Introduction: In a recent edition of the Washington Post, columnist George Will warned that time is running out for the Middle East. Hamas has tens of thousands of rockets in Gaza, all aimed at Israel. Hezbollah has up to 60,000 missiles in southern Lebanon aimed at Israel. Iran is developing a nuclear weapon, and Iranian leaders claim they need only a solitary nuclear device because tiny Israel is a “one-bomb country.” And if Israel makes any moves to defend itself, it’s treated like a villian in the world press and by the United Nations.  What we read in alarm in our headlines corresponds to what we read prophetically in our Bibles.

Review: Revelation 6 – 18 describes the Great Tribulation, and the material is linked by three visions: Seven seals (chapters 6-7), seven trumpets (8-11), and seven bowls of wrath (chapters 15-16). Between the trumpets and the bowls is an extended parenthesis of chapters 12, 13, and 14 that tell us about the antichrist and his campaign to exterminate Israel.

Verse 1: The woman here represents the nation of Israel. The sun and moon speak of her splendor as God’s chosen nation; the twelve stars point to the twelve tribes. The description of this woman is reminiscent of Joseph’s vision in Genesis 37.

Verse 2: The woman “Israel” produced the Messiah, the baby born in Bethlehem.

Verse 3: The red dragon represents Satan, “that ancient serpent, the devil” (v. 9). Satan has always sought to obliterate Christ by destroying His lineage before birth (such as the attempt to annihilate the Jews in the days of Esther), destroying Him at the time of His birth (as in Herod’s order to kill the boys of Bethlehem), and having Him crucified at the end of His ministry.

Verse 4: Three chapters in the Bible go a long way in helping us understand the devil: Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, and Revelation 12. By putting these chapters together we can reconstruct a reasonable profile of the person of Satan. He was a powerful angel who rebelled against God when “wickedness was found” in him. He led a rebellion among the hosts of heaven. He tried to destroy the Messiah the moment He was born.

Verse 5: Here in a single verse is the 33-year earthly life of Christ. He was born; He did the work necessary to fulfill prophecy; He ascended to heaven at the end of His work and was snatched back up to God and to the throne; and He will one day rule the nations with an iron scepter. (The Greek word for “snatched up” is the same for “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4, regarding the rapture of the church. This tells us that the ascension of Christ into heaven was a prototype for the rapture of the church.)

Verse 6a: When attacked during the Great Tribulation, a remnant of Israel will flee to the desert to a place prepared for her by God (some believe this will be the Jordanian city of Petra), where she will be taken care of for 1,260 days, or three and a half years.

Verse 6b: To understand this verse, remember that in the Old Testament the prophets skipped over the Age of the Church. They predicted the coming of Christ, but there was nothing about the church. They described the first and second coming of Christ as though it were one event with no gap for the Age of Grace. God didn’t reveal that information to them. Ephesians 3 says it was God’s secret, a mystery that He didn’t reveal to other generations. Reading Revelation 12 is like reading the Old Testament. The action here doesn’t concern the church, and the writer just skips over the church age. In verse 5, we have the ascension of Christ and in verse 6 we have the Great Tribulation. The 2000-year church age occurs between verses 6 and 7.

Verse 7-9: At this point, war will break out in the heavenly zones. As incredible as it sounds, right now Satan and his demons still have some access to heaven (1 Kings 22:19-22 and Job 1 and 2 and Zechariah 3:1). At this point in the Great Tribulation, Satan and his armies will make a direct frontal attack on heaven. But Michael and the armies of heaven will repel the attack, expelling Satan once and for all from heavenly access.

Verses 10-12: At that moment a great announcement will be made in heaven, proclaiming the defeat of the serpent and claiming victory, authority, and power for Christ.

Verses 13 – 16: Filled with fury, Satan will redouble his attack on Israel, but he cannot seem to find or destroy this core group of Jews who are hiding in the desert. God will protect them for these three and a half years. (Verse 14 might be a prophetic reference to airplanes, for somehow this Jewish remnant will be airlifted to safety).

Verse 17: In a rage, Satan will his attention on the remainder of the Jews and on the tribulation saints, on those who have been saved during the Great Tribulation.

Closing summary: The synopsis of Revelation 12 has to do with the nation of Israel during the Great Tribulation. Israel is the nation that gave birth to the Messiah. Satan tried to destroy the Messiah, not just as His birth but through His life and especially on the cross. When Jesus died, Satan thought He had won. But Jesus conquered death and ascended back to Heaven’s throne. After the age of the church (which isn’t referred to in this narration any more than it was in the Old Testament), Satan will launch a full-fledged war against heaven. He’ll be repelled and thrown out once and for all. Being hurled down to earth, he will again seek to annihilate the nation of Israel. But the people of Israel, or at least a remnant of them, will flee to a place of safety in the desert, and the devil will be unable to destroy them during the Great Tribulation. At that point, Satan will turn his attention to those who have been saved during the Tribulation and unleash the full force of his wrath against them.

