
11:07 >>JAMES: 42 months, 1260 days.
11:08 >>JEFFREY: 1260 days, the witnesses are prophesying in
11:12 sack cloth, and we identified that, last discussion, that's
11:15 a symbol of mourning.
11:16 Why is the word of God mourning?
11:19 The two witnesses, the word of God, why is the word of God
11:21 mourning?
11:22 And so, we described this period of darkness where the
11:25 word of God has to go underground.
11:27 >>TY: And history itself has acknowledged that this is the
11:30 quote unquote dark ages.
11:32 It's dark scientifically, it's dark technologically, it's
11:36 dark with, art has become...
11:40 >>JEFFREY: Socially and religiously, too.
11:43 >>TY: Yeah, on every level, it's dark.
11:44 >>JAMES: So, let's just point out one thing right here and
11:46 that is, one of the reasons why we're not spending a lot
11:48 of time, and when I say a lot of time, I mean, verse 5,
11:51 verse 6, we're not spending a lot of time expounding upon
11:54 the actual history of the dark ages, it's because the book of
11:57 Revelation has already done that.
11:58 So, in the 7 churches, we talked about Smyrna and the
12:01 persecution of the pagan realm, and then we talked
12:03 about Pergamum and the exaltation of the church in
12:05 the world and compromise.
12:06 Then, we talked about Thyatira and Jezebel and the false
12:08 prophet.
12:09 That history, those details are covered.
12:11 Yeah, so, now, as we get to the last prophetic cycle, John
12:15 is saying, now, there's something more significant
12:17 that we really need to emphasize here.
12:19 >>DAVID: Keep going, I'm with you.
12:20 >>JAMES: And that more significant thing, but we need
12:22 to mention this because this verse right here will connect
12:24 with chapter 11, will connect with Pergamum and Thyatira,
12:28 but the more significant thing we need to talk about here is,
12:31 where did this all start?
12:32 How did this defamation of God's character, how did this
12:35 misrepresentation, this church went underground and then,
12:38 this church that was out from that everyone saw was just
12:41 totally misrepresented God, leading into the French
12:43 Revolution.
12:44 How did this all start?
12:45 Where did it all start?
12:46 >>TY: That's from verse 7 onward, well, not onward, but
12:48 yeah.
12:49 >>JAMES: And that's why we have the interruption in verse 7.
12:52 Verses 7, 8, 9, and 10 kind of, it seems like, why is that
12:54 there?
12:55 What is that doing there?
12:56 >>TY: But before we look at where that came from, because
12:58 that's a vital connection, do we wanna, Jeffrey was about to
13:01 tell us what that 1260 year period of time is.
13:04 We'd have to go back to it.
13:05 We can do it later or we can do it now.
13:07 >>JAMES: Well, the reason why I say this is because the way
13:09 the book of Revelation is written, we could actually
13:11 cover 7-10 and talk about, you know, how, and then, the book
13:17 resumes, it naturally resumes and goes back and fills out
13:21 the picture that takes us right into Revelation 13.
13:24 >>TY: And the 1260 year period of time comes up, could be
13:29 defined then.
13:30 So, let's do that, let's go into verses 7.
13:32 So, James, take us to, now, we're asking, what we're doing
13:37 is we're pushing a pause on verse 6, there's something
13:39 there that we haven't defined, but we're coming back to it,
13:42 and what James is pointing out is that now, what's gonna
13:45 happen is, starting with verse 7, John is about to say to us,
13:49 okay, let me explain to you where all this really began.
13:52 >>JAMES: And that's the point.
13:53 The point is for those who are reading the book of Revelation
13:55 and they're just following through, the point is, why are
13:57 we jumping out of this?
13:58 And so, we're explaining that.
13:59 The reason we're jumping to this is because John wants to
14:01 take us back to what actually caused all of this mess.
14:05 And there's a really interesting verse here, I
14:07 mean, a really interesting phrase here.
14:09 Let's just read through the verses and then we'll
14:11 highlight this phrase.
14:12 Verse 7, and there was war in heaven and Michael and his
14:15 angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought
14:18 in his angels and prevailed not.
14:20 Neither was their place, emphasis on that word, found
14:23 anymore in heaven and the great dragon was cast out,
14:27 that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceived
14:29 the whole world, he was cast out into the earth and his
14:33 angels were cast out with him.
14:34 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come
14:39 salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the
14:42 power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is
14:45 cast down which accused them before God day and night, and
14:48 they overcame them by the blood of the Lamb, by the word
14:51 of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the
14:53 death.
14:54 Therefore, rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell on them, woe
14:59 to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the
15:01 devil has come down unto you, having great wrath because he
15:05 knows he has but a short time.
15:06 >>TY: What a passage.
15:07 >>JAMES: These are incredible verses.
15:09 And there's a word here that connects with the previous
15:12 verse and that, verse 6, I should say, and that word is
15:16 place.
15:17 And I just wanna start our discussion by emphasizing this
15:21 word.
15:22 When this rebellion began in heaven, Satan and his angels
15:26 lost their place.
15:29 The woman is given a place by God in the wilderness.
15:34 The first of humankind, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden,
15:37 when they were deceived by the serpent, they lost their place
15:39 in the Garden of Eden.
15:42 When the Jewish nation were deceived and rejecting Christ,
15:44 they lost their place as God's designated people, and when
15:47 you get to the end of the book of Revelation, and the final
15:50 judgement takes place, the books are opened after the
15:53 1,000 years, the wicked look up and they see the whole plan
15:57 of redemption and the description that is given of
16:00 their situation is that they have no place.
16:04 There's no place found for them.
16:05 Can you imagine what it would feel like to have no place?
16:08 And then, there's another verse in John 14 and it says
16:11 that Jesus is talking to his disciples and accompanying
16:14 them and he says...
16:15 >>DAVID: I go to prepare a place for you.
16:17 >>JAMES: It's all about a place.