Introduction: Why does the world have so much Christo-phobia? Eastern Michigan University recently expelled a student—a young African-American woman—over her Christian belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. She was in the graduate program in school counseling, and her explusion was upheld by a federal judge. Legal experts say this could lead to the expulsion of potentially thousands of Christian students from universities across the country. It is going to become increasingly difficult to stand for Christ in an age that is characterized by discrimination against believers. But that’s nothing compared to what will happen to two men who stand for the Lord during the Great Tribulation in Revelation 11.

Background: As we open this chapter, we’re still awaiting the seventh trumpet. In chapters 6 and 7, we began the Tribulation judgments with seven seals; and as each seal was broken, a new judgment was unleashed. Then in chapter 8, we moved to the seven trumpets, and so far six of the seven have sounded, each one announcing a new catastrophic judgment on earth. As we get to the beginning of chapter 11, we’re coming to a difficult chapter. Some commentators claim this is the hardest chapter in Revelation to interpret. We may not understand some aspects, partiularly of the timing of this chapter, but it helps if we take it with reasonable literality. This is talking about two real men in a real city (Jerusalem) that has a real temple. These men literally die and are resurrected and taken up to heaven just as the chapter claims.

V. 1-2a: In the interim between the sixth and seventh trumpets, John is told to inspect the temple that has been built in Jerusalem. This is the famous Third Temple, and plans for its construction are being made. The first temple was built by Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians. The second temple was built by Zerubbabel and renovated by Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans. The Muslims came and built the Dome of the Rock on the site and the al-Aqsa Mosque. But the Bible teaches that during the Great Tribulation, a Third Temple will be sitting in Jerusalem. And if you can believe it, the prospect of that Third Temple is behind all the great world events that are frightening us today. What are we fighting wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Because of Al-Queda, which is a fundamentalist Islamic movement that targets nations supporting Israel. Why are we in Iraq and considering going to war in Iran? Because of the Islamic hatred of Israel. Why is the Middle East in turmoil? Because of the presence of tiny Israel. The first time I visited Israel in 1976, I remember walking across the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and my pastor said, “This is powder keg of history.” And it seems to me the fuse is lit. There are forces in the world today that are working day and night to rebuild the Third Temple, even though it would mean the desecration or destruction of the Dome of the rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque and lead to world war. An article appeared last week in the Jewish newspaper Haaretz, featuring an interview with the Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi. The reporter asked him if he still believed the Third Temple would be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and he replied, “Certainly. We believe in that. We pray for that three times a day.” The building of the Third Temple is implied in Matthew 24::15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Here in Revelation 11:1-2, we see this Third Temple standing in Jerusalem and John is told to measure its dimensions and to observe its size and scope.

V. 2b-3: The length of time for the Great Tribulation is given in three different ways as three and a half years: 1260 days, 42 months, three and half years. This corresponds to the predictions in Daniel 9:27. (The entire Tribulation will last seven years; the Great Tribulation is the final half of that period. Commentators are divided about whether Revelation 11:2-3 represent the first half or the second half of the Tribulation).

V. 3-6: During the entire duration of this Great Tribulation, there will be two indestructible witnesses preaching in downtown Jerusalem. These may be contemporary characters who were saved during the tribulation period, or they could be Old Testament characters who descend to the earth with prophetic power. If it’s the latter, some have speculated that it might be Elijah and Moses, since these men will call fire down from heaven as Elijah did in the days of Ahab, and will unleash a series of Exodus-like plagues as Moses did in ancient Egypt. Moses and Elijah were both with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah would represent the Law and the Prophets. Since the Bible doesn’t give us their identities, there’s no need to speculate. It is their message and ministry that is important, not necessarily their identity.

V. 7a: This is the first of thirty-six references in Revelation to the antichrist (“the beast”).

V. 7b-11: These two witnesses are finally overcome and slain by the antichrist and his forces, which sparks a worldwide celebration. These verses seem to anticipate the era of television and instant global communication; but the jubilation is cut short because these two witnesses suddenly rise from the dead and ascend to heaven.

V. 12: The cry from above that results in their rapture is “Come up here!” Like the cry of Jesus to Lazarus—“Come forth!” or “Come out!”—this cry gives us an indication of what the Lord will shout when He comes again at the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

V. 13: As the witnesses ascend to heaven, another great earthquake strikes the earth, and a tenth of Jerusalem is destroyed with 7000 fatalities. The result is that the survivors in Jerusalem, the Jewish population, begins to have a change of heart. Perhaps this is the beginning of a spiritual movement that will lead Israel to Christ when Christ returns, as we read in Zechariah 12-14.

V. 15-18: Now the seventh trumpet sounds, but we aren’t told of what happens on earth at the sounding of the trumpet. Instead the scene shifts to the celebration in heaven and another convocation of worship occurs with loud songs and intense praise.

V. 19: This verse with its description of heavenly pyrotechnics is the prelude to the next several chapters that are an extended parenthesis in the story (chapters 12-14) and introduce us to the seven great personages that will dominate the headlines during the Great Tribulation.

V. 15-18: Now the seventh trumpet sounds, but we aren’t told of what happens on earth at the sounding of the trumpet. Instead the scene shifts to the celebration in heaven and another convocation of worship occurs with loud songs and intense praise.

V. 19: This verse with its description of heavenly pyrotechnics is the prelude to the next several chapters that are an extended parenthesis in the story (chapters 12-14) and introduce us to the seven great personages that will dominate the headlines during the Great Tribulation.

Introduction: Let’s play some Bible trivia. Where in the Bible do you find these verses?

• Rejoice in Lord always
• Don’t be anxious about anything but pray about everything
•  I have learned to be content in any & every cirircumstace
• I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me
• My God will supply all your needs out of the riches of His glorious grace
  

They are all in Philippians 4. This is the chapter that tells us how to be an uplifter. In Guideposts Magazine Donald Vairin of Oceanside, California, told of serving as a young hospital corpsman in the invasion of Guam during World War II.  Suddenly his boat came to a grinding halt.  They had hit a coral reef, and the commanding officer ordered everyone off the ship. Donald jumped into the ocean and sank like a rock, his carbine rifle, medical pack, canteen, and boots dragging him down.  He forced himself to the surface, gasping for air, only to sink again.  He tried to pull off his boots, but the effort exhausted him, and he suddenly realized he wasn’t going to make it. Just then he saw a man thrashing in the water next to him, and in desperation he clutched onto him.  That proved enough to hold him up and get him to the reef where he was picked up by a rescue boat.  But Donald felt so guilty about grabbing the drowning man to save himself that he never told anyone what had happened. About six months later on shore leave in San Francisco, he stopped in a restaurant.  A sailor in uniform waved him over to sit with him, and as he did so he announced to his friends, “This is my buddy.  He saved my life.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Donald.
“Don’t you remember,” said the man.  “We were in the water together at Guam.  You grabbed on to me.  I was going down, and you held me up.”
Paul and the Philippians were holding each other up; and that’s what we, too, are called to do and to be. As uplifters, we need:

1. Consistency (v. 1) – Compare this verse with Philippians 1:27. We get the idea that Philippians 1:1-26 is an extended personal introduction, and that Paul doesn’t start the body of the letter until 1:27: Conduct youselves in a manner worth of the Gospel… Stand firm…. That theme of “standing firm” unfolds through chapters 2 and 3, and Paul ends the body of the letter in 4:1: Therefore, my brothers…that is how you should stand firm. The remainder of the book is an extended personal conclusion. If the body of the letter is bookended, then, by 1:27 and 4:1, the theme of Philippians is “standing firm.” This is a military term in the Greek, indicating that we are not to abandon our posts during combat. We must remain faithful and consistent in both our beliefs and practices.

2. Congeniality (v. 2-3) – I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in these verses, because I’m curious about the cause of the conflict between these two women. We’ll all witnessed lots of church conflicts. But we can’t uplift others if we’re estranged from them. We’ve got to learn to be congenial even if we don’t always get our way. This is the application of the teaching in chapter 2 about being like-minded.

3. Composure (v. 4-9 – This passage is Paul’s definitive treatment of worry and anxiety, just as Christ had addressed the subject in Matthew 6. We can only uplift others if we ourselves are composed and at peace. This is as close as the apostle ever came to giving a series of “steps” or “bullet points.” The outline seems very clear to me. The way to have inner peace (the peace of God and the God of peace) is to:

A. Rejoice in the Lord
B. Be Gentle
C. Practice the Lord’s nearness
D. Don’t worry, but pray about everything with thanksgiving
E. Think about and meditate on God’s Word, which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.

4. Contentment (v. 10-20) – In this section, Paul is responding to the financial gift sent by the Philippians through Epaphroditus. He reassures them that he is grateful for the gift and it has met his needs, although he has learned to be content whatever the circumstances, for he has learned he can do all things (even be content in poverty and in prison) through Christ. Because of the Philippians’ generosity, he said, God would supply their every need.

5. Christ (v. 20-23) – The book of Philippians ends with a doxology and a blessing. We can be uplifters because Christ has lifted us. He is our all-sufficient Savior. “Once it was the blessing; now it is the Lord.”

Conclusion: There’s an old song that says, “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, / Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more; / But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry, / From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.” We’ve been uplifted to be uplifters.

Scripture: All of us how are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that, too, God will make clear to you.  (Philippians 3:15)

Introduction: Many of today’s ills care caused by immaturity. Many of our marriage problems are maturity problems. Ditto our money problems. Many of our relational and vocational problems result from our immaturity. As Christians, we should be growing ever more mature in our personalities, perspectives, and spiritual progress. Philippians 3 gives us seven marks of maturity. As you read through Philippians 3, underline the following seven phrases.

1.  Rejoice in the Lord (v. 1): Mature people learn to work their way through difficulties and arrive at the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. We can’t always rejoice in our circumstances, but we can always rejoice in the Lord. In this prison letter of Philippians, Paul uses the words “joy,” “rejoice,” “glad,” and “cheer” a total of 18 times.