16:20 God is describing to us that through the deception of Satan
16:23 we, and the whole human race, has lost their place and God
16:27 wants to restore that place.
16:29 And the reason why it's so important about the wilderness
16:31 is because God has a place for this woman.
16:33 Even though the whole world will reject, even though the
16:37 whole world is opposing, God has a place for his people,
16:40 and that's the focus of the tenner here.
16:42 >>JEFFREY: On that, the whole preparing a place, you just
16:44 reminded me, in Matthew 25, when Jesus tells the parable
16:46 of the sheep and the goat at the end, it says here, then,
16:50 he shall say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you
16:53 cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
16:57 and his angels.
16:58 And so, I just thought, that's a beautiful thing.
17:00 Anybody who's lost ends up in a place that was never
17:03 prepared for them, right.
17:05 God never intended for that.
17:06 >>DAVID: The place that God has prepared and deemed for
17:08 humanity is the new heaven and new earth.
17:10 humanity is the new heaven and new earth.
17:11 >>TY: Okay, so, yeah, thanks, James.
17:13 Those are connections those verses that I had never
17:17 noticed before and it highlights, again, something
17:21 very practical and that is, it highlights the relationality
17:25 of God, that God, we're not dealing in Revelation with
17:30 merely world powers and empires and you know, the
17:35 devil and his angels and a God who is presiding with
17:41 sovereignty over a bunch of events.
17:44 God is relating to people and we're those people and at the
17:49 heart of the whole thing, I think this is incredible,
17:52 you're calling our attention to the fact that, at the heart
17:55 of the whole thing, there's a place that God is preparing
17:58 for us and he is trying to navigate his people through
18:03 his providence to that place where we're back with him in
18:07 fellowship and that's incredible.
18:09 So, we need to unpack these verses further, but now we
18:14 need to take a break, but when we come back, let's talk about
18:17 this war that broke out in heaven.
18:20 >>JAMES: Okay.
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20:23 [Music]
20:27 [Music]
20:29 >>TY: So, we came to verse 7 and we read through verse 12,
20:32 James, and you called our attention to this incredible
20:35 point, this comparison of the word place.
20:39 God's nurturing care in verse 6 over his people,
20:44 providentially in the context of suffering and persecution,
20:47 God has prepared a place of protection and nourishment in
20:56 the wilderness for his people, but then you broadened that
20:59 picture by pointing out that this is a theme in scripture,
21:03 at least in the New Testament, where Jesus is preparing a
21:06 place for us and the final demise of the wicked, which we
21:08 often just think in terms of, well, they're gonna be
21:11 destroyed, but it's more than that.
21:14 They enter into a position, according to Revelation
21:18 chapter 20, verse 11, they enter into a place where they
21:22 realize that the way they think and feel and do life is
21:27 completely out of sync with the way the universe really
21:31 operates and God's kingdom of love and other-centeredness
21:34 and relational integrity, so they don't fit with the
21:39 ultimate system of love, and they realize that
21:41 there's no place for them.
21:43 Can you imagine, you were bringing this out and I just
21:46 wanna emphasize it, can you imagine being in a state of
21:49 mind where you realize that you don't belong anywhere?
21:53 You don't have a home, you have no resting place, you
21:55 have no relationships.
21:56 >>JEFFREY: People associate hell with the fire.
21:59 Anytime you mention to people hell or they read the
22:00 scripture, I think hell is that moment of realization.
22:05 >>TY: That you don't fit with the universe.
22:06 >>JEFFREY: You're out of sync with the universe.
22:08 >>TY: With God, with his character, with his people.
22:11 >>JEFFREY: And you have no place.
22:12 That's hell, that's hell.
22:14 >>JAMES: It's also significant, I think, that
22:16 this is mentioned.
22:17 Verse 6 talks about the place that God has prepared and then
22:19 verse 7 talks about, in the context, verse 8, talks about
22:24 the place that Satan and his angels lost.
22:26 And so, what we see here is God connecting together two
22:30 thoughts, and the thought is this, the angles and Lucifer
22:33 that fell from heaven are going to be replaced.
22:36 They're gonna be replaced.
22:37 They were lost, they've lost their place and God has given
22:41 us a place.
22:42 And that place, ultimately that God has given us, whether
22:44 it's in the wilderness, hated by the world, but we have a
22:46 place with God, whether it's individuals, God has a place
22:50 for every single human being on planet earth, whoever they
22:52 are, whatever they are, if they give their lives to him,
22:55 he's gonna let that place be fulfilled.
22:57 That place ultimately leads us to the very position that I
23:01 think the angels fell from in the context of Revelation
23:03 as well.
23:04 >>TY: I think it's an incredible point because we're
23:06 social creatures, we're built for relationship, there's a
23:08 reason we're sitting at this table.
23:10 We, there are four of us here, and we each have a place in
23:15 this conversation and there's something beautiful about it.
23:18 It's different than being alone in the world and we're
23:22 doing this table talk situation in order to broaden
23:25 that place, to bring other people to the table, to
23:28 encourage, and this scripture's just coming to my
23:30 mind right now, what about 1 John, chapter 1, where John
23:34 says, hey, we saw him, touched him, felt him, we heard his
23:38 word, we were in his very presence and the whole reason
23:41 we're telling you these things, preaching the gospel,
23:44 the whole reason we're telling you these things is so that
23:46 you can have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is
23:48 with him.
23:49 The whole thing is headed toward a big, giant, beautiful
23:53 social network of people who belong to one another in a
23:57 very beautiful way.
24:00 And that theme is in the book of Revelation, it's beautiful.
24:06 >>JEFFREY: And at the moment in history where Christians
24:08 would have felt least support, least supported by God or by
24:10 providence is the moment where they're specifically, the
24:14 church is identified as being, you keep using the word
24:17 nurtured, nurtured by God, and I guess we'll run into it
24:19 again, but it's right there in verse 14.
24:21 In her place, she is nurtured by God.
24:24 >>DAVID: In her place.
24:25 >>JEFFREY: In her place, so.
24:27 >>DAVID: Jeffrey mentioned Matthew 25 there about how
24:29 prepared for the devil and his angels, and I think it's
24:33 important to recognize that you know, we all have good
24:36 situations, I'm happily married 17 years, you're
24:39 happily married longer than that, for like 50 years.
24:42 [Laughter]
24:43 Happily married, happily married.
24:45 >>TY: So, did I get married before I was born?
24:47 >>DAVID: Before you were born.
24:48 So, anyway, the point here is that, like, we've got a good
24:51 ministry, we're friends, we've got a group of friends, but we
24:55 should realize that we live a privileged life, a charmed
24:57 life, the Lord has blessed us.
24:59 Not everybody who's watching this program has the support
25:02 network, has the place that we have.
25:04 And you know, the truth of the matter is, whether it's a
25:07 financial situation, an emotional situation, a spousal
25:10 situation, people can feel very lonely in this world,
25:13 very lonely.
25:14 Loneliness is an epidemic right now and I suppose
25:16 there's many things that we could say in a pastoral
25:19 capacity, but one of the things is, is even when this
25:22 world, Revelation 12, you know, when you don't feel like
25:25 you have a place, that's the moment, and I think this was
25:28 your point, Jeffrey, and I think God is the closest, that
25:30 God is the tenderest.
25:31 It's like that old footprints thing, you know, the two
25:33 footprints and the, you know, there was the one in the
25:36 darkest scenes in my life, well, you know, why did you
25:38 leave me?
25:39 I was carrying you.
25:40 You know, God, even in our darkest, most lonely, most
25:43 difficult moments, God has a place for you.
25:46 He has a purpose for you, he has a place for you, he has a
25:48 word for you.
25:49 You could be sitting in a hospital bed right now,
25:51 watching this, maybe life, the cancer test has come back
25:54 positive, you've lost a loved one, and the world can start
25:57 to feel very alien.
25:59 I know we've all been there at times in our lives, where
26:00 you've been like, do I really belong somewhere?
26:03 And the message of God is, yes, you do belong somewhere,
26:07 but there will never be a sense on this earth where we
26:10 feel perfectly at home.
26:13 Where our...
26:14 >>JEFFREY: Or, there ought never be.
26:16 >>DAVID: Yeah, that's right.
26:17 There should be a little bit of discomfort, you know, like
26:19 a garment that doesn't quite fit right about this earth.
26:21 God has a real place, which I think was your big point
26:23 there, James, Revelation 21, 22, new heaven, new earth, no
26:27 more pain, no more death, no more sorrow, former things
26:29 have passed away.
26:30 That's our place.
26:31 Right now, we're all getting along.
26:34 Right, we're getting along the best we can by the grace of
26:37 God in a situation that's filled with conflict.
26:40 >>TY: And the world in general.
26:42 >>DAVID: Yeah, that world, that's the world we live in.
26:43 You know, we began this whole Revelation program talking
26:45 about Orlando and the situation in Nice, France, and
26:48 all of that, like, this is not our home.
26:52 >>TY: It's not.
26:53 What about the fact, this just occurred to me, building on
26:57 this theme that James has just brought up with the place
26:59 idea.
27:01 Isn't that just exactly what Jesus endured on our behalf?
27:08 No place?
27:09 >>DAVID: He doesn't have a place to lay his head.
27:12 >>TY: Didn't he, through his life, experience a sense of
27:16 loneliness and isolation because of the fact that he is
27:23 living and thinking only in lines of love when there's
27:29 selfishness all around him?
27:31 And then, finally, when he comes to the cross and says,
27:33 my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
27:36 Doesn't Jesus feel the ultimate loneliness and
27:39 isolation on the cross in separation from the Father?
27:44 He endured that in order to bring us back into fellowship
27:52 with himself and the Father.
27:54 >>JAMES: And that's what we're reading in these verses.
27:56 Ty, you've taken us right into Revelation chapter 12 and here
28:01 in verse, I think it's 10, and I heard a loud voice saying in
28:05 heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the power of
28:08 our God and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
28:11 Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
28:14 accused them before God day and night.
28:16 Now, keep your hand right here, and just go over to John
28:20 chapter 12, the gospel of John chapter 12 is making a
28:25 connection here with Revelation.
28:27 And by the way, we've talked a lot about the book of
28:28 Revelation connecting to the Old Testament.
28:30 >>TY: I hope you're going back to verse 7, by the way.
28:32 >>JAMES: Verse 7 of Revelation 12?
28:35 >>TY: Yeah.
28:36 >>JAMES: Maybe.
28:37 John chapter 12, yeah, you do it, and here, Jesus Christ is,
28:40 Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross, he's getting
28:43 ready to go to Calvary and in this context, he says, and I'm
28:47 just reading here in verse 31 of John chapter 12, now is the
28:51 judgment of this world.
28:53 Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
28:57 And then he says, if I be lifted up from the earth, will
29:01 draw all unto me.
29:04 This he said signifying what death he should die.
29:05 So, there's a direct connection between Revelation
29:07 chapter 12 and verse 10 and the cross and Calvary.
29:12 What you were just talking about in the relationship of
29:15 Christ and that no place and his willingness to die for us,
29:18 that is really the context of this verse.
29:21 What answers the question of deception to the whole world,
29:24 what answers the issue of a place for every human being is
29:27 the cross, it's Calvary.
29:29 >>TY: Yeah, yeah.
29:30 So, for clarification, for my sake, is there, are there two
29:37 pivotal points at which Satan is cast out?
29:42 >>JAMES: Yes.
29:42 >>DAVID: At least two.
29:44 >>TY: At least two, because if you look, going back to verse
29:46 7, the reason I said verse 7 is because you had actually
29:50 said earlier, when we come to verse 7, it's like John is
29:54 backing up and saying, let me tell you where this all began.
29:56 Okay, well, where did it all begin?
29:58 Verse 7, war broke out in heaven, and that war that
30:01 broke out in heaven was between Satan, his angels,
30:06 obviously, some of the angelic community sided with Lucifer,
30:10 right?