2. Watch out for the Dogs (v. 2): Paul’s blunt language was targeting the Judaizers, who wanted to add Jewish ceremonialism to the doctrine of justification by grace. Right living never comes from wrong thinking. Mature people maintain the integrity of their doctrines and beliefs.

3. Worship by the Spirit (v. 3a): Mature people worship publically, personally, privately, and perpetually.

4. Glory in Christ Jesus (v. 3b): Borrowing from the last verses of Jeremiah 9, Paul tells us to be proud of our relationship with Christ. We should boast only of Him.

5. Put No Confidence in the Flesh (v. 3c-11). We can never establish or maintain a relationship with God based on our own accomplishments or merits. Maturity rests in Christ alone for its spiritual and eternal security.

6. Press on Toward the Goal (v. 12-16). Mature people don’t give up when discouraged. They don’t give in when tempted. And if they do, they quickly get back on their feet. See Proverbs 24:16. We may lose a few battles, but the war it already won on our behalf. He who has begun a good work in us will carry it on to completion (Phil. 1:6), and so we press on the upward way.

7. Eagerly Await the Savior (v. 17-21): Spiritual maturity brings with it daily anticipation. We’re not citizens of earth going to heaven; we’re citizens of heaven traveling through earth, waiting the glorious transformation of our bodies to be like His. The resurrection body of Christ is the proof, provision, pattern, and prototype of our own future  resurrection bodies.

Conclusion: “I’m pressing on the upward way; / New heights I’m gaining every day; / Still praying as I’m onward bound, / Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”

Introduction: Everyone has relationship issues. The best passage in the Bible for dealing with these is arguably the second chapter of the book of Philippians. This chapter has three paragraphs that tell us exactly what to do.

1.  We need the Right Minds (Philippians 2:1-11)

• An Exhortation (v. 1-5): Since we have encouragement from Christ, comfort from His love, fellowship with His Spirit, and since we have His realities of tenderness and compassion, we should be “like-minded.” That doesn’t mean we should have uniformity of opinion on everything, but that we should have an agreeable, cooperative spirit.
• An Example (v. 6-11): Our great example of this is Christ. Let this mind (attitude) be in you which also is in Christ. Verses 6-11 is a poem or hymn, probably composed by Paul, that covers the pre-existence, incarnation, crucifixion, ascension, and glorification of Christ. It’s designed to show us that if Jesus could humble Himself as He did, we should be willing to do the same.

2.  We Need the Right Manners (Philippians 2:12-18): We must let our salvation work its way out in daily practice, doing things without complaining or arguing. If people have to walk on eggshells around us for fear of provoking us, or if we have a history of broken friendships, or if we’re difficult and demanding with others, or if we become embittered with someone—it’s a lack of Christlikeness. It’s God who gives us the desire and the ability to be cooperative and agreeable with others.

3. We Need the Right Models (Philippians 2:19-30): The final paragraph in this chapter gives us two models who demonstrated relational maturity by their lives.

•  Timothy (v. 19-24)
• Epaphroditus (v. 25-30)

Conclusion:  It’s a shame when our relationships break down. We can minimize that and repair many of our relationships (in marriages, families, homes, churches, friendships, and denominations) by having the right mind, exercising the right manners, and emulating the right models.

[Note: Katrina is home and we're hoping for a speedy recovery. Thanks for your prayers!]

How to Eat a Book

In Revelation 10, John took and ate a scroll from the angel’s hand. It tastes sweet as honey, but left his stomach feeling bitter (representing the fact that the Bible is sweet to believers, but gives us a message of judgment for the world). This is one of several passages comparing the Bible to food, and Bible study to eating.

When God created the physical and spiritual realms, He used the same grid. That’s why we can illustrate spiritual truths by their corresponding physical realities, as Jesus did when He used the story of the sower to illustrate the spreading of the Gospel.

In the physical realm, we need food. God could have made us so we recharged with sunlight like solar panels, or we replenished our strength by plugging into some kind of power supply. But he gave each of us a mouth, a set of teeth, an esophagus, a stomach, and a digestive system. We have supper, chew it up, and swallow it; and it satisfies our mouths and stomachs. Then our digestive system goes to work, and this satisfying meal is broken down to its smallest parts, transferred through our bloodstream, and carried to every last place in our bodies.

This is why nutrition is so important. Our bodies temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are what we eat. You’ll never be any healthier than your diet.

The same is true mentally and spiritually. What do most people devour today? Entertainment and a constant diet of pure secularism. But Jesus said, “May shall not live by break alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” To trace this through the Bible, see:

• Ezekiel 2:9 – 3:15 (notice the resemblance to Revelation 10)
• Job 23:1
• Psalm 19:10
• Psalm 119:103
• Jeremiah 15:16
• Hebrews 5:11-12
• 1 Peter 2:1-2

 If you want to study the Bible on a daily basis here is a simple, workable seven-step plan. Here’s how to eat a book.