30:11 So, he's got his angels, they belong to him in a loyalty
30:14 sense, they've joined forces with him, so, you've got Satan
30:17 and his angels and then you have Michael and his angels,
30:22 that's the loyalty contingency, those who are not
30:28 joining with Lucifer in this heavenly rebellion and this
30:31 war that breaks out, it says in verse 9, so the great
30:37 dragon was cast out, but you pointed out later on in the
30:41 passage another casting out.
30:44 So, there's two points in which he's being cast out.
30:46 Can I say it this way, see if you guys agree with this or
30:48 can make this even more clear, back at the initial rebellion,
30:54 Satan was cast out of heaven.
30:57 In heaven, he led out in a rebellion against God and he
31:02 was cast out of heaven and then according to,
31:06 was cast out of heaven and then according to,
31:07 where does it say...
31:09 >>JAMES: That was verse 8 and now we're...
31:11 >>TY: But, in verse 10, it says he came to the earth,
31:12 right?
31:13 So, he's cast out of heaven, he comes into the earth.
31:15 >>JAMES: Well, verse 9, it says he's cast into the earth.
31:18 >>TY: Okay, so verse 9, he's come to the earth.
31:19 But then, he's on the earth, he's doing his thing, he's
31:21 leading human beings into sin and rebellion against God.
31:26 But then, you brought us to Calvary, where Jesus
31:29 explicitly says, in chapter 12 that, whatever happened,
31:33 chapter 12 of John, whatever happened at Calvary cast Satan
31:37 out again.
31:39 >>DAVID: Yes, that's right.
31:40 >>TY: On a deeper level?
31:41 In some sense, he's cast out just like physically removed
31:46 from the heavenly realm to the earthly realm in the initial
31:49 casting out, but then, at Calvary, he's cast out of the
31:54 loyalties and the imagination and the sympathies of
31:57 intelligent beings who look at Calvary and they assess the
32:04 character of God revealed in Jesus versus the claims that
32:07 Satan has made against the character of God.
32:10 So, there's a casting out at Calvary.
32:11 >>DAVID: The way that I've often communicated this,
32:14 you'll remember your thought?
32:15 The way that I've communicated this is, there's not that many
32:18 passages in the Old Testament that deal with Satan.
32:20 There's just precious few.
32:23 Like, you could list them.
32:24 You've got, what, Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14, Job 1, Genesis 3,
32:29 Zachariah 3.
32:31 >>TY: Yeah.
32:33 >>DAVID: There might be a few others, but when you look at
32:35 what I call the Satanic verses, right, like, those are
32:37 the verses that describe...
32:39 >>TY: In the Old Testament.
32:40 >>DAVID: In the Old Testament.
32:41 He's far more prominent in the New Testament because Jesus is
32:43 coming regularly in direct conflict with him.
32:46 Not to say that he's not working in the Old Testament.
32:48 >>TY: Genesis 3.
32:49 >>DAVID: I said Genesis 3.
32:50 So, when you add those passages up, what you see is
32:52 exactly what you're describing.
32:54 For example, in Job 2, he has access, he's some heavenly
32:57 realm, you know, have you considered my servant Job,
33:00 where do you come from?
33:01 I come from earth.
33:02 You have this whole, well, clearly, this is not happening
33:04 on earth because otherwise, he wouldn't say where do you come
33:06 from?
33:08 If they're, say, in Austin, Texas, you say, where you come
33:10 from?
33:11 Well, I live here.
33:12 You see what I'm saying?
33:13 He's come from some other place to this place and this
33:16 controversy, this conflict about who Job really belongs
33:19 to breaks out.
33:20 Whatever this celestial, you know, conclave is, this
33:23 meeting of these sons of God, he has access.
33:28 There's a point of access there.
33:30 That's an Old Testament point of access, but I think your
33:32 point, Ty, and it's a great one, is post the cross, when
33:36 Satan was exposed as a murderer, Jesus said, he's a
33:38 murderer, from the beginning, but people couldn't see it.
33:41 You know, you are of your father, the devil, you know,
33:42 he was a murderer from the beginning.
33:44 But now, when Satan's MO, when his mode of governance and the
33:50 outworking of his plan ends up with the beloved of heaven,
33:54 Jesus, nailed to a Roman instrument of torture, a
33:56 cross, it's like, the angels are like, whoa, no, no.
34:02 We don't wanna have anything to do with that.
34:03 So, the severing from the sympathies, from the
34:05 loyalties, that's it.
34:08 Now, check this out, I love this idea that he's then cast
34:10 to the earth.
34:11 I think that post cross, Jesus, excuse me, Satan's
34:15 exclusive domain is the earth.
34:18 It's just here.
34:19 This is the only place left that is as yet undecided about
34:22 the throne of God being set in heaven.
34:25 >>JAMES: That's confirmed in verse 12.
34:27 >>DAVID: Have you ever seen this?
34:28 What do you think of verse 13?
34:29 I know we're jumping a little bit ahead, but, of chapter 12.
34:31 I love this.
34:32 You get almost the sense of like, awareness, apprehension,
34:36 and surprise.
34:38 When the dragon saw that he was, it's like, I don't know
34:42 if he tries to like, I don't know how he moves, say he
34:46 tries to beam, you know, to go, and he's...
34:49 tries to beam, you know, to go, and he's...
34:51 And he can't leave.
34:52 When he saw that he was cast to the earth.
34:55 >>JAMES: There was no more sympathy with any of the
34:57 unfolding...
34:58 >>JEFFREY: He diverts his attention to the next target.
34:59 >>DAVID: Everything goes to a rage against...
35:04 >>TY: It's fully vindictive.
35:06 >>JAMES: Have you ever called someone and they don't answer?
35:07 You call someone and they don't answer, you text them
35:09 and they don't answer, you text them and they don't
35:10 See, this is the picture.
35:11 Satan is, he's sending these texts and calls out and
35:14 there's a response.