1. Select a book of the Bible to study. Perhaps Philippians, for example.
2.  Jot. Read every day where you left off the day before, using a pen or pencil. You can either underline and circle and make marginal notes as you read, or you can jot down observations in a small notebook. It’s amazing how a pen helps the mind to focus on the passage being studied.
3. Consult. Read the explanatory notes in a good study Bible. Study Bibles have been around since the Geneva Bible of the 1500s. The best study Bible available today is the ESV Study Bible. It’s like a seminary sown up between the covers.
4. Cross-Reference. Follow the cross-references in the margins of your study Bible.
5. Ponder. Find a key verse from the passage and ponder it. This is what the Bible calls meditation.
6. Pray. Turn the passage or verse into a prayer for yourself and others. Try this and you’ll find it an indispensible part of your daily study time.
7. Align. Look for practical ways to bring your life into alignment with the passage.

  Katrina is starting to look and act more like her old self (not that she’s old!) We’re not sure when she’ll be home from the hospital, but she’s in good spirits. Most heart patients are on their feet by now. For several years Katrina has been unable to walk due to MS and has relyed on her arms to hoist her and propel her. Now she can’t put any weight on her arms, so she’s fairly immobilized. This is the biggest problem. We’re just hoping she’ll not lose too much mobility before she’s healed. The good news is that she’ll likely have more strength in the future. What I had thought was advancing MS now appears to have been a matter of a bad heart. Her weakness was caused by insufficient blood flow. With her heart working so well now, we’re convinced her strength will return better than ever. Thanks for continuing to pray for her. She’s greatly encouraged by all the support.

Now to last night’s KALEO study of Revelation 10:

Introduction: As the book of Revelation outlines it, the Great Tribulation is based around three series of events, which are described as seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of wreath. We’ve looked at the seven seals and we’re currently working our way through the seven trumpets. Six of them have already sounded. As we come to chapter 10, we’re waiting for the seventh trumpet, but we have another parenthetical passage. This is one of the shortest and most interesting chapters in Revelation – the big angel with the little scroll. It’s a prelude to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, designed to impress on John the gravity of the message he is being given.

V. 1: Some people identify this “mighty angel” as Christ, but there are better reasons to identify him as one of the mighty angels that do God’s bidding in Revelation. The word “another” implies that this is an angel like the ones blowing the trumpets, and the fact that he swears by one greater than himself in verse 6 also identifies him as an angel, not as the Lord Jesus. His description, however, is glorious with great authority and rank.

V. 2: This mighty angel holds a small scroll. We aren’t told the contents of the scroll, but whatever its specific contents, it represents the Word of God.

V. 3-7: Apparently this angel was about to unleash another (a fourth) series of judgments – thunder judgments – but God tells him this information is still “classified” and is to remain top secret.

V. 8-11: John is told to take the scroll from the angel’s hand, to eat and digest it. He does so and finds the scroll as sweet as honey through it leaves him feeling bitter. This passage is based on Ezekiel 2:9 – 3:15, where the same thing happened to Ezekiel. Our Bibles are sweeter than honey to us, but they do contain a bitter message of judgment for us to proclaim as a warning to the world

Conclusion: The analogy of the Bible as food is seen throughout Scripture. In a supplemental blog tomorrow, I’ll survey these passages and tell us “how to eat a book.”

{Note: Katrina is checking into Vanderbilt Hosptial today for MS evaluations prior to her open heart surgery tomorrow. I will post updates here on this blog. Thanks so much for your prayers and concern. In the meantime, here are my teaching notes from Sunday night’s study of Rev. 9}

Introduction: Even as a child, I didn’t like going to horror movies. We’d sometimes go to movies at the old Bonnie Kate Theater in Elizabethton, taking big grocery bags of popcorn. I seem to remember hiding my head in those popcorn bags when the previews of horror movies came on. And those horror movies were old black-and-white silly things with actors like Vincent Price. He starred in “House of Wax” and “The Fly” and became famous for all his primitive horror films. I can’t imagine what horror movies are like today, but they cannot be good for us mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Wikipedia describes the horror film genre like this:

Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust, panic, alarm, shock and horror from viewers through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres…. Horror films center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with the viewer’s nightmares, vulnerability, hidden worst fears, alienation, revulsions, terror of the unknown, fear of death and dismemberment. Although a good deal of it is about the supernatural, any film with a morbid, gruesome, surreal, suspenseful or frightening theme may be termed ‘horror….’ Its plots often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, sometimes of supernatural origin, into the everyday world.

Well, there is one chapter in the Bible that resembles the script of a horror movie better than any other, and it’s Revelation 9. It describes the sounding of the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments.

Review: In thumbing through the chapters of Revelation, we see that chapter 1 is the initial vision of the glorified Christ, which sets the stage for the entire book. Chapters 2 and 3 are a series of miniature epistles addressed to the church regarding their own spiritual life in the last days. In chapters 4 and 5, the scene shifts to heaven where we attend a great worship convocation that launches the events of the Second Coming. Chapters 6 – 18 are a graphic play-by-play description of some of the events that will occur during the Great Tribulation—the seven-year period of time preceding the return of Christ. There are three great series of events that will unfold during this time. They are symbolized in the book of Revelation as Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets, and Seven Bowls of Wrath. Chapters 6 and 7 describe the seven seals. Chapter 8 describes the first four trumpets, and we’re coming now to chapter 9, which describes the next two of the seven trumpets (the seventh and last trumpet judgment occurs at the end of chapter 11). These last three trumpet judgments are unlike anything we’ve seen so far and are right out of a horror movie. This chapter describes the unleashing of virulent predatory demons in large numbers on planet earth. In verse 1, we come to the fifth trumpet judgment.

These last three trumpet judgments are described as “woes” in Revelation 8:13. Judgment must inevitably occur, but God always warns. He warned Adam. He warned the people of the days of Noah. He warned the ancient Israelites in the days of the prophets. He warns and warns and warns of coming judgment. Even here in the book of Revelation, there is a cry of warning before the intensity of the last three trumpet judgments.

V. 1: The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.

In this passage, a great angel (probably Lucifer or one of his demonic archangels, see below) has fallen from the sky. This is past tense; something that has already happened. This evil person is described as a “star,” but the word “star” doesn’t seem to be a literal star but a person. Even in today’s terminology, we call those who excel in sports or entertainment – stars. Several times the Bible rather mysteriously compares angels with stars: Job 38:7; Isaiah 14:12-14; Matthew 2:1; and the seven stars that are “angels” in the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 1-3. Also see Luke 10:18. Here in Revelation 9:1, the reference seems to be to an angel, and almost certainly to Satan himself (See again Isaiah 14:12-14 and Luke 10:18).

Here in this passage we’ve come to the point where the devil is given the key to hell to unleash all the demons that are imprisoned there. The old translations said that this “star” had the key to the “bottomless pit.” The actual Greek word is “abussos” (a-bu’-sis), which is transliterated into our English word “Abyss.” The Greek word refers to an extremely deep place. Luke 8:31 uses this word when the demons beg Christ not to send them to the “abussos.”

Demons are a mystery to us, but they seem to be angels who follow Lucifer in his rebellion against God.  See Isaiah 14:12-14. We believe that perhaps a third of all the angels of heaven follow him (Revelation 12:1-4).

Some of these demons are free and roaming the world, causing trouble (Luke 11:24-26). They showed up in force during the ministry of Christ; they seem to be the lurking forces behind the conflicts of earth between the nations; and they can oppress and possess human beings. Paul encountered a demon-possessed girl in Acts 16. But other demons, perhaps the most virulent of them, are imprisoned. See Luke 8:26-31; 2 Peter 2:4-9; and Jude 4. Now the prison doors are going to be opened and all these dangerous swarms of demons are going to attack the earth.

V. 2:  John describes the sight of these demons swarming up from the Abyss as making the air as thick as smoke.

V. 3: He describes these demons using the images of locusts and scorpions.

V. 4: This is really a very encouraging verse for believers. The demons cannot and are not permitted to hurt anyone bearing the seal of God. In chapter 7, we read about the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who were sealed with the sign of God’s protective ownership. The demons are unable to touch them. There is a shield of grace around them; and I think the same is true for Christians today. We are covered with the blood of Christ and protected from the evil one (see John 17:15).

V. 5: Even with the unbelievers, the demons are not able to destroy as they would like. There is restraining grace. This demonic swarm will last for five months and will inflict pain. The description here is like constant invisible tasers.

V. 6: During these five months, the pain and terror will be so great that people will wish they were dead.

V. 7-10: As John sees these demons he describes them in figurative language. Whether this is both a literal and symbolic description or just a symbolic description, I don’t know.

V. 11: The words “Abaddon” and “Apollyon” mean “destroyer.” This is probably a biblical title for Satan, although it could be referring to a satanic archangel.

V. 12: Next comes the sixth trumpet judgment (the second “woe”).

V. 13-16: This is another maximum security prison in the spiritual realm (perhaps located in an invisible realm in Iraq or ancient Babylon near the Euphrates River, near where the Garden of Eden once existed—the site of the original sin and the historic center of so much opposition to God’s plan, see verse 14). Another set of demons is released. These have four terrible commanders and the “troops” under them number two hundred million. This time, the demons can inflict death, resulting in a third of earth’s remaining population being slain.

V. 17-19: These verses contain another vivid and graphic description (symbolic and perhaps literal, too) of the appearance of this army of demons.

V. 20-21: In spite of these horrific terrors, the humans on earth during the Great Tribulation refuse to repent. They are so hardened in their hearts that nothing can move them to repentance. They persist in their demonism and their endless worship of idols, and in their murders, magic arts, and sexual immorality (sounds like our culture today, doesn’t it?)

Conclusion: Reading on, we’ll see that in chapters 10-11a, we have another interlude, another parenthetical explanation of these events. The seventh trumpet sounds at the end of chapter 11. But if you want to end this chapter on a note of encouragement, look at Revelation 20:1-3 and 10. At the end of the story all the demons along with Satan himself will be herded back into the Abyss and locked up forever and ever, never more to trouble the earth or the people of God.