35:15 Well, have you considered my servant Job?
35:16 But now there's no answer.
35:18 There's no answer.
35:20 >>DAVID: The only answering chord takes place on earth.
35:21 >>JAMES: Yes.
35:22 There's no answering chord, good.
35:23 >>DAVID: I totally see that.
35:25 >>TY: Let me add a scripture to this idea that the cross
35:29 constituted the casting out of Satan in some significant
35:32 sense.
35:34 >>DAVID: Colossians 2:15.
35:35 >>TY: Did you see it?
35:36 >>DAVID: No, I just love it, one of my all-time favorites.
35:38 If you are a lover of the gospel and of scripture,
35:41 Colossians 2:15 has to be one of your very favorites.
35:45 >>TY: So, it says that, it's talking about Jesus at the
35:48 cross and it says, having disarmed, that's an
35:51 interesting word, having disarmed principalities and
35:54 powers, obviously bad ones, having disarmed principalities
35:58 and powers, he, Jesus, made a public spectacle of them,
36:01 triumphing over them in it, that is, the cross.
36:05 >>DAVID: In the cross.
36:06 >>TY: So, the cross constituted the triumph of
36:09 Christ over the devil and did two things, it disarmed him
36:14 and it made a public spectacle of him.
36:18 So, this was open to assessment, open to view for
36:22 observers to see what happened at the cross, but the reason I
36:27 wanted to look at that scripture and compare it with
36:29 Revelation 12 is because it says he disarmed them.
36:33 What does it mean?
36:34 Do we see Jesus at the cross like, wrestling Satan to the
36:37 ground and taking a pistol out of his hand?
36:40 Wrestling him to the ground and taking a knife out of his
36:42 hand?
36:44 Is he dismantling a bomb?
36:48 No.
36:50 When it says he disarmed him, this connects with chapter 12
36:52 verse 7, where it says, war broke out in heaven.
36:55 Interestingly, the word war there is the Greek word
37:01 palemos and it's not referring to angels, like, in midair
37:06 with like Star Wars, which trivializes it.
37:11 They're not casting laser beams out of their fingertips
37:13 at one another, it's a conversation that's occurring.
37:18 An argument, polemic.
37:21 So, palemos is polemic, we're entering a presidential
37:24 election season.
37:27 >>DAVID: That is filled with polemic.
37:28 >>TY: It's a palemos, it's a war.
37:32 >>JEFFREY: There's claims, counterclaims, smear
37:34 campaigns.
37:35 >>TY: So, Hillary is not challenging Trump to a duel.
37:40 She's standing at a podium shooting words.
37:43 He's standing at a podium, shooting words, and they're
37:45 shooting words back and forth at and about one another in
37:49 order to smear one another's characters.
37:53 >>DAVID: And to win loyalty.
37:54 >>TY: And to win loyalty from others and that's the kind of
37:57 war...
37:58 >>JEFFREY: To arouse suspicion about each other, too.
37:59 >>TY: Yeah, that's the war we're dealing with in
38:01 Revelation.
38:02 The devil is deceiving, he's making claims about or against
38:06 God.
38:07 >>DAVID: With, obviously, we have to say this, with the
38:11 major exception being that there is no mutuality.
38:14 In other words, we need, Trump and Clinton doing their, it's
38:17 mutual, and it's ugly on both sides.
38:20 In heaven, it's not bilateral, it's unilateral.
38:24 Satan is like, yeah, but you, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah,
38:26 but you.
38:26 And God's like...
38:27 >>JAMES: It's kinda like that candidate that refused to say
38:29 anything negative.
38:30 Remember him?
38:31 >>DAVID: I do remember him.
38:32 >>JAMES: He didn't get anywhere.
38:35 >>DAVID: He didn't get very far.
38:36 >>JAMES: Kind of.
38:37 >>DAVID: Kind of.
38:38 >>JEFFREY: There's a progression, I just wanna read
38:38 one thing out real quick here.
38:40 There's a progression between the crushing or the casting
38:42 out of Satan, right?
38:43 You said it happened initially in heaven, he gets cast down
38:47 on earth, and it's not until Calvary where Christ deals the
38:50 next blow and that next blow, that casting out, other
38:54 language used, Genesis 3:15, the promise of the crushing,
38:59 the crushing of the serpent.
39:01 So, that happens at Calvary.
39:04 Satan is cast out and crushed, but he's still around, he's
39:07 still active.
39:08 Right, and I think the hint in chapter 12 is that through the
39:12 church, the final blow will be dealt in a sense.
39:17 You gotta come to chapter 16 and verse 20, it says, the God
39:21 of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
39:25 >>TY: That's the church that's being addressed there.
39:27 >>JEFFREY: Yeah.
39:28 So, Christ will crush Satan under the church's feet, under
39:32 the woman's feet.
39:33 >>TY: That's a direct quote from Genesis 3:15.
39:35 >>JEFFREY: And he's talking to the church, but this is
39:36 post-Calvary obviously, so here we have casting out in
39:39 heaven, casting out on earth because of Calvary, but his
39:44 activities are still allowed to develop and to show, and to
39:48 expose himself and eventually, sorry?
39:51 >>JAMES: The church has to disarm him.
39:52 >>DAVID: Well, he is disarmed, the church has to ride in the
39:54 wake of the victory.
39:55 >>JEFFREY: And represent and publish and proclaim what has
39:58 already taken place so that, eventually, Satan is crushed
40:02 under the very people's...
40:03 >>TY: And all this language of disarmed and crushed and war,
40:06 the point we're making, it has nothing to do with physical
40:09 war.
40:10 It has to do with disarming his arguments with truth.
40:13 >>DAVID: So, and it's in the actual text that you read,
40:16 Romans 16:20, what God does this?
40:21 >>JEFFREY: The God of peace.
40:22 >>DAVID: The God of peace.
40:23 >>TY: The God of shalom.
40:24 >>DAVID: The God of shalom.