[Note: From the very beginning of my pastoral work, I've prepared manuscripts of my Sunday morning sermons, which we publish at TDF as "Pocket Papers." But for the next four weeks, due to a busy summer and Katrina's upcoming surgery, I'm going to speak extemporaneously from the four chapters of Philippians, one of my favorite books of the Bible, one chapter per week. Pocket Papers will return for the MOSAIC series from Exodus 1-20, beginning Augut 22. In the meantime, here are my preaching notes from today's message from Philippians 1.]

Opening Text: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain – Philippians 1:21

Introduction: Everyone is under pressure today – time pressure, financial pressure, family pressure. We all need strength, and we need to be strength-spreaders. The right word at the right time can do much good. Here’s an examples. Recently my son-in-law and I visited Canterbury, in Kent, in southeast England. The British Isles were originally evangelized in the first century, when Britannia was conquered by the Roman Emperor Claudius. It’s likely that British soldiers were the first to take the Gospel to Britannia. The church evidently grew there and flourished. But when the Roman Empire collapsed, Roman forces were withdrawn from Britain and the islands were invaded hoards of barbarians, including the Saxons. The nation destabilized, and Christianity to a large extent collapsed in the ensuing chaos.

In in the 500s, the Roman Bishop Gregory saw some Anglo-Saxon boys in the slave market in Rome. They were blue-eyed and blond and had faces like angels. Gregory developed a burden for the Anglo-Saxons and he worked hard to recruit a team of missionaries to travel to the British Isles to reclaim the land for Christ.

Putting together a large missionary team (about 40), he tapped for their leader a man named Augustine. (This isn’t the famous St. Augustine from North Africa; this was a man who was named for that St. Augustine. We call this second man Augustine of Canterbury.)

So the delegation set out, and it was a hard trip. They sailed from Italy to a spot somewhere near the French Riviera not far from Aix-en-Provence, then trekked due north right through the middle of war-torn France. They had to zigzag at every point because of Civil wars ravaging the area, and it was an exhausting trip. Somewhere along the way they lost their nerve. They became completely overwhelmed with dread and fear. They were attacked by the devil. They had heard from a reliable source that the Anglo-Saxon tribes cut the throats of those who entered their territories, hung the victims upside down until all the blood drained out, and then drank the blood. The missionary band did not know the language to those they were hoping to reach. The group faltered and sent word back to the bishop of Rome, telling him they could not go on.

The bishop sent back one of the most important letters in Christian history. He told them by no means should they quit, but they should instead rely on the Almighty. He said, in effect, that it would have been better never to have started out than to start out and quit. He told them, in effect, to finish what they had started with the help of their Almighty God who was going with them.

That letter infused them with strength and they went on, got to the English Channel, and crossed over into Kent. The king of that area was a man named Ethelbert who ruled from the town of Canterbury. Somehow they overcame the language barrier, and Ethelbert listened to their message while sitting under a large oak tree. Shortly afterward he was converted and then hundreds of Englishmen began coming to the Lord. It marked the revival of Christianity in England, and Canterbury has been called the “cradle of English Christianity.”

We need to be the kind of people with the kind of spirit that can infuse others with strength. That’s what the apostle Paul does in Philippians 1. Though he was imprisoned in Rome (probably in AD 62), his outlook was so bright that he wrote an inspiring letter to his supporters 800 miles away in Philippi. In chapter 1, we can pick up these clues from him about being strength spreaders in our own day.

1.  Be Prayerful

• Philippians 1:1-10
• Paul started off with reassuring prayer for the Philippians, assured that the God who had started working in their lives would carry it on to completion (verse 6), and praying specific for a particular chain reaction to occur within the church: Love, leading to knowledge and insight, leading to discerning what is best and making wise choices, leading to purity and blamelessness, leading to a fruitful life until Christ returns (v 9-11). If you are worried about someone for any reason and want to find the most powerful thing you can do for both you and them, buy a little journal and every morning or evening find a passage of Scripture to write out as a prayer on their behalf. Having written it out, kneel and offer it earnestly to the Lord. There is great power and strength in this practice, which is exactly what Paul did here in Philippians 1 to spread strength to the Philippians church.

2. Stay Positive

• Philippians 1:11-26
• There is no whining in these verses. Paul openly discusses his problems, but without any self-pity or woe-is-me. He is looking at everything with gratitude. Though imprisoned, he is having a fruitful ministry right where he is. He reassures the Philippians by his spunk and spirit. If you want to be a strength to others, cultivate a thankful attitude and remain positive about your own circumstances, whatever they are, knowing God is in control. That not only relieves them of worrying about you, but it provides an example for them regarding their own trials.

3. Keep Preaching

• Philippians 1:27-30
• “Whatever happens,” Paul told them, “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.” He told them to “stand firm in one spirit.” He exhorted them. He gave them the truth lovingly and confidently. We need to preach to each other in more confident and effective ways. When someone comes to you wanting you to follow them into a sinful or careless or compromised situation, we’re prone to go rather than confronting them. We allow them to pull us down. How much better to exhort them. “You can do whatever you want to do, but I’m not going with you. It would be a violation of my commitment to Christ, and I would like to encourage you to conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Stand firm for him. Whether or not they listened to you at that moment, the long-term result would be spreading strength for both you and them.