40:25 He's not a God of war.
40:26 War was brought to him.
40:28 That's my point about the bilateral versus unilateral.
40:30 The war was brought to him.
40:31 >>TY: But it's not intrinsic to his nature.
40:34 >>DAVID: No.
40:35 >>JEFFREY: It backfires on the initiator.
40:38 Satan's raising his accusations and those things
40:41 just bounce back at him and reveal that all Satan was
40:44 doing was projecting to God, his own psyche, his own
40:47 character.
40:48 >>DAVID: And you know, just, I'll throw this last little
40:50 bit in and I think we have to take a break.
40:51 We actually see, I preached a sermon on this recently where
40:54 we see that, like, for example, in the book of
40:56 Daniel, they're like, oh, we're gonna throw that guy
40:58 into the lion's den.
40:59 Well, they end up in the lion's den.
41:00 Oh, we're gonna throw these guys into the fire.
41:03 They're fine in the fire, but the people that tried to throw
41:05 them in the fire, this happens again and again.
41:07 Satan makes a trap, he creates a war situation and then, he
41:11 ends up being, as it were, falling on his own sword.
41:14 >>JAMES: He that kills with the sword will be killed with
41:16 the sword.
41:17 >>TY: There is an Old Testament scripture, I don't
41:18 know where it is, I hope it's in the bible.
41:20 There's a scripture somewhere in the Old Testament that
41:23 says, it says, the wicked dig a pit and fall into it.
41:27 >>DAVID: We'll find it on the break.
41:28 >>JAMES: One more point.
41:30 Armageddon, the three unclean spirits come out of the mouth
41:35 of the dragon, the false prophet, and the beast.
41:37 In other words, a war of words, the mouth.
41:40 >>TY: This is deception.
41:41 >>JAMES: Yes, their main motive argument.
41:43 >>TY: Now can we take a break?
41:44 >>JEFFREY: Wait, one more.
41:46 [Laughter]
41:47 >>TY: We gotta take a break, we'll come right back.
41:50 [Music]
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42:52 >>TY: So, in this final segment, we're going to move
42:54 through the remaining verses in Revelation chapter 12, but
42:59 the thing is that there are elements that we really wanna
43:04 save for chapter 13, why don't you explain that, David, what
43:06 are we, where are we going now in chapter 12 and what are we
43:10 gonna save for chapter 13?
43:11 >>JEFFREY: Can I confuse you real quick.
43:12 I'm fully doing this right now.
43:14 >>TY: What are you doing?
43:15 >>JEFFREY: Just 'cause you made the statement last
43:18 session, that text about digging a pit and falling into
43:21 it, we're talking about backfiring the devil, it's
43:23 actually in the bible.
43:24 I'm surprised, Ty, you normally surprise me.
43:29 But, in Ecclesiastes 10, it says, he who digs a pit will
43:31 fall into it, which is what you were saying, and whoever
43:34 breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent.
43:39 I just love the fact that the word serpent was in there.
43:41 That's Revelation 12.
43:43 >>DAVID: I love it.
43:44 >>JEFFREY: No, it's not, but I thought it was pretty cool.
43:47 >>TY: But, in principle, it does, because what that's
43:49 describing is that reality is rigged or created in such a
43:55 way that a person who uses force and violence breaking
44:00 through a wall experiences the ramifications of that violence
44:04 coming back on their head.
44:06 >>DAVID: He that lives by the sword dies by the sword.
44:07 >>TY: Yeah, it's the cycle that shows up in all story
44:12 lines that the way you solve problems is to hit back and
44:17 Jesus comes along and he says, I'm gonna respond to evil with
44:22 good.
44:23 I'm not gonna hit back, and in not hitting back, I'm going to
44:25 disarm your hate.
44:27 I'm going to take away from you, I'm gonna take away from
44:30 you the very thing that you think is the answer to the
44:35 world's problems and I'm gonna give you an answer on a
44:37 different level.
44:38 >>JEFFREY: But it says serpent.
44:39 >>DAVID: No, I like that, I like that.
44:41 Here's the illustration that I've used in the past, tell me
44:42 if you like that, and then, I'll come back to where we're
44:44 going.
44:45 I say that Satan has three arrows in his quiver.
44:48 So, he's got his quiver and he shoots with three arrows, he
44:50 shoots with deception, he shoots with sin, and he shoots
44:53 with death.
44:54 That's what he has to work with.
44:56 So, Jesus shows up, the deception arrow, he tells the
44:58 truth.
44:59 This is what God looks like, okay?
45:01 He takes the sin arrow and Jesus lives a life of perfect
45:06 relational integrity with God and with man.
45:09 Okay, so that's disarmed, break that arrow.
45:11 And then, death, because the wages of sin is death, death
45:14 had no legitimate hold on Christ, and so he raises from
45:18 the dead.
45:19 So, Jesus walks up, as it were, and effectively snaps
45:22 each of those arrows.
45:23 Not by stabbing Satan, but by doing a different way.
45:26 >>JEFFREY: By being immune to the venom.
45:28 >>DAVID: Yeah, by being immune, by introducing a new
45:31 way of conflict.
45:33 >>TY: He doesn't fight with the same weapons that the
45:37 devil employs or, as we said yesterday, he doesn't out
45:41 monster the monster.
45:43 He doesn't out Satan Satan, he doesn't use the same tactics
45:48 or the same methods.
45:49 >>DAVID: But you have talked to me, Ty, in the past, about
45:51 the myth of redemptive violence.
45:52 That's a phrase that sometimes you used.
45:54 And if you look at television today, whether it's the Iron
45:57 Man, Spider-Man, Superman, or any of the James Bond movies,
46:01 all of that, at the end of the day, is like, hey those guys
46:03 are clever and have weapons, but we'll be more clever and
46:07 have bigger weapons and the hero.
46:09 So, Jesus shows up and he's the anti-hero.
46:13 It's like, he doesn't have any guns, he doesn't, how does he
46:17 win this war?
46:18 >>TY: My kingdom is not of this world, therefore, my
46:19 servants don't fight.
46:21 >>DAVID: That's right, or they would fight.
46:22 >>JAMES: Before you go into that, I just wanna show how
46:24 this connects into Revelation chapter 12 in a very powerful
46:27 way.
46:28 There's a phrase in here that is used five times and it's
46:31 the phrase that describes what happens in relation to the
46:37 woman, the church, and Christ.
46:38 In Revelation chapter 12 and verse 4, it says, and his
46:42 tail, the dragon's tail, drew a third part of the stars in
46:44 heaven, cast them to the earth, and the dragon stood
46:46 before the woman who was ready to be delivered.
46:48 You see that word delivered?
46:50 For to devour her child as soon as it was born and she,
46:54 verse 5, brought forth a man child and then, in verse 13,
46:58 and when the dragon saw he was cast out of the earth, he
47:01 persecuted the woman, which brought forth the man child.
47:05 Now, that word brought forth, brought forth, born, that word
47:08 in the original Greek is the same word that is used back
47:11 here in Revelation chapter 6 and verse 1, and I wanna
47:15 remind us that Revelation 6, verse 1, is apostolic age
47:18 again, it's talking about the white horse, but the white
47:21 horse is describing, in symbolic terms, the apostolic
47:24 era.
47:26 This white horse has a rider, and we believe the rider is
47:28 Jesus, we believe the horse represents God's church,
47:31 Zachariah 10:3 says, God has made his people like goodly
47:34 horse in the day of battle.
47:36 But notice this.
47:38 I saw and behold the white horse and he that besat him
47:40 had a bow.
47:41 What does a bow do?
47:42 You just described it.
47:43 A bow brings forth weapons.
47:45 Well, the word bow is the root word for bring forth, bring
47:50 forth, bring forth, that is used in Revelation 12.
47:52 In other words, that word, in Revelation 12 is used 5 times,
47:55 born, delivered, brought forth, brought forth, is the
47:58 same Greek word for bow right here.
48:01 The apostolic church had a weapon and their weapon was
48:04 the weapon that disarmed Satan, it was the weapon of
48:06 Christ being brought forth.
48:08 It was the weapon of his incarnation, of his life, and
48:10 his death, it was the weapon of the gospel.
48:12 And that is the thing that Satan...
48:14 >>JEFFREY: So, the church took Jesus and did that on Satan.
48:16 >>JAMES: And the arrows of conviction or the arrows of
48:19 love, this is the weapon.
48:20 >>TY: The weapon is the gospel.
48:22 >>JAMES: And it's all through Revelation 12.
48:24 The woman brought forth, brought forth, brought, what
48:25 did she bring forth?
48:26 The man child.
48:27 What is the man child?
48:27 He's the weapon.
48:28 What is the man child?
48:29 He's the thing that the church is bringing forth in
48:31 Revelation chapter 6, when that church goes forth
48:32 conquering and to conquer.
48:34 >>DAVID: Reminds me of the text of Paul where he says the
48:35 weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
48:37 >>JAMES: And look at this, look at this.
48:39 >>TY: Mighty through God, through the pulling down of
48:40 strongholds, casting down arguments.
48:44 >>DAVID: And every high thing that exalts itself against the
48:46 knowledge of God.
48:48 >>TY: And bringing into captivity every thought.
48:50 Isn't that interesting?
48:51 All the language is knowledge, thought...
48:54 >>JAMES: And here's the final language, and this is
48:56 Revelation 6 again, verse 2, and he that sat in heaven had
49:00 a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth
49:03 conquering and to conquer.
49:06 There's this warfare that's taking place.
49:08 This church is going forth conquering and to conquer.
49:11 So, the warfare language is there, but the war is
49:14 completely different than what we understand it to be.
49:16 >>TY: It's interesting because the medieval church, the
49:19 church that remained above ground that was, yeah, the
49:22 visible church, that was the thing that actually wasn't the
49:24 thing, that wasn't the real church, took scripture and its
49:28 warfare language and actually engaged in using weapons, the
49:39 weapons of civil power and military power, the weapons of
49:42 swords.
49:44 >>DAVID: Can you imagine?
49:45 I stab you in the name of Jesus, I burn you in the name
49:46 of Jesus and Jesus is like...
49:47 >>JAMES: I behead you in the name of God.
49:49 >>DAVID: No, you don't, no, you don't.
49:53 >>JAMES: It's happening today.
49:54 >>DAVID: You can say that all you want, but no, you don't.
49:56 >>TY: A crucifix in one hand, a sword in the other hand,
49:58 convert or die.
50:00 So, people...
50:01 >>JEFFREY: Or even more modern, yeah, the gospel and
50:02 machine guns or grenades.
50:05 >>TY: When I was down in Peru a few years ago, the local
50:08 people told me the story of the Catholic conquistadors
50:13 that landed on their shores and on large stallions with
50:17 the crucifix in one hand, the sword in the other hand, and
50:20 they told the Inca chief, we're gonna build a room, you
50:25 fill it with gold by this time, or you die.
50:29 He filled it with gold, fulfilled their demands, and
50:34 they still executed him, in the name of Jesus, and then,
50:37 after executing the chief, proceeded to force the Inca
50:42 people to convert to Christianity on pain of death.
50:45 So, it's not surprising that much of South and Central
50:49 America is quote unquote Christian, but it's Christian
50:53 on a premise that is contrary to the character of God.
50:57 >>DAVID: So, in Revelation 12, because we've got just a few
51:01 minutes left in this final session, do you guys feel like
51:05 you've covered 7-12, I mean, we've certainly not.
51:08 >>TY: But we've gotta move on, though, 'cause we have to look
51:11 at verses 13 and onward, don't we?