Here are my teaching notes from Revelation 8. You can search my journal for similar notes on the first seven chapters of Revelation as well.

Introduction: This afternoon my daughter Grace sent an e-mail about her five-year-old Elijah. Last night he had come to her bed about 4 a.m., in tears, saying that his stomach hurt and asking her to pray with him that he would feel better. She did so. A few minutes later, he came in again holding a small trash can and crying, “It didn’t work, the praying didn’t work.” Well, we all feel that way sometimes; and it’s true that sometimes the Lord says No or Wait. We have examples of “unanswered” prayer in the lives of Abraham, Moses, Paul, and Jesus. But the Lord has promised to answer all our prayers in His own way and timing, and Revelation 8 gives us one of the Bible most vivid pictures of our prayers and God’s determination to answer them.

Review: We can easily do a “thumb review” of Revelation. Just thumb through chapters 1-7. Chapter 1 is the opening vision of the glorified Christ.  Chapters 2 and 3 are the messages Jesus had to John’s congregations. Chapters 4 and 5 take us to heaven and show us the convocation of worship that will herald the events leading to the Second Coming of Christ. Chapters 7 and 8 give us the “seven seals” that launch the judgments of the Great Tribulation. Now in chapters 8 and 9, we have the next series of judgments or catastrophes, signified by seven trumpets. These judgments will essentially destroy a third of the world.

Verse 1: Silence represents reverenced awe. Habakkuk 2:20 says, “The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” This is like the silence in a courtroom before the sentence is spoken. It is a silence of shock and awe, of dread and foreboding. This must be the only time in history when heaven is silent. Until now, heaven has been continuously ringing with the voices of ten thousand time ten thousand angels. So far in Revelation, we’ve had hymn after hymn, song after song. Heaven and earth has vibrated with rafter-rousing praise. But suddenly every voice is silent and every instrument is stilled, and for half an hour no one makes a sound. You can hear a pin drop as a new series of judgments are about to be unleashed on earth. One commentator described it as ominous anticipation. Another as the lull before the storm. Suddenly the blast of a trumpet breaks the silence and we come to the trumpet judgments of chapters 8 and 9.

Verses 2-5: Seven angels are dispatched to bring these judgments; but there is another delay as the prayers of the saints still alive on earth are delivered to the throne like incense in a container. In the Bible, incense is symbolic for our prayers ascending heavenward. The suffering saints are no doubt praying heavenward for deliverance and help and for judgment on those who are so evil and oppressive. In response to these prayers, the Lord takes the incense container, fills it with judgment, and hurls it to the earth. This is one of the most vivid pictures – maybe the most vivid picture – in the Bible of answered prayer. As the incense contains collides with the earth, it produces a massive global thunderstorm and an. And that sets into motion the next seven judgments.

Verse 6: The trumpet judgments begin.

Verse 7: The first in this series of cataclysmic events is a supernatural storm that descends on the planet raining hail down from the sky like machine gun bullets and filled with lightning strikes and fire. The Lord has used this plague once before, on Egypt in Exodus 9:22-26 (although the plague in Exodus 9 as only a mild preview of the one in Revelation 8).

Verses 8-9: This appears to be an asteroid that collides with earth, splashing down into the ocean somewhere. We’ve seen scenes like this acted out in movies, but this will be for real. It will contaminate a third of the ocean water. If you think the Gulf Oil spill is bad, just imagine if a third of all the seas and oceans in the world were contaminated. (Note another similarity with the plagues of Egypt—the water being turned to “blood”).

Verses 10-1: Another heavenly body, maybe a meteor, falls on the earth and contaminates much of the world’s fresh water.

Verse 12: Here we have frightening anomalies in the sky. It may be that the asteroid and/or meteor attacks create a sort of nuclear cloud.

Verse 13: The last three judgments are going to be so severe there’s a special announcement about them. This is delivered by an eagle flying through the sky. This might be a cherub, for they are described as having the face of an eagle in Revelation 4:7.

Conclusion: There is an alternate interpretation to this chapter and I’m inclined to think it may be true. While these trumpet judgments might represent asteroids and meteors and supernatural judgments from God as I’ve indicated above, it’s also possible that chapter 8 gives us a modern, scientifically-accurate picture of nuclear war. Read back through the chapters. Hurling objects falling from the sky on sea and land. Widespread contamination of the seas and fresh water. Sunlight being obscured and blotted out. Though the world never conceived of a global nuclear war until 1945, this chapter gives us a vivid picture of such an event. In my own mind, I wonder if the best interpretation of this passage is as a nuclear war that breaks out between nations during the Tribulation. Recently Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, “The greatest danger to Israel, to the Middle East, and to all of humanity, is the encounter between extremist Islam and nuclear weapons.”  The highly respected editor-at-large of United Press International, Arnauld de Borchgrave, when asked if the world is more dangerous today than at the height of the Cold War, replied with a “resounding yes.”  He said, “Nuclear terrorism, unthinkable during the Cold War, is now the most immediate fear of the experts.” The world is preparing for the return of our Lord!