51:13 >>DAVID: So, at the cross, verse 10, yes, we do, at the
51:15 cross, verse 10, at the cross, the kingdom of our God, the
51:19 power of his Christ and all that is come, verse 11, they,
51:21 that is to say, the church of God, the followers of Jesus,
51:23 overcame by the blood of the Lamb, that's the weapons of
51:25 their warfare, which are not carnal, it's the gospel, they
51:29 did not, and by the word of their testimony, their own
51:31 personal experience with Christ, his goodness, by the
51:34 Spirit, they did not love their lives to the death,
51:36 there's no need to if Jesus conquered death, you're gonna
51:40 get raised form the dead anyway.
51:41 >>JAMES: That's beautiful right there because that's the
51:42 disarming, that's the weapon.
51:43 >>DAVID: Yeah, that's right, one of those weapons is death.
51:45 Verse 12, therefore, on the basis of this casting down,
51:49 this sequential casting down, rejoice, oh, heavens, Satan
51:53 doesn't have access there anymore, and you who dwell on
51:55 them, but woe to the inhabitants of the earth and
51:58 in the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great
51:59 wrath.
52:00 Why?
52:01 Why is he so fired up?
52:02 Well, because he knows he has a short time.
52:03 His weapons are, you know, being sequentially,
52:06 systematically broken, the last little place that he has,
52:09 the little toehold that he has in the universe is earth.
52:11 >>JAMES: Let's stop right there for a second, because I
52:15 think, we don't wanna go to these verses, we don't need to
52:18 go to these verses, but I think what Ty said is
52:20 important, and that is, have we covered 7 and onward
52:24 sufficiently, and I got the indication from Ty that, no we
52:27 haven't, and so, this would be a really good place to double
52:30 back and hit it hard, and that is verse 12, because it says
52:32 here, therefore, rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in
52:36 them, but woe to the inhabitants of the earth and
52:38 of the sea.
52:39 What's happening right there?
52:40 In the whole context of what we've looked at here, this
52:43 kind of this interlude, if you will, verses 7 and onward,
52:46 Paul was, I mean, excuse me, John was just writing the
52:49 church, and then, he starts talking about heaven.
52:52 Well, what happened in verse 12?
52:54 What is the whole point here?
52:55 The whole point here is what we've been talking about, that
52:58 the heavens are rejoicing because Satan has been
53:01 unmasked.
53:03 He's been seen.
53:04 He deceived a third of the angels and the angels that
53:05 didn't fall with him still had a question in their mind, you
53:08 know, these accusations, is there any truth to them?
53:11 And it wasn't until the cross that that was completely
53:14 unmasked.
53:15 >>JEFFREY: It's settled in heaven but not on earth.
53:16 >>JAMES: And that's what verse 12 is saying.
53:19 >>JEFFREY: Business is still, you know, the mission still
53:25 needs to be completed on earth.
53:26 >>DAVID: On that note, I find it so interesting.
53:29 In one of the gospels, Jesus shows up, gospel of Luke, the
53:34 two demoniacs, Jesus gets off the shore, walks on, one of
53:37 the demoniacs runs down and says, we know who you are,
53:39 you're Jesus, the Son of God, you've come to torment us
53:42 before the time.
53:43 Okay, I love to ask people this question, what do these
53:45 demons, fallen angels, believe about God and his character?
53:49 You went out of your way just to come here to this little,
53:51 you know, out of the way shore to torture us.
53:54 They have bought the lie.
53:56 >>JEFFREY: They still believe it.
53:57 >>DAVID: They have bought the lie.
53:59 And Jesus doesn't come to, I'd like to say this, Jesus didn't
54:02 come to the earth to torture, he came willing to be
54:09 tortured.
54:10 >>JAMES: Yes, praise God, and you know what's really
54:12 interesting about that whole story is, they say, don't do
54:15 this to us, and Jesus says, okay, what do you want me to
54:17 do?
54:17 It's up to...
54:19 >>DAVID: We wanna go over there.
54:19 He's like, okay.
54:20 >>JAMES: But get this, it's up to you.
54:22 Your destiny is up to you.
54:24 I'm not gonna determine it, you're gonna determine your
54:27 destiny.
54:28 You're gonna determine it.
54:29 >>JEFFREY: You gotta land the plane, Ty.
54:30 >>TY: What are you gonna do with verses 13-17 in the
54:32 minute and 30 seconds you have left, David?
54:35 >>JEFFREY: Just say those are awesome, awesome verses.
54:37 >>DAVID: They're awesome verses and we'll come to them
54:38 in our next session.
54:40 >>JAMES: No, we'll come to them in our landby session.
54:42 >>DAVID: Yeah, 'cause it flows, you have the woman
54:44 fleeing into the wilderness, the earth helps.
54:46 Well, the earth shows up hugely in Revelation 13.
54:48 There's this whole beast that comes up out of the earth.
54:50 So, we have to remember, the chapter divisions in scripture
54:53 are artificial.
54:55 We're dealing with themes, and that theme is wrapped up
54:57 pretty well.
54:59 And we'll pick up that, resume that them in our next session.
55:02 >>TY: That'll work.
55:03 So, to summarize, in Revelation 12 so far, we
55:07 essentially have the woman, which is the church, both Old
55:12 Testament, New Testament era, giving birth to Christ, he
55:15 comes into the world, the devil, working through earthly
55:18 systems, namely the Roman empire, tries to conquer Jesus
55:23 by crucifixion.
55:24 Jesus, by his crucifixion, ironically enough, conquers
55:29 the kingdom of darkness by truth and love, by revealing
55:33 the character of God, which runs counter to the claims
55:35 that Satan has made against the character of God.
55:39 The devil then realizes, well, wait a minute, my gig is up,
55:42 the only thing I can do now is persecute the church.
55:45 So, the persecution of the church post-Calvary is what we
55:51 find in the remainder of Revelation 12 that we will be
55:54 coming back to later, and chapter 13, which we will come
55:58 back to as we seek to unpack chapter 13 and realize more
56:03 fully what's going on in those final verses.
56:05 So, this has been a good discussion.
56:06 [Music]
56:09 So, this has been a good discussion.


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Revised 2018-01-16